danielgroza

"Predator: Badlands" is industrial grey and muddy brown, fire and brimstone, ground and debris. It's an absolutely tense movie in which you constantly keep your guard up like any prey, except this time, the predator is not the one doing the hunting even though the Yautja protagonist Dek (Dimitrius Schuster-Koloamatangi) is constantly telling himself he is. Stranded alone on Genna a/k/a "the death planet" a/k/a the most dangerous world in cinema history, he seeks to hunt down the Kalisk--a legendary, seemingly unkillable beast--to gain his father's approval.

But while "Badlands" feels like something that a dystopian industrial society would produce, its mega-corporate feel is made easier to digest by the humanism of its characters. The emotional depth on display in this movie is more than welcome not to mention surprising, giving it exactly the sense of humanity it needs all without containing a single human character--heck, most of them aren't even organic beings. This emotional weight cuts through the film's tense brooding without compromising it at any point, a great achievement by director/writer Dan Trachtenberg. This kind of effort is exactly what more blockbusters could use.

Of course, this kind of emotions couldn't be delivered without great performances. Every single character in this movie is acted impeccably--from Schuster-Koloamatangi's physicality to Elle Fanning's double role as androids Thia and Tessa who couldn't be more different from each other. Their performances are great in an unconventional manner so unlikely to be scoped by any awards, but great they are nonetheless. Thia joins Dek in the hunt as an all-knowing factoid about Genna and has a chatty and extroverted personality, much to Dek's annoyance yet they form great chemistry. It's nothing we haven't seen before but remember, these are an alien and an android. Tessa, on the other hand, it's much more loyal to her programming and ruthless in her approach. When realizing she will be "terminated" if she fails to accomplish her mission, a sense of determination driven by fear begins to overwhelm her. Both androids act so human, almost as if they could feel what's happening to them. Trachtenberg begins to dig towards big philosophical ideas at this point, but pivots from them because their depth would require a movie on its own which is not part of his agenda. Very industrious of him, indeed.

In the beginning of the review I have briefly described you the start of the plot. But does it all go to plan? Well, just know that "Predator: Badlands" is a movie that treats its characters with little to no mercy. The first time we see Genna in all its glory, as the title of the movie pops up on the screen, we see a world so utterly overwhelming, brutal, fearful and inescapable that we would wish we could fly over it, not remain stuck grounded in its horrible terrain. But it's on the ground where Dek finds Thia and many other companions, and it's in each other that they find their strength to not only endure, but overcome. Again, these are not any new ideas, but remember in what an absolutely beast of a movie they live in.

The characters of "Hot Shots! Part Deux" have no time to mess around with idle chatter. There is a foreign terrorist plot somewhere in Iraq that must be stopped. Troops are being sent in but they get caught. So, because the US is an honest country that leaves no one behind, they send more troops to rescue them. Except they get caught too... and so on, and so on. But no matter, because Topper Harley (Charlie Sheen) is back to the rescue. So I guess his reprofiling from fighter jet pilot in the first movie to bona fide machine-gun dual-wielding special soldier err... guy couldn't be timed better because he is needed.

This is how the plot to director Jim Abrahams' yet another spoof comedy movie that is sure to make you laugh your pants off begins and really, this is as much as you need to know. The shtick that makes movies like this work is the fact that no matter how ridiculous or even dreamlike some of the situations that these characters find themselves in, they are completely oblivious to them, always keeping a straight face. It's what makes the godfather of this sub-genre, Leslie Nielson so effective in his humor, and is the antithesis between the brooding of the characters and the absurdist humorous world they are placed in that makes or breaks these movies. The bigger the difference, the better.

"Hot Shots! Part Deux" is one of the best movies in the subgenre because of this very reason. In a particular scene, Topper and his crew find themselves deployed deep within the jungle ready to assault an enemy base. One of his soldiers, however, traumatized by the horrors of war, finds himself unable to kill--so far, serious stuff. Topper, being the natural born leader, takes out a handkerchief and tells him to relax by blowing his nose as hard as he possibly can. After the handkerchief ends up looking like a balloon, the man is nothing short of reborn. With a smile on his face, he thanks Topper for reminding him how fun it is to kill people for your country. This is a perfect example of how a great scene in these type of movies should be: funny as heck without comping on the depth.

But there is one more element of fun in "Part Deux". Movies like this also feed on references. Sure, "Rambo" is the main and most obvious one; but there is also a scene in which Topper and his love interest are having spaghetti in an Italian restaurant. They both grab the same strand and they end up kissing referencing a famous scene from "Lady and the Tramp". In another moment, taking a boat on a river, they meet with Martin Sheen's character going the other way presumably on an "equally" serious mission to execute a rogue colonel. The fact that Martin is Charlie's father is a bonus fun fact. I could go on, but the fun is discovering these all by yourself. And this movie knows fun, so last thing anyone should do is spoil it.

There is a scene in "Pacific Rim" where, while fighting one of the many Kaiju monsters invading the Earth, one of the Jaegers--manmade giant robots--picks up a cargo ship as a weapon and uses it to smash the kaiju across the face. The cargo ship then deflects off and gets thrown away ending up suspended between two office buildings across a street. The cargo ship, an object which every time that appears on the screen is intimidating from a size point of view, now becomes as light as a toy.

And that makes sense because "Pacific Rim" is director Guillermo del Toro indulging in his most childish of fantasies and delving into his deepest guilty pleasures. If "Pan's Labyrinth" was the monster-fascinated director as his darkest and most mature, this is the complete opposite. Obviously, the cities are evacuated before any fighting occurs so it becomes as safe as any playground. The various robots a/k/a "jaegers" are also varied in color, shape and even personality. Each of them embodies their pilots' fighting style and especially attitudes. Now, if I were 12 I could probably name them all--the main one is called Gipsy Danger now tell me this isn't stylish--maybe even tell you which one is my favorite, but I am not. Instead, I will tell you that this movie is as fun and visually stunning as it is ridiculous.

The characters are also built-in cliches but at least all of them do a mighty fine job at looking at their most flamboyant even when faced with imminent demise. Charlie Hunnam stars as Raleigh Becket, one of the hotshot pilots of the Jaegers who is given a second chance after retiring because of a tragic loss; Robert Kazinsky is another hotshot pilot who bullies Raleigh for his failures; Rinko Kikuchi plays the mature love interest who stands between the two when they are falling out and of course Idris Elba is the commander of the entire program as Stacker Pentecost--a tough but exemplary leader who hides a dark secret. There are also two eccentric scientists studying the kaijus and their attacks who hate each other but don't actually hate each other and Ron Pearlman is a "kaiju oil salesman" and black market mobster who I can only say has some of the most stylish shoes in cinema history. And on it goes, you get the drift.

Speaking of drift, this is the element that caused the most intrigue in the movie. The jaegers are too large and complex to be piloted solo, so there always have to be at least two pilots who must be mentally compatible or something so they can connect each other through what the movie calls the drift so they can share the load. The gimmick is that this system also makes them share their memories and thoughts--even the traumatic ones. It's a very cool concept that the movie doesn't really explore too much but honestly, it doesn't have to. "Pacific Rim" is a movie whose elements, shallow as they are, are simply too elegant, stylish and whimsical for something as philosophical as this to take hold. In any other movie, fastening this idea would be the right move, but in an unconventionally great film like this one, it would be nothing short of a buzzkill.

In a nutshell, "Pacific Rim" is a good time. Each of its characters and set-pieces are generic enough that you could find a place for them in any other movie, but under del Toro's geeky gaze, they are deployed in mint condition, and presented in all their comic-convention glory. Sure, the whole is by no means greater than the sum of its parts, but the parts sum up perfectly to form the whole. So, yeah, while conventionally it shouldn't be so, this is a great movie. Just don't take it out of its box.