Ghostbusters

This review was first published by The Student Pocket Guide

The news that the cult 1984 supernatural comedy film Ghostbusters was set for an all-female reboot was greeted by a tsunami of positive tweets, as well as a tornado of negative ones, coupled with quite a bit of general internet nastiness. Misogynistic voices piped up (not that they need much encouragement) and demanded to know why the much-loved original was going to be remade, and why a bunch of women were going to be the ones we’d have to call when there’s something strange in the neighbourhood. 

Misogynists aside, Ghostbusters – the 2016 version – reunites the irrepressible Melissa McCarthy with Paul Feig, director and writer, who always seems to be able to get the very best (and funniest) performance from McCarthy. Under any other leadership, perhaps the (non-women-hating) fans of the original may have felt a little let down, as fans often are with reboots. With Feig at the helm they needn’t worry.

The ghost-eradicating team of the original film is replaced with a female line-up of the highest comedic order. Kristen Wiig plays the super-serious scientist Erin Gilbert, whose academic career is thrown into jeopardy when a book she co-wrote with Abby Yates (McCarthy) about supernatural forces emerges on the internet. Erin tracks down Abby who is studying the paranormal full-time, alongside her zany research partner Jillian Holtzmann (played brilliantly by Kate McKinnon) and is roped in to investigating reports of ghostly activity. The trio are joined by Leslie Jones, playing Patty Tolan, a New York transport worker who encounters a ghost on the subway tracks and is determined to join the, now official, Ghostbusters. 

From the very outset, the jokes are fast-paced and the action frenetic. Indeed, the humour is consistently funny and never feels dislocated from the characters. When the Ghostbusters establish their permanent office (above a Chinese takeaway) they employ a receptionist in the form of Chris Hemsworth. The trouble is, he’s a bit dim, has trouble understanding the principle of a telephone, and wears Clark Kent-style glasses without lenses to save him having to clean them. His good looks, and their disarming effects on Kristen Wiig’s character, are the source of much amusement (especially in great scene when he’s being interviewed for the job and talks of his dog called Mike Hat), and Wiig remains the likeable screen presence she established in Bridesmaids. 

Melissa McCarthy’s talent for physical comedy and gag delivery is as superb as ever, but the real stand-out has to be Kate McKinnon as the madcap inventor of the Ghostbusters’ proton-emitting, ion-firing, neutrona-wielding weaponry used to catch the ghosts. The quirks in her performance are laugh-out-loud funny and really enjoyable to watch, working in perfect harmony with the other three main characters. 

There is much for fans to spot in the film, from nice cameos (Bill Murray makes an appearance as a myth-debunking authority on the paranormal) to homages and nice references to the original movie. But what makes Ghostbusters so effective, is that it never feels like a re-hash of established material or, indeed, a re-working of old gags or characters. Rather, it is simply a very funny, autonomous, and good-natured film with a great cast. The script zips along to a final confrontation with the ghosts (who are unleashed by the film’s villain, a loner hotel worker played by Neil Casey), all the while simultaneously paying tribute to, and enhancing, the world of the Ghostbusters. 

As a blockbuster, Ghostbusters is a very enjoyable, very funny, and very competent spectacle. The script fizzes with jokes which are genuinely funny, the action is engaging, and the acting from the film’s protagonists a triumph. The casting of an all-female team becomes an element in the development of the film’s tone, but never comes to define it. In an early scene when the Ghostbusters upload a video to YouTube of a ghost-sighting, they trawl through the comments underneath for support. “Ain’t no bitches gonna hunt no ghosts”, reads one. A very pointed reference. A very successful two-fingers to the haters. 

Clapperboard Rating: * * * *

Independence Day: Resurgence

 This review was first published by The Student Pocket Guide

Anyone who has visited New Zealand (or, indeed, watched Lord of the Rings) will know how stunning its scenery is. It is a country where every bend in the road promises a new vista of spectacular lakes, wide-open valleys or impressively-big mountains. The beauty is on an immense scale. But, spend more than a few days there, and the striking nature of the country starts to lose its original power and wondrous appeal. Towering mountains become “just another” set of imposing natural wonders, and breath-taking scenery blends together into a big, overwhelming landscape. You know it’s enormous, and you know it’s amazing. But it’s on such an unimaginable scale that it loses its impact. In other words, you become desensitised to the spectacle. This was exactly how I felt watching Independence Day: Resurgence. 

It has been 20 years (yes, 20!) since the original Independence Day was released and enjoyed something of a cult following. It turns out, however, that that apocalyptic battle between man and alien was just the beginning, and this time, the aliens are back and bigger than ever. It would appear that Roland Emmerich has something against planet Earth, as he not only directed the first film, but also helmed the equally-destructive disaster films The Day After Tomorrow and the ridiculous 2012.

In Independence Day: Resurgence, he out-does himself in terms of humongous aliens and proves that size really isn’t everything. In a script which is heavy on action, and attempts some jokes (most of which fall flat), the ambition is to be admired. Even though the stakes couldn’t be higher, paradoxically, the threats never seem to matter.

Familiar faces return for this battle, as well as some new characters with a link to the destruction in the original. Jeff Goldblum – easily the best thing about this film – returns as David Levinson, who is now the Director of the Earth Space Defense (ESD) organisation which is tasked with protecting the planet from another alien invasion. When a mysterious alien ship appears near the Moon, the ESD takes immediate action to shoot it down, much to Levinson’s dismay as he believes that it may be a different species from the hostile aliens which previously attacked the Earth. Sure enough, it turns out that the real threat is yet to appear, and although Earth is now equipped with alien weapon technology, it falls to Levinson and ace fighter pilot Jake Morrison (played by Liam Hemsworth) to fight the invaders. 

Hemsworth’s easy screen charm does a little to flesh out the characterisation in the film, but the consequences of the massive destruction never seem to amount to much. The alien space ship, complete with Queen alien inside, crashes into Earth, scrapping the surface and literally covers a quarter of the world. Yep, it’s big. 

As well as Goldblum making a return for the sequel, Bill Pullman reprises his role as retired President Thomas J. Whitmore who, rather bizarrely, jumps into a fighter jet in an attempt to destroy the alien mothership. Judd Hirsch returns as Levinson’s father, and Brent Spiner puts in another full-on performance as Dr Brakish Okun, who awakens from a 20-year coma. Will Smith is the notable absentee, instead his son (played by Jessie T. Usher) carries on his alien-battling work.

The plot plays out as you’d expect it too, and although the visuals are impressive, the whole thing is too big, too unrefined and too outrageous to sustain a credible narrative or any engaging characters. For a film with laudable themes – people setting aside differences and uniting to work together for the common good – the humanity gets lost amongst the immense destruction. 

 

Blockbusters such as this are meant to be spectacular, and this one certainly packs a visual punch (especially in the film’s dénouement when a bright yellow school bus, driven by Goldblum, screeches across a deathly-white salt flat). The aliens, too are well designed. But, at the end of it all, the chaotic action, its outlandish scale and destruction, numbs the audience and it ultimately all seems rather inconsequential.

Clapperboard Rating: * * *

Warcraft

This review was first published by The Student Pocket Guide

The road from video game to cinema screen is a perilous and an often unsuccessful one. All too often, the essence which made a video game popular is lost in the translation to film, leaving critics cold and non-gamers confused. Recent examples of controllers being replaced with popcorn include Hitman: Agent 47 and the needless The Angry Birds Movie, and many more are planned including Assassin’s Creed (exciting) and a Chinese-backed big-screen version of Tetris (less-so). 

 

If you can’t wait for that block-building excitement, Warcraft has just hit cinemas, based on the hugely-successful online role-playing game which, at one point, had over 12 million active subscriptions. Games like World of Warcraft are big business, and producers hope that a movie version will be just as successful.  

Directed by David Bowie’s son Duncan Jones, Warcraft is set in the fantasy world of Azeroth which comes under threat when an orc army invades through a magic portal, fleeing their own dying world which has been corrupted by their leader Gul’dan (voiced by Daniel Wu). We’re told in the film’s opening minutes that men and orcs have eternally fought one another, and the subsequent two hours (!) of tortuous action certainly upholds this proclamation. 

The humans are led by King Llane (played by Dominic Cooper) and a military commander by the name of Anduin Lothar (Travis Fimmel), and the pair come up against the evil orc Gul’dan and his magic powers, known as the Fel. Throw in a few mystical mages – Khadgar (Ben Schnetzer) and his master Medivh (played by Ben Foster) – and you have yourself a film which just ends up being a blur of messy storytelling.

If all these strange names leave you rather confused, then Warcraft probably isn’t the film for you. Indeed, one can’t help thinking that World of Warcraft players will be the only ones to gain real pleasure from proceedings. The film is a patchwork of derivative themes and imagery which will, at various points, have you thinking of Game of Thrones or The Lord of the Rings, and although the production design is vivid and imaginative, it carries through far too much of the video game aesthetic. The armour worn by the human soldiers looks far too impractical to be of any use, and the orcs are colour-coded with an alarming simplicity: lighter skin equates to characterisation and dialogue, dark green equals mindless human killing. I get that this is a fantasy film, but still. 

Not all of these orcs are completely evil, however, and our sympathies are demanded for Durotan (voiced by Toby Kebbell), the chief of the Frostwolf clan who seems to be the only orc who sees through the destructive power of Gul’dan. With a new (and rather cute) orc baby, Durotan has a son to follow in his footsteps and therefore has something to fight for other than the future of his clan. To the uninitiated, “orc” might conjure up ideas of snarling and bony creatures (á la Lord of the Rings), but in the Warcraft world, they are imposing, bulked-up warriors with a set of lower fangs which makes them resemble warthogs, and a strict sense of honour which comes into play towards the end of the film. 

The human characters are pretty bland, and Dominic Cooper’s line delivery results in a rather underwhelming royal presence. Things are not helped by a weak narrative which seems more concerned with establishing the potential for a sequel than creating an exciting film for newcomers to the franchise and established fans alike. There’s so much going on in the film that Jones struggles to control all of its noisy elements, and the end result leaves audiences cold to the characters and their predicaments. 

Paula Patton plays a half-human, half-orc female warrior and is pretty much the film’s only attempt at developing interesting female characters. There are a few pretty intense scenes (particularly when the evil magic of the Fel drains the life from poor villagers and other unfortunate characters) and I couldn’t help thinking that the film’s editors had to work hard for the 12A rating. Seeing it in 3D will also guarantee a lot of blood splatters from the chaotic battle sequences. 

It’s a shame that Duncan Jones, whose previous films include the brilliant sci-fi films Moon and Source Code, seems to have dropped the ball with Warcraft. Perhaps it is because he is a fan of the original games that he got tangled up in its universe and lost sight of a clear – and compelling – narrative which would have had the same punch as the film’s visuals. Warcraft will please die-hard fans but, ultimately, it will become another casualty of the difficult journey from computer screen to cinema screen. 

Clapperboard Rating: * *