Reset the Day

Edge of Tomorrow AKA Live Die Repeat (2014) 113 mins.

"How many times have you been here?"

Excellent. Brilliant. Crisp. Tasteful. Restrained. Action-packed. Well-plotted. Perfectly paced. Doesn't fall victim to its own conventions; it delights in them and brings us along for the ride. Not a pat ending. Totally open to interpretation. Not a victim of destiny, we exercise our own will to influence outcomes. Performances are stellar.

Trope-tastic. Anime-influenced. Action Girl. Magic Girl? Tsundere? Kuudere? Emotionless Girl? Stoic Woobie? Groundhog Day. "Hard" Science Fiction. Military Science Fiction. Twenty Minutes in the Future. Power Armor. Real Robot. Disaster movie. Alien invasion. Robots Eat My Face. Reset the Day. Buddy film. Road picture. War movie. Love Story?

If you're sure about the ending, rewatch it. Completely enigmatic. Which makes it even better.

Here we go again. Reset the day?

Five Stars: Really Good. Superlative, actually.

٭٭٭٭٭

It's Real

Guardians of the Galaxy (2014) 122 mins.

"Because I'm one of the idiots who lives in it!"

Guardians of the Galaxy is a Five Star movie. It does what a movie is supposed to do. It entertains. This movie also manages to enthrall, amuse, amaze, delight and enlighten, and it seems to do all of these things with a light, deft hand.

As the kind of kid who read Warlock and Silver Surfer back in the Seventies, just the fact that I'm watching the world of Kirby and Starlin being enacted in blockbuster style on the big screen is a dream come true. That Marvel was wise enough to use the Abnett/Lanning material as a springboard is icing on the cake. The quality of those characters and their designs was so solid that the movie just needed to not suck.

Guardians of the Galaxy is a great comic book space opera action movie. One might even say an object lesson in how to make an excellent one. A fun, funny, exciting, action-filled, character-driven movie with some great takes on some of my favorite Marvel characters, from Drax to Gamora to Thanos to Yondu to Ronan the Accuser. Old school King Kirby style Cosmic Marvel goodness served up as a Losers/Suicide Squad "works well with other sociopaths" barn-burner.

It even gives Marvel Movie fans a chance to bone up on the Cosmic Corner of the Marvel Universe, since it will certainly need to play a larger role in the Marvel Movies, to give the heroes ever more dangerous foes, and continually up the stakes from Metropolitan to Planetary to Cosmic and Multi-Universal.

This is how it's done. My friends who like good movies loved this, comic book fans or not. Science fiction fans or not. Space opera fans or not. If you like good movies, you may like this Really Good movie. One might even say great.

Five Stars: Really Good

Category 2: People Power

٭٭٭٭٭

Sophomore Success

Dawn of the Planet of the Apes (2014) 131 mins.

"You... are weaker."

If you read my review of Rise of the Planet of the Apes, and you've seen Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, then you'll already have guessed that I really liked this movie. Maybe even more than the first movie (I guess it's possible). What I liked most about it was that it didn't drop the ball. It kept the series going. I want to see more.

Another thing that I really liked about it was the continued re-invention of the tropes. From the apes on horses with guns, to the ape compound, to the "big bomb" (and it's vertical orientation), to the "anti-human" apes who Caesar must battle, to the "nobody is really a bad guy/everybody is the hero of their own story" character motivations, all were in/sub/diverted nicely. Of course the primates who take it too far, and cross the line, define themselves as villains and the film deals with them as such.

And of course, "our heroes" must take the mantle of the judge upon themselves (however reluctantly) and attempt to even the scales, meting out such meager justice as they may in the face of such inescapable destiny.

Again, a good disaster movie, a good survival movie, a good action movie, but a good movie as well, advancing the meta-story of Caesar, and providing more moments of character than in many films starring all humans.

Another film from Category 1: 70s Monster Flashback.

I give it Four Stars: Good.

٭٭٭٭

Tarzan of the Apes Sideways, Sort Of

Rise of the Planet of the Apes (2011) 105 mins.

"Are you getting in?"

The second movie of Watch-a-thon 2015 is another choice from Category 1: 70s Monster Flashback. If you're going to reboot a franchise, how about a multi-film franchise with licensed properties? That screams Seventies, and this is the franchise to do it. Just the idea of another PotA franchise brings back the smell of bubblegum cards and popcorn, memories of Saturday matinees and midnight reruns on the TV.

The thing about this Planet of the Apes movie is that it's a good movie. It's like Up, Harry and the Hendersons, Jungle Book and Tarzan of the Apes all stood on their head, and mixed with an old-fashioned (yes I'll say it, Seventies-style) contagion disaster a la Andromeda Strain or even something newer like Contagion.

It has some very... primal moments. I would've said "human" but that would be insulting, in these circumstances. It really follows Caesar's journey, and I'd say it's a very affecting movie, poignant, even moving, at times.

As it should be, it's also a disaster movie. As expected, it nicely touches on all the tropes. It even shines up a few of them. As a reboot, it's exceptionally promising. One might even hope for good follow-ups, which was not always the case with the original series of films.

I really enjoyed it. Much like Ben was in the 70s, Caesar is my new favorite "good" monster in the Twenty-Teens. I give it Four Stars: Good.

٭٭٭٭

A Boy and His Monster

Godzilla (2014) 123 mins.

"Echolocation?"

I started the 2015 Watch-a-thon with a movie from Category 1: 70s Monster Flashback. I guess I should have made a kaiju film Category Eleven. But Godzilla is more than just a monster movie, and it's more than just a giant monster movie.

It's a disaster flick, as any good giant monster movie should be. It tries to be a bit of a horror movie, too, by playing some of the scenes really dark. It's a good movie, as a disaster/survival/monster movie, and a nice reboot to the series and the character, and that's what 70s Monster Flashback is all about.

The story of course is told through the eyes of a child, or a man who suffered a tragedy as a child. This film hits all the tropes, and plays them right, from the scientist (who has also lost loved ones due to tragedy) who realizes that there are some things even beyond our power to control, to Godzilla as the "good" monster, to a young couple (family, even) separated amidst a massive catastrophic disaster. I watched it twice.

It has "bad" monsters for Godzilla to vanquish, lots of military hardware thrown around like a kid's toys, even a recurring visual motif of walking into rooms that are torn open to the sky by something that just escaped.

The plot is a bit headlong, and a lot of stuff sure manages to happen to this one guy, but at least his dear old Dad wasn't crazy after all.

Definitely learned lessons from Cloverfield, but why not update the classic giant monster, anyway?

As a Godzilla movie, it was a fine reboot. I give it 3 out of 5 stars: Not Bad.

٭٭٭