Not Quite the King: A 'Skull Island' Review

Does the king roar again?

This review contains SPOILERS...

Not too long ago, Legendary Pictures unleashed Gareth Edwards' Godzilla. The first big blockbuster tentpole from the indie director, Godzilla proved to be a pretty rocky movie for critics and audiences alike. One side loved the film's suspense, use of build-up, focus on the humans, and how it treated Godzilla as a force of nature rather than a entity that the "good guys" must stop. It was the exact opposite of Roland Emmerich's 1998 blow-em-up take on the classic kaiju, and rung much closer to the original 1954 Gojira.

That wasn't enough for the other side, though. The other side felt the film suffered because of the vanilla lead characters, the amount of time Godzilla is actually onscreen, and Bryan Cranston's character dying in the first act. I on the other hand acknowledge the film's issues, but I absolute love how it pulled everything off. I thought it had enough Godzilla in it, for I felt this was a film that looked at such large-scale creature action from a human point of view, it didn't make a big deal out of the monsters, it instead asked "What would it be like to us?" It's a very grounded movie, and in the best possible way. There's plenty of suspense along the way as well, along with some knock-out action, a great atmosphere, and some neat worldbuilding.

Now, not too long after Godzilla came out, it was made clear that its sequel and an upcoming new take on King Kong would be tied together in what is now called the Legendary Pictures' MonsterVerse. Kong: Skull Island would be similar to Godzilla, in that it would be directed by someone with an indie background, boast a strong ensemble cast, and promise a unique take on the giant ape.

Given how I felt about Godzilla and how I don't object to the idea of bringing kaiju together onscreen, I was sure I was going to love Jordan Vogt-Roberts' Skull Island.

I didn't.

Kong: Skull Island has what's expected: The worldbuilding, the connections to Godzilla, and lots of monsters. Lots of them. I think the team behind the movie excelled when creating this Skull Island, a lost island not dissimilar to the Skull Islands we've seen before. Though not rife with prehistoric beasts, Skull Island instead is home to all sorts of creatures: Giant cape buffalo things with horns that branch off like antlers, giant spiders, a bug-tree monster, two-legged boneheaded lizards called Skullcrawlers, deadly pterosaur beasts, and more. Kong himself is much, much bigger than the classic version we all know.

It is also a neat period piece. Set in 1973, it works in the US's withdrawal from the Vietnam war, hippie culture, politics, all sorts of things into the story. The soundtrack featuring the likes of Creedence Clearwater Revival (it wouldn't be a Vietnam War-era movie without that!), Iggy Pop, The Hollies, Jefferson Airplane and several more is a nice supplement to the already cool and memorable score by Henry Jackman. Jackman used psychedelic trickery in his pieces, adding to it greatly. Visually, it channels many Vietnam war movies, particularly Apocalypse Now (if the marketing didn't emphasize that enough!), and overall has a very unique color scheme. A nice break from the usual.

Instead of a beauty and the beast story, we get a refreshing take that simply treats Kong the way Godzilla treated its titular titan, he's a force of nature. He's at war with skullcrawlers, especially after what they did to his family. That stuff is all good, as are the sequences showing off various different monsters. Vogt-Roberts is clearly having a blast throwing all this stuff at us, and some of the action beats are strong.

Sadly, it's lacking in its first half and the script does little with some of its great cast. Tom Hiddleston and Brie Larson? Underused, they're just kind of... There. John C. Reilly completely steals the show and saves the day, but he doesn't come into the picture until later. Samuel L. Jackson turns out a decent performance as the baddie, John Goodman also turns in a memorable performance, but yeah... There's little to these characters. Now, the same can be said about Godzilla, and I loved that. So what doesn't work here?

The first half is all over the map. The pacing is way too quick, and there isn't any of that build-up or carefulness that made Godzilla work. Straight to the island, straight to the creatures, boom! Action! The directing is uneven here, too, and the editing seems like it's post-production choppery. Knowing Warner Bros these days, I wouldn't be surprised if this thing was mangled in post. I feel this film really starts to come into its own once we meet Reilly's character, a World War II veteran who got stranded on the island with a Japanese pilot, and got to know the land, the indigenous people, the creatures, and Kong over the course of roughly 30 years.

He, despite being in no more than maybe an hour of this movie, gets a decent story arc that ends very nicely. My thing is, if this was meant to be a movie that wasn't meant to be about a bunch of survivors on an island full of monsters, then why cast such great actors for the stock humans? To draw audiences in, I guess? I don't know, but I feel more could've been done with them given their backgrounds, what's set up and all. As an unabashed monster mash, it works fine enough, bolstered by its second half, which nails it in the directing and pacing departments. Kong shredding monsters and causing mayhem was good stuff!

On the whole, it's a fun two hours or so. There's a lot to like in the picture, and aesthetically it's very pleasing. With tighter direction and editing in the first half, it could've been an overall stronger creature feature. As it is, it's got a lot of good in it, and I am very much looking forward to future MonsterVerse films.

Holy Bricks, Batman!: A 'Lego Batman Movie' Review

I don't know about you, but I think Warner Animation Group is full of surprises...

The Lego Movie, I think, took many of us by surprise, being more than just a fun little movie about the bricks we all love. Their second feature, the Sony ImageWorks-made Storks, was more divisive. For some, myself included, it was a surprisingly strong comedy with great Looney Tunes-like energy, others found it to be incoherent noise and blabber-jabber. So how were they going to pull off the Batman-centric Lego movie that didn't have directing/writing duo Phil Lord and Christopher Miller in the cockpit?

The answer?

They pulled it all off with flying colors. Literally and figuratively...

SPOILERS ahead...

Give it director Chris McKay, writer Seth-Grahame Smith and his team, The Lego Batman Movie is a very hilarious send-up of everything Batman, poking at everything from the comics to the movies to even its more offbeat adaptations. Best of all, it completely subverts expectations. You would think this would be a simply funny movie where Batman takes on foes, right? Not really. In the film, Batman's characteristics are exaggerated the extreme. He has no attachment to anybody, prefers to seriously work alone, and will never express anything to The Joker (not even an "I hate you"), which grills the clown prince of crime. Deep down, he wants a family, at the same time he fears losing a new family.

Gotham City's new police commissioner, Barbara Gordon, wants a new Gotham that doesn't let Batman do all the work alone, challenging the Caped Crusader. The Joker hatches a big scheme in the process, getting him and all of his cronies sans Harley Quinn locked up. Batman plans to send all of the bad guys into the Phantom Zone (which he, of course, steals from Superman) in order to prove that he truly can clean Gotham of crime. At the same time, he inadvertently adopts a young man named Dick Grayson, who of course becomes Robin later on.

There's a lot of great stuff here, from the father-son dynamics to the parodies of Batman stories. His relationship with Alfred is a lot of fun as well. The Joker's master plan is a real burst of coolness, he recruits lots of iconic villains and baddies, and together they all take Gotham City by storm. Menaces like the Wicked Witch, King Kong, Voldemort, the Eye of Sauron, and so on. Batman and his crew respond by forming Suicide Squad, literally... Making it the Suicide Squad movie Suicide Squad should've been.

Bolstering all of this is fantastic action that's staged impeccably, an explosive script, and pretty even pacing. Oddly enough, unlike most animated films these days, it didn't feel too long nor did it feel too short. There's real heart to this film, which I was not expecting. The Lego Movie should've taught me that lesson, but no, The Lego Batman Movie actually is a heartfelt film about Batman's reluctance to start a new family because of his fears of losing more people who are near-and-dear to him. This balanced with comedy quite well, and while I didn't think it was as sharp as The Lego Movie, it comes pretty darn close!

It's a Batman movie I never knew I really needed. Who would've thought Batman, Robin, Alfred, and Batgirl facing off against iconic baddies outside of the DC rogues gallery would've made for a great movie?

2017's animated feature line-up is off to a strong start. While most of this year's crop - from what I'm seeing - isn't doing it for me, I can only hope that it'll do like this movie and... Surprise me. Yes, The Lego Batman Movie is something special...

Review(s): 'Storks' is a Cartoony Animated Comedy Done Right

We may want to leave a lot behind, and leave certain things in 2016... What we want to take with us, however, is a pretty solid crop of animated movies. One of which I just saw for the first time...

Storks.

Yes, Warner Animation Group's second feature, a fun little comedy outsourced to Sony ImageWorks up in Vancouver. Storks is the movie that Sony Animation hasn't made in a while, and it's also one of the better animated comedy romps made in the last few years.

Spoilers follow...

I liked the characters a great deal! The film's sense of humor channels The Lego Movie and other irreverent cartoon comedies, but it definitely swings more towards classic Looney Tunes. The premise is pretty fun and inventive as well, and while some may say that rings similar to Pixar, I don't mind. Pixar did not create the "what if so-and-so" story, though they do specialize in it. On paper, Storks sounds like it takes a lot from other places. It does, it's not ashamed of that, but...

It does very cool things with what it has. I found myself really laughing at the jokes, but I actually really liked how they executed the story. The way they set up the storks' headquarters was really neat, and the machine they used to use to make babies. You have other things that really work, from Tulip's backstory to the subplot with the family. There's actually some real heart in the subplot alone, and how the kid Nate - who ends up being the older brother to the pink-haired baby Junior and Tulip have to deliver - just wants to spend time with his overworked parents.

The storks at CornerStore, an Amazon-esque parody located on a ridiculously high mountain above the clouds, have given up baby delivery. Their boss Hunter has turned the facility into a package delivery empire, and he's adamant that they don't go back to babies. Everything's pulled off with such zazz. Really picking up once Junior and Tulip set out to deliver the pink-haired baby that they accidentally used the machine to make, the film goes all sorts of weirdo directions. Everything concerning the wolf pack is downright hilarious, definitely spicing up the middle.

The film's offbeat sense of humor keeps what is actually a straightforward adventure firing on all cylinders. Not only do the wolves bring that, but also the Pigeon Toady, an intentionally hyper-obnoxious toupee-wearing chirper who is always talking like someone trying to be hip. Sometimes the film gets a little too frenetic, and at times it does feel a bit undercooked, but what bolsters the tone is the very strong character animation. Look, I may be souring on CG films trying to be so hyper-real yet trying to stay caricature-y in some way, but Storks' character animation really impressed me. The movements, the acting, it was just right.

Other than that, it's a very there-looking kind of movie. Undeniably pretty for something made for $70 million, it's not earth-shattering... But those movements! That character animation! It is no surprise, for director Doug Sweetland utilized Looney Tunes energy and slapstick in his Pixar short Presto, it carried over nicely into this film. If Mr. Sweetland ever got to make The Familiars a few years back at Sony Animation, I think it would've played out like this. I hope he secures more animation directing work in the future, because he nailed it! With the help of a solid script from the other director, comedy man Nicholas Stoller, it just really hits a sweet spot.

A good cartoony animated feature isn't easy to make. After Disney's few irreverent comedies of the 1990s and early 2000s, I feel few did this particular type of movie justice. Blue Sky did it with the first Ice Age, and to a lesser extent, Rio. Sony Animation impressed with Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, while I feel the first Despicable Me was actually a home run for Illumination. DreamWorks got it really right with their Madagascar 3. So Storks being a very good feature-length cartoon? That's a high honor in my book. It's gleefully silly, heartfelt, and pretty well-written. Not without some roughness around the edges, it flew to me.

Other things I saw recently... SPOILERS for these too...

Though this is mostly a Storks-related post, I'll briefly comment on other recent films I've seen.

The Nice Guys - This won't be everyone's cup of tea, but I quite dug it. A seedy, 70s-set buddy cop comedy with a groovy aesthetic and atmosphere, The Nice Guys has a pretty tight script though it can be convoluted at times. That all being said, it has some strong action scenes, it parodies 70s movies and shows with gusto, has a good if not slightly anachronistic soundtrack (my music nerd is showing here, I know!), and it's got a different sense of humor.

Doctor Strange - A big one right here, being a Marvel Cinematic Universe installment. Like Guardians of the Galaxy, Doctor Strange takes a good-sized risk: Introduce a whole new side of the MCU, in its case, the magical side. While Thor was a mild tease of Marvel's cosmic side, Guardians of the Galaxy was a full-blown jump into space. This sinks us right into magic, alternate dimensions, psychedelic altering of reality, all kinds of mind-bending stuff. All the players are good here, and Stephen Strange is immediately likable the minute you see him... He's basically me when it comes to music and the years certain songs/albums came out!

Despite a little too much over-explaining and exposition, and a rather dull villain, Doctor Strange lives up to its name and gets a little trippy at times. It also boasts a very satisfying third act battle, and is surprisingly very quiet in stretches, really refreshing in a world of blockbusters blowing stuff or being loud most of the time. In many ways, it felt like a Phase 1 MCU movie, mostly Iron Man. Slow-burn first third, some solid action in the middle, and a cool climax. Not a fantastic entry in the series, but one well-worth checking out.

Rogue One - This launching of the non-Episode chapters of Star Wars is more or less director Gareth Edwards' Godzilla. Many complained his Godzilla film, released two years ago, had very little Godzilla in it and very boring lead characters. I was on the other side of the coin, I loved everything but the leads, who were just decent characters at best. It's a film with an awesome story, but with rather rote leads. I loved how they looked at Godzilla and his duel with other creatures from a human perspective, and the sheer suspense that came with all of that.

Basically, Rogue One is pretty much that. I love how they tell the story of how the rag-tag group of rebels stole the Death Star plans, even though we know how it's all going to end. Outside of frontrunner Jyn Erso and the on-point droid K-2SO (Alan Tudyk!), the other characters are just kind of there. No standout personalities or anything, but they get the job done. Its first two thirds are satisfactory, and the film does a great job at blending a rougher atmosphere with the classic Star Wars feel and tone. We are really in the middle of the war here, and the violence is a little more real. This is handled without sacrificing what we love about the galaxy far, far away. The third act blows everything out of the water, with an absolutely perfect final five minutes.

People worried that Disney would kiddify Star Wars? People worried that they'd make Darth Vader break out into song? People worried the reshoot rumors meant that Disney was going to water this off-the-beaten-path installment down? Darth Vader's climactic rampage is one of the iconic villain's most intense and chilling moments ever... All in Disney's Rogue One: A Star Wars Story...

Oceanic Epic: 'Moana' is a Thrilling, Fun, Familiar Adventure

The big epic Broadway-style musical has returned with Walt Disney Animation Studios' 56th animated feature, Moana...

Warning, spoilers ahead...

How is it? If this past spring's Zootopia was the studio's grand new dish, Moana was the menu favorite... But this menu favorite was served up in a way that made its familiar elements feel fresh and fun again. No doubt about it, Moana is through-and-through a 90s Disney Renaissance film, and it is definitely a Ron Clements/John Musker film. Does it really do anything new? Not really. It's certainly more Little Mermaid than it is Treasure Planet. But is it executed very well? I think so.

Moana works off of Oceanic folklore to create a very cool, sometimes wild, and sometimes surreal fantasy adventure that only animation can do. Our main heroine loves the ocean, adventure, and doesn't quite want to fit into the mold that her society wants her to fit into. Long ago, demigod Maui stole the heart of the island goddess Te Fiti, a small green glowing stone. This unleashed hell on the islands, and little by little Moana's home island of Motunui is decaying. Crops are dying, the land is falling apart, soon it'll be curtains for her people...

Upon her grandmother's death, Moana sets sail to find Maui, intending to take him and the heart stone to where it belongs. Maui is hesitant, because of the dangers out there that want the stone, and because he doesn't have his legendary magical fish hook to fend for himself. What ensues is a buddy comedy on water, Moana and Maui really don't get along at first, not dissimilar to Tiana and Naveen's relationship in The Princess and the Frog. Little by little, as they work together, they begin to bond. While Moana is determined to undo the mistakes Maui has brought upon the islands, Maui is incredibly stubborn and quite arrogant. I really liked how these two worked off of each other, and it makes for some pretty good comedy too.

Also supplying some comedy is a stowaway rooster, Heihei. Dumber than the average chicken, Heihei is never overused in the way some Renaissance era sidekicks were. There was very little lowbrow humor, too, the tone was surprisingly pretty even for a 90s-style picture. Certainly more even than Frozen, in my humble opinion. The pacing was also pretty shocking too, the first act refreshingly takes it time while the middle feels a little bit wonky in places. Am I just too nuts about pacing? Rarely do I ever say something's so well-paced these days.

Visually, the film is indeed very nice. While I'm getting tired of photoreal computer animation, the lighting and color work in this film is still resplendent. Its most exciting parts, visually, used traditional animation along with other unexpected visual choices: Maui's tattoos, folk art-like cut-outs during the 'You're Welcome' song sequence, and the psychedelic visuals of Tamatoa's brilliantly over-the-top 'Shiny' number. I will be brutally honest though... I really wish this film was done in traditional animation.

This is not a dig on CGI or the sheer work that the Disney Animation team put into this movie's look, but it's a just a personal choice. I'm really beginning to sour on computer animation that's trying to be photoreal while trying to keep that unreal quality that makes animation so unique, but this is another rant for another day. The colors, character animation, lighting, and imagery still wows. The water too, just... Amazing...

What I particularly liked was how adventurous it was. Coconut-wearing pirate creatures pulling a Mad Max: Fury Ocean on our heroes, a whole seabed-like land full of weird monsters, a big battle with a lava monster, the ocean being a character, it was pretty imaginative and epic. I wasn't watching an animated Broadway musical set in a few key locations, it was like a Broadway musical and a sprawling trek, in the way something like Aladdin was. The cast is refreshingly small for this kind of narrative, but the faces we see are nonetheless entertaining and likable.

Bolstering all of this is the music from Lin-Manuel Miranda, Opetaia Foa'i, and Mark Mancina. The tunes follow the 90s beats, but are very enjoyable and leave you humming. 'Shiny' is a grade-A villain song, just our campy crustacean baddie basking in his collection. Moana's 'I Want' song is good stuff, as is the epic 'We Know The Way', some of the more emotional ones in the latter part of the middle third are sharp. Moana's grandmother returns in spiritual form to sing her the song of the ancestors, the scenes concerning Moana's grandmother in particular really hit home for me, having lost my grandmother a few years back, the sequence in question almost mirrored how it happened. Her reunion with her granddaughter is one of the film's most poignant moments.

Moana is in every way a work of Disney animated comfort food. It has the big songs, it has the spunky heroine who wants more, the music, the occasional over-the-top fun, a memorable baddie, some sadness, and a good touch of comedy. For me, this balanced all of the elements better than many of the Renaissance films did. At the same time, it bucked a few trends from that era. Our big epic battle with the lava witch isn't quite what one might think, there's really no towering bad guy to stop.

Tamatoa is a temporary monster that they have to trick, while the lava witch Te Ka is an enraged Te Fiti who needs her heart back. Really, most of the conflict is Maui's doing, and he's cocky to boot. Thankfully there are no twist villains either, because that could've been a mistake and would've felt quite redundant. The comic relief sidekick isn't overbearing or noisy, nor does this fowl in question interrupt deeper moments. In fact, Moana puts him in a pot and locks it in the boat's compartment, he stays put for a little while!

While not a particularly mind-blowing work, Moana is more than a pleasant diversion. It certainly does have things on its mind, and the telling of them is quite subtle. One of them I liked is Maui's initial search for more power, resulting in the stealing of the heart-stone. Self-discovery and confidence are also the name of the game too, and even a little dash of empathy. The film is not a joke-a-thon matinee or Redbox rental, and to be fair, none of the Disney animated films made under John Lasseter's watch have been just that. Moana basically continues the winning streak without anything really new to bring to the table. It certainly isn't the ambitious and wild Zootopia, nor is it the exciting and sprawling Wreck-It Ralph, but everything in it coagulates so well. Again, comfort food, but prepared with passion.

Soooo, what about our short film?

Inner Workings is a zippier Reason and Emotion with some dashes of Team Emeryville's recent mind movie, and in terms of the animation and directing, it's a lot of fun. As I've said before, I absolutely love the off-kilter style they went for, and the presentation itself compliments this style. If Disney Animation is going to stick with CGI, they might as well move away from whatever style they're using and go for looks like this, but that's also another ramble for another day. The 80s vibe was very cool, and there was some good humor in it, too. Some jokes were stretched a little thin, and perhaps the brain was a little too much of a worrywart, but it was overall very enjoyable and a real visual treat.

Quite the double-bill, and the perfect capper to Walt Disney Animation Studios' great year. Two new films, both great, both successful, I say we animation fans got the goods.