Film Review: Transformers: Age of Extinction

Transformers: Age of Extinction. Rated M (action violence and coarse language). 165 minutes. Directed by Michael Bay. Screenplay by Ehren Kruger.

Verdict: A long, bloated script lets down a visual triumph.

Deep in the heart of this fourth film in the Transformers series is a great little story about the importance and value of loyal allies. Sadly, after two and three quarters hours, it becomes almost impossible to care, and metal fatigue takes on an entirely new meaning.

It has been five years since Chicago was destroyed in Transformers: Dark of the Moon. Cade Yeager (Mark Wahlberg) is an inventor who is struggling to make ends meet and to be able to afford to send his teenage daughter Tessa (Nicola Peltz) to college.

When he discovers an old truck in a run-down picture theatre, Cade takes it home to restore it to hopefully make some money. Instead, the old truck transforms into the now fugitive Optimus Prime, and attracts the attention of rogue CIA agent Harold Attinger (Kelsey Grammer) who is working with a megalomaniacal Transformer, Lockdown, to find and destroy all of the remaining Autobots.

The battle for supremacy between the humans, the Transformers, and Stanley Tucci’s inventor Joshua Joyce, who has isolated ‘Transformium’ (the morphing process that enables the Transformers to change their form), is never less than a visual triumph. Even after four movies, the transformations are still a thrilling experience, and the marauding Lockdown’s spaceship is a masterpiece of design and functionality from production designer Jeffrey Beecroft (making his debut with the series).

Instead of Chicago, this time it is Hong Kong’s turn to be decimated. In one astonishing sequence, Lockdown’s magnetic spaceship moves across the city, vacuuming up everything in its path, only to release it all back down on the terrified population. Had we not had to wait so long for the final slap-down, it might have been even more spectacular.

This review was commissioned by the West Australian Newspaper Group.

Film Review: How to Train Your Dragon 2

How to Train Your Dragon 2. Rated PG (mild fantasy themes and violence). 102 minutes. Written and directed by Dean DeBlois. Based on the novels by Cressida Cowell.

Verdict: This perfectly dazzling sequel is a must-see in 3D.

A sequel to the stunning How to Train Your Dragon (2010) was always going to be tricky. The first film (in what is now slated as a trilogy) was a complete story in its own right – a classic rite of passage tale about a young Viking, Hiccup (Jay Baruchel), and the fearsome dragons he would learn to understand, tame and love.

Not that any reservations appear to have troubled DeBlois and his collaborators, for here we have the most perfect sequel imaginable – a film that not only looks and sounds magnificent, but one that takes the story of Hiccup (a perfect Baruchel again) and his clan to fantastic new heights of storytelling.

From the opening shot, DeBlois and editor John Carr are never less than in complete control, with a dazzling (in 3D it is mind-blowing) opening sequence of gravity-defying spectacle, as the clan’s young dragon riders participate in the annual Dragon Race. While Hiccup and Toothless are away exploring new worlds, they fall foul of a gang of dragon trappers who are working for the evil despot Drago Bludvist (Djimon Hounsou). Using a ferocious alpha dragon’s powers of hypnotism to turn the peaceful dragons against their owners, Bludvist is threatening to take over every clan in the land.

Packed with high drama and spectacular action in equal measure, How to Train Your Dragon 2 is a remarkable achievement. DeBlois refuses to shy away from the confronting events that occur in Hiccup’s perilous fight (and flight) for independence, and powered by John Powell’s ravishing score, the emotional stakes at play will challenge even the hardest of hearts.

This review was commissioned by the West Australian Newspaper Group.

Film Review: The Fault in Our Stars

The Fault in Our Stars. Rated M (mature themes and coarse language). 126 minutes. Directed by Josh Boone. Screenplay by Scott Neustadter and Michael Weber. Based on the novel by John Green.

Verdict: Two exceptional young stars make the journey worth taking.

Hazel (Shailene Woodley) is a 17-year-old living with cancer. The disease, first diagnosed in her thyroid, has metastasised to her lungs, and everywhere Hazel goes her trusty oxygen tank goes too. When her doting parents Fran (Laura Dern) and Michael (Sam Trammell) suggest she join a support group for young cancer survivors, Hazel reluctantly attends. As fate would have it, it is there that she meets Augustus (Ansel Elgort), and the two begin a relationship that will ultimately challenge everything they had hoped would define the remainder of their short lives.

Woodley and Elgort (who most recently appeared together as brother and sister in Divergent) are exceptional in the leading roles, capturing the heady romance, abundant humour and the fierce dramatic peaks beautifully. They receive solid, if thinly-drawn, support from Dern (Enlightened, Jurassic Park) and Trammel (True Blood), while Nat Wolff shines as Isaac, Augustus’ best friend.

As a counterpoint to the main characters’ fearless optimism for the value of life and love, Willem Dafoe’s cruel, alcoholic author Peter Van Houten is a fascinating character. Having written Hazel’s favourite book, Van Houten is now a recluse living in Amsterdam. What appears to be a far-fetched plot device, later reveals itself to be an emotional lynch-pin that highlights how important it is to confront the presence of life-threatening illness with honesty, fearlessness and unequalled determination to survive.

Boone does a fine job keeping the performances unfailingly honest, and while Neustadter and Weber’s ambling screenplay could have done with a judicious edit, the time we spend in the company of our unforgettable young hero and heroine is extremely rewarding. Just have a big box of tissues handy.

This review was commissioned by the West Australian Newspaper Group.

Film Review: Maleficent

Maleficent. Rated M (fantasy themes and violence). 97 minutes. Directed by Robert Stromberg. Written by Linda Woolverton.

Verdict: A glorious reimagining of a classic fairytale.

Here, possibly for the first time this year, is a film that justifies not only its every precious moment on the big screen, but a film that will fire the imaginations of its target audience to an inestimable degree. This is a Sleeping Beauty for our time, where the kiss from an impossibly handsome prince (Home and Away’s Brenton Thwaites) just might not cut it any longer.

In her flawless adaptation of Charles Perrault’s original fairytale and Disney’s animated classic Sleeping Beauty (1959), Woolverton gloriously reimagines the evil Maleficent (Angelina Jolie), with Jolie gliding, striding and soaring through the story with an astonishing performance of immense range. The scene where Maleficent wakes to discover that Prince Stefan (Sharlto Copley) has cut off her wings in order to claim the throne, justifies the price of admission alone.

Sam Riley (On the Road) is a revelation as Diaval, Maleficent’s loyal shape-shifting raven, and the witty banter he shares with her lends the film a much-needed lightness of touch. As do Lesley Manville, Imelda Staunton and Juno Temple as the trio of hapless fairies who are charged with caring for the princess Aurora (Elle Fanning) until the day after her sixteenth birthday, when Maleficent’s ‘sleeping curse’ will end.

Stromberg’s career in art direction (he won Best Achievement in Art Direction Oscars® for Alice in Wonderland and Avatar), sets him up perfectly to rule over the film’s grand visual style and effects, while the cinematic command of veteran Australian cinematographer Dean Semler is ever present. Recalling the magic of waiting for the page of a book of fairytales to be turned, we wait with breathless anticipation to see what these masters of their art will create for us next. And they never disappoint.

This review was commissioned by the West Australian Newspaper Group.

Film Review: A Million Ways to Die in the West

A Million Ways to Die in the West. Rated MA15+ (strong sexual references, crude humour and comedic violence). 116 minutes. Directed by Seth MacFarlane. Written by Seth MacFarlane, Alec Sulkin and Wellesley Wild.

Verdict: Seth MacFarlane rides again.

A Million Ways to Die in the West, like many of Hollywood’s recent attempts at comedy, is largely a hit and miss affair. Albert (MacFarlane) is a well-meaning, sheep farmer on the fringes of Old Stump, whose aspirational girlfriend Louise (Amanda Seyfried) dumps him for the town’s rich and pompous moustachier Foy (Neil Patrick Harris). When he meets Anna (Charlize Theron), the wife of the abusive, murderous outlaw Clinch Leatherwood (Liam Neeson), Albert accepts Anna’s offer to help him win back the girl of his dreams.

Best known as the voice of Family Guy’s Peter, Brian and Stewie Griffin, A Million Ways to Die in the West is MacFarlane’s debut in front of the camera (he also produces and directs). And while there is no doubting the appeal of his self-deprecating charm and charisma as a performer, his humour has always been an acquired taste. Ted (2012), which MacFarlane voiced, wrote and directed, went on to become the most commercially successful R-rated comedy in the history of cinema. So it is hardly surprising that he should be given another opportunity to rake in the big box office bucks.

As we have come to expect, there are spectacular examples of bad taste and smut, and the easily-offended advocates of political correctness will be apoplectic with rage in no time at all. Cinematographer Michael Barrett (Ted, Zookeeper) photographs it all beautifully, which helps enormously, and Joel McNeely’s lavish score is great to experience in the cinema.

It’s just a real shame that the endless array of jokes are so cheap, and that the moments of genuine wit and cleverness are so limited.

This review was commissioned by the West Australian Newspaper Group.