Movie of the Week: Independence Day - Resurgence

Quite by chance I saw the original Independence day on TV just a few days before going to see Resurgence at the cinema, so I had the original movie firmly fixed in my brain with it's starry ensemble cast. Very pleased to see most of that cast reprising their roles. i can only speculate that Will Smith didn't want to play himself twenty years on, but everyone else aged relkatively gracefully, especially Goldblum and Pullman.

For anyone who'd had their head in the sand the original Independence Day saw our heroes fighting off all powerful alens by blowing up the mother ship from the inside in a suicide mission that didn't kill off the heroes. Now, a generation down the line mankind had been scavenging and using alien tech in an effort to beat them at their own game next time. Of course, Resurgence is the story of Next Time. The aliens are back, and they've had twenty years to get ready, too.

This time our hotshot heroes are the next generation, sons of the original heroes: Liam Hemsworth (Gale in the Hunger Games and brother of Chris) acquits himself well as Jake Morrison, the young pilot who has a problem with authority and Jessie T Usher as Dylan Hiller, the golden boy of flight school, son of the character played by Will Smith in the original. Jeff Goldblum reprises David Levinson, the scientist who is now in charge of preparing for the next time and Judd Hirsch, once again the comic relief, is his aging father. Brent Spiner reprises Dr Okun (no it appears he wasn't killed in the original; he's been in a coma for 20 years).

There are absolutely no surprises. This is pure hokum, but it's entertaining hokum. Don't expect any Oscar nominations for this one.

Book Log 41/2016 - Alexandra Bracken: The Passenger

Etta Spencer is an up-and-coming concert violinist about to make her debut in New York when her world is turned upside down. She fluffs her performance because of a strange sound and then, following it, trips over the corpse of her beloved teacher and then is shoved down a time tunnel ending up in seventeen hundred and something on a sailing ship heading for America with a bitchy young woman (the one who pushed her) and a mixed-race young sailor, Nicholas. (Plus a piratical crew.)

It turns out that Etta is one of the great time-travelling families, but her mother, rather than training her, has left her in complete ignorance. The head of the Ironwood Family has kidnapped Etta's mother back in the present, and unless Etta retrieves a hugely valuable and powerful astrolabe for him her mother will die.

Etta and Nicholas go hurtling off through time tunnels. It's a story of love, intrigue and adventure. Officially this is aimed at the Children's market but it doesn't much feel like a children's book. It's at least YA/New Adult.

I did enjoy this except... except... I hated the ending. In fact it didn't have an ending. It simply stopped. I felt completely let down. This broke the implicit contract between author and reader in that I was looking for a resolution which was absent. It may be a cunning trick to get me to buy the next book, but it was such an abrupt cut-off that all it did was to leave me feeling extremely let down. I don't mind a few loose ends to tease me into reading the sequel, but I do want some kind of resolution at the end of the book.

Book Log 42/2016 - Eileen Putman: The Dastardly Duke

I guess the author is American because we didn’t have lynx and bobcats in British woodland in the Regency period. Neither did we eat ‘biscuits’ for breakfast. I recommend Ms Putnam reads: Susanne Alleyn: Medieval Underpants and Other Blunders to remind her that a little fact checking is better than making assumptions.

OK that’s got that out of the way. That apart, the rest of it works well. The book is fun. The Duke of Claridge takes a bet and must take a street wench and turn her into a society lady. (Yes, one of those stories.) The difference here is that his street wench, Hannah Gregory, is not quite what she seems. She is a lady but has fallen on hard times due to the fact that she’s profoundly deaf. It adds another dimension to what might otherwise be a Regency re-tread of My Fair Lady (or Pygmalion).

Book Log 43/2016 - Lois McMaster Bujold: Penric & the Shaman – Penric & Desemona #2

The second Penric novella, picking up Penric’s story after he’s been trained and installed as a Divine of the Bastard’s Order, and a Sorceror, in the religious house of the princess archdivine in Martensbridge. Penric rides (or is ridden by) a demon, Desdemona who has already inhabited many other divines in her long relationship with humans, so Pen not only had the demon personality breaking through his own, but also the other divines Des had inhabited. It gives him skills and powers he can call on when he needs to, but the other personalities also pop up when he doesn’t always want them.

Called away from his task of making woodcuts of the Temple’s books (magically) Pen is sent on a mission to retrieve Inglis, a rogue shaman wanted for murder. His companion (apart from the ever present Desdemona) is Senior Locator Oswyl, a man who takes his duties very seriously. Pen and Oswyl don’t really see eye to eye. Oswyl follows his head and Pen follows his heart. When the shaman is found their troubles are only just beginning. Set in the world of the Five Gods (like The Curse of Chalion) theology is a practical discipline, not just a theoretical one.

Movie of the Week: The Legend of Tarzan

John Clayton (Alexander Skarsgard) is settled in England, married to Jane and seems to be well adjusted coinsidering he grew up wild in the jungle. Backstory in interspersed with the ongoing film plot which revolves around Belgian agent, Leon Rom (Christoph Waltz - everyone's favourite villain lately) luring Clayton back to Africa to the tribal chief who wants to kill him. Accompanied by American George Washington Williams (Samuel L Jackson), the Claytons soon discover a wicked plot to enslave the whole of the Congo for its diamonds and ivory.

Sadly Skarsgard is muscular but unremarkable, and Samuel L Jackson seems out of place as the token representitive of the American government, though Margot Robbie impresses prettily as Jane. There are some strange editing leaps. Journeys that are not only over in a flash, but are chopped out altogether leaving logic holes. This is more noticeable towards the end of the movie, as if they're trying to reduce screen time - though it didn't seem overly long even at 1 hr 50 mins. There are some action sequences athat are so impossible they are more reminicent of animation than live action.

Movie of the Week: X-Men Apocalypse

For some reason I missed blogging this back in May, so in the interests of providing a full and complete record, here it is, now, except...errr... it's a couple of months since I saw it and...it hasn't left much of a lasting impression. So that says something for starters. What does stand out is an interesting personal story for Eric (Magneto) who is incogneto Magneto working in a factory in Poland. When his wife and daughter are killed it turns him to the dark side (oops wrong movie, but you know what I mean). Michael Fassbender is once again, top-notch as Magneto. We also get to see the transition of Xavier from hirsute to egg-head. I still can't quite get my head around James McAvoy as a young Patrick Stewart, but - hey - that's my problem, not his. It was nice to see Sophie Turner (Sansa Stark in Game of Thrones) kicking arse as a young Jean Grey and Evan Peters did a decent turn at Quicksilver.

Apocalypse is a god-like entity, not an event, BTW, and it takes all the X-Men working together to stop him. There are a few twists and turns along the way, but any more an that would be a spoiler. What the movie gains in action it generally loses in characterisation. This followed on from the other X-Men prequels but it falls into the more-of-the-same-but -different category. There was nothng earth-shatteringly new in here.

Movie of the Week: Ghostbusters

This week has been busy at the cinema and because we know we'll be seeing Star Trek next week, we did two consecutive days at the movies this week with Tarzan and Ghistbusters (and we still haven't seen 'Now You See Me 2').

So... Ghostbusters.

A remake with plenty of nods in the direction of the original movie. This Ghostbusters has an all-female team with Melissa McCarthy, Kristen Wiig, Kate McKinnon and Leslie Jones sitting easily in the lead roles. (I don't always like Melissa McCarthy in movies, but I did here.) Two physicists, an engineer and a native New Yorker are pitted against creepy Rowan (Neil Casey) and a hoard of vengeful ghosts. There's a lot here that's familiar (proton packs and slime) and a lot of nods to the original movie including cameo appearances by all the major (surviving) stars.

It's good-hearted and downright funny in places with plenty of euwww-slime moments. In itself that's not enough to sustain the humour, but Chris Hemsworth, playing against type as the dumb beefcake receptionist (Clark Kent strippogram!) who can barely answer the phone adds charm. In fact he gives a very creditable performance.

Expect lots of pop-culture references as the ladies 'go for the ghoulies' and enjoy this movie for what it is - a summer popcorn flick. It's never going to replace the original and it certainly can't deliver any real surprises, but it was a fun way to spend Wednesday afternoon and - hey - the cinema has air conditioning! Sit through the credits, because there's an easter-egg right at the end.