Monthly Archives: June 2022

06.28.22
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Elvis

Elvis provides a look into the life and career of the King of Rock and Roll and his relationship with his manager, Colonel Tom Parker. Austin Butler’s immersive performance stuns as he brings the singer back to life with so much energy and character, that you’d believe it was really him in every shot he’s in. The costume design is accurate to Elvis’ real wardrobe and overall gives the film a spectacular visual side to it. The musical sequences are by far the most entertaining, impressive, and even emotional aspects of the film. If that’s enough for you, this movie is worth a watch, but this movie is brought down by Baz Luhrmann’s pretentious style (director of Moulin Rouge!, Romeo + Juliet and The Great Gatsby). The editing is very flashy and fast in an attempt to immerse you into the vivid world of Elvis’ music and journey, but as a result, any sort of intimacy or room to breathe feels gone. Butler’s performance is terrific but the only times we get to interact with Elvis as a real person (and not just as the musical legend he was) are when the movie uses incredibly cliche beats we’ve seen in plenty of other music biopics like Walk the Line, Rocketman, Respect, Straight Outta Compton, and so on. Moments such as Elvis getting his love for music, dealing with loss, rising to stardom and creating his greatest hits feel lost in the prestige Baz feels so insistent on — it’s a tiring assault on the senses with some questionable decisions, like including music by Doja Cat in a scene that’s set in 1950s Memphis? Some of the CGI and green-screen also feel unrealistic and break the illusion of an old-fashioned look.

Tom Hanks is still my favorite movie actor, but his character in this movie is such an odd, one-note character and showing lots of the film from his perspective just makes us feel farther from Elvis’ humanity. The movie is also very long and gets too boring before it makes a real emotional point. What’s really interesting to see from a story perspective is how Elvis brought black music to white audiences and forced the system to reckon with the integration of cultures. Though this aspect is really eye-opening, it’s a shame that it isn’t focused on for the latter parts of the movie as well. The film decides to simply throw everything at you that you don’t get enough to appreciate the moments that are beautiful, or feel that you’re with Elvis for enough time because of the film’s montage-like editing fashion.

Though Austin Butler is a powerhouse and perfectly captures the stage presence and livelihood of Presley, and the musical sequences are exciting and breathtakingly brought to life, Elvis is brought down by its surface-level character writing as well as its poor and overwhelming editing. Luhrmann cares very much about making his movies a spectacle, but how much is too much? If you’re an Elvis fan, watch it at home, but if I ever end up watching Elvis again, you’ll probably find me skipping right away to the music scenes and that’s it.

06.19.22
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Lightyear

Lightyear imagines what the movie would’ve been that got kids like Andy excited to get the toy of him in Toy Story. In this universe, Buzz Lightyear is a space ranger tasked with a difficult mission and must learn to make new friends and approaches to his mission — and his purpose as an astronaut and a man — on the way.

Lightyear dazzles as an animated Star Trek of sorts, with some of the best animation I’ve seen in years. The designs of spaceships, suits, weapons and settings, as well as the concept of flight and hyperspace travel, are designed so beautifully that you forget you’re watching something completely animated and get immersed in the visual adventure. The intergalactic settings let Pixar’s animators explore their incredible skills and make something that looks gorgeous. Chris Evans is perfectly cast as Buzz Lightyear, not just because he does the Lightyear voice well but because his character parallels Captain America so well in that they both are willing to give whatever it takes for the greater good but must find their own identity and life for themselves. Keke Palmer is also great as Lightyear’s new companion, and Taika Waititi is as always hysterical as another “rookie” that takes on a deadly mission with Buzz. A highlight though, is Sox, a robotic cat voiced by Peter Sohn whose destined to be a fan favorite Pixar character and steals the screen. The script always finds inventive ways to bring in conflicts and there’s some signature humor and heart Pixar is known to have mastered. Although there’s a twist at the end that may have not had the thematic resonance it was trying to get at, it’s still an exciting movie throughout and could please action/sci-fi movie fans of all ages. Though it’s not as great as the last two Toy Story movies per say, Lightyear has likely Pixar’s most stunning animation since Soul and is a blast for the whole family, with a top-notch Chris Evans voice performance and lovable supporting cast.

06.10.22
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Jurassic World Dominion

Dinosaurs now live — and hunt — alongside humans all over the world. This fragile balance will reshape the future and determine, once and for all, whether human beings are to remain the apex predators on a planet they now share with history’s most fearsome creatures.

With promising groundwork to set up what could’ve been an exciting conclusion to the Jurassic Park franchise, Jurassic World Dominion instead does little with the potential its given and messes up almost every chance it gets to deliver. Chris Pratt and Bryce Dallas Howard are solid action stars but their characters get no development besides looking cool and facing off against dinosaurs. Speaking of the dinosaurs, they themselves barely feel like characters in the story anymore, and the two leads are no longer seen exercising their heroic compassion towards the creatures which felt out of character for them. The conflicts with the dinosaurs feel so rushed and hard to be invested in because the proper explanation and stakes simply aren’t there. A genetic engineering storyline takes up a lot of the film’s screen time, as well as Campbell Scott’s lackluster performance, which is a bummer considering the ideas about whether humans and dinosaurs can coexist go undeveloped as a result. The film spends a lot of time with uninteresting supporting characters, whether bad actors like Scott Haze and Justice Smith or good actors like Omar Sy who simply don’t contribute anything. DeWanda Wise and Mamoudou Athie are great as far as the newcomers go, but the original trio from Jurassic Park add a lot to the movie. Laura Dern gives the movie lots of grace and empathy, and Sam Neill and Jeff Goldblum are charismatic, with Goldblum bringing his lovable and hilarious chops as always.

Because there’s no proper motives or conflict in the storytelling, the journey and stakes are too boring and confusing to feel invested in. The writer and director don’t trust enough in the audience and put in a 2-minute exposition sequence at the beginning instead of bringing in ideas through visual storytelling. There’s also loads of plot armor that results in predictability because characters can get away from any danger depending on their importance to the story. Despite the franchise being beloved, the concepts being wondrous and the action being gigantic, this movie doesn’t feel thrilling or even sensical. Although I was looking forward to seeing how the trilogy would resolve and conclude, I felt no excitement during this movie unless it was seeing the two generations of the franchise’s stars interact with each other. Not to mention the CGI dinosaurs help expand the scale but no longer feel consequential or visually stunning the way the practical dinosaurs first did all the way back in 1993.