Gladiator II (2024)

 

A sequel to "Gladiator", the Best Picture winner from 2000, was considered almost immediately, although frankly there was absolutely no need for it. The story of General Maximus, a Spaniard in charge of Rome's Northern Army, turned slave and then Gladiator/Rebel/Avenger, was complete in the Russell Crowe film. Director Ridley Scott, did not receive the award that year for directing, and has subsequently failed to be honored for that skill ever since. Maybe it is the indignity of having the film you were responsible for be so revered and awarded, while you have to bask in the glow from the sidelines, that makes someone want to go back to the same well again. Scott's talents are still there, but I doubt that "Gladiator II" will be raking in the laurels like it's predecessor. It is a strong action film with some marvelously assembled scenes, but as a drama, it feels like an unsatisfying second helping. 

One of the biggest reasons that "GII" isn't up to snuff is that it lacks the charisma element that made the first film so memorable. Actors Paul Mescal, who plays the now adult Lucious, and Pedro Pascal, who plays a General supposedly mentored by Maximus, are insufficient replacements for Crowe. Maximus was a force of nature in pursuit of his vengeance. Mescal seems to be simply riding the wave of the vengeance theme rather than driving it. Pascal is a nearly superfluous character. He has a terrific arena scene, but outside of the combat sequences at the start of the film and his Coliseum moment, his character barely resonates. Connie Nielson returns to the story as Lucilla, the mother of Lucious, ex-lover of Maximus and wife of Pascal's General Acacius. In the twenty years since Maximus died in defeating Commodus, Rome has been static. The popular revolution never appeared and it seems that the backlash forced Lucilla to send her son into exile, in fear of twin Emperors Geta and Caracalla. Rome is still dominated by an elite, the populous is sated by games in the arena, and war drains the resources of the empire more than the conquests they acquire.   

So we get two heroes to replace Maximus, and two Emperors to replace Commodus, and it is still not enough to electrify the story line. That's where Denzel Washington comes in. He is Macrinus, a wealth citizen, providing men and weapons to the battles in the Coliseum, but also plotting to gain power while staying close to the two megalomaniac Emperors.  He does his best to replace Joaquin Phoenix and Oliver Reed simultaneously.  He needs to do that because the story beats of the two films are essentially the same. There is an opening battle, three subsequent arena confrontations, and a climactic confrontation at the end. The weakness is the thread that holds those pieces together. We know almost nothing of the political environment in which the story takes place. The twin rulers are mostly cartoon characters. Macinus, is a cypher, deliberately vague on what he hopes to accomplish and why. 

The strength of the film is in the action sequences themselves. Mescal is solid in the first arena combat scene where he is pitted along with fellow captives against a troop of baboons. When he finally gets to the Coliseum, he fights a rhinoceros riding cowboy of a gladiator. It may have some historical validity but it looks like a scene from a Ray Harryhausen film. The tigers in the first film were a threat, the rhino feels like a prop. There is a spectacular water battle in a flooded arena floor, that jacks up the danger by adding sharks. That was maybe the most improbable moment in the film, although it looked great and offered a little bit of fun. Acacius and Lucilla are featured in an additional sequence set in the Coliseum, and that segment of the film looks great but is emotionally less than it needs to be because we have had so little development of the two in this film up to that moment.  

There is a final combat sequence and it is staged well, although it looks like it was spontaneous in some parts, the shots clearly indicate that it was well planned and not improvisational. Whereas in the original film, we have anticipated the final showdown between the two leads,  and really want that moment of catharsis that comes when the villain gets what is coming to them, this story line feels perfunctory and is never driven by the passions of the two combatants. Lucious and Macrinas are in conflict as a result of circumstances, rather than the machinations of a revenge plot.

As usual, the effects work is strong and the editing of the film is spectacular. "Gladiator II" is a good looking action film that strains for the level of the first film but falls short. The action set pieces can't quite overcome the story weaknesses, which require some retconning to pull off and a big gob of suspension of disbelief to make it all work. Sometimes the leftovers can make an enjoyable meal, but they can' repeat that first plate of food experience. 

The Wild Robot (2024)

 

I have always had a soft spot for animated films. Maybe as a Boomer, I was strongly influenced by the ubiquitous Looney Tunes and Hanna-Barbara product that I was exposed to. When I looked back on my top ten lists from the fifteen years I have been writing on this blog, I saw animated films on a regular basis. There were years when I had as many as three animated films in my top ten, and one year, an animated movie was my favorite of the year. This has not been the case in the last couple of years. I'm not sure if I just missed great films, or if the animated movies I did see, were not hitting with the same impact. 

The director of "The Wild Robot" is Chris Sanders, who made one of those films that may top a decade list of animated movies, "How to Train Your Dragon". This heritage gave me a lot of hope, and along with the images I'd seen from the film, I had pretty high expectations. For the most part those expectations are met. This film manages to find a warm beating heart in a mechanical device, without the presence of any human characters.  It does rely on anthropomorphic animals, but most animated films do that so it is not really a criticism. "Roz" is a robot, improperly delivered to a wilderness island, and she attempts to fulfill her programming by accomplishing an assigned task and then returning to the manufacturer.  The technical difficulty of getting a signal to be returned is a slight artifice that allows for some drama in the third act, but it is in the task programming that the story really takes place. 

With a robot as your main character, you might expect to be detached emotionally from the story, but as we have seen with "Wall-E" and the Star Wars films, robots develop when they interact with others, and Roz get to interact with the wildlife which inhabits the island. The two characters that are most important to our robot are "Fink" a fox that is initially an antagonist,  but ultimately becomes a confidant and mentor/friend to Roz. If there is one reservation I have about the film, it is with the lack of resolution to "Fink's" fox coat. The otters and geese in the film have authentic detail, but throughout much of the film, Fink looks like a cartoon from an inexpensive kids cartoon. I know sanders can do better because his previous feature was "Call of the Wild" in which a CGI dog was the star and was very convincing. The visual criticism aside, the rapport between Roz, voiced by Lupita Nyong'o and Fink, played by Pedro Pascal, is really very effective. The third leg to the emotional tripod of the film, is a gosling that Roz assumes responsibility for, that Roz names "Brightbill". The A plot centers around the three of them, trying to get Brightbill ready for migration off the island. 

The B storyline involves the other wildlife on the island. The animals are at first frightened of Roz, and downright hostile at times. The racoons do their best to dismantle Roz, and the bear on the island would happily assist them. The most amusing character in the film is the possum  mother, "Pinktail" who sees that Roz is not really a threat and begins to help Roz have a purpose. Catherine O'Hara voices the wise and not overly maternal Pinktail. Her interactions with the brood that clings to her are hysterical and will keep you chuckling for the whole film. Other animals in the story include the Bear I have already mentioned, and a wise older goose who is willing to take Brightbill under his wing for the migration. Bill Nighy gets some moments of warmth voicing this sage fowl named "Longneck".

In the third act of the film, the C plot becomes the main plot. Returning Roz to the manufacturer feels like a tacked on threat that is exaggerated to create a sense of jeopardy. Another robot becomes the antagonist and we get a replay of the battle at the end of "Return of the Jedi". It is visually superb but feels a little inconsistent with the rest of the story.  The situation however allows Roz to reemerge as the hero of the film, assisted by the other legs of the tripod. It is a satisfying sequence, even if it belongs to a different story.  

All in all, I thoroughly enjoyed "The Wild Robot". It is strong enough to make an end of the year list, but it does not reach the heights of Sanders "How to Train Your Dragon". 
 

The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent

 

This is the longest I have gone between seeing a new film in a theater and having a post for it here on the blog. You think for a guy who is retired, I'd have plenty of time for the content I post here, but my life is never as simple as I think it is going to be. For instance, on the Lambcast, of which I am the host, I had my friend and previous cohost Jay Cluitt of Deep Blue Sea: The Podcast, host in my place, because I was in California for the TCM Film Festival the weekend this opened. The podcast records on Sunday, I could not start editing it until Tuesday, and I wanted to get the post up on time, so I edited the podcast before seeing the movie myself. The guests and Jay were pretty good about not giving too much away, but I did have to hum to myself in a couple of places while still trying to make the recording presentable.

It has been a week since I saw the movie and I am happy to say that if I had been on the podcast, my reaction would have mirrored the other guests. "Massive Talent" is one of the most meta, self aware projects you can imagine, while still being sincere and a real movie. It is not all jokes about Nicholas Cage and his eccentricities, which he seems willing to acknowledge, it is also a buddy picture and an action adventure film. The action adventure part is not as effective as it could be because director, Tom Gormican, is no Michael Bay. The stunts and action remain in a lower budget range and they are a little too much by the numbers, but the relationship material sings.

Cage is terrific, playing a fictionalized version of himself and mocking some of his own predilections as an actor. His esoteric delivery style mixed with his true skill at dramatics helps keep this from flying off the rails as a simple parody film. He underplays the scenes with the Hollywood types and hams it up with the gangsters that the film has him get mixed up in. Pedro Pascal is hilarious as the super-fan Javi, a rich guy willing to go to any length to get Nic Cage to do a movie he has written out of love for the actor. Their relationship is the core of the picture and it is developed pretty well. The scenes of them bonding are well thought out, and then they are subverted by a couple of film tropes that are obvious but fun. There are a lot of chase scenes, and there are a couple of misunderstandings that could have come out of any 1970s sitcom. The most out of place but still fun example is a sequence where the pair have dropped acid and are operating a vehicle and living with a huge amount of paranoia.

The family issues that the screen writer/director and his collaborator tack on to the movie feel a bit off. They seem to miss some of the humorous elements of Cage's real life family history and instead create a fictional conflict that is merely a convivence for the action plot that takes over in the second half. That was probably going to be necessary for Cage to sign on for in the first place, Five marriages seems like it would be fertile ground for some humor, especially the one relationship with the only child of the greatest entertainer to ever touch the stage. My guess is that Cage would be less light hearted about those issues than the professional ups and downs he has faced.

Here is a link to the Lambcast I mentioned earlier. I agree with everyone.

The Equalizer II/ EQ2

Let's face it, the review for this is simple. Denzel is at his stone cold best killing people who deserve to die. If you want that, here it is.  That's it.



OK, as much as I want to leave it with the above couple of sentences, there really is more to the movie and it is worth talking about. If all you are looking for is a recommendation, see above. Mr. Washington is back as former government operative Robert McCall. He is a man with deadly skills who is putting them to use in the most productive ways he can think of. The 2014 film was something of an origin story, if like this film, you can see this character as a superhero. In my original review of that film, I suggested that this is an inversion of a horror story, but I think the superhero metaphor is apt if a little too on the nose.

There are several episodic sections of the film where we get a chance to see the hero/monster McCall in action. He rescues a stolen child, avenges an abused woman and draws a line for a local drug network. We also see him engaging with people on a superficial but empathetic level. The TV show used classified ads in a newspaper to find people who needed help. At the end of the last film, it sounded like we were going to connect with the downtrodden on line. Those approaches disappear in this film. Mr. McCall is working as a Lyft driver and he seems to happen onto the people who need help. Maybe it is an interesting twist, maybe it sheds the string that held the tv series together, neither matters. What happens in this story is a trip to the past for the character. The one friend that he kept from his time as a government asset, gets involved in s plot which we never quite know anything about, and trouble ensues.

Bill Pullman and Melissa Leo return as the one set of friends Mac has, and they are knee deep in some kind of nefarious activity that is not authorized by the agency but does turn out to have some connections. Pedro Pascal is introduced as Robert's former partner, who provides some assistance in investigating the events that turn McCall loose. No other characters from the first film return but there is another mentor relationship in the film that gives Denzel a chance to be the kind of father he wasn't in "Fences". Two or three other people are going to benefit from his largess as well. So like Robin Hood, McCall is taking from some to give to others. It is not profitable, but it seems to sooth his guilty soul from time to time.

Duplicity is inherent in films like this. The one thing that makes the betrayal in this story tolerable is that we get a chance to see a bit of the life of the betrayer. Another film would ignore this aspect of a story, or try to turn it into a subplot in some way. Here it is presented as a casual piece of character development that makes you wish even more that the reality of the backstabbing were not true.  Usually, all we get is the bad guy's rationalization for his or her actions. The unique part of this story is the mundane way of life the villain seems to lead. You might even feel sorry for the character as you empathize with those who will be hurt by what has to happen. Director Antoine Fuqua and writer Richard Wenk have added a bit of character to the film that makes it step up from the shoot'em up that this really is.

Sometimes the plot is murky. There are characters that get taken out pretty quickly, and maybe before we really get a sense of what is going on. It may not matter that we don't quite understand how the dominoes started falling in the plot mechanism, but it felt noticeable to me.  It doesn't really matter however because plenty of people die at Denzel's hands and he knows how to convey cold-hearted justice. He is smart, brutal and efficient, just like this movie.