Brian Tyree Henry

Godzilla X Kong: The New Empire

03/05/24

Cineworld, Edinburgh

I am in the unusual position of having seen a Godzilla film recently and in the even more unusual position of having actually enjoyed it (Godzilla Minus One, thanks for asking). Today I am at something of a loose end, so I think, why not check out Godzilla X Kong: The New Empire? After all, it’s just opened to impressive box office returns and hey, how bad can it be? The answer to that question is ‘very bad indeed’ and I seriously doubt that anybody who has shelled out to see this incomprehensible twaddle has left the screening thinking, ‘well, that was entertaining.’

Kong is currently living in Hollow Earth, where life seems to consist of fighting the various weird creatures that live down there and occasionally eating them. He’s also suffering from a very bad toothache. His antics are being closely monitored by Scientist Dr Ilene Andrews (Rebecca Hall, looking vaguely embarrassed and doubtless wistfully thinking about the serious acting career she previously enjoyed). Meanwhile, Godzilla is up on the planet’s surface, occasionally letting off steam by wrecking whichever city happens to get in his way and taking the occasional nap in the Coliseum in Rome. For some inexplicable reason, the earth’s inhabitants seem to approve of him, despite the fact that he must be inadvertently killing hundreds of them every time he knocks down a block of flats. Go figure.

Andrews enlists a veterinarian, Trapper (Dan Stevens), to take care of Kong’s bad tooth and a podcaster, Bernie Hayes (Brian Tyree Henry), for no apparent reason other than to occupy the position of comic relief, while she wanders from location to location in true Basil Exposition style, explaining what’s going on. As the plot is needlessly complicated, these skills are in demand. Inexplicable happenings include her adopted daughter, Jia (Kaylee Hottle), the only surviving member of a Hollow Earth tribe, picking up what appear to be distress signals from deep underground; the presence of an (admittedly cute) baby Kong; and a tribe of giant apes in the underworld who are being ruled by a cruel dictator called The Scar King. In one scene, Dr Andrews looks at some carvings on a wall and is able to extrapolate an entire story from them in a matter of moments. Ah, the benefits of an education!

None of this makes any sense but it doesn’t actually matter, because what the film mostly boils down to is a series of extended ape vs reptile punch-ups that go on for just about forever. Weta studios have produced some brilliant CGI creations here, there’s no doubt about that, but if any member of their team has ever heard the adage that ‘less is more,’ there’s no evidence of it. The fight sequences (and there are a lot of them) are interminable, the screen filled with roaring, bellowing close ups of either Mr Kong or Mr Godzilla (though it should be said that the latter has much less to do than his simian adversary). Sometimes they fight each other, other times they fight as a kind of tag team as they take on Scar King and his followers. If roaring and bellowing is your go-to, then this could just be the perfect film for you. If not, then maybe give it a swerve. I wish I had.

I can’t stop thinking that this truly dreadful farrago must have cost millions of dollars to produce and that half a dozen low-budget films – with credible storylines – could have been produced in its place. For my money, Godzilla X Kong is just an empty exercise, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.

1.5 stars

Philip Caveney

Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse

04/06/23

Cineworld, Edinburgh

In 2018, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse caught a lot of people napping. At that time, the Marvel Universe pretty much dominated the public movie-going imagination and here was something completely unexpected: Lord and Miller’s animated extravaganza – which had the temerity to take on the big guys. It was, quite literally, like nothing we’d seen before.

A lot has happened over the intervening years. Marvel are not quite the force they once were, with recent offerings (though still profitable) failing to reach the dizzy heights they’ve previously climbed to. And the weight of expectation for Across the Spider-Verse is palpable. Can this Sony Studios sequel really hope to put lightning into the bottle a second time?

Well, yes, as it turns out, it can. The credit sequence alone offers more imaginative filmmaking than we’re used to seeing in the average Marvel feature.

Sixteen months after the events of Into, Gwen Stacy (Hailee Steinfield) is having a hard time getting on with her life on Earth-65. After accidentally killing Peter Parker (Jake Johnson), she’s understandably depressed – and she can’t help but miss her old pal Miles Morales (Shameik Moore), who is inconveniently stranded in a completely different dimension. On Earth 1610, he’s still negotiating everyday life with his cop father, Jefferson (Brian Tyree Henry), and his nurse mother, Rio (Luna Lauren Vélez), whilst continuing his secret adventures as our friendly neighbourhood Spider-Man.

But when Gwen is visited by another couple of Spider-People, Miguel O’Hara (Oscar Isaac) and Jessica Drew (Issa Rae), they give her a handy bracelet that allows her to slip easily between dimensions. Time to give Miles a quick visit? Well, why not? Doing so couldn’t possible mess up the old twisty-turny-timey-wimey configurations… could it?

It would be pointless to try and convey more of the plot here because it’s complicated and mind-bending in the best possible sense. It’s to Lord and Miller’s credit (they wrote the script with Dave Callahan) that at no point do I feel bewildered by what’s happening onscreen. The true triumph, however, is the ever-changing beauty of the many different art techniques used to illustrate the story: from realist to impressionist; from pastel shades to psychedelia. Across the Spider-Verse is a mesmerising, eye-popping spectacle that feels like being plunged headlong into a fabulous maelstrom of sonic fury.

And it’s also more than that. The sprightly script keeps throwing snarky one-liners at me, the story counterpoints teenage angst with the minefield of parental responsibility and, with the arrival of The Spot (Jason Schwartzman), I’m offered a super-villain like none I’ve ever seen before. Best of all, I’ve rarely seen a film that feels more inclusive than this – that gleefully throws in a pregnant, afro-wearing, motorbike-riding Spider-Woman, just because it can.

My only real criticism? In a film with a running time of two hours and twenty minutes, surely the story arc could have reached some kind of standalone conclusion? When the ‘To Be Continued’ message hits the screen, I let out an audible groan. I can only hope I won’t have to wait another five years for part three, because I’d be happy to sit down and watch it right now. But hey, if my one negative comment is that I am left wanting more, that’s a good thing, surely?

Miss this one and weep. And folks, I know I say this a lot but please, please don’t wait for streaming. If ever a film was designed to be seen on the biggest screen possible, this is the one.

5 stars

Philip Caveney

Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse

Miles Morales (Shameik Moore) as Spider-Man in Sony Pictures Animation’s SPIDER-MAN: INTO THE SPIDER-VERSE.

12/12/18

That unwieldy title notwithstanding, this is a genuine treat. For those who are wary of watching yet another retread of a tired and over-familiar concept, let me assure you that this doesn’t so much as reinvent the franchise as grab it by the neck, tear it to pieces and start all over again. The result is one of the most exciting slices of animation I’ve seen in a long time.

Troubled teenager Miles Morales (voiced by Shameik Moore) is struggling to fit in to the straight laced Brooklyn high school where he has recently enrolled. His father, Jefferson (Brian Tyree Henry) is a New York cop, a disciplinarian and a vociferous Spider-Man critic. Miles finds himself gravitating towards his mysterious Uncle Aaron (Mahershala Ali), who is an adventurous sort, prone to bending the rules. One night, when Miles and Aaron are indulging in a graffiti-art session in a deserted stretch of subway, Miles is bitten by a robotic spider and, shortly afterwards, begins to experience major changes to his mind and body.

Understandably confused, he returns to the subway, just in time to witness regular Spider-Man villain, Kingpin (Liev Schrieber), opening up a portal to a whole series of alternate realities and, for good measure, enacting a murder that will have all staunch web-heads shrieking ‘Noooo!’  at the screen. Kingpin’s meddling with reality is an attempt to reconnect with characters from his past, but his machinations have unwittingly invited five different personifications of Spider-Man to leave their own dimensions and head for present-day New York. I won’t list the alternate Spideys in detail but suffice to say: two of them are female and one is a cartoon pig called Peter Porker. The thing is, does Miles, still coming to terms with his new abilities, have the necessary stuff to join up with them?

Phil Lord’s plot may be bat-shit crazy, but it doesn’t matter one jot because Spider-Man: into the Spider-Verse careers along at such a breakneck pace there’s never any time to question the absurdity of it all. What’s more, the eye-popping animation is so extraordinary that it virtually dazzles the viewer into submission with levels of ingenuity and chutzpah rarely witnessed in this genre. There’s a whole riot of styles thrown into the mix, with individual frames freezing momentarily to do homage to veteran artists like Steve Ditko and John Romita, and more experimental sequences that break new ground entirely. It’s fabulous stuff. Oh, and  just wait till you see what they’ve done with Doctor Octopus!

Purists may not approve of some of the liberties that have been taken with the source material, but the fact is that the Spider-Man franchise has already been pretty thoroughly milked (yet another live action movie is due to land early next year), so if you’re going to slip into that distinctive red and blue outfit, you’d better have something different to offer. And believe me, this film has that in abundance.

Oh yes, and this features one of the best Stan Lee cameos ever (voiced by the man himself, of course), which, given his recent demise, makes it all the more poignant. Here he plays the owner of a cheap novelty shop, selling knock-off Spider-Man outfits and pointing to a sign that says ‘No refunds.’ Priceless.

There is only one other viewer at the afternoon screening I attend, and that’s a shame, because here’s one superhero movie that actually deserves closer investigation. Don’t let it swing over the horizon without giving it a spin.

4.7 stars

Philip Caveney