There's quite a bit to talk about here, so I'm just gonna dive right in. 'Dawn' begins ten years (give or take) after the final events of 'Rise,' in which the lab-created virus known as ALZ-112 has, for lack of a better term, gotten loose. The virus, originally created to battle Alzheimer's, proves to have an overwhelmingly positive effect on the lab chimps and apes experimented on, starting with Caesar (Andy Serkis), who eventually frees his kind from captivity and escape to the nearby San Fransisco redwood forest. Human exposure to the virus is something different altogether, in that it becomes a simian flu outbreak, leaving the only human survivors those with a natural immunity to it. This is basically covered in an opening credits news cast, much like your average zombie movie, and in time, we see what has become of Caesar and his friends we met previously - a circus orangutan named Maurice (Karin Konoval) and fellow chimp, Koba (Toby Kebbell), both of whom have sworn a loyalty to Caesar for their freedom, ever thankful for the community they've created for themselves. Through those ten years, the human race has been dying off, leaving the world in a 'Last of Us'-like state of overgrowth, and apes have thrived. Caesar even has his own close-knit household with his partner, Cornelia (Judy Greer), son, Blue Eyes (Nick Thurston) and newborn baby, Cornelius, who some will recall as a full-grown ape in the 1968 original, tying this thing together loosely, but nicely. The future for this society looks promising enough, but the question remains, are humans still out there somewhere? And if so, do they pose a threat? The first portion of this is answered when a group of human survivors, led by a guy named Malcolm (Jason Clarke), along with his wife, Ellie (Keri Russell), and son, Alexander (Kodi Smit-McPhee) stumble into ape territory in search of a dam, which could restore power to their community. However, one of the ass holes of the group, Carver (Kirk Acevedo), shoots and injures Blue Eyes' friend, Ash (Larramie Doc Shaw). Caesar decides the best move is to draw a line in the sand, not wanting violence, but warning that they'll fight if they have to. Once all that is established, what we really get from this film, in my opinion, is two extremes of both sides of the coin. Malcolm and his family wish to make peace, and Caesar, remembering good natured humans like his Will takes a chance on him, wanting the same peace. On the other side of the coin, however, is Koba, who only remembers the bad things human scientists did to him, and the leader of the human society, Dreyfuss (Gary Oldman), who lost his family to the virus and will stop at nothing to keep his community surviving. I really liked the way the film executed such a range of emotions through these characters, reminding me of a handful of D&D creations ranging from "lawful good" to "chaotic evil," and placing characters like Blue Eyes in the middle of it all, knowing the way his Dad thinks in terms of peace, but understanding where Koba's need for vengeance comes into play, especially with his friend having been shot by one of those damned dirty humans - Carver; definitely a character you love to hate, and it doesn't stop at that gunshot. While 'Rise' is how everything began, concluding with the virus getting out of hand, 'Dawn' is more about being in the ape's world now, and the beginnings of their society. I also take what I mentioned about two extremes on either side of the coin to heart here. One of the big themes here seems to be the classic trope of "we're not so different, you and I," but it does a very good job of not just simply dividing good and evil, and it's always nice to be able to understand where everyone here is coming from... except maybe Carver... what a jerk. 5/5
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My relationship with the 'Planet of the Apes' franchise before this movie came along was essentially non-existent. I knew enough about the first movie to be able to quote its most famous lines, and spoil the twist ending for the three people on Earth who didn't know it. But for whatever reason, to this day, I still have not seen any of the older films, save for the original (and that was just to say I've seen it). So when things got a prequel treatment back in 2011, I thought that might be a good jumping-on point. I'm not sure how much more I expected things to carry on with the franchise at the time, as this can easily just be passed off as a simple "this is how it all started" film, and one can pretty much understand how things might unfold from its ending. The thing is, the film's emotional story combines with the CG technology of the time made it good enough to spawn a few sequels and actually for an incredibly solid series of prequels that lead into the original 1968 classic and its series of sequels. Speaking of which, before we get into it, this entire movie takes place on Earth and we see how the Planet of the Apes was formed over time through the next few films. So basically, the big reveal at the end of the '68 film is officially not in spoiler territory anymore. It's basically something everyone knows at this point, but it doesn't take away from Charlton Heston's wonderful overacting in that scene that has made cinematic history as one of the most famous of all time. Still a classic! The entire franchise begins with a young pharmaceutical chemist named Will Rodman (James Franco) who tests a viral-based drug known as ALZ-112 on chimps in hopes of discovering a potential cure for Alzheimer's. The terrible disease is something Will has to deal with on a daily basis with his father, Charles (John Lithgow), who is getting worse by the day. One day during tests, a chimp named "Bright Eyes" goes on a rampage, and as a result has to be put down. However, she wasn't being vicious so much as protective of her child no one noticed, who Will takes home to take care of, naming him Caesar (Andy Serkis). As time passes, Caesar shows how much of ALZ-112 he seemed to absorb through his mother with signs of increased intelligence, not the least of which is learning sign language. As Will wonders if this could be the solution to his father's disease (and kudos to the writers for not making him a nut about becoming rich off of it), Caesar begins questioning his existence and whether he's a friend, a pet, or just an experiment. Soon enough, of course, Caesar shows just how smart he really is, and we get to see the beginnings of everything in the franchise. Looking back on this now, the CG still looks pretty good, bearing in mind that the MCU released 'Captain America: The First Avenger' the same year, and the CG on young Cap looks awful by today's standards. I'm still an MCU guy, but there is definitely something to be said for this movie's tech being ahead of it, at least at the time. It's this wonderful blend of giving the actors a massive ape makeover, but leaving those eyes free to show the human-like character these apes have, especially with Caesar. I had to appreciate upon this viewing how the climax of film makes you route for the apes' victory, while at the same time fully realizing that any human these apes are fighting through are kinda just doing their job. You don't think of them as villains so much as civil servants. So one might say the film does a good job of humanizing all of its characters, whether they be ape or human. It's still a great film, and even though its perhaps the least action-packed, the heart and emotion put into these characters is what really makes it special. This one's a bit more on the dramatic side, and for its purposes, that's a good thing. 5/5 The "MonsterVerse" that began back in 2014 was all leading to this epic moment, despite the fact that Godzilla went up against three big monsters in the last film, making it feel like the franchise kinda went all-in on things. However, these filmmakers know their audiences fairly well, and since day one, the big titan battle to end all titan battles has always been Godzilla going up against King Kong. Its this universe's 'Freddy vs Jason' or 'Alien vs Predator', pitting the two most popular of something against each other. To everyone's misfortune, however, Covid came along and messed everything up for this epic battle, pushing it from November, 2020 to March, 2021; a time in which going to the theatre to see a movie was still a pretty big gamble for one's health. Simultaneously, it was released on HBO Max, and in a roundabout way, I managed to see it on my small screen, thus missing out on the grand scale battle this could have been. With that said, however, this was just about the perfect movie to sit down and just enjoy for the fun of it during such trying times. It was a solid slice of purely imaginative fun, and a good time not to care about realism. The film also takes place five years after the last film, which technically actually puts this in 2024, which is just as well, as this allows the franchise to ignore Covid entirely. As time has passed since we last left Skull Island, Kong has since been captured and held by Monarch for study at a facility that allows him to roam around relatively freely. Here, Kong has befriended a young deaf girl named Jia (Kaylee Hottle), who is able to communicate with Kong using sign language. Along with her, is her adopted mother and Kong expert, Ilene Andrews (Rebecca Hall), and together, they take good care of Kong while he's being held. Meanwhile, Godzilla is now seen by people as an ally, albeit a destructive one who has unknowingly killed thousands. This comes after the events of the previous film where he fended off the hydra-like King Ghidorah and the pterydactle-like Rodan with he help of Mothra, whose likeness should be self-explanatory. However, he attacks an Apex Cybernetics facility in Pensacola, FL, leaving people wondering what has gotten into him, since he only really reveals himself to attack other giant threats. The leads our former player, Madison Russell (Millie Bobby Brown) to find answers, knowing that's out of Godzilla's character. Madison seeks the help of her friend, Josh (Julian Dennison) along with podcasting conspiracy theorist, Bernie Hayes (Brian Tyree Henry). Their investigation eventually leads them to Godzilla's reason for attacking, and without spoiling too much (because the big reveal is actually pretty awesome), it goes back to the stinger at the end of the last film, where we see a Ghidorah head still intact. This situation also connects to Apex CEO, Walter Simmons (Demián Bichir) hiring Hollow Earth "expert", Nathan Lind (Alexander Skarsgård), believing Hollow Earth contains a certain energy he desires for a weapon that will effectively be able to stop Godzilla, should he choose to rampage again. Lind soon recruits Ilene, Jia and big ol' Kong to locate and explore Hollow Earth, but unknown to the recruits are Lind's plans to find this power source. Along the way, of course, Kong and Godzilla become aware of each other, and the film delivers on its promise of a Clash of Titans. I've gotta hand it to the filmmakers for providing us with what seems like two very separate story lines that manage to connect in such a way that, when all said and done, fans of the classic material might be pleasantly surprised by. I'd also suggest keeping an open mind about the Hollow Earth theory here, just because it works so well for this particular universe. It's fun to see how these monsters' stories come together in the end, and they come across much like a 'Fast & Furious' movie in that reality isn't a part of the game here. I've said it before, but the best parts about these movies are seeing these monsters take part in a WWE-style storyline while paying homage to oldschool video games like 'Rampage' where the name of the game was destruction. For those of us who waited things out patiently for this movie, I felt it delivered on all levels, and its probably one of the best of the bunch. My one regret was not being able to see it on a bigger scale at the time. 4/5 Now that both Godzilla and Kong have been established as two decent introductions to the MonsterVerse, the time has come to expand on it. I find this one to be a fairly interesting chapter of the whole thing, as whether one likes or dislikes it is all pretty much predicated on the same thing; that being what could be considered too many monsters contained in one movie. Here, we get our main players, Godzilla and "Monster Zero" (later named Ghidora), but it also brings in Mothra and Rodan. Without getting too much into spoiler territory, the extra two monsters serve a purpose, but some may feel like they went too familiar too soon. Basically, when it comes to these classic movie monsters, along with King Kong, these are the four you've probably heard of. In some ways, it can feel like overexposure. However, I will say that if you can watch this as if it was a monster-sized WWE tag team match, the last chunk of this movie is a pretty damn awesome bit of action-packed eye candy. Just to give an idea of a timeline here, just remember that 'Kong: Skull Island' takes place in 1973, and thus represents the first chronological story of the series. 'Godzilla' starts us off in 2014 (present-day at the time), and this picks things back up five years after the big showdown between Godzilla and the unnamed MUTOs (Massive Unidentified Terrestrial Organism), so things have progressed in real-time since the first film, and here we are in 2019 where seventeen MUTOs have since been identified and studied by monster-studying organization, Monarch who now refer to them as "Titans". Mothra is almost immediately introduced, being studied by a team that includes paleobiologist, Dr. Emma Russell (Vera Farmiga) and her daughter, Madison (Millie Bobby Brown). Mothra, in her larva state, is all pissed off and needs calming down, and with that, we are introduced to a device Emma has been working on called ORCA; a device that uses certain frequencies in order to call or communicate with the Titans. Soon, a group of eco-terrorists attack the facility, led by Alan Jonah (Charles Dance), a former British Army colonel. His team kidnaps the mother/daughter pair, cause Mothra to flee, and steal the ORCA device for themselves. Meanwhile, some of our Monarch stars from the first film return, namely Dr. Ishirō Serizawa (Ken Watanabe) and Vivienne Graham (Sally Hawkins) along with newcomer, Sam Coleman (Thomas Middleditch). They learn about the disappearance of Emma and Madison, and approach Emma's ex-husband and Madison's father, Dr. Mark Russell (Kyle Chandler), to help find them. Eventually, it all comes together in Antarctica, where the eco-terrorists plan is to unleash the frozen "Monster Zero", and other Titans (that go as far as Rodan) to restore natural order to the Earth after mankind has destroyed it. I do appreciate how there seems to be three different arguments for the whole Titan situation. The eco-terrorists think they're doing the world a favour by letting monsters take over humanity; various members of Monarch think that mankind has to find a way to adapt and coexist with the Titans to survive; and the majority seem simply say "kill 'em all." To some degree, things can feel a bit "tree-huggy", and the environmental message is pretty heavy-handed. I also find Madison to be largely one of those "in-the-way" characters and often irksome in her actions. Although, its her mother's speech about the environment that might make one roll their eyes. So, what about Rodan? He shows up, but he's also kinda crowbarred in there and largely more for appearance than plot. Let's just say on a chess board, he'd act as a pawn. Having said that, however, like I've said before, whether you like this or not is all gonna come from what you're looking for. If you want a really good story with really likable characters and solid dialogue, you won't necessarily find that here. But if you wanna watch some really awesome moster fights with a bag of popcorn at your side, it's fine! It reminds me a bit of the first one with its pacing, but the familiarity with the monsters here, I daresay, make it a bit more fun if just a bit overcrowded to some nitpicking degree. 3/5 Shortly after the successful release of 'Godzilla' in 2014, it was announced that Kong was gonna be brought into the picture, and the "MonsterVerse" was going to be put into motion. Once again, they did it right by introducing Godzilla in one movie, Kong in the next, and developing things from there. Growing up, I was always a little more partial to Kong as a bit more of a sympathetic monster, so when I heard this was happening, I was pretty excited for it, and thankfully, it was far from disappointing. For this one, we go back to 1973 where new technology has been developed to capture imagery of areas of the world that have yet been unexplored. This unveils the mysterious-looking Skull Island, which until had only been a myth up to that point. This leads the head of Monarch (the organization mentioned in the 'Godzilla' review who study giant creatures), Bill Randa (John Goodman) to gather a team of professionals to head to the island with him in an attempt to study whatever primeval creatures may be on the island; an island said to be lost in time, and altogether prehistoric in nature. For an experienced escort to get through dangerous conditions in order to get to Skull Island for this mission, Randa's recruits Vietnam soldiers, Lieutenant Colonel Preston Packard (Samuel L. Jackson), his subordinates, Major Jack Chapman (Toby Kebbell) and Captain Earl Cole (Shea Whigham), and his other "Sky Devils", Reg Slivko (Thomas Mann), Glenn Mills (Jason Mitchell) and Joe Reles (Eugene Cordero). In several ways, these guys provide the big bad "mankind" enemy of the film, but I'd probably also argue that, aside from Kong, himself, they are the more entertaining aspect of the film. Further experts recruited to the team include former British Special Air Service Captain James Conrad (Tom Hiddleston), who's also an expert at tracking, and photographer, Mason Weaver (Brie Larson) who's main reason for being here is to represent the "beauty" that Kong is able to see as mankind's innocence, and be almost annoying with how many pictures she takes throughout the film. Perhaps a bit harsh, but there are scenes where she's in real danger and totally camera-ready. I don't mind Brie Larson, but this has to be one of her more mediocre roles when all said and done. Upon their arrival, Packard's men drop seismic charges to map out the island, which eventually flushes out Kong, and results in a devastating (but cool to look at) attack on the team, ultimately separating them all from each other. From there, the motives vary as Packard wants to set his men up for revenge as well as a mission to get their men back, while Conrad and Weaver along with a few others stumble on the locals, and surprise World War II survivor, Hank Marlow (John C. Reilley) who has been trapped there for a couple of decades. Their main forcus is more about just surviving and getting off the island. Really, the only big tie-in with 'Godzilla' ('14) here is the idea of Monarch, which also plays into a pretty cool post-credit scene in which we see a bit more of an 'Avengers'-like tease for what's to come (seemingly appropriate, considering how many 'Avengers' characters are in this). Otherwise, as a stand-alone, it makes for a pretty great survival adventure, reminscent of something like 'Jurassic Park', but with bigger, badder monsters and some pretty awesome fight scenes involving said monsters, paving the way for an eventual 'Godzilla vs. Kong', and every single one of us knew it. Despite a little bit of rough acting, and cheesy dialogue throughout the film, I'm hard-pressed not to like it. There's a lot of CG in here that one may or may not take with a grain of salt, but I'd suggest that in order to appreciate the film, one has to lean into the action/adventure involved in the story to get the right effect. At the end of the day, Kong, like Godzilla, is here for some decent quality, albeit cheesy, box office adventure, and both movies pretty much live up to that. I'm just glad that there's much more Kong here, along with several other creative creatures as opposed to Godzilla's lack of appearance in his own movie. 4/5 It is often said that things need to stop taking their cues from the MCU in an effort to start self-contained movie universes. More often than not, it's not meant to be (I'm looking at you, Dark Universe) or slips by with some ups and downs because it has a big enough fan base to support it (DCEU). But there is the rare exception, and while the "Monster Universe" 'Godzilla' establishes isn't entirely perfect, it is nevertheless entertaining, a far cry from the 1998 Americanization attempt, and starts things like it should. The idea of forming a cinematic universe in the first place often fails for the same dumb reason of leading us to believe that things are more or less planned out, which they often aren't. Therefore, the first film of something leaves us with some impression that things will pick back up, failing to gauge audiences and critics as well as performance at the box office. The best thing 'Godzilla' here did was simply exist on its own at the time, and have a solid ending. There are no stingers in this to suggest that the Monster Universe was something in the making. At the time, this was just new and improved Americanization of things. The film opens in 1999, in the Philippenes, where a uranium mine has collapsed, revealing the skeleton of some giant creature. Two Monarch scientists, Ishiro Serizawa (Ken Watanabe) and Vivienne Graham (Sally Hawkins) are sent to investigate the skeleton, and stumble on two giant spores, one of which has hatched, and left a trail heading out to sea. Soon after, at the Janjira Nuclear Power Plant in Japan, seismic activity occurs, eventually destroying the plant, leaving plant supervisor Joe Brody (Bryan Cranston) with some very difficult questions as to what happened for years to come. Fifteen years pass, and Joe's and his wife Sandra's (Juliette Binoche) son, a U.S. Navy EOD officer named Ford (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) comes home to his wife, Elle (Elizabeth Olsen), and son, Sam (Carson Bolde), only to have to go back to Japan immediately to bail his Dad out of jail for trespassing in Janjira's quarantine zone. Upon his arrival to bail his Dad out, Ford is convinced to go with Joe to investigate their old house and find some answers, only to be detained all over again and taken to an underground facility, which is holding a massive chrysalis which feeds off nuclear energy. Eventually, said chrysalis hatches, and a giant insect-like creature emerges, very reminsicent, in my opinion, of the Cloverfield monster. The creature is referred to as a MUTO (Massive Unidentified Terrestrial Organism), and to try and keep this short, eventually, Godzilla finally comes into the mix and the big monster fight ensues while mankind wonderds if the enemy of their enemy is their friend, or indeed, another enemy. And in case you haven't picked it up quite yet, perhaps the biggest complaint anyone could have about this movie is how little Godzilla is actually in it. Looking at the grand scheme of things now, it's a little more forgivable that the big focus here was more about what the random MUTO is and how to stop it. Using Godzilla, himself, as their defensive strategy for the first time, it's understandable now that this was meant to be a movie that riskily established things for more potential movies to come, but again, without being crazy obvious about it. As a standalone movie with the title of 'Godzilla', it left a lot to be desired at the time. But as time has gone on (I can't believe 2024 marks ten years already), for better or for worse, the MonsterVerse has been pretty successful. The nice thing to takeaway from the MonsterVerse is that, despite a lot of dramatic things happening throughout, it doesn't take itself too seriously and remembers that audiences are there to see a couple of giant monsters have a wrestling match. The only real problems here being that the match takes a long time to get to, and in the meantime, there's just a lot to do with the people involved in researching the other monster we didn't come to see while explaining what Monarch is etc. It's pretty great once things get going for the fans of this stuff, but it does take a while to get there. 3/5 To put my cards on the table, even for as much as a 'Ghostbusters' fan as I am, even I can admit that this movie is pretty damn ridiculous and, often, kinda dumb. But so help me, that's exactly what makes it so entertaining for me. One should also bear in mind that I was still a kid when this came out, so there will always be that nostalgic influence for me as well. This isn't what I'd say is a movie that's "so bad, it's good" as much as I'd say I'd simply mark it as a guilty pleasure. It's something recognizably "bad" that I still hold near and dear to me. As far as the big screen goes, this was the original Ghostbusters' last hoorah, while all four lead actors were still in their prime. However, I feel obligated to point out that the video game, initially released in 2009, was pointed out by Dan Aykroyd, himself, that it was meant to serve as the proper 'Ghostbusters 3' for those who were still waiting for that title to be an actual film. If you're a fan and get the chance for a play-through, I can highly recommend it. Controls take a bit to get used to, but everything about the story feels "right" for the franchise's legacy. But that's the third storyline, and we're here to talk about the second one, which I've always considered to be a generous blending of both the spirits of the previous live-action film and the animated series, which I was frankly addicted to at the time of this film's release. So, as a kid, anything that I find completely ridiculous now is just an added bit of comedy to the whole thing and makes it, in a word, "fun". I mean, for crying out loud, they make the Statue of Liberty walk around Manhattan in this movie. I'm not sure it was ever meant to be taken too seriously. 'Ghostbusters II' takes place five years after the events of the previous film (essentially in real time) wherein what we don't see in the aftermath is that their collective heroism that fateful night when they fought Gozer got them all sued and barred from their destructive work for good. Ray Stantz (Dan Aykroyd) opens an occult book shop, Egon Spengler (Harold Ramis) runs experiments on human emotions, Peter Veknman (Bill Murray) hosts a television show called 'World of the Psychic', and Winston Zeddemore (Ernie Hudson), other than being a bad children's entertainer alongside Ray, is pretty much left to the imagination. Meanwhile, Dana Barrett (Sigourney Weaver) works at an art museum for her funny little boss, Janosz Poha (Peter MacNicol) who probably has most of the funniest, memorable and quotable lines in the film. Dana also has an infant son named Oscar (William T. Deutschendorf/Henry J. Deutschendorf II) and works alongside a very creepy painting, portraying a 16th Century tyrant named Vigo the Carpathian (Wilhelm von Homburg). This is where we get the idea of haunted/possessed objects, as that painting is possessed with the soul of the same tyrant it portrays which, in turn, also possesses Janosz so that Vigo can use him as a sort of puppet. Vigo chooses this time (around New Years, heading into 1990) to be resurrected in a human form and spread his reign of terror, but needs a human child in order to live again. Of course, that child ends up being Oscar, and it'll be up to the Ghostbusters to stop him. In the meantime, the boys contend with a thick, pink slime that seems to be tied in with Vigo and the negative energy of the whole city, thus dubbed "mood slime", and eventually becomes the "frienemy" the Ghostbusters need to fight this Carpathian dude. There are a few welcome returns to the cast as well, like Annie Potts coming back as a much more cartoonified Janine Melnitz, Rick Moranis coming back as the lovable loser, Louis Tully, and of course, our favourite little spud, Slimer (if only briefly. Honestly after the first film, Slimer acts as more of an Easter Egg in these movies). The film isn't a strong one, but there's plenty to enjoy here as an oldschool fan, and acts as a friendly reminder that sometimes we just wanna be entertained by the silly and strange, which Ghostbusters has pretty much always been, especially when the Cartoon was such a hit at this time. 3/5 I know, I know, this is old news, but 'Ghostbusters' ('84) is my favourite film of all time, and there's a whole story to it all that all my readers have read time and time again. For that, head over here to my "Five Star" review on it. What we have here is just a shorter review that kinda gets straight to the point, and instead of going into why it's my favourite film, it'll go into why it's just an all-around good film, and, I'd even say, remains forever the best title in the 'Ghostbusters' collection. A fine example of "nothing tops the original." 'Ghostbusters' is the brainchild of Dan Aykroyd and Harold Ramis, veering off a bit from Aykroyd's original vision of he and, at the time, John Belushi, would travel through time and space to battle a series of supernatural threats. Sadly, however, Belushi passed in 1982, and the budget for the film wasn't exactly on par with Aykroyd's vision. That's when, Ramis was brought in to help make things a little more practical, and change it up to a crew of exterminators, rounding up nasty spectral entities, residing in New York City. I have to admit though, I'm super curious to see what Aykroyd's original vision would have looked like. The end result, however, involves three paranormal research scientists; Ray Stantz (Aykroyd), Egon Spengler (Ramis) and Peter Venkman (Bill Murray), who, one day, get the boot from a college that refuses to fund their unusual experiments any further. Venkman sees this as a sign that the trio should go into business for themselves based on the paranormal experimentation they've been working on. The business; think of it as a sort of "pest-control", but instead of rounding up cockroaches and rats, they use high-tech gadgets to capture ghosts, spirits, spectres, entities, y'know, something strange in the neighbourhood. With their secretary, Janine Melnitz (Annie Potts), it's not long before their business takes off, and the three becomes a trio of hometown heroes. However, one case in particular involving the lovely Dana Barrett (Sigourney Weaver) involves some deeper, darker stuff than just capture/trap missions involving an anciet Sumerian God named Gozer (Slavitza Jovan), and her minions, the Gatekeeper and the Keymaster who, if not stopped, could very well bring about the end of the world. With all of the paranormal activity building up, they bring in a fourth Ghostbuster named Winston Zeddemore (Ernie Hudson) for help. I'd be hard-pressed not to mention the presense of two more great characters from this. First there's Louis Tully (Rick Moranis), Dana's neighbour who provides us with some of the funniest awkward, nerdy comedy relief that balances the comedy in the film with Venkman's cool, calm and sarcastic sense of humour really well. Then there's Walter Peck (William Atherton) who works for the EPA, is a secondary villain in this, and interestingly enough, we hate him so easily for just doing his job to the best of his abilities. Both are pretty great side characters who each add to the story in their own unique way. More to mention of the overall quality of the movie, it's pretty amazing to still be able to watch this movie today and appreciate how incredibly good the practical effects in it look. Remembering that this came out in 1984, it's another fine example of the fact that sometimes CG is just unnecessary. I still think the ghosts look better here than they do as fully CG-rendered entities in the 2016 film. There may be a bit of a cheapness to it for viewers nowadays, but I still think it works incredibly well, especially with characters like our beloved "Slimer" (who was actually inspired by Belushi with his final design). 'Ghostbusters' is one of the most unlikely films to withstand the test of time in a big way. When you really think about it, on paper, the whole thing sounds so insane that it just plain shouldn't work. Especially when you bring in things like a 100-foot Marshmallow Man that by all means should have been seen as jumping the shark. Somehow or another, it all just fits together incredibly well, combining aspects of horror and comedy while being strong with imagination. It was never meant to be taken too seriously, and I think that's why fans like myself just don't have as many critical issues with the rest of the series. The Ghostbusters will always have a place in my heart! 5/5 Once again, as this series continues, it keeps up with developing Po's (Jack Black) character by delving even deeper into his origins while still pushing the story forward. In other words, the more time we spend learning of Po's past, the more we can appreciate how the film is trying to develop him as a means to defeat villains who, in each film, progressively get more powerful. This time around, things stem from the tail ending of the previous film in which we briefly meet Po's father (Fred Tatasciore at the time) who learns that Po's still alive. To expand on that, when we last left Po, he defeated a ruthless peacock named Shen (Gary Oldman) who, when Po was a baby, destroyed Po's village, hunting for the panda who would one day put a stop to his attempt to take over China, as prophesied. While Po's mother rescues him, she is killed in the process, and he and his father have been separated since. Po was soon adopted by a goose named Mr. Ping (James Hong), and the rest is pretty much history. Po becomes the fabled "Dragon Warrior," and lives a life of heroism alongside "The Furious Five"; Tigress (Angelina Jolie), Crane (David Cross), Mantis (Seth Rogen), Monkey (Jackie Chan), Viper (Lucy Liu), and his sensei, Master Shifu (Dustin Hoffman). While Po continues this life, something sinister is brewing in the Spirit Realm, as we reunite with Master Oogway (Randall Duk Kim); the Kung Fu tortoise who trained Master Shifu, and who found inner peace and passed away in the first film. He is attacked by a spirit warrior yak named Kai (J.K. Simmons) who has stolen collected all of the other Kung Fu masters' "Chi" (essentially a Kung Fu warrior's essense) and, with Oogway's, will be able to return to the mortal realm. Of course, Kai succeeds in this, using vast amounts of Chi from other warriors to defeat Oogway. But Oogway is sure to warn him that he's destined to be defeated. Upon his return, Kai realizes (in pretty humorous fashion) that he's been forgotten after such a long time, gets enraged by this, and aims to tear down Oogway's legacy. In the meantime, Shifu announces his retirement to Po and the Five, and chooses Po to be his successor based on his "Dragon Warrior" title, to which Po is understandably apprehensive, but this is kinda where the plot point of finding one's self comes into play, as Po's trying to teach like Shifu instead of using his own methods. To add to it all, he is randomly visited by his father, Li Shan (now played by Bryan Cranston). They bond immediately, but this ultimately makes Mr. Ping jealous. The village comes under attack by mysterious jade warriors who each resemble fallen Kung Fu masters, and are controlled with Kai's massive amounts of Chi that he stole from each of them. The Five manage to stave them off for the time being, but learnt he only way they'll get one over on Kai is by training in the ways of Chi, which, according to legend, the pandas have mastered. So, Li takes Po on a journey back to his home village to learn the ways of the panda, which should ultimately lead to learning about Chi, and how to use it to put a stop to this new villain. Each of these have some kind of life lesson within, and a lot of it has to do with varying forms of self-discovery. While the first one has a little more to do with finding who one is meant to be, the second covers where one comes from and who one truly is. With this, I find it sort of combines the first two as it seems to be very much about enlightenment, and learning what makes you you. These are just my takeaways, however, and I feel like there's a lot to be taken from these films when it comes to personal growth. As far as this series is concerned, this is another solid title for it. I still like the second film's villain a bit more overall, and would consider him a bit more of an arch nemesis for Po. Further to that, I think at times this does get a little cutesy, but that's just a nitpick, and not even a heavy one. All in all, this has been a great series for family viewing, helping the young viewers to grow in a positive way while even us adults can learn a thing or two about things like "inner peace". It doesn't have quite the same impact the second one does for me, but it's still super solid. 4/5 For as much as I love the first 'Kung Fu Panda', I would probably say that in comparison, this one is actually much better. The first film remains the classic of the series, but this film follows through with character development, depth, better fight choreography and animation and continues the story nice and smoothly while simultaneously giving us an origin story on Po (Jack Black), our favourite martial artist panda. It also adds more great voice talent to the cast, and higher levels of drama and action. It's what a sequel should be. When we last left Po and the Furious Five, Po was revealed to be the fabled, albeit unlikely Dragon Warrior by defeating the greedy snow leopard, Tai Lung (Ian McShane), who believed himself to be destined for the same title, but with wickedness in his heart. Since then, Po has lived a life of peace alongside the "Five", Tigress (Angelina Jolie), Crane (David Cross), Mantis (Seth Rogen), Monkey (Jackie Chan) and Viper (Lucy Liu), and his sensei, Master Shifu (Dustin Hoffman), who one day advises Po that he will not be a true Kung Fu master until he achieves inner peace, and a lot of it has to do with a traumatic past that Po can't quite remember. This ties in with our big baddie of the film, a peacock named Lord Shen (Gary Oldman), son of the rulers of Gongmen City who invent fireworks for purposes of awe and beauty. However, Shen discovers that the gunpowder used in fireworks can also be used as effective weapons. Worried, his parents call in a ram soothsayer (Michelle Yeoh), who foretells of Shen one day being stopped by a warrior of black and white (guess who). This leads to Shen using the newfound weapons against a community of pandas, and banished as a result of his violent tendencies. In his anger, he then assembles a wolf army to help him raid villages for scrap metal in order to build cannons that will hopefully help him take over China. During one of their raids on a village, the Furious Five are called to action, and during the fight, Po recognizes a symbol on one of the wolf's armour that gives him flashbacks. Traumatic hidden memories start getting revealed, leading him to try to find out what happened to his real parents after his Dad, Mr. Ping (James Hong), the goose, tells him much to his surprise that he's adopted. In the meantime, Shen is starting to succeed in his mission by taking Gongmen city, and one by one taking down powerful Kung Fu regents Masters Thundering Rhino (Victor Garber), Ox (Dennis Haysbert) and Croc (Jean-Claude Van Damme). The Furious Five are then sent to Gongmen City to put a stop to Shen's reign of terror, but Po is constantly distracted by his hidden past and how it ties in with Shen, and the symbol he keeps seeing within Shen's army. So the big themes of this film from the get-go involve Po finding out where it is he really comes from and how Shen was involved in his past, which is probably very obvious during Shen's backstory at the very beginning, but my apologies if I've breached spoiler territory. Even knowing, however, one can still feel for Po throughout the film and really route for him to succeed, and find the answers he's looking for. I would probably say that this is, personally speaking, my favourite of the bunch. It does a very good job with delivering all of the good humour, inspiration and fun of the first one all while cranking the volume up on those things and adding more backstory, drama and action. I also frankly like the villain here a bit better. Oldman's wonderful voice acting aside, Shen reminds me a lot more of a Sauruman type from 'Lord of the Rings' and feels like more of a threat. Plus I just like the badass design of his character, and the idea that he uses his feathers as daggers. As I mentioned before, I do love 'Kung Fu Panda', but 'Kung Fu Panda 2' takes everything that was great about the first one and cranks it up to vey satisfying results. Although the outcome is generally predictable (again, my apologies for spoilers, but remember, we have more to come after this) the ride is still a pretty great ride, and the addition of a more dramatic edge to things to make it a touch darker is a welcome one. And while the series doen's necessarily go downhill from here, I'd still consider this the best of what is, altogether, a pretty great batch of animated adventure flicks. 5/5 |