X-Men: Apocalypse

First film in a NZ cinema. Check. Good price at a tenner and no complaints with the premises (aside from an electrical ticking noise in my left ear and, in fairness, that may have only been in MY left ear).

OK. X-Men: Apocalypse now. Honestly, I've seen so many of these kinds of films at the cinema in the past decade or so, that I'm feeling a bit jaded about writing this up. No reflection on the film itself, it's a perfectly fine super hero/mutant/special powers blockbuster type thingy. I don't know, maybe I need to watch something less....less....ostentatious? Less ubiquitous? I'll sort that out soonish.

So, notes then, eh? And these are the notes I made right after watching the film (except for the last one). Possible spoilery notes, please beware.

Psylocke big winner - slinks away not joining the victorious xmen.

Nice way El Sabah Nur recruited - not magic, just promises of power and revenge.

Of course, Jean Grey is the match winner using the Phoenix Force.

Wolverine cameo longer than First Class but no dialogue. Still quite cool and brutal.

Many threads left hanging (Stryker,  Psylocke, Weapon X in sting, Eric, etc)

Oscar Isaac pretty good villain but, as usual, the portent is more impressive than the actions. They all talk a good game.

Singer had a little swipe at X-3 (?) as the kids come out of Return of the Jedi, Jean says "at least we can all agree that the 3rd is always the worst".

Oh, almost forgot Quicksilver repeating his slow motion antics from the best scene in the previous film. Needless to say, not as fresh here. Even a bit naffly comedic. 

Well, that was quick. Looking to get my verve back at a later date. Ciao.

Captain America: Civil War

First film in Australia for a few years, so let me get this off my chest. Here are some things Japanese (multiplex) cinemas don't have that Australian ones do:

1. Dirty screens. That seems to be the simplest thing to sort out. Clean the fucking stains off the screen or disable the cockends that are lobbing stuff at it. 
2. Twats talking on their mobiles during the film.
3. Same twats fiddling with their BRIGHT mobiles during the film.
4. Little kids talking to mummy about scenes in the film. Loudly.
5. Big kids showing off loudly (admittedly during the credits, but still, grow up fuck-knuckles).

Pronto, onto the film proper. This is the third Captain America film by my reckoning but it actually operates as a pseudo-Avengers film. This isn't a bad thing. The first two C.A. films were quite dissimilar in my opinion; a boring, patriotic origin story, followed by a 1970s style, paranoia-filled thriller. You can guess which I preferred. A third one might have gone either way but adding Downey Jnr, Johansson, Bettany, and so on, was never going to do any harm.

The PR work on the character of C.A. continues, as here he's basically completed his arc from flag-waving patriot to right-minded, civil libertarian 'insurgent'. Quite a swing. Iron Man may also be right-minded but he's so full of guilt about the whole Ultravox robot thing that he isn't thinking straight. Especially when the major reveal occurs.

There's a nice mix of light and dark in the writing, as is the case with most Marvel films. The light is mostly provided by cameos here - new Spidey, Ant-man, the jealousy between the other two points of C.A.'s love triangle - Falcon and Bucky. And don't tell me C.A. kissing a woman changed anything.

The dark is pretty much provided by the breakdown of C.A. and I.M's friendship, mirroring the creeping loss of freedom and aforementioned civil liberties. The filmmakers have gamely tried to make the punters think about a pretty pertinent issue, while dressing it up with fun airport battles and car chases. Hats off. And they avoided the old formula of 'big object crashing to earth' as a climax, the more personal donnybrook working much better.

I liked the red MacGuffin of the mini-army of super soldiers but was a little under-awed by this Zemo fella. Not a super power to be seen but the most unfeasible skill set. He does a shitload of heavy lifting in Civil War. Small potatoes. This was still a fairly high water mark among Marvel films.

The Martian

Short review, this one. For no real reason, other than I saw it more than a month ago and it's kind of drifted from the house of fog inside my brain. It has the distinction of being the last film I saw in Japan (possibly last in both senses of the word). I reckon I'll miss the Japanese cinema-going experience, but more of that in future entries.

So, The Martian. Not brilliant, but comfortably watchable. Light and simple with some sombre moments. And some funny ones, mainly from Damon, who holds it together (and he has to as he's on screen for huge chunks of the running time).

The procedural stuff on the planet and at NASA was quite cool. It lent a little faux authenticity (oxymoron?) to the film.

There was one show-stopper. A great passage to Bowie's 'Starman' - basically a music video with a stonking budget and more than a little poignant coming so soon after his death.

One more thing to note. The 'language of cinema' showed it's weary feathers here. At one point, Jeff Daniels says something like, "So he's got enough food to last him 200 days......as long as nothing goes wrong". Cut to Damon opening an airlock and you don't have to be a film scholar to know what happens next. Of course, this signposting occurs in loads of films, I'm just getting a bit chivied with it.