As a kind of thought experiment – and because I haven’t bothered to watch either of the last two Jurassic World films – I decided to approach Jurassic World Rebirth as if it was a stand alone film. Regardless of its heritage, does this film engage me? Do I care about its characters? Are the set-pieces exciting and well made? The answer, dear reader, may surprise you.
My answer is yes! Rebirth is one of the most entertaining afternoons I’ve spent in front of a big screen so far this year. It looks like a film for start – shot on Kodak celluloid – and it’s written by David Koepp who wrote (or co-wrote) Spielberg’s first two. And the director is Gareth Edwards, whose approach to big special effects is to eschew the green screen – or the Volume – and actually go outside and photograph the world and then composite his monsters, or spacecraft in the case of The Creator a couple of years ago, in afterwards. This gives his films atmosphere and texture, making him the perfect director for a film that asks you to believe that prehistoric animals have been brought back to life.
(Edwards has been doing this successfully for years. Monsters (2010) was brilliant low budget sci-fi and, after being criminally hard to find for too long, is now available to rent at AroVision.)
Back to my thought experiment – what if this was the first and only Jurassic Park film you saw? Luckily, there’s enough explanation for you to appreciate why there are dinosaurs roaming around, but not so much that it gets loaded down with references and fan service. The dinosaurs that were reintroduced to the world as a theme park attraction are mostly dying out as our climate has evolved beyond the capacity to sustain them. Except that they are thriving in equatorial zones that – because of the danger they present – are now off limits.
A shady Big Pharma executive (Rupert Friend) employs a jaded mercenary (Scarlett Johansson) to lead a team into one of the forbidden zones in order to extract some potent dinosaur DNA that will fuel a breakthrough heart disease prevention drug, potentially extending millions of lives. Along with a nerdy dinosaur expert (the excellent Jonathan Bailey) and boat captain Mahershala Ali, they make their way to an abandoned secret laboratory on a remote island, trying unsuccessfully to steer clear of all the pissed-off creatures wanting to do them in.
Also dragged into this adventure are an innocent Latino family, sailing from Florida to Cape Town, who are rescued after their boat is capsized by one of the giant seagoing beasties. I really liked these characters (played by Manuel Garcia-Rulfo, Luna Blaise, David Iacono and Audrina Miranda) and their adventures after they become separated from the main characters were lots of fun.
In fact, I’d watch all of this team again which I couldn’t – and didn’t – say for Chris Pratt and Bryce Dallas Howard in the last three. But there I go, making comparisons when I said I wouldn’t.
It’s been a big weekend for Malta at the movies. The Mediterranean island joined Thailand to play equatorial Caribbean in Jurassic World Rebirth and it did its more usual job of portraying 19th century Marseilles in The Count of Monte Cristo, the latest epic Dumas adaptation from Matthieu Delaporte and Alexandre de La Patellière who brought us two Three Musketeers films last year. Rather than split the story into two films, this one just runs for three hours but the time goes flying by.
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Young sailor Edmond Dantès (Pierre Niney) rescues a beautiful woman from a shipwreck only to be framed by his captain (Patrick Mille), his best friend (Bastien Bouillon) and the local prosecutor (Laurent Lafitte) for being a Bonapartist counter-revolutionary. Jailed for life in Marseille’s notorious Château d’If, he is presumed dead by his family and his fiancée Mercédès (Anaïs Demoustier) who, in her grief, marries the duplicitous best friend.
After many years, Dantès escapes with the location of the Knights Templars’ secret treasure vault on the island of Monte Cristo. He had been given the location by another prisoner (Pierfrancesco Favino) with the instructions to use the riches for good but instead he seeks an elaborate revenge on everyone who has crossed him.
This swashbuckling story was incredibly influential and the film references those influences in entertaining ways. There’s a bit of Jules Verne, Dickens, Agatha Christie, Batman and Mission: Impossible in there, but the heart belongs to Dumas.
The editor-in-chief, as previously mentioned, is a costume professional and she was very impressed with that department. A smash hit at the recent French Film Festival, our session yesterday was packed and I reckon this should run and run.
The only longevity on offer in The Great Lillian Hall is that of its star, Jessica Lange. She plays the titular character, a Broadway legend rehearsing a production of The Cherry Orchard when she discovers that her prodigious powers are fading.
It’s a solid premise but the script (by Elisabeth Seldes Annacone) is so undercooked that the heavyweight cast – including Kathy Bates, Lily Rabe and Pierce Brosnan – go all out to try and salvage things, to the extent that they all try a bit too hard and some scenes are not a comfortable watch.
Another under-developed premise with the cast coming to its rescue, Heads of State is actually one of the better examples of a straight-to-streaming star-driven action entertainment in recent months. John Cena is a popular movie action hero recently elected president of the USA. Idris Elba is an embattled six-year prime minister of the UK. On a shared ride on Air Force One to a NATO conference, terrorists shoot the plane down and the two leaders are the only survivors.
They have to bicker their way across Eastern Europe to get to that meeting, stop the alliance from falling apart and save the world. The rapport between the two stars is good, Amazon favourite Priyanka Chopra Jonas is the CIA agent playing third banana, and there’s some entertainment value to be mined from seeing great power being undermined.
What does offend me though is that it looks like crap. The digital effects are ropy, everything is flatly over-lit like a television sitcom and unlike Jurassic World Rebirth – and probably not costing much less – there’s no atmosphere, texture or anything else that might resemble the cinematic arts.
