"Accomplishments"
In theaters: I wonder what the Jurassic World sequel-franchise would have been like if hack writer-director Colin Trevorrow hadn't been in charge. After an inept first chapter, he returns to directing in Jurassic World Dominion which may be the best of his three chapters, but that's almost entirely due to members of the original cast being in it and making their own fun. The new cast is as boring as ever, and even the new supporting cast (DeWanda Wise and Mamoudou Athie, as well as Campbell Scott as the villain) shine brighter than they do. A lot of this has to do with the very poor dialog (I was doing a bit of polishing in my head throughout and all it took to make certain lines work is flipping a word around, that's what I mean by "inept"). Plot holes abound and the story often shows a lack of understanding of basic science, and the journalist's narration is particularly bad. Several of the new dinosaurs, whether "correct" or not, are sadly goofy-looking. Worse for me is Trevorrow's inability to create effective action, with cast members not dying because the dinosaur is out of frame and thus unable to interact with them (not that the beasts are always in scale). Not sure what to make of the middle section that plays like a Bourne or Mission: Impossible with dinosaurs added, nor of the awkward riffs on other Spielberg films like Raiders and Jaws. At least there's an attempt to show us a world where dinosaurs are back in world and what that would mean. While it's not always well realized, it feels like a "dino-apocalypse" should have happened sooner in the franchise to give it variety. For that and some of the performances and action sequences, Dominion gets a passing grade, but it's a patchwork. Taken separately, some of the scenes are quite fun, while others are irritating nonsense or relentlessly boring.
But before that, I watched...
At home: The second Jurassic World, Fallen Kingdom, injects a bit more humor in Chris Pratt's character - weirdly missing from the first installment - and Bryce Dallas Howard's is less useless and grating, but the writing is still dead stupid. It's already a cliché within the franchise that venal plutocrats will want to buy dinosaurs, but the movie just doesn't make its point that these might become the new atomic bomb. For one thing, even the boring super-predator hybrid is too easily defeated by the heroes, and for another, if you've got a sniper rifle trained on someone, which is what gives the raptor its target, why don't you just fire? Weapons merchants are as dazzled as the movie wants us to be by the dinosaurs. But then, this thing doesn't know jack about anything it puts in its plot, whether volcano physics, medicine or genetics. One of the things that a friend said to me recently is that J-World wants us to think of its dinos as real animals, then CG or not, proceeds to abuse and hurt them. There is a surprising poignancy to the dinosaurs being left on a sinking island, but otherwise, you might as well be kicking cats and dogs throughout. Sure, it means the villains are evil, but that's really all they are, slimes from their first shot with no surprise when they do their heel turn. The precocious little girl - because of course there is one - is obnoxious and, as it turns out, a barely sketched-in plot device. Her last line is on the order of Neil Patrick Harris' "They're afraid" in Starship Troopers, but not meant ironically - just the worst of many, many dialogue disasters.
What if a naive priest became a werewolf, but also what if instead of a wolf, he turned into a small dinosaur? The VelociPastor is an absolute riot, not only making fun of its premise, but also exploitation films generally (the outrageous pimp, the art house love scene, the local ninjas), and its own budget. Or lack thereof. How bad the effects are is a joke unto itself, often going meta by revealing how little money the production had instead of trying to hide it like a normal B-picture would. The dino-form is very bad and though it's only teased at first, it DOES appear in its full, ridiculous glory in the climax, don't worry (the poster is lying a fair bit). I was surprised at how many gags (often visual) I laughed at and that I hadn't seen before. And while the performances are purposefully broad, Alyssa Kempinski as the hooker who helps the VelociPastor become a righteous vigilante is surprisingly good and realistic, a grounded center around which these ludicrous characters and events turn. Enough so that I'd like to see her in other things, and that's not a common reaction to cheap flicks like this.
What happens to an alpha-predator when it gets old? Though the Tyrannosaur referenced in the title is not Peter Mullen's perpetually angry curmudgeon, the inference is certainly there. And the movie poster points to another rich metaphor, that of unearthing fossilized trauma, though for the most part, things are suggested rather than said out loud. In the dramatic tradition of placing two disparate characters in relation to one another to see what happens, Mullen meets a churchy shopkeeper with troubles at home played by Olivia Coleman, and there's a lot that's boiling under the surface of both that could get exposed through their connection. The film reveals just enough to be satisfying, but leaves a lot of their dark secrets decipherable but unsaid. Only its impeccable actors have a sense of the bigger picture. Rather than call it bleak, because I do think it's got hope, I will call it harsh, a tough look at violence and forgiveness. (Hey, I just realized Mullen was in Braveheart, and they make a joke about it! Now if he were in Jurassic Park too...)
I'm used to effects movies out of Asia to be a step behind their American cousins, but not Korea's Space Sweepers, which looks as good as any American SF spectacular. The set-up is familiar, with a polluted Earth being abandoned by the Top 1%, and our heroes essentially garbage hustlers catering to these "citizens" in orbit to get out of debt. Then the really very cool heroes (I especially like the robot character, but they're all quite badass and interesting) find a little girl said to be a dangerous weapon and things will never be the same. A lot of fun with high stakes both in reality and emotionally, though I did find the villain needed to be more filled out. His motivation, as read, is rather two-dimensional, and there seem to be things going on there that required explanation, or might have benefited from them, at least. It's surprising because there's quite a lot of world-building going on, and the heroes all have back stories to flesh them out and make those crazy action sequences resonate as more than mere spectacle. I will say, however, that the movie had a good ending and then indulged in too many epilogues fabricated from what I recognize as Korean cheese. But what Space Sweepers REALLY needs is a better title. I'm not sure this one does it any favors. It's a lot better than it sounds.
Though examined through an Australian perspective, the stories told in Stateless resonate with the refugee experience wherever it may be taking place. But of course, the 6-part mini-series commits the usual sin of heavily starring a white person so that audiences can care about brown ones this is actually happening to. I'll forgive it on two grounds: One is that she's played by Yvonne Strahovski, which DID draw me to the project; the other is that in the true story this is based on, it was a mentally ill Australian getting unlawfully kept in a detention center that brought attention to failure of immigration policies in the mid-2000s, so it reflects reality in that sense. But Strahovski's character has such an unusual story - she's definitely not just an observer - it really does detract from those of real refugees (also based on true events) and the various systems stacked against them. Fayssal Bazzi as Ameer is our main stand-in and the real heart of the series, but there are many more incidental characters who deserved more attention. I do not, however, begrudge the series the secondary focus on facility personnel, because some of the best moral dilemmas spring out of them. It's all very well acted and produced, but to me, Strahovski's story (her sister looking for her, etc.) was a separate movie that mostly interfered with what could have been a fine series about the refugee crisis even without it.
Glacially-paced to the point of dullness, Night on the Galactic Railroad is made up of surreal vignettes starring a cipher who mostly stands there with his mouth open, staring at the action (or inaction). I respect what it's trying to do, a languorous goodbye to a loved one in a world that's equal parts Jung and Christianity, but unfortunately felt unengaged. Just like I understand the idea of using kitty cats as people to make things seem more fantastical, but then why bring in humans later? If the train ride is through a dreamscape that intersects with the afterlife, the use of colorful cats only makes us question the reality of what is presented as the main (real) world. If that's part of the point, it's a point that doesn't feel rounded, and it's not the only one (like, is the father on the train?). Which is frankly one of the problems with surrealism in a story-telling medium. What are these images? What do they mean? Is it possible they don't mean anything except to the author who dreamed them? I find my intellectual joy in interpreting art, but sometimes, there is no decoder ring. Either an image touches you, or it doesn't. On the Galactic Railroad, some did, but more didn't, experiences will vary. Even soft answers to one's questions are few and far between. (Pro tip: If you have a choice, use the Japanese soundtrack, as the English one has the dullest line deliveries ever.)
If Tampopo was a restaurant story told through the lens of a samurai film, Juzo Itami's A Taxing Woman (also starring Nobuko Miyamoto, his muse) is a Noirish crime picture... about tax evasion. It's great. Miyamoto is a cool hardass as a tax inspector, but also very empathetic, going after fraudsters big and small, the bulk of the film concerned with her white whale, a hotel owner (Itami and Kurosawa veteran Tsutomu Yamazaki) who has a relationship with her akin to Columbo and one of his suspects. The driving music and exploitation elements makes it feel like a Yakuza flick, but it's also very funny, both because of the juxtaposition of styles and the character humor. Miyamoto brings a truly unusual "law enforcement" character to life, but I shave have a star off because her final victory seems more like luck than the cleverness she exhibits throughout. Then again, her FINAL final victory is an emotional, not intellectual, one. I'm certainly very glad the Japanese public reacted so well to this original piece and encouraged Itami to make a sequel. Speaking of which...
Nobuko Miyamoto is back for another complex case of tax evasion in A Taxing Woman's Return, but she's unfortunately not in it ENOUGH. A lot of screen time is devoted to the villain - a so-called religious leader who finances his real estate schemes with money funneled from his "church" - and her colleagues. This is more about the CASE itself, intriguing as it might be, than the character we quickly came to love in the first film. The whistle-and-drum score isn't as evocative. The exploitation elements meaner and nastier. And if I wasn't sure about the original's ending, this one I don't agree with AT ALL. Very unsatisfying. But ultimately, yes, it does come down to Miyamoto being sidelined. She has some good, even great, moments, but has just been assimilated into a workplace dramedy that doesn't exclusively cater to her. I feel like we needed to see more of her personal life, or build an arc around her getting a new assistant, and so force. And despite it all, I'd have easily jumped on a third chapter, so don't take my disappointment as a total indictment of what is still a pretty fun crime picture.
Michelle Yeoh had a screen credit before (a non-action part in Sammo Hung's The Owl vs. Bombo), so Yes, Madam! - which could be called Female Police Story and came out the same year as Jackie Chan's more famous flick - is just as much her introduction as it is newcomer Cynthia Rothrock's. Perhaps neither was thought of as money in the back because for their fans, years on, it's frustrating how often we lose sight of the cop side of things in favor of three clowns (one of them a madcap Tsui Hark!) who get themselves in trouble by accidentally acquiring the MacGuffin (just don't ask me to explain its importance). They get some slapstick action beats too, but given how broad the comedy is, you neither see nor accept the downer ending that's to come. As for the two madams, their relationship, whether contentious or friendly, is pretty much always unmotivated, so you quickly realize you're not watching this for the noisy plot. What our two stars-in-becoming deliver is the action. And when they let loose, it's exciting, impactful, and looks like it hurts. A lot. Director Corey Yuen gets right in there and brings real immediacy to the action, if not logic to the script.
Chad McQueen (yes, relation) plays martial artist cop Sean "Martial Law" Thompson in the B-movie vehicle bearing his nickname, with Cynthia Rothrock as his partner Billie (professionally and romantically) and David Carradine as an evil "fixer" Rhodes who'll get you anything for a price, and maybe kill your henchman with kung fu (for fun) while he's at it. Both lend significant martial arts cred to the movie. Thompson is drawn into this slime's sphere when his screw-up kid brother gets a job for Rhodes, and you immediately get the sense than his days are numbered. Still, for a B-movie of this sort, there's some fair dialog and the plot isn't as cliched as one would expect. In particular, I really like the relationship between the two leads, a supportive couple that avoids the expected histrionics in favor of just kicking ass together. I like his mom too. The fights (since that's why we're here) are well done, even if the budget doesn't allow for anything too spectacular in terms of action set pieces.
Cynthia Rothrock returns as Billie Blake for Martial Law II: Undercover, but McQueen has been replaced by Jeff Wincott as "Martial Law" Thompson. Wincott may not be as good a screen fighter, going by the close-ups and editing used in his action sequences as if to hide his inefficiencies. Rothrock's fights are much better and more clearly shot, so it's not just a question of the directing. Her middle fight (outside the club) is a standout and had me slapping my knee with laughter and joy, which is why I hate to give the rest of the movie a poor review. The way the treat Thompson, they might as well have created a new character. His previous relationships are all gone, include his romance with Billie who is now played as just a good friend. With all the babes running around this one, I thought it would be to open the door to a doomed romance with one of them, but no, it's Billie who goes undercover and "clicks" with one of the hostesses (not that the movie pushes this any further). But it's the villains who really disappoint (not a Carradine in the bunch). For one thing, at least three of them look like Wincott - they could all have been brothers - causing some confusion as to which generic dude in a big jacket you're watching in any given scene, and one of them is a most abominable actor (the rest are just mediocre). I also think the final fight being such a bloodbath runs against the tone of both films. Only Rothrock's scenes (action and non) get any rise out of me.
Books: The second volume of Marc Cushman's These Are the Voyages offers a detailed look at Star Trek's second season, sharing much of the strengths and weaknesses inherent in his first book - I'm not going to repeat myself. What's interesting to me is how behind the scenes narratives, no matter how balanced (and these books are), create the sense of "heroes and villains". The still not guiltless Roddenberry was both in volume 1, but between producer Gene Coon having things well in hand and his own absence trying to develop other pilots (with Trek as unsure a bet as ever), these roles have migrated to others. As William Shatner's star rises, he becomes increasingly the "villain", his ego getting the better of him. Though Coon is an early hero, the most sustained is D.C. Fontana, in the long run probably the person most responsible for the show's quality, even after Paramount buys Desilu and the corporate mindset starts undermining the whole, lower-case, enterprise. Part of Fontana's appeal in the book is that her memos aren't full of sexist comments the way the male producers' are. The final frontier, for TOS' commitment to diversity, often seemed to be defined by gender, with women often put in menial positions aboard ship and their "illogical" minds taken as a given in many scripts. Internal communications expose how this was ingrained in the minds of the show makers, despite their great esteem for Fontana's opinions and abilities. When Coon quits and is replaced by John Meredyth Lucas, a change in office culture occurs that threatens to reduce or eliminate those internal memos - to save time, he replaced the back and forth with oral meetings - but while I don't know what that means for Volume 3 (under a third producer), I'm glad to see script development mostly occurred while Coon was still in the office, because much of the entertainment stems from those memos, especially Bob Justman's very humorous objections about the budget. There are gaps towards the end, but not too many. All in all, Cushman has kept Volume 2 of a piece with Volume 1, helped along by studio upheaval and drama.
Though the story is actually called Blink of an Eye, issues 768-771 and the 2021 Annual are collected as The Flash Vol. 16: Wally West Returns, and it's what amounts to bringing Wally back from the brink he was pushed to in the objectionable Heroes in Crisis (going so far as clearing him of part of those events). The story has Wally taking over the series from Barry and getting drawn into the Speed Force and Quantum Leaping into other speedsters across time and the multiverse. Jeremy Adams provides quite a funny script at times (if a wordy one), but it only really feels right in the Super-Friends sequence because they have Kevin Maguire doing the art and making it feel like the Bwa-ha-ha era. I know the flatter colors are meant to remind us of the cartoon, but I wish more of the comic had been like this. Visually, they always have guest artists present other times, but they're mostly treated the same way as Brandon Peterson's frame tale. The rounded solidity of the colors just too often gives the figures a static solidity that works against the feeling we should get from Flash-type action. Let's just say the art generally leaves me cold. Funny how the end of Dan DiDio's regime has brought the original Titans back to the fore, huh?
Role-playing: More than 20 years in the making, this weekend was our GURPS Shiftworld campaign's grand finale. A lot had to be done, but it was relatively quick. Currently in the world of Pinnacle's Deadlands, our heroes rescue a few souls and help a mountain spirit, etc., but as the boys' archvillain Jeremiah Dark returns, it becomes a struggle for the fate of reality. I had the climax planned (in evolving form) for months. Dark had built a machine to control reality in a dank cave, with 12 portals shedding their light (and reality) over a circular space. If you crossed into a different slice of the pizza, you shifted to another reality, trying to get to Dark who was pretty secure in the GURPS Space one (better armor and weapons). Dark also had the two missing PCs (we were never able to get the other players from decades ago into our schedule), drained of their shifting energy, in tubes, so they had to be rescued to. The various reality slices were a fun bit of business that allowed me to do call backs, but also never-used worlds (Supers, Japan, Cyberpunk, WWII among them) and this created more choices for Willy Jay when, once Dark was finally dispatched, he had to set the machine to SOME reality (although it was not the only possibility - I had scripted endings for a world fractured and an apocalypse in case of failure). While he's dealing with the mechanics of this, credit to Ace for remembering Dark's Satanists calling up the Devil in the Deadlands and racing to make sure it didn't happen, preempting Dark's revenge from beyond the grave. I thought for sure the boys would choose to reset the world to the Old West, which is where THEY started, but Willie chose Atomic Horror instead (1950s UFOlogy America) because it was the true Reality Zero, from which Dark and their parents had punched a hole in the universe decades before. In other words, the world as it should have been (Willy didn't know it, but it was also the easiest in terms of skill test). Epilogue: They return to the Paradise Hotel & Casino in Vegas, hide Dark's computer tapes and get Ace married to long-term love interest Simone. They also lay in that those tapes will remain under the protection of our PCs, their children and their children's children, for all time, an organization they dub the Agents of SHIFT (what the acronym means is anyone's guess at this point). What's interesting about that is... I played a pre-programmed mid-credit scene where 75 years later (so in our own near future) a crack opens in reality in New York and a dinosaur stomps out. Reality is still weak and other realities are leaking in. The point? I wanted to give the players an option for the NEXT campaign we might play (we don't have to exercise it, but in case it tickles them), i.e. Torg Eternity (a game I've been interested in). So now I'm imagining the Agents of SHIFT replacing the "Storm Knights" from that game. I love it when a plan comes together like that. Anyway, thanks Pout et Beb (and Etienne and Sly), this was one of the greatest role-playing experiences of my life (both times). RIP Shiftworld.
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