David R. Walker

Posts Tagged ‘Nathan Fillion’

Superman

Director: James Gunn

Cast: David Corenswet, Rachel Brosnahan, Alan Tudyk, Nicholas Hoult, Bradley Cooper, Nicholas Hoult, Michael Rooker, Wendell Pierce, Nathan Fillion, Pruitt Taylor Vince, Frank Grillo, Skyler Gisondo, Edi Gathegi, William Reeve, Milly Alcock

Running Time: 2 hours and 9 minutes

Film Rating: 7 out of 10

If it wasn’t for clever casting of the two main leads for Superman this film would have collapsed. In actual fact at some point the narrative caved in on itself in a horrific pastiche of social media, aliens, technology and monkeys on keyboards that for a moment I thought I wasn’t watching a superhero film.

Director James Gunn went from Guardians of the Galaxy to bringing his bizarre off beat style to Superman which in some parts of this film were just terrible and in other scenes just like a CGI car crash overtaken by malevolent artificial intelligence.

Fortunately James Gunn had two superb lead actors to take on the iconic role of Superman and Lois Lane in the form of the highly talented duo David Corenswet (Twisters) and Rachel Brosnhan (The Amateur). The towering and smouldering David Corenswet was brilliant as Superman and his journalist alter ego Clark Kent as he tries to save Metropolis from the evil grip of the megalomaniac and lethal Lex Luthor this time underplayed by Nicholas Hoult whose villain was just not villainous enough. In the scenes between Superman and Lex Luthor, it just comes off as two grown men fighting over a dog.

That’s the other good thing about the film which kids will absolutely adore. Krypto the dog steals the show as Superman’s canine companion. Who doesn’t love a hunk in a cape with a misbehaving dog?

Superman as a storyline was all over the charts, with strange allegorical conflicts happening elsewhere along with additional superheroes arriving as a back up army to assist the Man of Steel. The action at some point just reveal a vortex of chaos, saved only by some really beautiful scenes between Lois and Superman.

The onscreen chemistry between David Corenswet and Rachel Brosnahan is exact and endearing however the rest of the storyline is a chaotic mess. If they do a sequel to this film, please employ a decent scriptwriter.

The backstory of Superman as Clark Kent growing up in rural Kansas is only briefly touched upon in one sparkling pastoral scene between Clark and his adopted father Pa Kent played by Pruitt Taylor Vince (Constantine, Monster).  

Nicholas Hoult who was so brilliant in such art house films as Yorgos Lanthimos’s Oscar winning The Favourite is slightly lacklustre as a frustrated tech billionaire who will stop at nothing to destroy Metropolis and take over the world. Hoult must have got his villain inspiration from a younger version of Christopher Walken in A View to a Kill, except that Walken made audiences believe he was a psychopath. It’s all in the eyes.

Superman is going to make lots of money at the box office and while it is not a bad film, it is not brilliant either and with expectations so high, unfortunately the chaotic scenes outweigh the shining moments.

See Superman for David Corenswet and his dog. The cinema experience rests shakily on a shambolic screenplay which will appeal to some but not many. Audiences should look out for former Superman star Christopher Reeve’s son William Reeve as a TV reporter.

Superman gets a film rating of 7 out of 10 and has its moments and it’s definitely not as good as Zack Snyder’s Man of Steel. The best part about this cloaked drama is the ending.

The Suicide Squad

Director: James Gunn

Cast: Viola Davis, Idris Elba, Margot Robbie, Sylvester Stallone, John Cena, Joel Kinnaman, Pete Davidson, Flula Borg, Jai Courtney, Nathan Fillion, Michael Rooker, Alice Braga, Peter Capaldi, Juan Diego Botto, Taika Waititi, David Dastmalchian

Film Rating: 5.5 out of 10

How did Warner Brothers go from the brilliant Oscar winning Joker in the DC superhero universe to this bizarre concoction of the 2021 reboot of Suicide Squad, unimaginably entitled The Suicide Squad?

Guardians of the Galaxy director James Gunn clearly drew on a lot of inspiration from the films of Mexican director Guillermo del Toro specifically the Oscar winning Pan’s Labyrinth and more recently 2018’s The Shape of Water. Clearly, del Toro’s brilliance as a film maker did not shine off on director James Gunn as he delivers a bloated hot mess of a superhero film The Suicide Squad, featuring too many characters, glorified violence and a plot as bizarre as a Kafka novel with drug induced input from William S. Boroughs author of The Naked Lunch.

2021’s The Suicide Squad is so crazy, so unbelievably off the wall, that even the brilliant moments are overshadowed by some truly ridiculous moments which involved a whole new gang of The Suicide Squad attacking a fictional crackpot Hispanic island in which a crazed glorified dictator is harbouring an alien lifeform in the shape of a giant starfish.

Not even Oscar winner Viola Davis (Fences) could steady this crazy ship of fools, nor could Oscar nominee Margot Robbie (I, Tonya, Bombshell) as she dutifully reprises her role of the psychotic Harley Quinn, alongside Joel Kinnaman as Rick Flag, newcomer Idris Elba as Bloodsport and John Cena, seen frequently in white underpants as Peacemaker.

There are an abundance of sidekicks including David Dastmalchian as the mother obsessed Polka Dot Man, Sylvester Stallone as the talking shark King Shark, beautiful German actor Flula Borg as the gorgeous Javelin and a briefly seen Jai Courtenay as Captain Boomerang.

The scriptwriters killed their darlings in the opening credits of The Suicide Squad, making way for a convoluted plot involving alien life forms, a vain Hispanic dictator on a remote Caribbean island and a giant starfish which eventually attacks a city the size of Haiti. With such a confluence of confusing characters not one of them stood out as remarkably noticeable, although both Idris Elba and Margot Robbie tried their best to steady this sinking ship of wrecked and psychotic superheroes.

The only bright moment in The Suicide Squad, was the brief cameo appearance of Oscar winning screen writer of Jojo Rabbit Taika Waititi on a rooftop in Lisbon, Portugal, appearing as Ratcatcher. 

Despite the creative production design, The Suicide Squad is deeply disturbing, a film that glorifies death and violence without ever being responsible about its moral implications for the viewers who watch it. Where Joker was intricate and careful about its psychological makeup, The Suicide Squad is unbelievable careless about their characterizations.

The Suicide Squad gets a film rating of 5.5 out of 10, outlandish and cluttered with dazzling images, psychotic superheroes and zombies. Do not watch this film if you are stressed or taking hallucinogenic drugs.