The Current War stars Benedict Cumberbatch as Thomas Edison, the man who helped invent the light bulb and is now in a race against George Westinghouse (Michael Shannon) to now take that technology and apply it to general electricity generation, a race that could turn very bitter.
The Current War is a movie that got caught up in the Weinstein mess of 2017 and has now finally made its way to cinemas at the height of a global pandemic that has got everything going shut and everyone behind closed doors and the movie itself isn’t awful by any means but its also nothing special either.
Don’t get me wrong it’s always good to see Mr Cumberbatch and Mr Shannon go at it and they are very good in the film Cumberbatch in particular is always a pleasure to watch in a movie though his scenes with Tom Holland felt a bit strange given they are Spider-Man and Dr Strange in the Marvel movies respectively, Katherine Waterston is also pretty good here as Westinghouse’s wife and Nicholas Hoult is good as well as Nikola Telsa.
But for a movie that should be compelling to watch with 2 great talents anchoring it, the movie never feels like it gets to breathe and let it play out, so much goes by so quickly with lots of quick cuts and cutting to various years that it all feels like it goes by in a rush when you would prefer the film to take its time and let its audience get invested in the story and the production design and the performances which are pretty good but again everything goes by so quickly it feels like a film that was edited to bits before release and given the turmoil this movie went through I wouldn’t be surprised.
And that was the Current War and its fine perfectly fine but the film feels too fast and too heavily edited to let its story breathe, 2 out of 5.
Saturday, March 21, 2020
Film Review - The Invisible Man (2020)
The Invisible Man is written and directed by Leigh Whannell who made Upgrade 2 years ago and concerns Cecelia (Elisabeth Moss) who is trapped in an abusive relationship in a house that more resembles a bayside prison with a man named Adrian (Oliver Jackson-Cohen) who later commits suicide leaving her 5 million dollarydoos but when strange events start happening Cecelia starts to suspect that her ex might have found a way to stalk her from beyond the grave.
The Invisible Man is a movie I have very mixed feelings about, on the one hand Mr Whannell has clearly learnt a thing or 2 from his partner in crime Mr James Wan on how to craft a movie as this looks gorgeous on a big cinema screen with its use of the 2.35:1 aspect ratio and the wide open spaces that are used throughout the film and the sense of dread it helps to create in the sense that anywhere isn’t safe and that death is coming around any corner at any moment.
The film also has some nice horror and action moments to it as well as some good performances particularly by Storm Reid from A Wrinkle in Time and Aldis Hodge and Harriet Dyer, all 3 of these people deliver good work as does Michael Dorman as the lawyer overseeing Adrian’s estate.
But the bad is sadly in the scripting area, the horrors of domestic abuse especially those aimed at women I feel are just too much with us in real life to treat in this kind of genre horror fare (it doesn’t help that the number 1 news story in Australia the week this movie opened was about a domestic violence murder) and those scenes just didn’t do much for me save for make me uncomfortable and not in a good way.
It also doesn’t help that we don’t really see the life Cecelia had with Adrian that she frequently talks about where she was controlled to within every inch of her life something that 1991’s Sleeping with the Enemy with Julia Roberts and Patrick Bergin at least showed us before the events of that film in the main played out.
And lastly as much as I think Ms Elisabeth Moss is talented and I do think she is very talented she’s giving a performance that just feels too familiar to me by now, she did it in the Handmaids Tale, she did it in the Kitchen last year and she does it again this year, the lone woman who ends up being abused or with someone abusive who takes to drastic measures to get their freedom back and after a while It starts to get a bit repetitive even though Ms Moss is very good in this movie.
And so that was the Invisible Man and for all its craftsmanship its script lets it down, 2 and a half out of 5.
The Invisible Man is a movie I have very mixed feelings about, on the one hand Mr Whannell has clearly learnt a thing or 2 from his partner in crime Mr James Wan on how to craft a movie as this looks gorgeous on a big cinema screen with its use of the 2.35:1 aspect ratio and the wide open spaces that are used throughout the film and the sense of dread it helps to create in the sense that anywhere isn’t safe and that death is coming around any corner at any moment.
The film also has some nice horror and action moments to it as well as some good performances particularly by Storm Reid from A Wrinkle in Time and Aldis Hodge and Harriet Dyer, all 3 of these people deliver good work as does Michael Dorman as the lawyer overseeing Adrian’s estate.
But the bad is sadly in the scripting area, the horrors of domestic abuse especially those aimed at women I feel are just too much with us in real life to treat in this kind of genre horror fare (it doesn’t help that the number 1 news story in Australia the week this movie opened was about a domestic violence murder) and those scenes just didn’t do much for me save for make me uncomfortable and not in a good way.
It also doesn’t help that we don’t really see the life Cecelia had with Adrian that she frequently talks about where she was controlled to within every inch of her life something that 1991’s Sleeping with the Enemy with Julia Roberts and Patrick Bergin at least showed us before the events of that film in the main played out.
And lastly as much as I think Ms Elisabeth Moss is talented and I do think she is very talented she’s giving a performance that just feels too familiar to me by now, she did it in the Handmaids Tale, she did it in the Kitchen last year and she does it again this year, the lone woman who ends up being abused or with someone abusive who takes to drastic measures to get their freedom back and after a while It starts to get a bit repetitive even though Ms Moss is very good in this movie.
And so that was the Invisible Man and for all its craftsmanship its script lets it down, 2 and a half out of 5.
Film Review - Onward (2020)
Onward is the new Pixar film that takes place in a land where Magic once ruled but has now made way to progress and two brothers (Chris Pratt and Tom Holland) who learn of a spell to bring their dead father back to life for one day but when the spell goes wrong they have to go an quest to fix the spell.
Onward is a nice return to form for Pixar in that this isn’t a sequel but a new original story and it was one that I had a lot of fun with as the world of this movie was a great one to inhabit in for a couple of hours, the way that the ancient world and the modern world nicely blend together and I wanted to see more of it, the history, the road stops, the maps it’s a very cool world to see.
As for the overall storytelling it was pretty good albeit a little predictable in terms of the relationship between the brothers which Mr Pratt and Mr Holland sell very well in their voice work though my favourite role would have to be Ms Octavia Spencer as the Manticore who is having a great time as a former legendary warrior who adjusted to the normal workaday world.
And so that was Onward and it is the most fun I’ve had with a Pixar film for a good while probably not since Inside Out in 2015 and hopefully the excellent looking Soul will deliver the goods as well, 3 and a half out of 5.
Onward is a nice return to form for Pixar in that this isn’t a sequel but a new original story and it was one that I had a lot of fun with as the world of this movie was a great one to inhabit in for a couple of hours, the way that the ancient world and the modern world nicely blend together and I wanted to see more of it, the history, the road stops, the maps it’s a very cool world to see.
As for the overall storytelling it was pretty good albeit a little predictable in terms of the relationship between the brothers which Mr Pratt and Mr Holland sell very well in their voice work though my favourite role would have to be Ms Octavia Spencer as the Manticore who is having a great time as a former legendary warrior who adjusted to the normal workaday world.
And so that was Onward and it is the most fun I’ve had with a Pixar film for a good while probably not since Inside Out in 2015 and hopefully the excellent looking Soul will deliver the goods as well, 3 and a half out of 5.
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