tareqzaghal

Why is Denis Villeneuve my favourite working director? That third act is the only answer you will need.

That bone-chilling moment that happens, is what storytelling is all about. Denis, in his later work, has proven that he is a master at meticulously building up the tension and the atmosphere around his characters and their conflict. Here, you begin to see the seeds of how you cannot help but give your full attention to the imagery at hand.

Incendies is a tragedy, it is not a story that you can easily wrap your head around. At times, you may feel confused at where it is all heading, what the film is trying to say, or what is going to happen. Much like the characters themselves, you are slowly putting together the narrative, and when it explodes, it explodes.

While it might not go into extreme detail about the settings of the war the story takes place in, it chooses to focus on how war and conflict can create the unimaginable, and how it continues to live with generations. The imagery is extremely powerful, the performances, especially the lead, are all captivating, but what honestly hurts the film a bit is the screenplay, especially the segments in Arabic.

It's obvious that Denis worked here with a lot of non-actors for authenticity or that the hired actors were not native Arabic speakers, and it shows. It can get really rough when it keeps on switching between the different dialects, and the different locations, when it's supposed to be one area, I couldn't help but notice it way too often. Because of this, there becomes an obvious imbalance in terms of quality between the segments in Arabic and those in French, which can be frustrating. This brought down my overall experience and rating by a bit, I just can't help it when something like this takes me out of the experience.

Nevertheless, Incendies is a haunting, thrilling, and disturbing mystery that is elevated by Villeneuve's direction, and while it's not his strongest work, it's undeniably a powerful assortment of visuals that depict a unique aspect of the atrocities of war.

Denis never misses.

I don't even know what is worse at this point, having Michael Bay's overdirected Transformers films or a booooring and forgettable Transformers film.

Yeah they avoid all the Bay-hem and Bay-isms, but did they learn anything from Bumblebee? Not really. It's very dull, with another set of weak and uninteresting human characters, but this time the writing is mostly to blame and not the actors. Despite it being released in 2007, the first instalment in the franchise has more tangible and realistic CGI than this film, it's so textureless. Yeah it's a whole different team and vision, but it still feels like it's working with the same mold, and there isn't even any worthwhile dumb fun action sequences to make up for the boredom. Waste of a fresh start, good soundtrack though.

I think Michael Bay just forgot that to make a good Transformers film, or any film that is good, you just need a strong lead and support cast, relatable and likeable characters, an actual plot that is followable, and to have the Transformers themselves feel like actual characters.

Thankfully, Bumblee is nothing like any of the previous Transformers films, and it doesn't need to be. It tells a simple, recognisable yet likeable story about the found-family connection that can be formed between an extra-terrestrial that runs into a teenager. You can actually follow the plot and characters, understanding their motivations and emotions, however simple, something that was entirely missing from any of the Bay films.

Even if the visual effects look better in the Bay films, I prefer every Transformers design here by a lot. It's better that they look more like their animated counterparts, instead of being over-designed and texturised. Bumblebee feels like a character, and not just an action tool like every other Bay film. Hailee is great as the lead, and Cena is also good, he was in it just the right amount. I liked that they toned down the seriousness of the military here, very refreshing.

It's not rid of any faults, not by the slightest. It can be very generic and predictable at times, to the point where it feels like I've seen the same film before in terms of structure. Nevertheless, it is a huge improvement and the right direction for this franchise and characters, focusing on a few Transformers at a time, balancing out the human characters by having them actually interact WITH the Transformers and not ABOUT them, not overcomplicating the plot, and trying to tell a good story.