DC Films/WB's Wonder Woman 1984 Review

Some time has passed since we had a proper film release of a comic book/superhero film and we have one to bookend 2020 (the year where ideology and themes seem to conflict with each other both figuratively and literally) and it is DC Films’ latest entry in their comic book films called Wonder Woman 84, written/produced/directed by Patty Jenkins and written with Geoff Johns and Dave Callaham (DOOM-2005, The Expendables Trilogy).  This is an important detail to mention but this film actually has a new team of filmmakers behind the scenes and Jenkins having more creative control over the film than with the first one.  It is to provide some context to the shift in a lighter campy tone, setting it in the 80’s, and relying more on romance and humor to tell this next chapter of the iconic hero everyone loved from the previous outing.  Does the film succeed where it matters in pleasing fans of the character and cinematically, or does it fumble about with conflicting ideas and visions that undermine the film they might have tried to make?  Let’s sulk out of the shadows and see if our dreams of a good sequel come true with the plot for this adventure.

We flashback to Themyscira, to a young Diana Prince (Lilly Aspell) who is competing with her fellow warriors in a traditional athletic competition hosted by her mother and Queen Hippolyta (Connie Nielsen).  Diana is doing well during the competition but makes a mistake that forces her to lose her lead, but inspires her to cheat her way to victory through a shortcut.  Her mentor/trainer Antiope (Robin Wright) stops and prevents her from winning, as Hippolyta conveys in Diana the ideals of Truth through truly achieving those moments honestly and fairly as the statue of the Valkyrie guardswomen shines on the true winners of the contest.  This serves as a starting point for what she conflicts with throughout the film, as we jump from her childhood years to 1984 in Washington DC.

The city seems to be booming, with kids enjoying arcade games (tidbit, Rampage & Operation Wolf weren’t around during that year at all), aerobic fitness all the rage for women and men, and it seems to be filled with a ton of slapstick criminal shenanigans until Wonder Woman (Gal Godot) comes onto the scene to save mainly women throughout her whole time patrolling from the cartoonishly villainous men of all walks of life (despite letting a bunch of girls get away with shoplifting from some poor male business owner).  During this escapade, one of these criminal activities are looking to rob a black-market antiquity shop that contains a mysterious stone within the inventory (and she happens to be a female shopkeeper too).  Wonder Woman busts it up at a shopping mall (in Looney Toons fashion) and goes back into hiding, longing for her deceased lover and living among humanity as she works at the Smithsonian Museum.  Here, Diana comes across a frumpy, dorky Barbara Minerva (Kristen Wiig) being ignored by her colleagues and happy to be friends with Diana over a lunch and certain artifact that was sent to her after the criminal bust of that shop.

They unknowingly discover that the Dreamstone is supposed to grant one’s deepest wish (unaware of the hidden catch behind it) and make it come true as Diana wishes for her lover to return to her, while Minerva is saved by Diana from being sexually assaulted by a drunk man.  This inspires her to play into the stone, to wish to be like Diana as strong and confident as her friend.  What they don’t know is that a wish comes with a price, as Maxwell Lord (Pedro Pascal) a slick talking yet failing business man learns, looking for this very item to turn his luck around.  At one event in the museum (after Diana gets hit up by many men to just reject them), she comes across a random stranger who is a Handsome Man (Kristoffer Polaha, that’s literally his character name) that ends up inhabiting the soul of Steve Trevor (Chris Pine) with Lord wishing to become the main source of the stone’s power.  Despite a night of blissful union (doing the deed with another guy’s body), Diana puts it together that this magic could only be possible through the Dreamstone and finds out through Barbara that it was meant to be shipped to Maxwell Lord.  This prompts Diana to find Lord with Handsome Man possessed by Trevor to stop him from abusing the powers of the stone before the whole world suffers the consequences of such desires, compliments of a mischievous god’s creation that has wiped out civilizations for centuries.

So, if that felt longwinded, the film itself doesn’t do much better with its structure and pacing being laboriously bloated and overlong by literally 30-60 minutes of dull and uninteresting character development that regresses many of Diana’s growth as a character from the first film and undermines where she ends up in the other films set in present time (Batman V. Superman & Justice League) within its 2½ hour runtime.  The plot is a weird and oddly cliché hybrid of films like The Wishmaster (how the stone works), Batman Forever (the villain’s plot), Bruce Almighty (the entire third act), and Superman 3 (the excessive campy comedic elements and tonal whiplash from goofy to darkly serious).  That should be a good summation of how unoriginal or even a complete mess this film is narratively, as it feels half-baked in conception and comes across unwittingly as a pointless sequel that serves only to cash in on the success of the original film’s success financially.  As there is no holding back on the plot, let’s get into the nit and gritty of it with the additional disclaimer of spoiler alerts out of the way finally. 

The only good bits within the plot were the romance subplot with Steve and Diana, as Godot and Pine still share wonderful chemistry that was established quite well in the original film.  Their scenes provided some of the genuine levity and emotional enjoyment of the characters we grew to like from the previous adventure, but it means very little to the main plot other than a repeat of the same sacrifice that salvaged the last film’s finale to some degree.  Also, the opening act was a good way to re-introduce us to the character and world of the Amazonians, despite not mattering much in the main plot other than introduce her armor outfit for the climax and the theme of truth that is weakly tied to the finale.  Not much to provide in what was good about it, as it is a complete mess of a narrative with the answer to that problem being that we have 3 writers, each with their own creative ideas and visions clashing it out on the pages and into the big screen.

Before we get further, the elephant needs to be addressed and that is the invert/overt sexist tone towards men as well as perpetuating some pretty boring archetypes with superficial flaws.  Throughout the film, the criminals end up being perverted or dim witted men that are portrayed comically as one minded and goofy.  Steve Trevor definitely isn’t portrayed like this for the most part, other than the fish out of water scenes of him interacting with 1980’s culture and world.  However, the criminals and assholes are mostly males and that becomes distracting as well as unbearable, to pander desperately towards female dominance in a very thickheaded way.  It is more apparent in the beginning and middle acts of the film with the finale going in a completely different direction with its own creative issue altogether.  Otherwise, it had to be mentioned and it is both insulting and cringy to watch, as it seems to be a running theme with the latest DC films (with Birds Of Prey being the other one that relies on this asinine writing style to generate conflict disingenuously).  In regards to the archetype critique, Diana is supposed be this strong independent hero but this film makes it clear she can’t move on from her one true love and it feels incredulous for her to not remember what she learned from the previous film about loss and moving forward, as well as portraying intelligent people as unattractive dorks turned extremely villainous surprisingly from many DC Films (Batman Forever comes to mind with Barbara’s transformation into a villain).  It doesn’t help that argument to tie her character arc to a romantic tryst with a male character (regarding that character plotline), which further proves that this story wasn’t well thought out and haphazardly conceived to undermine and retcon the other appearances of her character that take place beyond this setting. 

Moving onward, the story slogs for about 50 minutes after the opening with nothing but character development and/or exposition that is used for comedy or goes nowhere until she dons the suit again.  This finally leads to a big action beat in Cairo, Egypt (where our heroes find the villain by coincidence through passing them by riding into town…ugh) that uses not only dodgy, fake looking effects throughout the action piece, but to convey Diana losing her power as a consequence of her wish (with a really terrible continuity error around her Lasso just reappearing in her holster after losing it saving the kids).  This also creates a problem of how her powers fluctuate to the plot’s needs (if she is losing her power from a wish, then how can she turn a whole jet invisible, despite losing it with every day spent with Trevor?).  It actually rushes onward to its cluttered and ultimately corny finale with some decent action beats at the White House, an anticlimactic showdown with a transformed Barbara into Cheetah, and a conveniently contrived finale, along with its resolution that is on par with how ridiculous the original Superman (1978) film was with its incredulous reset ending as well.  Yikes, to just write it out makes it clear how much of a mess and completely unimaginative the film is as a whole.  It is this weird love letter for Richard Donner’s iconic yet dated take on Superhero films, while just reusing elements of what made the first film work but less inspired and doesn’t land as well as it did before.  Along with the sketchy reusing of plot points and character elements from other films (both DC related and of the films it cribs off of), there really isn’t anything unique about this entry and clearly comes across as half-baked along with being made up on the go, with no sense of rhyme or reason with character or story logic, as to how this entry moves the character forward.

Let’s get into the performances now, starting with the self-titled hero herself, Wonder Woman/Diana Prince played by Gal Godot.  She is reliably good in the character as usual but does struggle with the big emotional beats of the story, despite having wonderful chemistry with her co-star Pine.  She still puts her stamp on the character and makes her adaptation iconic, despite going through the motions with the writing of her character arc.  There is really not much inherently wrong with her performance as it is a marked improvement over the first film for sure, but the messy writing on hand really fails to provide much for her to do or develop other than defeating the bad guys and saving the world.  So, perfectly fine effort that is only let down by the script, which will become a running theme with many of the performances in this film.

Through the power of magic and convenient writing, Chris Pine is back as Steve Trevor in the body of Handsome Man and he is still a great character that is ultimately wasted as a sacrificial lamb for the sake of Diana’s character arc.  It doesn’t help that he is only brought back to rehash the fish out of the water plotline in a less funny and charming matter as well as only there to be a cheerleading romance for Diana overall (right down to a home run style sleepover).  It is also convenient that he knows how to fly a jumbo jet plane, despite only operating WWI style aircrafts (Continuity is very much a messy fare here).  Like before, nothing truly terrible with Pine’s performance but the script gives his character barely anything meaningful to do than just be character motivation for Diana and that just feels like a waste of a character for everyone that enjoyed watching him being an integral part of the previous film’s narrative.

We finally get to the villains of this adventure, starting with the over-the-top bonkers performance from Pedro Pascal as Maxwell Lord dialed up to 11 in goofiness.  His character is essentially the generic sleazy businessman with parenting/daddy issues like every villain in DC films (writers, what is up with the use of this cliché archetype?).  Pascal dials it way up to 11 and just hams it up, especially when he acts maniacally from the start to finish with his character arc.  It doesn’t help that his character is written to inhibit those 80’s villain stereotypes but is literally another variant of Lex Luthor but from the Richard Donner/Lester film entries of Superman.  That is just another dig at the unimaginative screenplay at work here.  Also, yet another established comic book character that is barely developed beyond just the name and superficial backstory that fails to take advantage of the wealth of history that the character has been a part of, for decades that could have made the character more than a cheap 80’s knockoff of sleazy, greedy businessman stereotype that we still can’t seem to move on from, with creative writing.  Pascal is enjoyably bad in his performance overall and you can tell is having some fun with it, even if that fun didn’t translate to the viewer watching it.

At least that villain performance was memorably bad, better than a mediocre effort for Kristen Wiig as a temporary ally and eventual bad guy heavy against Wonder Woman.  She actually does an ok job with the character and isn’t as awkwardly bad or off putting as her other performances beforehand (as Wiig has had good performances under her belt in other indie efforts mainly).  However, she turns into a CGI mess by the end and literally becomes nothing more than an afterthought heavy for Wonder Woman to smack around for 5 minutes with the ridiculous armor costume shoved into this conflict for no reason but, toys!  Wiig does alright with the role, despite how cliché and overplayed it is with her origin story resembling that of villains from Batman Returns or Batman Forever and how fakey and weightless she becomes as a literal villain heavy that matters little to the plot at hand.  Those were the main cast in a nutshell and they were fine for the most part, but are ultimately letdown by the questionably flawed script and very ropey direction at play here.

Let’s finally get into the inner workings of filmmaking, the technical aspects starting with the cinematography and editing.  The cinematography was handled by Matthew Jensen, returning from working with Jenkins on the first Wonder Woman.  He has definitely changed the look of the film drastically from the dreary, grey tones of The Great War to the somewhat vibrant, colorful look of the 80’s when they showcase it.  The film looks reliably solid and he captures the change in tone and look for the setting, showing how versatile he is with capturing a look in a film (as evident in his previous work, Filth comes to mind).  The same can not be said for the editing, done by Richard Pearson to clock in at around 2 hours and 31 minutes (estimated 7-10 minutes of that being credits).  The pacing of the film is glacier freeze slow, as it takes its sweet time for dull character development and horribly done humor that ultimately bogs the film down, made worse with the teleporting characters from one location to the next, with no establishing shots used to convey how the characters get to one location setting to another.  This is also bad in continuity of scenes and action, the most egregious being Diana loses the lasso upon saving the kids, a good way from there but as soon as she is picked up by Steve, she regains her frigging lasso magically out of thin air.  That other tidbits being green screen present in Barbara’s glasses, mismatched green screen on Wonder Woman’s return after 50 minutes being absent, and the lack of lighting clarity to hide the terribly fakey Cheetah’s movement in their showdown.  This amounts to a ton of problems with editing that bogs the film down tremendously and negatively affects the pacing to its detriment.

Next up, the VFX effects and action set pieces for the film that are shockingly only a handful of them to break up the romantic fantasy drama as well as the surprising amount of ineptitude on display with the use of effects.  It tends to be a mixed bag all around with the VFX with an overuse of green screen and CGI overload, some really ropey ones in the later sections that feel weightless and very fakey (hence why the whole finale with Cheetah is lit in the dark and infamously, Wonder Woman rolling at the end of the Cairo section with clear as day kid dolls!), and feels like multiple effect houses worked on this with varying degrees of experience.  The action set pieces are also just bland, dull, and lack any sense of impact or excitement to them outside of the Cairo piece and the Tournament sequence.  There is a clear effort to sanitize the film of obvious violent actions from the hero and villains (with the exception of the brutal assault of the drunk man from a darker transformed Barbara) and the bits that does involve punch ups are only for a few minutes.  Overall, disappointingly subpar all around and doesn’t even have decent action set pieces to break up the monotony of the messy plot on display.

This brings up to art direction and costume design as it also exhibits a problem of capturing the look of the time period, as well as even featuring elements that weren’t even around that year.  For the most part, you have the superficial looks of the hairdos and flashy clothes brimming with color but you mostly have people dressed normally like they could still exist in this time period too.  The most blatant example of literal historical inaccuracy is the arcades games of Rampage & Operation Thunderbolt were not released until 1986 & 1987 respectively on top of the lack of usual pop cultural iconography that was very much of that time period (Michael Jackson and Miami Vice, as examples).  What really exacerbates the problem of visual identity in this film and time period is how much of it takes place in labs, apartments, and offices that could exist in present day today.  Ultimately, the art direction along with costume design and the time period setting seem to be nothing more than surface dressing at best and lazy implementation of cultural aspects of 1984 at worst.

Lastly, the sound design and score of the film also exhibits that same, low energy effort other than the soundscape of the film coming through powerfully on surround system setups but the same can’t be said for the score.  The film projects a Dolby ATMOS 7.1 surround format and comes through strong with everything hitting hard and fast from the score to the action that does take place on screen.  So naturally, this is a very good workout of a sound system if available, despite feeling like overkill for a film that harkens more towards romantic comedy/fantasy adventure than an action driven, exciting superhero film (which this isn’t at all).  Where the film really drops the ball is the somewhat disappointing and shockingly low effort of Han Zimmer’s score and as well as the lack of licensed period piece music from 1984 for the film.  Why there is no songs used from that time period is baffling and clearly adds further to how removed it feels in representing that time period visually and audio wise.  As for the score, there are times when Zimmer adds more upbeat and heroic flourishes to his theme for Wonder Woman, which standout as quality work.  However, when the music for some reason transforms into Temp Track (placeholder songs used to emphasis the emotions of a scene) for a pivotal scene, that can really take you out of the moment and just remind you of a better film (in this case, John Murphy’s Adagio In D Minor from Sunshine).  This is further made worse with the reusing of another piece of his work “A Beautiful Lie – Bruce’s Theme” from Batman V. Superman in the climax and feeling so out of place, it invokes a bit of an emotional dissonance for its climatic moment, in other words it falls flat and deflates the conflict at the worst possible time.  This seems like a good cap off of what has become very obvious by the end of this journey, with the powerfully crafted sound design, coupled with a forgettable, weak score/soundtrack.

This has taken long to write up as it has become painfully obvious of the overall quality of this film, after 2 weeks of release.  Wonder Woman 1984 is a shockingly inept and messy sequel to an enjoyable if flawed first entry that really established the character into today’s pop culture mindset and opened the door for a new hero to take the spotlight from DC comics in cinematic form.  Well, this film not only set the genre back by decades with the creative intent and purpose coming straight out of the glory years of Richard Lester’s campy takes on Superman or even the numerous junk that came from the 90’s, but it has somehow shaped its entire efforts on an inconsequential, dull story overall.  That the plot is an amalgamation of everything that was of terrible quality with comic book films of the 90’s specifically, filled with filmmakers that didn’t understand or could make the character and his/her world work cinematically ends up careening back into present day film workflow, ironically enough.  Despite the few enjoyably competent to funny bad performances on center stage here, they are at the mercy of a script that was clearly written by the director and two writers with questionable track records that have no sense of understanding for the character, in contrast to the first film’s writing team that had at least one writer (Allan Heinberg) who had written at least 1-2 Wonder Woman books and worked extensively on Justice League stories.  The takeaway from all of this, is the script literally sunk the film’s chances of being a worthy follow up and it was made even worse with the shocking creative decisions made in the filmmaking process as well.

Score: ⭐⭐ Out Of ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

DC Films/WB’s Wonder Woman 1984 is a major misfire overall and a completely dull mess of a sequel that somehow manages to feel like both a throwback and outdated all at once with the questionably handled direction on display making the questionably awful script into a reality.  This harkens back to the good old days of comic book films being made by creatives that had no understanding or creative inspiration to make these characters not only come to life but adapt the many stories available to them.  Instead, the writing team literally reworked a reheated, outdated leftover of the Richard Donner/Richard Lester era of comic book films and done so ineptly to make it feel pointless as a sequel and continuation of the hero everyone fell in love with. The positives are only a handful, mainly in the exceptional quality of the sound design in the way it projects sound wise and the competent to enjoyable funny bad performances on display here (mostly from Pascal, as Wiig is just meh overall in her performance as a boring adaptation of Wonder Woman’s arch-nemesis).  Coupled this with overlong and bloated editing, shoddy mixed quality of VFX work all over the film, very little exciting or enjoyable action set pieces, and a story that is pointless and inconsequential that it relies more on its themes and message, than actually developing a story that shapes these characters and pushes them forward to change for this somewhat insulated sequel.  It’s a shame that the first film now feels like a fluke and WW84 feels truly like a studio mandated sequel made to cash in on the success of the first film and not build on that foundation disappointingly. 

  

TENET Review (Minor Spoilers)

With so much of the world under quarantine and a pandemic continues to reshape our lives constantly, films seen in theaters is becoming a luxury now and one such film is trying to get those butts back in, with the ambitiously tense and complex grounded sci-fi spy thriller Tenet, a new film from the one and only Christopher Nolan as writer/director on this one.  This was the most anticipated new (mostly original) film from Nolan to be released worldwide near the end of 2019, before the pandemic literally crash everything related to the media industry.  Made on a budget of $200+ million and shot all over the world, the excitement for this film came from the mysterious marketing and the reliably intense, hard hitting 6-minute prologue that premiered in IMAX to provide filmgoers more concrete reasons to check the film out.  It was exciting, tension done well, the visual introduction of time dilation (the disruption of time and space of objects), and a rescue operation gone horribly wrong.  Now with the film being out throughout the world and approved states for re-opened theaters, does it measure up to the buildup of the marketing and previews provided throughout last year or does it fall short from some of his more entertaining and satisfying films from his filmography?  Let’s investigate the flow of time itself, and rewind to the very start of this mission.

We start in an opera house performance, around Russia as a terrorist action takes place and forces the country’s special force teams to move in, while in secrecy, another team slips into the action. Lead by the Protagonist (John David Washington) and his spec-op team, to infiltrate the situation and extract a sleeper agent with info and access to supposedly plutonium.  The mission goes sideways in numerous ways and introduces a bullet that can go reverse in time by a mysterious life saver with a red tin in a backpack, as well as his team being compromised by double agents.  The Protagonist kills himself, despite being tortured and under duress at the hands of the Russian agents, only to awaken in the middle of nowhere learning of the pill being a fake cyanide capsule that only induces a coma, not death.  He is informed of a mission that will take him through the flow of time itself called Tenet, an assignment that requires him to figure out how a ruthless and efficient Russian operator is going to bring about the end of the world through Inversion (the reverse flow of time itself).  This sends the Protagonist on a world spanning adventure to discover the true intentions of Tenet and save the world from a delusional villain that wants to bring it to an end.

This seems like a complicated and twisty road of espionage and action, but it becomes so much more than that through its eventual twists/turns that are accustoms to Nolan’s narratives as usual.  In this case, it is the concepts of time loops and the fatalism of causality to ensure the loop is maintain, no matter the cost, told through the traditional James Bond style adventure with a sci-fi element to literally shake things up.  It spends the first half establishing the mechanics and conflict of the film before the second half ratchets it up and goes bonkers with some of the most inventive, jaw dropping action set pieces devilishly crafted on film.  But what seems like a slick yet coldly crafted adventure reveals its humanity by the very end in such a disarming matter, that it makes the entire film work as a whole, despite the few major missteps that make it stumble in getting to its overall point of this mission.

The real star of the show and a good reason to see this on the best screen and sound setup possible is the absolutely creative and well-crafted action set pieces featured throughout the entire film that escalates in a way that works and entertains exceptionally well on their own.  You have the fantastic cold opening of the opera house siege that kicks things off, some down time to explain the mechanics and world build, then you ratchet it up by going completely crazy with it.  This is worth experiencing cold for sure but the manipulation of proven cinema/editing tricks with the genius way it is crafted with a blend of practical and VFX/Optical quality to make it look seamless really shows the budget being well spent and on the screen.  When you have an actual cargo plane being crashed into a building for literally a comic relief moment, that’s how big in scale and scope these sequences become, especially when they flip it around in a way that is truly a spectacle in of itself.  On a pure action scale, it delivers on that front and then some, proving once again to truly create spectacle that is unmatched by many filmmakers working today. 

Where it stumbles in the areas where in his other films were more entwined to the main plot because it didn’t sacrifice too much of it, character development and structured arcs for at least the principal characters that matter in this adventure.  The interactions with Protagonist played by John David Washington and Katherine "Kat" Barton played by Elizabeth Debicki should have emotional weight to it but due to the choppy editing and stilted dialogue, it falls flat by its eventual conclusion and makes the most sense to criticize from those that were able to see this film.  As for Debicki as Kat, she does an admirable job with a thinly developed yet emotionally relatable female character trapped between freedom and love for her son, which she conveys effectively enough.  Where one of the emotional arc does come through as clear as day is with the complicated yet endearing friendship between The Protagonist and Neil played by Robert Pattinson, whom has a mysteriously good chemistry with the lead and they work together on numerous missions until one moment redefines it in a way that not only provides the emotional core of this tale, but does so in a way that really elevates the entire adventure for the better.  As for the villain Andrei Sator played by Kenneth Branagh, he is delightfully switching between intriguingly menacing to cartoonish evil in such a way that he wouldn’t feel out of place in a proper Bond film.  Ultimately, the film is carried and held together by its few yet effectively handled dramatic moments but mostly by the purely mad spectacle on display that provides most of the entertainment from this film, even if the emotional core of it isn’t quite as strong as his previous endeavors.

Now for the performances in general, we start with Washington as the Protagonist or CIA Operative assigned mysteriously to accomplish this mission. While he is mostly playing a stoic archetype for most of the film, he definitely holds his own and provides the anchor for the audience to project themselves for the narrative.  The standout of the cast is Robert Pattinson as Neil, who provides a ton of charm and personality to a supporting role only to end up being one of the only emotional beats that resonates from start to finish that elevates the whole film.   With Debicki as Kat, she portrays a woman being torn between protecting her son and wanting to break from Sator’s control over her life, providing the human element to the villain’s world which is decent enough to move the plot forward but isn’t given enough screen time and handled poorly to resonate with the viewers.  As for most of the cast, Branagh as Sator is just having a ball playing a vicious villain and there are at least 2 actors here that are in character roles with one (Aaron Johnson of Kick-Ass! Fame) disappearing in a character that is not “Captain Price” of Modern Warfare game series.  The cast in general is great, provide their unique qualities to the characters despite the writing feeling sparse for some of them, and ultimately fit the archetypes they play as in the film.

Let’s finally get into the aspects of the film where it completely shines the brightest, with some of the most talented and hardworking people in a film production, the technical aspects starting with the cinematography and editing of the film.  This was shot by Hoyte van Hoytema (worked with Nolan on Interstellar & Dunkirk) and edited by Jennifer Lame (worked with Noah Baumbach on numerous films as Editor), and their expertise is on display especially with the expansive, natural look of the film along with the solid and energetic pacing on display.  The film was shot on 70mm and as usual, creates a grounded look to the action and locales that comes across reliably well, as it had with Hoytema’s previous work with Nolan on his other films that have used the format.  As for the editing, the action beats are handled extremely well in pacing out the intense moments with tension, related to the way time flow works with the film’s premise, even though where the flaws occur on the awkward, fast cutting for the dialogue exchanges specifically with Protagonist and Kat.  Despite how gorgeously shot the film is and the action beats being expertly handled in pacing and effect, the dialogue scenes are the most inconsistent of the editing process as they range from clear, concise to incoherently disjointed and too rushed to feel the emotional weight of the performances, which undercuts the impact of the interactions between the Washington and Debicki that makes it hard to really convey any form of romantic development to make the last parts of the film land emotionally.  Other than those flaws, both elements of the way the film is shot is still exceptionally handled and is a truly gorgeous film to watch on a quality screen (no doubt, this film truly pops even better on a true cinema IMAX screen). 

As we have already explored the action beats of the film in conjunction with its narrative along with the way the film was edited and shot, let’s dive into the most controversial and contentious aspect of the film being the overall sound design of the film.  For the soundscape of the film, it is very visceral and hard hitting that gives the action beats quite the punch reliably on par with his last few films.  This does at times, muffle the dialogue in quite a few scenes where crucial information of the plot or character motivation does fly by pretty quickly (this is prevalent to the scenes where the characters wear O2 masks for the scenes in the Inverted Dimension).  However, the film excels at conveying the story through the visuals and the sound design outside of dialogue issues, hits hard and powerful when it comes to the action sequences.  With a decent sound system or an IMAX screening, you will get the most out of the film and it is of the opinion that the issues with the sound design is subjective overall in this regard, but for the viewer it was suitable to what was going on and was done to make the world sound natural and grounded, which can be a problem to those not used to this approach to sounds in a Nolan film.

Finally, we have to mention the fantastic and wonderfully crafted soundtrack from Ludwig Göransson, hot off his celebrated work in Marvel’s Black Panther and Star Wars: The Mandalorian.  This is once again, another truly astounding collection of work that truly feels tailor made for this film and conveys the mystery as well as intrigue of a Bond Adventure with a Sci-Fi bent mixed in.  The use of electronic synthesizers and orchestra pieces for the quieter moments give the film a defined and unique musical identity that feels fully realized and works so well with the pacing of the film that it adds to the strengths of the film as a whole.  His ability to define a story through music as well as the characters in it are still of top quality here, with some of the notable qualities on display from his previous work.  This is Göransson’s finest work so far and continues to prove his talents with an exceptional score that truly enhances and gives so much energy to many of the scenes in this film, proving once again the importance of music in film.

At last, we should finally end where it begins with Tenet.  This is one of the more twisty and surprisingly unconventional spin on what is a relatively straightforward globetrotting spy adventure in the veins of an outlandish Bond film mixed with a unique take on the conventions of time travel.  What gives the film its obvious strengths are the inventive and wholly jaw dropping action set pieces that truly are stunning and amazing to watch, with so many moments of incredible “how did they do that?” popping up in a positive matter as well as exceptionally crafted that challenge even the best in the genre of films.  The performances are reliably strong from everyone in the cast, with a stoic yet determined performance from Washington and the show stealing performances going to Pattinson and Branagh for their respective roles.  While the character development is pared down and told mostly visually, the film does hide its humanity at the very end but lands mostly effectively despite the underdeveloped chemistry between Protagonist and Kat making their end point feel hollow in the final moments.  This is truly a uniquely crafted spy adventure with Nolan’s signature touch to it and for the most part, a spectacle worthy of praise despite coming up short in areas that matter for a film to resonate beyond the surface level reactions to it.

Score ⭐⭐⭐⭐ out of ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Tenet is a spy adventure spectacle on par with some of the most entertaining and enjoyable Bond adventures of old, but with a unique take on the Sci-Fi elements of Time Travel that give make it different from many of the films of this genre.  The performances are fantastic from everyone involved with 2 standout characters and outside of the dull and ineffective chemistry connection between Protagonist and Kat, everyone plays off each other rather well.  The story while it lands realtively well by the end and surprisingly hits hard in the most unexpected way, it can be a bit heady and twisty to a fault that will require at least 2 viewings to really grasps the motivations and arcs of the principal characters.  However, the extravagant and exceptionally crafted action set pieces are the real highlights and evolves the familar cinematic tricks of action in a way that truly is intense, hard hitting, and clearly done in such inventive creative ways that makes them worth seeing on the best screen with sound systems possible.  This is made all the more effective with the flawed yet still meticulously crafted sound design that amplifies the moments with its fantastic score from Göransson and the action.  Overall, this is definitely a blend of the style of a blockbuster action film with the elements of a sci-fi genre troupe with a complex spin to it the provides some of the finest action set pieces yet in the genre and breathes some loving life to the outlandish styles of a Bond style spy adventure.   

The Last Of Us Part II (Spoiler Review)

Revenge can be a never-ending cycle with the sole purpose to provide nothing but pain and misery to others.  As the saying goes, “To seek revenge, you must dig two graves”, and yet the game conflicts with that very thematic point, which lies at the heart of the major dissent and intensely provided critiques at one of the few major releases this year in the video game industry, a sequel to the beloved and widely acclaimed post-apocalyptic adventure tale from Naughty Dog, The Last Of Us.  After 7 long years of struggles behind closed doors, developers being churned out from the insane “crunch” culture, divisive feelings towards the story in the game among developer teams resulting in last minute changes to the script and game design, we finally have the game in our hands and this review comes from a gamer that has 100% the game and platinum it over the course of a week.  Let’s get right into it with the story itself (spoilers ahead, for those that want to go in fresh, despite being out for a month now).

To better explain this viewpoint, the style of subverting genre troupes and deconstructing character types down to their core is literally the inspiration for this tale.  This has been done successfully in the past (the best examples with films that convey this creative aspect, Once Upon A Time In The West and Apocalypse Now) where they tear down the very foundation and notion of the genres they are a part of, while providing a tale that fits this storytelling purpose succinctly with characters that are unique but go against the very notions of who they are, be it heroes and villains.  This viewpoint is necessary to consider why it ultimately fails here in The Last Of Us Part 2.  This is a story that had established characters set in their ways and those come with conceived notions that might need to be acknowledged and taken into consideration when going into a continuation of this world with these characters.  That is all undone by the convenient contrivances that drive the inciting incident of this tale.

It picks up 5 years after the end of the first game, with Joel (Troy Baker) and Ellie (Ashley Johnson) not on speaking terms over the events that transpired in the Firefly Hospital.  She and her lover Dina (Shannon Woodward) go on patrol for Infected and Hunters with their BFF Jesse (Stephen A. Chang).  On that same day, Abby (Laura Bailey) with her group of companions from the WLF (Washington Liberation Front) are on a mission to track down Joel himself.  Owen (Patrick Fugit) expressing concerns, airs on the side of caution with his concern with Mel (Ashly Burch), his pregnant girlfriend despite having a fling with Abby.  Taken back by his lack of passion for this mission, takes matter into her own hands goes to track them down.  After some time, Abby comes across Joel and Tommy (Jeffrey Pierce) on patrol as she is about to be eaten by an infected through her reckless actions.  They rescue her and find the WLF unit in time to get to safety.  What is a moment of reprieve and comradery, turns into a ugly scene of spite and vengeance as Abby mortally wounds Joel with the WLF group beating Tommy unconscious while Abby takes a moment to build up her rage, as she tortures Joel to death with a golf club.

During this time, Ellie and Dina are bonding with each other out of the winter storm ravaging the area, conveying their feelings and love for each other on a warm couch and some pot.  As soon as the storm dies down, Jesse finds them to inform them of Joel and Tommy missing from the patrol count.  They head to the last known spot where they would hold up and as they clear the rooms one by one, Ellie finds the room where Joel, Tommy, and the entire WLF hit squad are there to subdue her as Abby deals a final, definitive blow to Joel’s head.  They leave the witnesses alive, as it seems Abby was only interested in taking her vengeance out on Joel and has Ellie knocked out.  That is just the first 2 hours of the game and already people are not taking it easily if the playthrough streams are a good indication of the reception to this inciting incident.

Let’s pause and establish this point, Joel’s death is not the problem here, it is the setup and execution of that plot point that many players are not only disliking intensely over but it downright makes no sense and feels conveniently written out of character for this revenge story to take place.  To provide your first name and town to a bunch of strangers after rescuing them, it feels out of left field in idiocy and contradicts Joel’s cautious approach to strangers akin to what we saw in the previous story.  Now, the counter for that is time softening Joel up but it feels disingenuous in its execution to convey that and feels rushed to get to our revenge plot and the new characters we will follow for the majority of the game. It doesn’t help that the legacy characters are still efficient in combat and cautious in the flashback sequences, further questioning the creative choices made with these two characters.  With that established, let’s get into the meat of what will be how the game flows from narrative to game design.

This motivates Ellie to hunt them down with Dina joining initially to track down WLF and Abby for their pound of flesh.  What this does, it opens us up to the only open level section that shows the promise of what this game could have been more of, if the time and focus was put into that aspect instead of its narrative.  Essentially, you have to travel from point A to B for the majority of the gameplay runtime and it takes a while before we get to the first major plot points during this revenge tale over the course of 3 days.  As we progress further, Ellie eventually takes out her anger and vengeance on those responsible, yet it completely takes a toll on her as she is completely lost in the dark without Joel as pointedly brought up in different musical interludes.  It builds up to the most controversial and divisive part of the story and that is, the awkward and deflating showstopping switch to the second perspective of this tale, Abby.

We jump back to her perspective around the end of the first game 5 years ago, we see Abby younger and without her massive gains bonding with her father Jerry (Derek Phillips), a surgeon that has been the leading researcher to the vaccine that has been long sought after during the first game through Ellie.  Unfortunately, Jerry establishes to Marlene (Merle Dandridge) that the mutation is connected to her brain stem, meaning a full dissection of it from the host.  This means killing Ellie in the process and once Joel learned of this through Marlene, went into a rage and decidedly killed many of the Fireflies including Abby’s father and Marlene.  This is the reason Abby goes all the way to Wyoming, tortures Joel and kills him, to all of a sudden feel that this was enough and lets Tommy and Ellie go.  This is where her storyline begins for the second half of the game.

Abby is a top soldier along with her buddy Manny (Alejandro Edda) in the established and formidable WLF army, as they take part in the ongoing war against the Seraphites (Scars for short) with Issac (Jeffery Wright) leading the WLFs.  Abby has very little qualms of what she did to Joel, while the others are noticeably shaken by what she did, besides Manny.  She eventually learns of Owen’s disappearance and his traitorous actions against one of his comrades, resulting in her going after him.  Abby eventually runs into the Scars and is captured, only to be rescued by 2 outcast children named Yara (Victoria Grace) and Lev (Ian Alexander).  Despite saving them, she leaves them on their way, which only now inspires remorse and guilt to motivate her choice to be better than just a hired killer.  As Ellie is consumed by her revenge during her journey, Abby goes on an adventure of reflection and eventually redemption of who she is to finally desire to be a part of something bigger than a pawn in some turf war in Seattle.

This leads into the story overall, as it takes place over the course of 3 days in Seattle from 2 different perspectives, with a big time jump to conclude the tale at the very end.  However, it is also told from one full tale into the next one with interspersed flashbacks to provide exposition and context to the story told here.  This leads to a very laboriously slow and plodding pacing that can feel like its dragging at times and padded out in awkward ways, mainly due to the disjointed structure of the plot at play.  Where the story really suffers is the wildly inconsistent and contrived actions of the characters to move the plot along in a very disingenuous matter that was not a problem in the previous outing.  You have characters leaving items for others to find in convenient spots or time frame to get them to the next plot point, as well as being told what others are doing while you are on your own journey, to not consider possibly seeing what Tommy was doing during his war path in Seattle.  It is not helped by the abusive use of plot armor that makes what the characters go through incredulously moronic and unbelievable at times, whether it be Ellie and Dina surviving numerous death traps or Abby coming across Joel and Tommy by sheer coincidence.  All of these issues literally diminish the threatening and dangerous world surrounding these characters to a degree where certain plot beats come across as predictable and unearned (a continuing problem during Abby’s storyline).

This leads me into why Abby’s storyline falls flat as a result of these issues as well as how it utilizes a few retcon elements to make it fit parallel to Ellie’s story arc.  It is understood that the writers and directors decided to make one of the doctors that Joel murders as Abby’s motivation for revenge, however she never truly feels conflicted or even shown to be shaken by her attaining revenge at all.  A piece of dialogue or even utilizing the dreams sequences to showcase that small hint of remorse or hollow pain would have endeared her better to players and shown her to be more than just a meathead soldier with an eventual heart of gold.  This was to be offset by the inclusion of Yara and Lev as the defacto companions for Abby and her eventual redemption arc that comes across as rushed and out of left field.  It doesn’t help that she comes across as standoffish and blunt as a character at times, which makes her a bit unlikable as a protagonist especially towards her love interest and other “friends”.  Her supporting cast are given barely any screen time to understand or feel for their actions at Jackson against Joel (outside of Owens), especially with 1 quarter of the group gets killed off screen by Tommy and the Scars.  As for Lev and Yara, they are only there to humanize Abby especially as their conflict only exist to give Abby some direction in the story, despite ultimately feeling like surrogate replacements for the Joel/Ellie dynamic intentionally.  This is not exclusive to this character, as Joel and Ellie are completely deconstructed and changed as characters to fit this revenge/cycle of violence narrative being told here.

Ellie is a completely blank slate of a character, with only a few hints of the snarky yet likable teen we grew to care about in the first game.  It doesn’t help that she barely has anything insightful to share as a character, whether it be with Dina or Jesse, or on her own especially in dealing with the lost of Joel and her emotions towards seeking revenge and justice.  This showcases how uninteresting she is as a lead character without a strong supporting cast to bounce off of.  While all of this is supposed to be conveyed by the written journal entries, this shouldn’t be learned through reading but shown to us visually and the game’s narrative direction doesn’t seem concern to really showcase that during her journey outside of the few moments that do this and actually work emotionally to make her still interesting to follow along.  This is exasperated by the dull and uninteresting supporting cast for her in Dina, Jesse, and eventually Tommy as they interact in a friendly or confrontational scene throughout the story.  The flashback scenes with Joel were the few bright spots of the story that really recaptured the magic of the first game in a different light that was engaging and challenging, like a proper sequel should be. This is all completely rendered mute and hollow by the end, with her final decisions that define the most argumentative aspect of the game, its conclusion.

By the end, Ellie is compelled by Tommy out of spite (which is another contrived way to hammer the point home) to go back and finish the job in Santa Barbara where Abby/Lev headed towards, after Abby (in a very tense cat and mouse confrontation against Ellie) left Ellie and her friends for dead to find the regrouped Fireflies.  This leads into an overlong epilogue that introduces a new group The Rattlers (literal Slave Traders), a sequel setup for Part 3, and ultimately subverts the typical conclusion of a revenge tale that renders the journey pointless with Abby being given a chance at redemption with Lev and Ellie left with literally nothing except the road ahead from a revenge unfulfilled.  It really ends on a bleak and relatively destructive end for both sides that was meant to mirror the different ends to the paths they have chosen for themselves.  This is a clear case of understanding the direction and choices made to get to that point, but the way in which it was executed is highly questionable and falls flat emotionally as it literally repeats the same point of the wrongs of vengeance over the course of its 23-hour journey.  This was a messy narrative as a whole, overloaded with contrivances in character motivations and actions along with plot armor being used constantly with characters, a bloated pacing that really weighs the story down, mainly in the second half, literally 3 plot-lines worth of sequels shoved into one game, the new cast ultimately are forgettable, pointless, and fail to really matter in the narrative overall, and ultimately an underwhelming disappointing choice to take the hardest road possible to make a sequel to a tale that probably didn’t need a continuation in the first place.

After the long exploration of the plot, let’s talk about gameplay finally and here, it’s pretty much the same as the first game but with some minor improvements and embellishments that are appreciated.  It is essentially a Survival Horror adventure game with an emphasis on exploration and different combat/stealth scenarios interjected in between the narrative elements of the game.  For the positives, the gameplay elements that work with stealth and exploration are solid, especially with the inclusion of prone stance as well as environmental hiding spots that isn’t a crate or crouch level object (grass/foliage and water).  The gunplay only gets improved, once you upgrade the characters and their arsenal to really open up options to tackle many of the scenarios with overwhelming odds.  The satisfaction of utilizing the environment to gain the upper hand, quick time precision of headshots or powerful rounds that can tear a person in half, and even manipulating the infected/clickers to go to town on the WLF and eventually Rattlers is truly riveting moment gameplay that provides most of the high quality aspect of the game overall and elevates it as a whole, despite the lackluster story weighing it down.  If there were any negatives, it would be the way the game handles the dodge mechanics as it always seem to be spotty at best and unreliable against multiple enemies, actually getting the player killed unwittingly for not getting the timing right.  Other than that, the gameplay is still enjoyable to go through overall.

This should bring us into the level design of the game, as each of the environments actually varied between the open urban landscapes of shops to the suburban ruins of outskirt Seattle.  Each area is provided with multiple options to approach it, whether its through exploration, stealth, or combat scenarios as there are never no one correct way to handle enemies or get to the next point in the story.  That was when the game sparked to life and really provided the necessary enjoyment needed to progress further into the game.  If there is only one negative aspect, it is tied into the story as the final moments really causes a cognitive dissonance between the killings done by you, with the ones that happened in the story, which further contradicts the very point it is making of the futility and destructive nature of revenge.  Despite that little quibble that further adds to the issues in the story, the gameplay is solid if a bit familiar to the first game with only a few improvements made and introduced, but no more than build on the components that wasn’t broken in the first place.

The final positive aspect of the gameplay is the insane amount of options for accessibility provided to those with any form of disability to play the game at their most convenient and comfort.  This is the most comprehensive feature of a game that has ever been implement into this title and another upcoming exclusive, which is worthy of being applauded and appreciated by the developers for being genuinely inclusive (despite the story feeling otherwise about its use of it).  From visual to audio cues, along with changes to the combat elements, no one would be left out if any gamer is interesting in checking out the game. This is something that had to be mentioned and commended, no matter the views on the story itself.

While the gameplay is solid all around with very little to complain meaningfully about it, the graphics are the real stars of this show and boy, it is quite a looker.  Having played it on the PS4 Pro, it is an absolute stunner with its native 2K resolution to 4K upscale through checkerboard method (akin to Horizon: Zero Dawn) to attain a high-quality graphical look for the game overall with proper options to fine tune the HDR to look absolutely amazing.  The details in the environments along with the interactions to it are nothing short of astounding, coming close to what Next-Gen looks like for the gaming community in general.  This is about as good as its going to look on the these aging consoles and it delivers on this promise perfectly.  That being said, there were a few oddities and quibbles with the graphic aspects of the game.

The issues found in the graphics are mostly minor with a few oddities that stood out, starting with the occasional bug and glitches.  There were a few times when the game wouldn’t interaction with a drawer or object due to how fast the animations were moving.  There were also moments of backgrounds disappearing for a split second, taking the player out of the experience but it only happened randomly on occasions.  Where the personal oddities come in, are the over the top graphic ways of showing the kills, as they start out real and disturbing to eventually coming across as outlandish over the top in a B-grade gore horror film stylistically, that looked all the more funny as the same NPC soldiers/cult followers look the same after a while.  Anyway, despite those minor issues, the graphics are top notch and stellar overall.

Lastly, we get to the sound design of the game which is stellar throughout the game, from the hard-hitting impacts of the violent hits/shots to the stellar musical composition from Gustavo Santaolalla who builds on the first game’s notable score to craft new pieces that work extremely well with the newer characters.   Despite how cheesy and goofy the death growls and name calling comes across eventually (very stilted deliveries and odd ways to cheaply make you feel bad about what you’re doing),  the sound effects are brutal in all their high quality bits.  The guns sound beefy and each hit comes across hard hitting through the soundscape, especially on a surround sound setup.  The score from Gustavo Santaolalla is reliably fantastic, despite the repetitive use of some of the familiar themes or ultimately generic industrial ambient tracks that take up the more tense moments of the game.  It has a few new cues to serve as themes for the newer characters, which helps to make their scenes have some emotional punch to them, despite the very choppy and weak dialogue at play here.  Not much else to explore except, the sound design is absolutely stellar in this game from the infected providing some much needed suspense to the brutality of violence being enforced by the heavy hits from each gunshot or blow provided to an NPC.

This brings us to where this review stands and before playing the game, it is easy to outright dislike it mainly for focusing on the story being told here.  Having now gone through it with the other elements working in tandem with each other, they are all top notch to solidly well made, but it is all in service of a revenge tale that is rote, dull, and ultimately confused as to whose story matters more.  As a video review title sums it up nicely,  this is a game “at war with itself” in justifying its existence to continue the first game as well as paving the way for future installments but in the hardest and most destructive way possible that unwittingly undermines and diminish what came before, specifically in the deconstruction and damaging transformation that both Joel and Ellie go through in the flashbacks and how the story wraps up.  The gameplay in the moment is great, graphics are phenomenal in their detail-oriented environments and animations that feel lifelike at times, and the sound design is sharply on point with how brutal and impactful the violence is.  Where it really falters, is the plodding, disjointed narrative at play here that ultimately fails to answer a question that has been on the mind for some time now, was this a story worth being told? To further continue the characters we grew to love, no matter how destructive it was to them.  The personal answer to this question is unfortunately no.

SCORE: ⭐⭐⭐ out of ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

The Last Of Us Part II is a continuation of the beloved and memorable first outing that provided an emotionally unique spin on the tired but true post-apocalyptic tale with a duo that we all grew to love and care for by the end of that tale.  This is the complete opposite of what that game explored (first game revolved around love, this game revolves around hate) but unfortunately meanders on a newer cast of characters and aspect of the world that fails to resonate on any deeper level or connective tissue to the legacy characters’ journey, retcons and makes creative decisions to fit this revenge tale in a disingenuous way especially in the relationship with Joel & Ellie along with their actions in the previous title, and its slow and plodding pacing with the time jumps bogs down some really great moment to moment gameplay in action and stealth, a gorgeous showcase of graphical quality this late in the PS4 console, and a superb sound design to make those violent delights hit hard.  It is mostly a frustrating experience as the elements of something special are there, but the lack of a cohesive vision in the plot and characters overall during making this game shows in the main release, which made it an ambitious creative risk that ultimately failed to stick to the landing and is viewed in the same veins of sequels that warp the intentions and success of its predecessor to take the hardest road to continue, when there were better ways to make a continuation work in tandem with its previous outings.