Tag / ken watanabe

by Jaime Rebanal

‘The Creator’ Review: Visually Stunning Sci-Fi Epic Struggles With Severe Misgivings

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At a certain point in time, we simply must accept that most dystopian fiction isn’t really so far out in the future as much as it may very well be the present. This can be very well said about The Creator, Gareth Edwards’s highly ambitious science fiction epic built around mankind’s relationship with artificial intelligence. Whether recent events have made The Creator and its aspirations feel like they’ve dated themselves already, perhaps what might catch most about it is that in an era where many major studio releases are based on a beloved property with the intention of starting a franchise. And I think on that ground, I can’t help but at least respect what Edwards is aiming for.

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by Jaime Rebanal

‘Godzilla: King of the Monsters’ Review: Kaiju Ridiculousness Cranked Up a Notch

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If you’ve left Gareth Edwards’s Godzilla feeling like there wasn’t enough monster action to eat up, Michael Dougherty provides so much more of that in Godzilla: King of the Monsters (fittingly enough, whose name is taken from Terry Morse’s American bastardization of Ishirô Honda’s film). But decidedly, you’re also left wondering how much of this feels exciting especially when you’re in the face of nonstop monster action from beginning to end and in that same sense, Godzilla: King of the Monster can be equal parts exhilarating or just overall exhausting. But for longtime fans of the series who were eagerly awaiting to see Mothra or King Ghidorah coming to the screen in an Americanized format, there’s a whole lot that one can eat up at in Godzilla: King of the Monsters. Putting it lightly, it’s a film that took notes from the fan reaction to Gareth Edwards’s take but everything that Michael Dougherty does worse in King of the Monsters might also give you a lot more to appreciate about how Edwards approached the start of the MonsterVerse.

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by Jaime Rebanal

Isle of Dogs – Review

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Wes Anderson’s second animated feature film Isle of Dogs (which can be said out loud as “I love dogs”) is delightful in every sense of the word. For as easy as it is to admire the consistency of a filmmaker like Wes Anderson whether it be via his trademark visual style or his distinctively quirky sense of humour, his style will understandably not be for everyone’s tastes. Speaking only for myself, I’ve been a rather dedicated apologist for Wes Anderson’s work for I’ve yet to find myself actively disliking a film under his own name – because the way Wes Anderson allows his own trademarks to adapt so well under different forms of storytelling only goes to show more proof as to why he is truly among the most unique filmmakers of his own generation, for he is truly in a league of his own.

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by Jaime Rebanal

Godzilla (2014) – Review

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Was hoping to enjoy it more on this go after having been disappointed from a theatrical viewing, but on a revisit my opinion nevertheless remained the same. Gareth Edwards, a director only known at the time for a small scale science fiction film, Monsters, started off Legendary Pictures’s MonsterVerse on a more middling note than anything. Being the first American Godzilla film after the atrocity that is Roland Emmerich’s film, Edwards seems to have a grasp on what made a great monster film as a whole at least by remaining within the spirit of the original Japanese films – and yet it’s still somewhat lacking. As a star for the MonsterVerse it was intriguing to see what would have come out as a result from Godzilla but the most it evokes is that it’s just desperate to start up an entire series of films rather than standing out on its own: which I suppose I can get behind with what more it teases.

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by Jaime Rebanal

The Sea of Trees – Review

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From the many things that I have heard about The Sea of Trees, I would not have expected something nearly as perplexing as what I’ve received here. Obviously, this film wants to be something so much deeper than what it’s already given us, but the fact it fails so miserably is where it is all just so fascinating to watch from start to finish. Perhaps not for the reasons that Gus Van Sant may have intended, but there’s so much that The Sea of Trees is attempting to be, and yet the fact it fails is why it just keeps our attention as it moves on. There’s an extent to which I do understand the hate it received from Cannes, but there’s another level to which I just want to recommend watching it as the amount it is doing wrong is where it deserves notice, as it’s an undeniably fascinating product from start to finish, and that’s a statement going without any irony. Continue reading →