Space Battleship Yamato (2010)
I know, I know, but I couldn't resist Yamato! One of my main
interests apart from SFF is 20th century military technology,
especially of World War 2. So I really had
to see an SF film featuring a futuristic version of the greatest battleship
ever built, the Japanese Yamato (to
appease the pedants I should also mention that she had a sister-ship, the Musashi).
In terms of its iconography and overall ambience, the film
is a kind of blend of Star Wars and Star Trek, with a uniquely Japanese
flavour – which means rather more in the way of dramatic formal attitudes and
gestures than Hollywood might produce. I did wonder, before I saw it, if the
plot involved salvaging the actual Yamato
from her watery grave and kitting her out with all of the systems she would
require to become a spacecraft, but it wasn't quite that dotty – she was a
purpose-designed space ship that just looked remarkably like her WW2 ancestor.
Anyhow, the plot (if it matters) takes place in 2199 and
involves superior alien spacecraft systematically destroying the Earth defences
and sowing the surface with radioactivity, forcing the dwindling remnants of
humanity to take refuge underground. When all seems lost, a message capsule is
received containing information about building a warp drive able to cross
interstellar space, plus giving the coordinates of a distant planet. The Yamato, fitted out with the warp drive
and associated warp gun at t'other end – sets sail (to use a slight
anachronism), but discovers some surprises on arrival.
There is the obligatory pairing of a hot-headed but
highly-skilled young officer in conflict with his apparently staid but worthy
captain, and an attractive young female pilot who is at first hostile to the
handsome hot-head but…. well, I don't really need to go on. The climax of the
film is classically Japanese, which is to say not how Hollywood usually does
it.
It is totally absurd from start to finish, to the degree
that there is no point in trying to analyse the plot, but I have to confess
that I parked my critical faculties and actually quite enjoyed it. It certainly
stands comparison with some of the lesser Star
Trek/Wars output.
Ghost in the Shell
(2017)
This also has a Japanese link, as it is based on a manga
series of that name dating back to 1989, and there have already been various
screen treatments. Cue lots of criticism of the film for not being faithful to
the original, and for having a westerner (Scarlett Johansson) playing the lead
role. Since I was unaware of this background until after I had watched the
film, that did not spoil my enjoyment at all.
As far as the film is concerned the story begins with the
creation of an ideal warrior by transferring a human brain into an artificial
body to create a cyborg. The plot follows the adventures of Mira Killian, the
cyborg, as she enforces law'n'order by killing lots of people, very
efficiently. But then she meets her supposed enemy who causes her to question
her role, and ultimately to find out the truth of her own, human origin.
This is not a great film but it's not bad either and the CGI
is spectacular, with a rather Blade-Runner feel to the futuristic/grotty urban
setting. Worth seeing if you like this kind of action movie.
Also known as Star
Wars: Episode VIII, this is the second movie in the post-Star Wars reboot,
and the sequel to The Force Awakens
(2015 – reviewed on this blog in June 2016). The start is the worst part of it,
with the evil Supreme Leader Snoke making melodramatic threats against the
heroic Resistance, in a scene apparently pitched at the comprehension level of
a rather dim-witted eight-year-old. Of course, we knew that Snoke was a bad guy
before he said a word because he is incredibly ugly, so in compliance with all
such movies he must be bad, right? It would clearly shake something fundamental
in the conventions of such movies for the bad guys to be handsome or beautiful
and the good guys rather ugly, for once.
How did virtue become so firmly asssociated with good looks?
The film doesn't get much better as it goes along, being
careful to press the nostalgia button to appeal to those who fondly recall the
original trilogy, so it's just more of the same, really. There is one scene
which stands out from the rest (and doesn't really fit in with it) when Rey
(Daisy Ridley) is on the planet where Luke Skywalker has sought refuge, and
falls into an underground space which has surfaces which reflect her image
apparently to infinity. This looked interesting and for a moment I hoped the
plot would be heading off in an intriguing new direction, but sadly it led
nowhere, like the rest of the story.
Jumanji (1995)
I first saw Jumanji
quite a long time ago and recalled it as a fun, family, light entertainment.
Having seen the favourable reviews of the much-delayed sequel, Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle, I
decided to see the original again as a warm-up for the new film.
Jumanji focuses
on a mysterious board game of that name, found by a young lad in 1969. The boy
starts to play but is sucked into the world of the game – a wild jungle. Some
25 years later the game is rediscovered by two children who start to play only
to discover that they have released from the game the long-lost boy, now a man
in his 30s (Robin Williams). He tells them that to escape from the game they
must finish playing it. So they continue rolling the dice, despite the fact
that each move results in some new disaster – huge, stinging insects, a horde
of destructive monkeys, a fast-growing man-eating plant (eat your hearts out,
triffids!), and a stampede of African big game, all happening in their home
town. Naturally, everything ends up as it should, with the good guys on top and
the villain getting his just desserts.
I enjoyed it just as much the second time around. The
original plot makes a very refreshing change from the current take on heroic fantasy
films, far too many of which can be summed up in four words: superheroes beat
up antiheroes.
Jumanji: Welcome to
the Jungle (2017)
This long-delayed sequel features the same magical game only
this time it upgrades itself to a virtual reality version into which a quartet
of youngsters are accidentally uploaded, finding themselves in something like
the Amazonian jungle. As before, completing the game is the only way to escape
from it; this requires returning a large jewel to the statue it was stolen
from. This is made more complex by the opposition of the heavily-armed gang who
stole it.
The twist – and the source of much humour – is that the
youngsters do not appear as themselves, but as the avatars they have hastily
chosen. So the weakling nerd finds himself portrayed by Dwayne Johnson while
the massive football jock becomes a very small man (Kevin Hart), the painfully
shy girl appears as a red-hot martial arts expert (Karen Gillan), and (best of
all) the self-absorbed beauty becomes an overweight middle-aged man (Jack
Black). Cue lots of gender-change jokes as the youngsters try to get used to
their avatars. Each of these avatars has certain strengths and weaknesses, and
this assorted bunch has to learn to work together to finish the game. Each has
three lives – after which they are dead for real.
The film is lively and amusing, with a healthy dose of
moralising concerning the importance of developing trust and cooperation. This
sequel manages the rare achievement of being a considerably better film than
the original. I see that a third film in the series is due at the end of this
year, and I'll be looking out for it.
