Film Review: From Russia With Love (007)

In the midst of the Cold War, it's inevitable that they'd send James Bond on some kind of mission that would pit him against the Soviets. In his second official film, the man goes to even more exotic locations with even bigger stakes, in a spy adventure that would set even more trends for future films to follow.

The film starts off rather dry - a collection of standard scenes where Bond gets his mission and jets to Instanbul. Even then, these scenes are pretty eye-catching, and fans will geek out at seeing Q and the members of SPECTRE for the first time. In the film's last act, however, a bunch of huge twists emerge, and it becomes one thrilling action scene after another. There is a pretty neat train fight, followed by the characters being run down by a helicopter, followed by an explosive boat chase, and just when everybody seems safe, there's one more henchman to fight. It adds up to a complete and satisfying action film.

The story always felt rather random to me throughout the first half, but the second half pulls out some interesting twists that put it in a pretty neat perspective, and helps keep the film in line with others in the series. A few conventions are introduced that will carry over in future films, such as the introduction of gadgets, and having one final fight scene before the credits roll. Overall, the film is a pretty twisty thriller with plenty of action, but it's still well-grounded and satisfying.

This film is crafted with good-looking photography and editing. Sean Connery continues to excel as James Bond. Pedro Armendáriz shows exceptional dedication to his role (he was battling cancer at the time of shooting). Daniela Bianchi and Tatiana Romanova look great in their roles and are quite playful in their roles. Lotte Lenya and Robert Shaw are good villains we love to hate. I think the script could have been more focused, but parts of it are really good. This production uses good, real-looking sets, props, and costumes. John Barry's music score is decent.

From Russia With Love is one of the essential classics in the series, and it deserves to be seen at least once.

4/5 (Entertainment: Pretty Good | Story: Good | Film: Very Good)

Film Review: π (Pi)

You might think a movie about numbers and math would be boring, but Pi is anything but. It is one trippy experience that mixes experimental expressions with a gritty neo-noir style to craft a sharp and punchy thriller that exudes paranoia.

The film's style is what makes it consistently engaging. It's a very stark and gritty black-and-white picture with a lot of intricate sets, unique photography, and snappy editing. It's almost on the same level as Eraserhead, but with a production that looks like the first half of The Matrix. It's a pretty cool way to take an otherwise uninteresting subject and make it presentable. As the film goes on, the character becomes a target by various people, and he goes on the run in some mildly satisfying chase scenes. It all builds up to a climax that will come off as bewildering and extreme.

The story's pretty simple: a bunch of people chase after one man who knows a special number. It is pretty novel to use a number as a plot device. What makes the story most interesting, however, is the subtext. The film draws strong parallels between mathematics, nature, and the man-made world, suggesting that through math and patterns, there is a correlation between order and chaos. This is what gives the plot its weight, and gives the characters a reason to struggle to figure out numbers. Fundamentally though, this is a story about a man gifted with great talents and insight, but descends into self-destructive madness due to the knowledge in his own head.

Darren Aronofsky's debut film is made with very vivid black-and-white photography and editing. He employs some hip-hop montages here and there (as he later does in Requiem for a Dream), and it looks great. Acting is pretty good from the cast, and the writing gets the job done. The narration is pretty slick. This production uses pretty interesting sets, props, costumes, and locales. Electronic music is used throughout the movie, with a lot of beat and energy, and it is really cool.

This film is pretty bizarre, but there is plenty to think about in this basic story and plenty to admire in the intense style. If you enjoy experimental films, then this should interest you.

4/5 (Experience: Good | Content: Good | Film: Very Good)

Video Game Review: Dragon Age: Inquisition

After all the events of the last two Dragon Age games, the entire land of Thedas is thrown into peril.  A giant hole appears in the sky.  Rifts start forming all over the world, with demons sprawling out of them.  The Divine is dead, leaving the Chantry in shambles.  The war between mages and templars rages on, and Red Templars start their own invasion.  There are dragons to kill, Orlesian plots to foil, Venitori agents to hunt down, and Darkspawn to kill.  And in this third game, it's up to you to lead the Inquisition to resolve all these problems and become a new hero of the realm!

DA:  Inquisition takes all the best aspects of the last two games for a more refined gameplay.  As before, you can customize your character and build him/her up as you see fit, and you have a bunch of charming companions to control as well.  Controlling four people at a time, you travel through multiple open-world maps to slay hoards of enemies, find loads of secrets and treasures, and discover more of the story.  The amount of ground you get to cover is huge, and you can easily spend hours upon hours combing through each map and completing all their tasks.  Among the activities you can engage in, there are artifacts, landmarks, collectibles, puzzles, dragons, keeps, camps, rifts, secrets, and more to find.  As you progress, you'll eventually unlock huge potential in your skills, your crafting abilities, and your resources.  When you aren't going around killing things, you can send out dispatches across the land (much like the Assassin missions in the Assassins Creed games), which will net you even more rewards.  The game gives you a ton to do, and it empowers you with enough flexibility in shaping your characters and their gear to make them a force to be reckoned with.

What makes the game even more rewarding is the story and characters.  It is a basic premise, but it is also a grand and epic tale that incorporates many different subplots sprawled across the entire land.  Each character adds a bit of color and personality to the mix - there are a number of companion quests that help build them up even more.  The main character can be played either gracefully, aggressively, or with a sense of humor, and all personalities make him/her appealing in their own ways.  At this point, all of the myth and events of the last two games carry over and contribute to different parts of the story, tying up the entire franchise really well.  It also leaves enough open for a possible fourth game (which I'm sure is inevitable).  Choices made in the last games can be carried over or built up from scratch using the Dragon Age Keep website, although it only amounts to small, subtle changes.

On the PS4, this game looks gorgeous, especially in regards to the settings and locations, which look very detailed, clean, colorful, and fantastic.  Most movements are smooth, but some far-away creatures can get suttery for some reason.  Character animations are good and all the different people look good.  Each area is designed really well, with a phenomenal attention to detail.  Gameplay is easy and smooth throughout, with a lot of consideration put into the systems for skills and crafting to make it manageable and empowering.  Voice acting is decent, the writing is good, the sound design is good, and the music is great.  Unfortunately, the game is still not flawless; glitches are common, with plenty of instances where characters tend to float in the air or get stuck in places.  I've seen the camera do dumb things.  It also seems like some quest icons can be glitched on the map or they may not register properly.

The other issue with the game is that, eventually, you will run out of things to do.  Once you've spent 100 hours going through all the quests you can and exploring every inch of the maps, you might find yourself growing bored.  Regardless, most of the game is a smooth and high-quality RPG experience, with a great immersive world and a fun cast of characters.  It's a definite must-play for franchise fans.

4.5/5 (Experience:  Very Good | Story:  Very Good | Game:  Very Good)

Film Review: Chappie

Can a machine posses a consciousness? Will a robot be able to feel, or express itself with art, or judge morality? Sci-fi has asked these questions before in everything from the books of Isaac Asimov to Star Trek. In the hands of Neill Blomkamp, who previously explored the possibility of aliens in the ghettos of Johannesburg, tackles the subject of robot sentience...once again in the slums of Joburg.

Chappie borrows a few aspects from other movies we're probably already familiar with: the idea of a robotic police force echoes RoboCop, and Chappie's exploration of the outside world immediately brings Short Circuit to mind.  Watching Chappie become a gangster might have been inspired by Bender from Futurama, and his body is like a slimmed-down version of Briareos from Appleseed. One other robot resembles a Mechwarrior. However, the film plays with all the same textures and themes that Blomkamp previously explored in District 9 and Elysium: all these movies share common character archetypes, plot structures, and settings.

So Chappie might not be anything new, but it is a funny little animal in its own right. Most of the film focuses on Chappie, the robot created in secret by a company scientist who wanted to grant consciousness to his machines. Chappie winds up in the hands of some thugs, who try to mold him into a mean killing machine. What follows is often funny, as Chappie learns to talk all gangsta while learning the ways of the world. It can be sobering too, as Chappie is manipulated, beaten, and abused. It all builds up to a heavy-duty climax, complete with loud and bloody shoot-outs, and explosive robot fighting. The film may not have nearly as much action as Elysium or D9, but it is consistently entertaining and charming at times.

The story could have used some refinement, as parts of it are condensed or left unexplained. There are a few contrivances or plot holes that can undoubtedly be found. However, the story does succeed in making Chappie a character we can care for, and his evolution from a newborn to a troubled and conflicted soul makes the story worth telling. In spite of this, the film unearths fascinating themes of morality and the nature of consciousness. I'd even go so far to say that the film has implicit parallels between Chappie's growth and the growth of all human beings, and it suggests that there's more to our short lives than mere money.

As expected, this film captures its scuzzy crime-ridden settings with decent photography, plentiful amounts of slow-motion, and quality editing. Sharlto Copley's voice acting is quite lively and playful, matching the character well. In place of his usual villainous archetype, Hugh Jackman stands in and does a pretty good job playing a jerk. Sigourney Weaver is as great as ever, but her role is minimal. Yolandi and Ninja, of the band Die Antwoord, play themselves and are okay at it. And Dev Patel is not bad. Writing probably could have been fleshed out more, but it gets the job done. This production uses highly-detailed and real-looking sets, props, costumes, locales, and special effects. Die Antwoord's music is featured throughout, and fits the movie well. The score by Hans Zimmer is pretty cool.

This movie probably could have used refinement, but it is a satisfying sci-fi flick that offers a fair amount of thought food and a fair amount of action. It's probably best recommended to fans of robot sci-fi and fans of the director.

4/5 (Entertainment: Good | Story: Pretty Good | Film: Good)

Film Review: The Drop Box Film

At any given moment somewhere in the world, a mother will abandon her child. There are any number of reasons why this happens, but the end result is tragic, as unwanted infants and newborns are ditched in the street and left to die. In South Korea, over 200 infants were abandoned all over Seoul in 2013. In the absence of any kind of government-run method for accommodating these lost babies, one pastor takes it upon himself to set up a "drop box" for people to leave their unwanted babies, and he takes it from there.

This is definitely news-worthy subject matter that deserves awareness and debate. Controversy exists regarding the morality and responsibility of parents utilizing this system, but the film doesn't spend much time exploring that. The film's focus is simply on the fact that a baby drop box exists, and the film divulges into a more intimate look at pastor Lee Jong-rak and the 15 children he's taken in (among the hundreds he received through the drop box, which are passed to social services). It is quite the sentimental presentation that will flash nonstop baby pictures at you with sappy music in an effort to reach into your chest and yank your heartstrings. However, the film is not all fluff; it does take the time to expose the cold hard truth that mothers have all sorts of reasons to abandon their children (to include social or cultural pressure, which is briefly touched upon), and these children need help to survive. A lot of the children that are abandoned are disabled, and their deformities are shown on-screen to really emphasize their need for attention. Some of the stories that the people tell are pretty rough, and it adds significant emotional weight to the issue.

The film's structure is somewhat random, intermixing stories of pastor Lee, the children, the larger issue, and other aspects together without a specific pattern. Really, the drop box in itself isn't much of a story; it's the human element that makes it stand out, and the film captures it and uses it to emphasize a key Christian message: the idea that all life has a purpose, and deserves to be preserved. The film even goes to far as divulging into how the various saved children are progressing through life, subtly suggesting that even abandoned children can be happy and have a future. One can't help but to admire pastor Lee for his efforts in spite of this (and thankfully, the Christian message is not all that overbearing, even though the sentimentality is).

The film is pretty straightforward. There are a lot of tight close-ups of all the kids' faces. Some shots can be rather herky-jerky and some were out of focus, but most of the film looks okay. Editing is pretty decent; images are cut up effectively to help convey the subject matter well. There are some cheap animated segments that are cute, but ultimately unnecessary. The film itself isn't necessarily groundbreaking, but it gets the job done.

I would say that the film is worthwhile for bringing up awareness of the issue on a wider scale and possibly bringing up talking points. However, the film is most interested in putting human faces on all this, making it emotionally manipulative. I personally would have been more interested in a greater exploration of the social and moral implications of the drop box's usage. If you don't see this film being played at churches or schools or anything, it may be worth a look as a rental sometime (or you could just start reading up on it).

3/5 (Experience: Mixed | Content: Pretty Good | Film: Average)

Film Review: American Sniper

It's easy to romanticize about soldiers, but snipers have their own unique and alluring shroud of mystique. Any gamer can tell you how cool it is to play Call of Duty and be the hotshot camping out on some rooftop picking off bad guys all day long. In films, you can look at Enemy at the Gates or Barry Pepper's character in Saving Private Ryan and marvel at a sniper's deadly prowess. Far be it for me to comment on what experiences soldiers of any kind go through, I have no doubt that the reality of being a sniper is nowhere near as glamorous as the media makes it out to be; it's a burdensome duty in which one has to take lives indiscriminately in order to save lives. I can't even imagine the stress of having to evaluate who lives and who dies - to include women and children - in the heat of the moment.

The deadliest marksman in US history - Chris Kyle - is the focus of this film: the real-life Navy SEAL who served four tours of duty in the Iraq war. The movie tracks his career across all four tours, with occasional breaks where he reunites with his wife and has difficulty adjusting to civilian life. Thus, the film dishes out two different conflicts: the fight against al-Qaeda on one hand, and the struggle to adjust to life after war on the other hand. Both narrative strands offer their share of compelling scenes; the combat is quite intense and harrowing, while the family drama emphasizes stress and emotion aptly. Together, it's a consistently-engaging experience that will truly underscore the intensity of war, and the hardship of overcoming post-traumatic stress.

I have no idea how close the film adapts real-life events, but a few contrivances can be spotted easily. It is quite the black-and-white film that glosses over the complexities of the war. I almost pegged it as a pro-war movie, until the last act started to emphasize the futility of the war effort and illustrate the hardships of veterans. The film does outright refer to Iraqis as "savage;" it's probably meant to label the regime rather than the entire country or culture, but it can be taken the wrong way easily. There are strands of jingoism that will rub some viewers the wrong way.

All that being said, I was personally enamored by the characters; I found them easy to follow and relate to, and it made their journey in and out of war a compelling one. The film sets up an actual villain sniper that Chris has to take down; I don't know if this was invented for the movie or what, but I thoroughly enjoyed the sniper-vs-sniper plot. The film has its fair share of messages; on one hand, the film does emphasize the "this is why we fight" message, but on the other it digresses into the physical, emotional, and psychological damage on the characters and their families. These aren't subtle themes at all, but I felt the two together formed a point and counterpoint that keeps the film rather well-rounded.

This film uses good-looking photography and punchy editing. Bradley Cooper is excellent as the main character, and the other actors aren't too bad either. Writing is okay. All the sets, props, and costumes look authentic and creditable. Special effects are sparingly used, and mostly okay. Sound design is superb. Music is okay.

American Sniper is for snipers what The Hurt Locker is for guys who defuse bombs. I favor American Sniper more though, because it doesn't have nearly as many stupid parts as The Hurt Locker, and Chris Kyle is a far more compelling character. The character is ultimately what makes the film most watchable, and with quality acting, it is well worth seeing.

4/5 (Experience: Good | Story: Good | Film: Good)

Film Review: Dr. No (007)

Not counting the 1954 made-for-TV rendition of Casino Royale, the film adaptation of Dr. No is where the cinematic saga of James Bond truly begins. Chances are that you already know the man, even if you've never seen the movies; Bond's image and swagger have permeated through pop culture for the past five decades, crafting the classic archetype and stereotype of a British special agent (look no further than Austin Powers, Archer, or Kingsman for many fine examples of how far and how long the Bond image has persevered). He is timelessly appealing through his smooth combination of charm, sophistication, and ruthlessness.

Dr. No introduces us to the rough and romantic adventures of Bond. It's nowhere near as action-packed as other movies in the series, but its simplicity as a spy thriller is what makes it elegant. There are just a few fights and chases; when they happen, they are modestly satisfying and thrilling. Most of the film's appeal will be in the smaller details; the way Bond dives into the mystery and sidesteps henchmen at every turn is expert and cool. It gradually builds up to an outlandish climax, in which Bond confronts the titular Dr. No in his secret lair, and has to stop his evil schemes. This becomes the fundamental template for future Bond films, but Dr. No stands out with its fair share of iconic scenes, including Bond's introduction during a game of Baccarat, a certain scene at a beach where Honey Rider makes her appearance, and a memorable dinner scene with the villain.

The story follows after Ian Fleming's novel faithfully, although many parts of the story are changed. The story unfolds pretty neatly, gradually introducing the audience to Bond, the various characters he encounters, and the exotic world he inhabits. The plot has a satisfying structure, filled with just enough thrills and mystery to keep it moving. Even though Bond himself is an alluring character, most of the people in the film are one-dimensional; hardly anything is revealed about their motivations to make them stand out above the definitions of their archetypes. However, they all have a worthy presence and are likable to some degree. The film overall plays out as a fine piece of adventure and escapism, but it's only a small taste of even greater things to come.

The film sports very good photography and editing. Acting is swell; Sean Connery is perfectly charismatic and iconic as James Bond, embodying all the right aspects to make his character shine even to this day. Joseph Wiseman is pretty stiff and robotic as the villain, but for interesting effect. I felt Ursula Andress was somewhat unlikable in her role; she's best seen for her looks. I enjoyed the performances of Jack Lord and most other players. Writing is not too shabby. This production uses very exotic and interesting locales. Sets, props, and costumes are quite old-fashioned, but still very slick. The music score features a lot of really funky calypso music, but Monty Norman's main theme is an instantly recognizable tune that resonates to this day.

Dr. No is one slick thriller. Future Bond films will take the character to even more exciting adventures with even bigger stakes and bolder expressions, but this is the film that started it all, and it deserves a watch at least once.

4/5 (Entertainment: Pretty Good | Story: Good | Film: Very Good)