Theme: World War

Edge Of Tomorrow (2014) – Tom Cruise and Emily Blunt

Edge Of Tomorrow (2014)

The first 10 minutes are cleverly designed to build a backstory to this movie, and while it starts off a bit messy, Tom Cruise‘s presence sharpens it up nicely. By 10 minutes in it’s clear Tom Cruise is playing Major William Cage, some top marketing guy for the military who doesn’t like to get his hands dirty, and upon attempting to blackmail a general, finds himself railroaded to the frontline with his rank stripped and nobody believing his story.

By 20 minutes in, the Major is getting his first taste of battle on the front line and it’s a bit of a nightmare, but it’s well executed, and it soon becomes something quite intriguing, when 5 minutes later he dies and his day restarts and everything becomes Déjà Vu. Then 5 minutes later still – now half an hour in – the day restarts again, so it’s now the third instance of the same day. This time he’s less confused, and tries very hard to prove himself and alert everyone what’s going on, but fails only ends up with a taped up mouth. He also tries fighting the aliens proactively using his limited foresight, but dies pretty quickly. Then we see him die quickly again. Then on the fifth attempt he tries talking to the lead female – the Angel of Verdun, Sergeant Rita Vrataski, played by Emily Blunt – and it’s already clear that he’s been here many times before, the movie’s just skipped several iterations. One the next full reset, we see him try a different tact. He subtly proves his strange abilities to predict the future, and assures everyone he’s not trying to avoid the war – he’s now acting enthusiastic and friendly but not controversial at all – this is of course a rouse to gain everyone’s trust so they all lower their guard and he’s free to do what he needs to do – this time it’s meeting up with the woman who told him to come find her when he wakes up. It seems she has the same ability as he does, and knows all about it. There’s a few nice touches of humour here too.

By 50 minutes in, William Cage (Tom Cruise) and Rita Vrataski (Emily Blunt) have met Rita’s friend, a top scientist who understands how this alien enemy operates, and what’s causing the day to keep resetting, and everything becomes clear, or at least as clear as it ever will be. Rita starts training Tom in combat skills, which he’s gravely lacking, and she tells him he needs to make sure he dies every day, else he’s out of the game.

It gets a bit tense, gritty and uncomfortable towards the end of the first hour, and it’s safe to say, most of the fun is already gone now. But there’s still nearly an hour left to go. For this reason, although this movie showed great potential to be arguably the best action hero movie ever made, in the end I’m going to settle for a rating of Very Good, which is no mean feat of course.

After a solid 20 minutes of gritty drama and uncomfortable action, the mood picks up with half an hour to go as the Major & Sergeant come up with a new plan and head to HQ to get what they need. Unfortunately though, this refreshing uplift only lasts a few minutes before it gets gritty again and doesn’t let up till the very end. Nevertheless, we can’t discount the great entertainment value of the first hour, making this a Very Good action hero movie on a par with Denzel’s equally great movie The Equalizer from the same year.

The Last Airbender (2010) – Noah Ringer

The Last Airbender (2010)

Even while all the comments online are along the lines of “this is terrible compared to the original cartoon series” I personally thought this movie was Very Good (compared to what else is out there). I haven’t seen the original cartoons and have no interest in seeing them either. When I were a young child, maybe I’d have watched the cartoons if they were on TV, but as an adult now, I generally avoid animations – I need movies with real people in them, and this one fits that requirement. Having said that, this movie has a theme very similar to one of my favourite cartoons as a child – Captain Planet. Both have the idea of people who can use individual elemental powers, and a main hero capable of using all the elements together.

Sure, there’s plenty of missed opportunities here, for example, there could have been plenty of kung fu moves that better match the elements. And I’m not a fan of calling air manipulators “air benders” – that’s a bit queer. But flaws aside, this movie still has a lot going for it – especially its highs – especially near the end.

There’s a strong awakening theme with this movie, as the Avatar realises his true potential and his duty to bring harmony between the clans and restore peace in the world.

Noah Ringer stars as Aang, the Avatar – the one person in the world capable of manipulating all four elements.

If you enjoyed this movie, you may also like to watch the Netflix series by the same name – again, it’s not an animation, but it’s still quite juvenile, yet still quite entertaining.

Guardians Of The Galaxy (2014) – Chris Pratt, Dave Bautista and Zoë Saldaña

This move gets off to a bad start, with a boring-come-irritating drama scene that attempts to conjure up a traumatic experience while building a backstory for the main character. Fortunately this only lasts a few minutes, and then the better stuff gets underway.

Chris Pratt (with vibes of Seann William Scott) stars as Peter Quill – the main man in this movie. He’s a fun character with convincing acting, and carries the occasional moment of humour very well too.

Dave Bautista adds substantial value as a strong powerful ally called Drax The Destroyer, although he gets beaten easily by the main antagonist called Ronan – himself played quite well by Lee Pace with a massive dose of CGI and masking up so much that we can’t really see who he is.

Zoë Saldaña (star of Colombiana, 2011) is the main female in this movie. She’s a green woman called Gamora, and a trained killer. She joins the team of misfits, to save the galaxy, and has the odd moment of romance with Chris Pratt’s character. Her performance is adequate but nothing outstanding. She wears heavy makeup including some bits to make her look less human.

Michael Rooker plays Yondu, the head of the Ravagers, quite well.

Bradley Cooper provides the voice of Rocket, the bounty hunting raccoon; and Vin Diesel provides the voice of Groot, the talking, walking warrior tree.

Considering the ratio of tedious drama to exciting action, the ratio of easy viewing to irritating viewing, the general quality of acting, the half-smooth half-muddled script, and the general strength of cinematography, I have to rate this movie Bang Average, on a par with Captain America 1 and 2.

But if Chris Pratt had some kind of super power or incredible talent that made him special, and the main crew were not a bunch of weird alien misfits, this movie could have more of a classical superhero vibe, but as it stands it’s far more casual than exciting (when it’s not a noisy mess of drama). Although it has the odd bit of good action and the odd bit of good humour, it’s hard to get behind the main characters, some of whom are not even human, and most are weird looking beastly aliens with bright red, blue or green skin. I wouldn’t even call it childish, I’d call it too goofy or wacky-minded to relate to, and too nonchalant to really get behind. Thus, although some parts belong in a much more highly rated movie, the overall production is so full of pros & cons, it ultimately boils down to a Bang Average action hero movie by Marvel Studios. Having said that, after a long tedious patch, the ending is pretty strong and shows the specialness in Pratt’s character Peter Quill for the first time, as well as another level of ability in his main comrades (Saldaña’s Gamora, Bautista’s Drax and Cooper’s raccoon) as they’re officially dubbed the Guardians Of The Galaxy by the main antagonist, Ronan. Question is, why so late? Why suffer two hours of weak drama for one strong ending? There should have been more bits like that, to prevent this movie getting lost between genres and never surpassing mediocrity in either genre. With a few more scenes like that, this movie could have easily gone up several rating levels.

Credit also goes to Josh Brolin who barely recognisably plays Thanos (with the help of ample makeup & CGI) – the most powerful being in the universe, and Ronan’s boss (until Ronan acquired the infinity stone). Prior to Guardians, Thanos also appeared in Avengers (2012) where he was played by Damion Poitier instead; then Josh Brolin took over the role of Thanos for every subsequent movie until Avengers: Endgame (2019) where he dies.

Sequels

Next up, if you’re following all Marvel movies in order, is Avengers 2: Age Of Ultron (2015) featuring a multitude of superheroes just like the first Avengers movie from 2012, including Iron Man, Thor, the Hulk, Captain America, Black Widow and more, but no Peter Quill or anyone from the Guardians movie series yet, although Avengers 3: Infinity War (2018) and Avengers 4: Endgame (2019) both feature the entire Guardians team. Or if you just want to skip to the next true dedicated Guardians movie where Chris Pratt and his team of misfits get all the screen time, that would be Guardians Of The Galaxy 2 (2017). There’s also a Guardians 3 (2023) in case you’re going down that route.

Captain America: The First Avenger (2011) – Chris Evans

This movie gets off to an interesting start – the plot early on is pretty good. The action initially is not bad either. But in the second half, the action becomes little more than white noise. The plot loses track and the whole movie drops off. The very ending is an interesting one, but we went from a great build-up to a load of senseless, uncoordinated action & drama, such that ever since half way through this movie I’ve been mostly looking forward to what’s to come in the sequels because it never looked like any interesting plot developments were likely to happen in this movie.

Chris Evans himself does a decent job acting in this movie, and the CGI effects are quite legendary in how they make his body very small and feeble early on, before he takes the magic serum to become Captain America. He had help from a smaller body double for some scenes, where Evans’ head was placed on his double’s body, but most of it was based purely on footage of Chris Evans which was rendered through CGI to shrink his face & body.

Hayley Atwell is the main female character in this movie. She has a pretty face here, and makes an interesting character.

Samuel L Jackson plays a minor role in an authoritative position – he does a good job as always.

Hugo Weaving (Agent Smith from The Matrix, over a decade older now) plays the main antagonist quite well.

There’s a strong military theme in this movie, as it’s mostly staged back in World War II (with the exception of the very start and the very end).

The superhero himself is quite a simple man, pushing American patriotism and military sentiment, and while the early story and early action are pretty good, this is a relatively weak superhero that I struggle to get behind, especially in the aimless back end of the movie. Having said that, when Captain America was first created, and chased after the man who killed the doctor, that was a great set of scenes which showed a flavour of the potential of this character in future movies. So while I’m keen to watch the sequels next after watching this movie, I am left quite disappointed by the level of this movie, especially in the second half, and for this reason I have to rate it just OK, roughly equal to Iron Man 2 which came out the year before and just as dull itself, with an equal amount of good bits, in stark contrast the first Iron Man movie, if you’ll pardon the pun. Did I mention Tony Stark’s father, Howard Stark, had a minor role in this Captain America movie? It’s an interesting crossover between Iron Man and Captain America movies, and sets the scene for many more crossovers to come in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU). So far, at the time of this movie, we’ve seen Iron Man (2008) kicking off Phase One of the MCU movie series, followed by The Incredible Hulk (2008), then Iron Man 2 (2010), then Thor (2011), then Captain America: The First Avenger (2011), and next in the Marvel movie series, to round off Phase One, is The Avengers (2012), then Phase Two kicks off with Iron Man 3 in 2013, followed by Thor 2 (2013) and Captain America 2 in 2014. So feel free to jump ahead and watch Captain America 2 next, or take it slower and watch The Avengers (2012) next where Captain America also plays a major role. You may even wish to back-track a bit, and watch Iron Man (2008) first, to work your way through all MCU movies in order from the start.

Aquaman (2018) – Jason Mamoa

Aquaman (2018) starring Jason Mamoa

Aquaman is an action-packed movie with a very original plot (compared to other movies, although it’s obviously based on the much older DC comics).

It’s quite consistently entertaining, for well over two hours. A slight downside is the ignorant pride-driven war mentality pushed at times in this movie, but to its credit, it also presents a counter-narrative in the way Aquaman shows mercy and aims for peace from time to time (just a shame he still gets stuck into ignorant warrior behaviour occasionally).

The sound effects, visual special effects, camerawork and general cinematography is of a fine standard, making for some epic scenes including several that are quite emotionally powerful and get the adrenaline buzzing. In these ways, I rate this movie similar to Thor as well as Black Adam, which are on a similar level with their own pros & cons that balance them out about equal to this one in the end.

Cast members

Jason Mamoa does a good job as Arthur aka Aquaman – the lead man, main hero and namesake of this movie.

Amber Heard does a fair job as Princess Mera – the lead female – the princess who rescues Aquaman from a premature duel that was likely to kill him.

Willem Defoe does a decent job as Vulko, the wise old visier who trained Aquaman when he was young, as a promise to his mother, in the hope Aquaman would become king one day.

Patrick Wilson does a fair job as King Orm, the Ocean Master – one of the two key antagonists, and the guy Aquaman fights in a big scene towards the end of the movie. Wilson sometimes seems a bit nerdy for such a vicious warrior role, but his outfit disguises it well, and he acts quite well, plus there is some truth to him being a close likeness to the kind of people who have stole their positions of nobility in the real world, so it’s a credible casting in a way.

Nicole Kidman (in her early 50s here) plays Atlanna, Queen of Atlantis, and the mother of Aquaman. She does does a fair job in this role and is involved in the odd strong action scene although she doesn’t get much screen time.

Dolph Lundgren (around 60 here) plays King Nereus very convincingly – his demeanour is ideal for this role. He’s the father of Princess Mera, and the king of one of the seven kingdoms – the first and main one that King Orm joins forces with. He doesn’t get loads of screentime either but he makes short appearances quite frequently and does very well in this role.

Yahya Abdul-Mateen II does a good job in playing Black Manta – the other key nemesis of Aquaman, who battles him near the start of the movie as a regular pirate with strong human attributes, then battles him again half way through the movie but this time with the help of Atlantean technology, and then he reappears yet again at the very end in a scene semi-hidden between closing credits.

That’s all the significant characters in this movie. Aside from them, we also get a few short appearances of Aquaman’s human dad, Tom Curry, played quite fittingly by Temuera Morrison. And Michael Beach puts in a strong but brief performance as the Manta’s father, left to die after fighting Aquaman near the start of the movie. Randall Park also puts in a quirky but strong performance as Dr Steven Shin, the TV show commentator on Aquaman and the Atlanteans. Dr Shin eventually rescues the injured Manta and joins forces with him at the end of the movie.

Honourable mentions go to the six boys who each did their bit in playing a younger version of Arthur (Aquaman) – they include Tainui Kirkwood, Tamor Kirkwood and Denzel Quirke who all play a 3 year old version of him; plus Kaan Guldur (9 year old version), Otis Dhanji (13 year old version), and most especially Kekoa Kekumano who plays the 16 year old version of Aquaman, having a slightly similar but quite different facial appearance that’s no less quirky-yet-striking than Jason Mamoa himself, at least when given the strange coloured eyes and probably some more CGI-based alterations.

The sequel

If you enjoyed this movie, be sure to check out its sequel, also starring Jason Mamoa. It’s called Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom (2023) and is a fair enough sequel although it doesn’t have quite the same level of plot originality, nor action finesse, as the original – sequels rarely do. And it pushes the climate and disease narratives hard – I guess they built the brand with the first movie and are selling out in the sequel. They went hard with a demonic theme in this sequel too – not dissimilar to Thor 3 (Ragnarok). Still, to its credit, the demonic twist is an interesting new plot concept for the Aquaman sequel, and the general action is of a fair quality.

Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom poster