MAD FREAKING MAX: FURY FREAKING ROAD

Many thought that Mel Gibson’s fall from glory made Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome the last installment in the Mad Max franchise, ending it on a very, very low note. Thank God the director wasn’t gonna be satisfied with that. Now, 30 years after the last and least of the series, a 70 year old George Miller, director of Happy Feet and Babe 2: Pig in the City, as well as the entire Mad Max series, returns to bring the Australian post-apocalyptic action series back to it’s former glory. Mad Max: Fury Road is the perfect reboot, recapturing everything great about Max’s old adventures and leaving out all of the bad. Tom Hardy is flawless in the role of the titular character, just as good as Mel Gibson, Charlize Theron portrayed a powerful and dangerous heroine known as Imperator Furiosa, and Nicholas Hoult played a “war boy” named Nux. The villain, Immortan Joe, was played by Hugh Keays-Byrne, who happened to be the same actor as the one who played the antagonist in the first Mad Max. No film is flawless, but, well, I don’t know, maybe this one is. Everything was style and action, excitement and thrills, and yet, it didn’t seem to matter that there wasn’t much else. There were so many different ways the movie showed power and meaning without much dialogue. I mean, I could watch this dubbed in any language and still understand what was going on most of the time. The meaning came from the way each character was presented, what they were trying to do, and how they acted differently from the start to finish. For example, one might start out just trying to make it out alive, and end up saving the day. Then again, who really even cares about that stuff, I mean there’s a character who has bloody jagged teeth and no eyes and is playing a guitar/axe/flamethrower on a truck full of speakers. That’s honestly enough to get me to the theater. No need for a summary or anything like that, it’s another straight-on A+.

Avenge it again!!

The Avengers broke box office records and hooked millions of people onto the superhero genre. Now, Avengers: Age of Ultron is continuing to do the same. Ultron focuses on the evil AI named, you guessed it, Ultron. He challenges the Avengers and tears them apart, so they have to reunite to take down this ever growing threat. There's a lot wrong with this film, and a lot right too. To start with, it perfectly grasped the exciting, colorful feeling we get from the comics, though it felt like it lost a bit of seriousness that it could have used. Ultron, voiced brilliantly by James Spader, is ever threatening and seemingly unstoppable, or at least that's how it should have been. I didn't like the way he joked around and acted like a normal, awkward human. It took away from his powerful and dangerous roots and made him a joke. His plan seemed inconvenient, too, as it would be so easy for a computer connected to the whole world's network to launch all of earth's nuclear missiles. We were introduced to a number of new heroes, all of which I was a huge fan of. I don't need to go into them, but they're all very likable and had strong bonds to each other and the rest of the team. It was a one-of-a-kind experience, with all these colorful characters fighting and making an awesome team based off of their own special selves. One way I judge the quality of a team up movie is I ask myself if I'd enjoy a solo movie of each of the team members. Of course, we've seen a solo Iron Man, Hulk, Captain America, and Thor, so the only ones left are Hawkeye, Black Widow, Scarlet Witch, Quicksilver, and Vision. The answer is yes. Definitely yes. This movie is an over-the-top thrill ride. It's full of witty humor and some of the best action I've ever seen on film. What it lacks in suspense and tensity, it makes up in fun and nerdiness. It perfectly recreates the mood and spirit of the first with new characters to create a beautiful (possibly not the best use of the word) joy ride that entertains anyone. A+

Ex Machina

I would say Ex Machina falls into the genre of sci-fi, but the science being discussed seemed like the type of theoretical science people talk about in real life. That was interesting to me, the fact that the whole idea of artificial intelligence isn't that outlandish. Of course, a machine with real human emotions is impossible, but it's fun to think about. Ex Machina is the story of a small time coder named Caleb working for a fictional parallel to Google called "BlueBook". He's selected at random to go spend a week working with the CEO, Nathan, in his private home and research center. After going there, he learns that what Nathan is working on is a whole lot crazier than what he expected. The story deals with a very complicated topic that many movies have dealt with before, and that is the question of if it's possible for a machine to feel emotion, and what the dangers of AI are. It's the basis of all sorts of films like I, Robot, Chappie, Avengers:Age of Ultron, and plenty more. What I like especially about this one is the fear and suspense it creates. It was very tense and quite scary at moments, but it didn't have a single jump-scare, I am happy to report. When the film progressed, the mood kept continuing to darken, creating a strong building of tension and unsettlement. Even after it all fell apart and ended, I still wasn't sure what was coming. It also made me question exactly what was going on, who was good, who was evil, and whether or not either of those words can even be used to describe such a complicated set of characters. I can't get into all the things I liked beyond that because there's no way to explain it without ruining the suspense. I will say I was confused by the motives of one of the characters at the end, as the motives of that character conflicted with their decision of how to act on that motive. That sounds really confusing now, and if you see it, it still probably won't make much sense, so I'll explain what I mean in the next paragraph, which I warn you will be infested with spoilers.

Ava, the AI character shows that she obviously has emotion throughout the film, as her motive is to learn what it's like to be a real woman. She also desires to see the real sun and walk on the real earth, and fall in real love with somebody. These are all desires driven by emotion. The way she tries to get these things, as revealed in the end, is to manipulate Caleb into helping her escape. It works, she escapes, and she leaves him for dead. If she really did have emotion, which is definitely true, why didn't she at least feel remorse after leaving this guy who saved her life? I thought this could be called a continuity error, and it seems like it could easily have been avoided. It was probably because the creators wanted to show AI with emotion, but they also wanted to make the point that machines don't have the ability to love or care for anyone. These two ideas conflict, they can't both be used in the same story.

With this one weak point I still loved Ex Machina. It was powerful, scary, suspenseful and heartbreaking. Continuity errors aren't that big of a deal. A.

Unbreakable

Unbreakable is a superhero film by M. Night Shyamalan. It isn't a superhero film in the normal sense, though. It isn't based off any comics and the there aren't any costumes or masks. The story is one of a relatively normal man named David Dunn (Bruce Willis) who, after a tragic accident, learns something incredible about himself; he's indestructible. He is encountered by a man with the exact opposite condition, Elijah Price, played by Samuel L. Jackson, who wants to turn Dave into superhero like in the comics he collects. He has incredibly brittle weak bones that can break easily. The story strips down all the action and other unnecessary scenes, pulling out all of the basic underlying messages superhero movies are about. It spends equal time developing the hero as it does the villain, showing exactly how they reached their places in the world. What I thought was really special was the motive of the villain. Most of the time, the main antagonist is two-dimensional, or, even if he is deep, he's driven by a predictable motive like money or revenge. Instead this villain is driven by the simple need to know what his place in the world is. What was best was the tense mood throughout, which was enhanced by very sufficient directing. My favorite scene was when Elijah was trying to chase down a man, but with his condition, running can be very dangerous. When the man runs down into the subway system, Elijah decides to risk it and go down after him. I was on the edge of my seat, as the stairs looked very steep, and as he walked down, the camera zoomed in on his feet. I was just waiting for him to misstep and fall. The two weak points were the pointless romance, and the ending. It was very abrupt, without any closure. I liked the closing dialogue, but once it ended, there were some words about what happened next, then the credits rolled. We never actually saw what happened to the characters, we were just told. Everything before that was perfect, but the ending means a lot. I don't want to judge it all for one moment, so I'll say I still loved it as much as hoped, but I guess I didn't hope it would be flawless. B+

Reservoir Dogs

It's been said that Reservoir Dogs is Quentin Tarantino's most disturbing film. It's not the most violent, or the most realistic but it's at a certain middle point. I'm not sure I totally agree, because although movies like Kill Bill and Django Unchained are more outlandish and not as dark, they still obviously have much more death and pain. I was personally more disturbed by Inglorious Basterds, but I guess that's just my opinion. One thing I found especially interesting about Reservoir Dogs was that it's a heist movie where you never see the heist, but rather, all the before and after parts. We just have to imagine the robbery that went totally wrong. I can't exactly tell what type of film it is, but I can say that it's not easy to watch. It's full of people getting shot, and there's also one scene where a guy gets his ear cut off. I wasn't especially scarred mentally by this because in both Watchmen, and The Big Lebowski, people get their ears bitten off, so it's not the worst I've seen. I liked how each of the main characters had their own small segments of which they were the focus. We got to learn each of their pasts and what type of person they each were. When they all interacted, it felt like I knew each of them in depth and it was all just a matter of how these personalities would collide. Then we got to see what happened after their first mission as a team. It's safe to say it didn't turn out too great. One thing I didn't like was the way these super professional people who seemed to know what they were doing were so unprofessional so often. They weren't acting like the characters they were made out to be in the beginning. I couldn't understand their actions in that way. I wanted to see all these different people act together and try desperately to keep their professionalism, as it's a good way to make a story, but I didn't really get that from Reservoir Dogs, though it was still excellent in many other ways. B+

Goodfellas

I remember first seeing The Godfather Part I, and Part II, and I thought Goodfellas, being a mob movie, would be very similar. Boy, was I wrong. Goodfellas is much more street-level crime film, and it's also kind of funny at the beginning, but eventually spirals into more serious topics. We get to see a kid with a head start in the crime business rise to the top, then, over time, fall, due to drugs, rats (not the rodents), and a hunger for power. I loved learning about the ins and outs of the criminal underworld, and how an insult can take you all the way to lying in a ditch on the side of the road.
   
     Our protagonist, played by an actor I only recognize from a commercial for 1800 tequila, leads a successful life, making it pretty far, but learns that most don't get a chance to go out on top. Instead, they fall and see themselves fail before death. Throughout, the film gives us a glimpse at how tough even the high crime world really is. Although they wear expensive suits and tip doormen hundreds of dollars at a time, they're very venerable. They're all insecure, insane, or just very, very touchy, and that leads to them killing the wrong person. That's where they always fail. They think they can do whatever they ant and get away with it, but are very often wrong. I had an issue with the change of tone being very abrupt, and uneven too. The whole first half was comedic and fun, the second half was dark and depressing. I think, though, that maybe this was to add effect. Maybe we were supposed to see the fun side of crime, the life which so many young men chase, then see all the repercussions later on. It's like a tsunami, everything's fun in the sun, and before you know it, a huge wave of bad stuff is upon you.

    I used to think all of the characters had weak judgment, but I guess that's what power does to you. The human mind is a fragile thing, and it's hard to keep it from breaking. Anyway, Goodfellas is a comedic-turned depressing crime drama, with all sorts of twists and turns that takes you on a journey to and from success. A-

Struck by Lightning

After I finished watching the only four seasons of Glee available on Netflix (saddest moment of my life), one of the three watch suggestions was Struck By Lightning, which starred Chris Colfer, who was also one of the leads in Glee. The guy has lots of wit and always acts like he's smarter than everybody else, which is a little against his character in the TV show, but in Struck By Lightning, he was perfect. He's a high school senior who rightfully feels superior to everybody around him. This doesn't necessarily make him cold or condescending, but he just always tries to make his own life and school a better place, as he works towards his dream school. He also has to deal with a bad mother, grandma with Alzheimers, and an awful school experience. There's no main story, as it's more of a document of a few weeks of his life, but there are a few subplots, such as when he blackmails classmates to write for his literary magazine, and when he tries desperately to preserve student rights at school. There are some comedic moments, but it's mostly serious, as we watch him deal with everything thrown at him, and in the end, we wonder if it was even worth it at all. Sometimes, no matter how hard we try, we can't change things, and sometimes we don't have a second chance after we fail once. I thought it was quite powerful and heavy to see him go through this, trying, failing, and then realizing it was all for nothing, but maybe success isn't everything, is it? The whole movie was fun and made me think about the years ahead where everything will change. Although it was a tough subject, it wasn't humorless. I laughed out loud at moments, yet the changes of tones were smooth and I easily transitioned into a serious scene without any abrupt switch. I've seen other reviews, and they all hated Struck By Lightning, but, by my opinion, it was severely underrated, and I highly recommend it. A