RESIDENT EVIL 6: THE FINAL CHAPTER (2016)

As the name implies, this sixth film is the final instalment of the franchise. By this point I think most fans are watching the films for the sake of completionism; The original film was brilliant, but began their decay soon afterwards, entering a steep decline in quality storylines after the third instalment Extinction. But hope still remained that for the final piece, we would receive some consistency and cohesiveness. No such luck.

Apparently the fifth instalment was so engaging, that I completely forgot that it existed, so I was initially a little bit confused at the location and characters present in the opening scenes of this latest film (this is despite the 10 minute recap and narration that I had to sit through, as they outlined the entire franchise again. "Previously on Resident Evil..."). One of the consistent grievances with movies is the overpowered nature of the main character Alice, and the enemies. The normal T-virus zombies and other survivors have pretty much had no role in the film apart from adding gore as we try to find more creative ways to get them all killed. Nothing changes here, apart from the entire scenario being accelerated to try and fight several big boss fights in.

The entire movie has been stripped of suspense and tension and instead opts to purely work with shock and confusion. Rather than the absence, and subtle hints of a presence, everything is immediately revealed with an excessively loud 'roar' or 'screech'. My big annoyance with the film is the fact that I cannot enjoy any of the fight choreography, as the entire thing is edited in a way that you have multiple angle changes per second, giving the illusion of high-speed actions, without being able to actually know what happens. While it is okay to do on occasion, the high number of fight scenes makes it incredibly hard to follow, and eventually, it just becomes irritating (perhaps the budget was so low that they had to do that so you couldn't see the poor choreography and special effects?).

There are so many holes in the logic of the plot, that I almost walked out of the cinema multiple times (and watched two people leave and not come back). In fact, that is the reason why I am writing this review straight after the film. To reach as many people as possible early on. The film becomes a slog, with constant battles, the re-use of the cloning plot device, and eventually a predictable and unsatisfying end. There were so many opportunities for the villains to "win", that the film should have been called 'Resident Evil: The series of repetitive coincidental plot devices'. Everything you have seen is regurgitated, you can predict nearly every death, every action because you have already seen it all before. It attempts to use nostalgia to keep the interest, but it just makes the film stale.

Now it wasn't all bad. I'll give them that much. There were some great reveals about 3/4 of the way through the film, and it answered many questions that I didn't know I had. So it provided a bit of satisfaction; that feeling of things being wrapped up. It was one of the things that I didn't expect, so I genuinely enjoyed that part. How they used it to end the film, however, was disappointing and a cop-out, in my opinion. But for a moment there, everything made sense and the world was good.

I would, unfortunately, say it is best to give this one a miss. I could go on with the issues I had with it, but just know that I was thoroughly disappointed with it.

Originally posted on: http://djin.nz/Kr7437

PASSENGERS (2016)

Visually, this movie was amazing. The environments were breathtaking and a thrill to watch on the big screen. You just get taken in by the emptiness of space and it really helps you engage with the main character Jim (despite travelling through space being a difficult thing to empathise with). The writers have done a brilliant job in creating the premise and finding legitimate ways to justify it. Everything you think of that could avoid the problems that the protagonist comes across, is covered. There is a reason why it is that way. They cover pretty much all their bases...almost too well.

I suppose one of the things that I was able to understand was Jim's perspective of isolation and loneliness. It made me seriously consider the ethical implications put forward by the film; if you strand a man on an island, and he could strand another person with him, would you doom that person to a life stranded for the sake of companionship? With the possibility of living the rest of your life completely alone, it is a difficult decision that one would have to wrestle with every single day. Contemplating the conundrum myself, I thought of a dark solution to the problem of living alone for 90 years, and it really hit home when I saw Pratt go through the same motions. It really made me connect with his character, as he truly considered every possibility.

That is one of the other well-done things about the film. The majority of the film is shot with only 3 members of the cast. An amazing feat to get so much emotion and development with such minimal use of cast. The use of a cyborg character with limited functions in the film is a great workaround when you have such minimal cast, allowing the sense of being alone, but still providing good banter, comedic fills, and providing the protagonist with a sounding board so that he doesn't instantly come off as a crazy man talking to himself.

The one part of the film that I took exception to was how the film turned plot-wise. The second half of the film changed from a thought-provoking ethical dilemma, and it was turned into an all-out action film that rendered the previous ethical dilemma moot. Once it went full action, the cracks in the plot started to show through, and I started to disconnect from the characters. I was entertained, but it was predictable and not really a surprise at all.

There are so many small things that bring levity to the film, whether it be the "class" of passengers, sending emails through space, communicating with robots, or the things people do when alone. But ultimately it falls short of a great film; the drastic change in focus between the two halves of the film, and the negating effects of one on the other ends up ruining all of the credibility that it creates.

Originally posted on: http://djin.nz/Kr7438

ASSASSIN'S CREED (2016)

Movies that are based on video games are always difficult to do with success (some would argue that it is still yet to be successfully done). Generally, this is thought to be because of the differences in the medium; the game involves hours of personal involvement and full control of the main character, whereas a film obviously provides a cinematic approach that by comparison can struggle to properly engage the viewer. So I was curious to see how well this would turn out.

The film starts off with some script, before a multitude of time jumping; from the 15th century, to 30 years ago, then up to 2016. All in an attempt to portray the lineage of assassins. In all honesty, it had already started to bore me at this point. The jumping made it harder to properly engage and with the character when you are getting introduced to so many characters, and so much backstory without any answer as to what you need to really keep track of. Don't get me wrong, I loved the 15th-century parts. In fact, I loved everything directly related to that part of the film. The setting, the characters, the movements, and fight scenes, the hallucinations. I enjoyed it all.

My general area of dislike came from the "current day" portions of the movie. In the game you will spend the vast majority of your time in the past, so to spend so much time in the current time (i.e. away from the assassin stuff) was frustrating. I can understand that coming up with a viable plot for an Assassin's Creed film would be difficult, but I can't help but feel that the balance between historic and present scenes was off. This also would have had a double damaging effect on the film as it led to rushing the stuff that we want to see. The pacing entirely felt off, moving from far too slow, to way too fast. Accelerating to the point that we never had a chance for anything to sink in. It just rushed from one thing to the next. 

It is probably one of the best video game based movies I've seen, but it still falls short from expectations. There are very few stealth moments, and the assassin stuff while well done, just didn't take up enough of the film. Hell, I would have preferred a film with no "present day" scenes. Just give me more assassins!

Originally posted on: http://djin.nz/Kr7426