Fantastic Four
Dir. Josh Trank
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Fantastic Four is really one of the saddest movies of the year - for what it could have been. Josh Trank, the relatively young director who directed the surprise success Chronicle in his late twenties, seemed like the perfect choice to revitalize this franchise from the dopey first two Tim Story films into something much richer. Chronicle took the superhero genre and spun it on its head; using the "found footage" format, it was a much more realistic take on what a group of teenagers would actually do if given telekinetic powers (which turns from pranks at the supermarket to unchecked destruction - it's a great film if you've yet to check it out). But after many stories of Trank's backstage problems with Fox Studios and the actors not getting along on set, things weren't looking bright. Fantastic Four (2015) shows some promise in its first act, but by the end, everything derails. You can pretty much see the studio's meddling on-screen, and it's a shame, because it will likely ruin the "Fantastic Four" brand for years to come, and also Trank's chances with another big project like this.
The story follows a group of "teenagers" (all played by actors in their 20's and 30's) hired by the government to work on a groundbreaking new teleportation device to an alternate universe. But when they travel there, a wild storm breaks out and gives them powers; Reed Richards (Miles Teller), who initially developed the teleportation technology as a kid, can stretch his body; Richards' childhood pal Ben Grimm (Jamie Bell) develops an impenetrable rocky skin; the hot-headed son of the project leader Johnny Storm (Michael B. Jordan) becomes the Human Torch, able to control fire; and Sue Storm (Kate Mara) becomes invisible. Also, their somewhat disgruntled cohort Victor Von Doom gains the ability to...well it's not really clear. He seems to be able to blow people's heads off with his mind, when convenient. And after gaining his powers he wants to destroy the world for no discernible reason.
It takes a while for the team to even get to "Planet Zero," and most of that set-up stuff worked for me. It seemed as if Trank was going for a decidedly more scientific take on the material, and it felt more like a psychological horror film a la Cronenberg's The Fly than a spandex-laden popcorn flick. When the characters are first endowed with their "powers," it felt truly creepy; while Reed is crawling out of his destroyed pod that traveled back to Earth, his leg, caught under a piece of rubble, stretches to a disturbing length. Also there's a shot of him all stretched out on a hospital bed that reminded me of the werewolf transformation in An American Werewolf in London; Reed's stretched skin looks disgustingly real, and you're reminded that these are just kids whose bodies have changed beyond repair.
However, soon after they gain their powers, the exact point the movie fell apart for me is when a title card saying 'One Year Later' popped up on the screen. After that year, every member of the team has full control over their abilities, and we never see the emotional/physical journey that makes practically every superhero origin story so satisfying. In the words of Seinfeld, they "yada yada'ed over the best part!" And besides the childhood friendship between Ben and Reed that turns sour, the characters barely interact with each other. Going into the film, a lot was made out of Johnny and Sue being adopted siblings, which is a great progressive thing to have in a movie like this, but watching the film, they may as well have been total strangers. I don't even think they discuss their powers after they transform. It's again a shame, since Chronicle shows that Trank knows how to handle young kids grappling with powers really well.
For a superhero movie, Fantastic Four (2015) has almost no action either. There's one brief moment where Reed and The Thing fight in the woods, and the finale, which is one of the worst, blandest, least competent endings to a movie I've ever seen, but there's no stand-out, well-choreographed set piece here, which is baffling to me.
Had Trank stuck to making this more of a "body horror" movie, nixing the more traditional superhero template, maybe this would have been great. But Fantastic Four really is just a poorly conceived film, filled with terrible characters (Dr. Doom is absolutely wasted here), stupid decision making (yeah - let's leave a bunch of drunk teenagers around this top-secret tech) and a finale that looks like it was taken straight from a Syfy Original movie. I don't know how and why this went so wrong, but now I see why Josh Trank left the Star Wars Anthology movie - maybe he should stick with lesser profile projects for a while.
Rating: C-
Vacation
Dir. John Francis Daley & Jonathan M. Goldstein
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The original Vacation with Chevy Chase is one of my all-time favorite comedies, but like most things in life, it had to be sullied by the presence of Ed Helm's dumb face. I've never been a big fan of Helms - I feel as though his "good" work on The Office and Cedar Rapids is more the writing than his performance - and when it was announced that of all idiots he would be replacing Mr. Chase, my hopes for this film wilted like an unwatered fern. The trailers didn't do a heck of a lot for me either, but I figured I'd give it a chance, and lo and behold - WHAT - I...didn't hate it? Hell must have frozen over. Despite the 22 Jump Street-esque cringe-worthy references to the first film, the overall crude/juvenile nature of the jokes, and the countless negative reviews I'd seen online, I actually found the Vacation reboot/sequel (a "re-quel"?) to be a marginally fun little comedy with some nice gags that didn't make me regret buying a ticket.
Vacation (2015) follows a grown-up Rusty Griswald, with a family of his own. Wanting to re-invigorate his family ties, he surprises his wife (Christina Applegate) and two sons, the lanky awkward James (Skyler Gisondo) and the Bart Simpson-y lil' bastard Kevin (Steele Stebbins), with a cross-country trip to Wally World, home of the new loop-de-loop rollercoaster, The Velociraptor. As is the case with these movies, it's mostly an excuse for a series of fun gags along the way. Some are better than others, but I was chuckling at regular intervals, which is a good sign. The kids in particular were hilarious and really well-casted. If you have an appreciation for low-brow comedy (such as a family mistaking raw sewage runoff for a hot spring, and lots of references to male genitals), it's not the worst thing in the world.
Tonally Vacation (2015) feels nothing like the original film; it lacks its heart and charm, it doesn't feel grounded in any kind of reality (similar to how Dumb and Dumber To took away the "realistic" feel of the first), and the journey doesn't feel as important. But it's hard to beat the best, and let's face it, the first film was already kind of ruined by Vegas Vacation anyway. Maybe it was because my expectations were so low, but I came out of the theater feeling good and hearing Seal's "Kiss from a Rose" in my head.
Rating: B-
The Gift
Dir. Joel Edgerton
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If someone were to tell me a year ago that "that one guy from Warrior is going to direct one of the best psychological thrillers of 2015" I'd no doubt have questioned their sanity. Yet here we are; The Gift, marking Joel Edgerton's directorial debut, feels like a modern day Hitchcock film. It's tense, twist-y, and has a trifecta of great acting on display. The film is about a married couple, Simon (Jason Bateman) and Robyn (Rebecca Hall), who run into an old High School acquaintance of Simon's while shopping for their newly-bought home. Little do they know, Gordo (Edgerton) will change both their lives forever in a psychological tailspin of suspense and intrigue.
Of course, the nature of this movie makes it hard to talk about since it does rely on your not knowing what will happen next, but I found The Gift to be an extremely well crafted slow burn thriller. The way we slowly get to know the characters, and the way each of their pasts naturally reveal themselves was amazing. It's essentially a movie about the past coming to haunt the present, and how secrets can fester and make themselves known. Although the film may retread similar ground to a number of other films (I feel naming them might spoil the movie, so I won't), and it may not end up being the most memorable at the end of the year, it's still a fantastic film that makes me wish Blumhouse Productions, known for their assembly-line horror movies, would take more chances on adult thrillers like this.
Rating: B+
The Look of Silence
Dir. Joshua Oppenheimer
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Speaking of the past coming back to haunt you... The Look of Silence is the companion piece to documentarian Joshua Oppenheimer's surreal and disturbing The Act of Killing. In both films, we see the current state of Indonesia, which in the 1960's gave way to a genocide, killing millions of "communists." However, unlike the Nazi's in Germany, the death squad and corrupt political leaders never lost power in their country, and The Act of Killing follows a group of death squad leaders who lovingly re-enacted their beloved murder sprees. It was an unbelievable film that actually felt dangerous - a feeling reinforced by the fact that most of the end credits said "anonymous." The Look of Silence, instead of primarily following the killers, looks more into the victims lives still affected by the atrocities. The film follows an optician named Adi, whose parents are close to 100-years old and still remember when his brother, Ramli, was taken away to the "hospital" by the government. Interviewing many subjects involved in his brother's ritualistic slaughter, the optician heartbreakingly attempts to get people to open up about this absolutely horrific and pointless period of human cruelty.
While it isn't as intense or surreal as Oppenheimer's previous film, there's a quiet horror permeating throughout. Most of the villagers, both the victims and perpetrators, just want to forget about everything and either cope by making light of it, or simply state that they were "doing their job." The film's unblinking eye and raw look at the faces of those involved reminded me of Shoah, an equally absorbing Holocaust documentary (which I highly recommend if you have 9 hours to set aside). Oppenheimer brilliantly knows how to frame his subjects and create meaning through composition; the film shows Adi watching a TV monitor showing the killers re-enacting his own brother's death with gleeful reminiscence, and the camera just lingers on Adi's numb, hurt face, wordlessly conveying all you need to know. Also, the idea that the film follows an optometrist, whose job is to make people "see better" is a kind of real life irony, especially when they start interviewing the death squad people and their families. It's obviously not a fun movie, and not as "flashy" as The Act of Killing, but it's still a highly important film.
Rating: A-
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