Civil War

Director: Alex Garland
Cast: Kirsten Dunst, Wagner Moura, Cailee Spaeny, Stephen McKinley Henderson, Nick Offerman
Genre: Action/Drama
|Run Time: 109 min
Opens: 10 April 2024
Rating: NC16

It is a presidential election year in the United States and so political tensions are high, but really, when aren’t they? It’s either the best or the worst time for a movie about a second American Civil War to come into existence, and that’s what writer-director Alex Garland has given us.

It is the near future. The President of the United States (Nick Offerman) is into his third term, having disbanded the FBI and authorised airstrikes against American citizens within the country. The Western Forces, led by Texas and California, have seceded from the United States and a civil war is in progress. Lee (Kirsten Dunst), a prolific war photojournalist, is travelling from New York to the frontlines in Washington, D.C. She is accompanied by journalists Joel (Wagner Moura) and Sammy (Stephen McKinley Henderson), who mentored both Lee and Joel. Jessie (Cailee Spaeny), a young aspiring photojournalist who looks up to Lee, insists on tagging along. The group will encounter various threats along the way as they get closer to the heart of the conflict.

Alex Garland, who has directed Ex Machina, Annihilation and Men, has proven that he’s good at establishing an atmosphere. Civil War is absolutely crawling with dread. This is an intensely visceral, haunting movie that efficiently establishes a terrifying reality without spending too long setting things up and explaining things. The cinematography by Rob Hardy emphasises both the uneasy desolation of empty roads and smoking buildings and the frenetic violence of the gunfights. Civil War constructs a state of unease that never lets up. There are set pieces that the audience can’t really enjoy in the same way that they might enjoy a similar sequence in a typical action movie because this isn’t meant to be mindless fun, and that tension is something Garland handles deftly. It’s an introspective movie that is fundamentally about the ethics of war journalism and the basic question of what we should or shouldn’t do in the face of violent conflict. The movie also addresses the idea of trying to pretend it all isn’t happening.

Civil War is a movie about a war, something inherently political, that deliberately holds the politics at arm’s length. Understandably, Garland doesn’t want to make a big show of support for either side and risk alienating his audience, in an environment where it seems like many people are actively looking for reasons to feel alienated. “We don’t need it explained. We know exactly why it might happen. We know exactly what the fault lines and pressures are,” Garland said at the movie’s premiere screening at South by Southwest in Austin, Texas. We know that an alliance between Texas and California is unlikely, and so this feels like Garland trying to deliberately separate Civil War from present-day political reality. But then there is a tension between the movie being a cautionary tale and it being something more speculative and science fiction adjacent. We can’t say for sure if the movie is better or worse if it goes into more detail about the war and the belligerents, but there are times when it feels like the movie wants to be challenging but also to take the easy way out at the same time.

Civil War’s biggest strength is Kirsten Dunst. Her turn as a war photojournalist is wholly compelling and she conveys the character’s numbness, her practiced inoculation to trauma, with just a look.

Civil War falls back on archetypes, with Moura as the gung-ho character living for the excitement of it all, McKinley Henderson as the kindly mentor figure and Spaney as the young idealistic newcomer who’s about to have their worldview shattered. However, the writing and the performances ensure that these characters are more than just archetypes. We want to follow these characters and see them make it out even if we don’t agree with them all the time. Look out for Jesse Plemons, Dunst’s real-life husband, who makes quite the impact in a terrifying one-scene appearance.

Summary: Civil War is an effectively visceral, unsettling movie that paints a convincing portrait of a near-future America torn apart by war. As a photojournalist who has been numbed by her experiences in various warzones around the world, Kirsten Dunst is believably haunted and distant. Wagner Moura, Cailee Spaeny and Stephen McKinley Henderson round out the main cast, playing archetypical characters who also feel fully formed. Writer-director Alex Garland isn’t too focused on the surrounding politics and doesn’t give the viewer a whole lot of information about the specifics of the conflict, which can sometimes be frustrating but also means the focus is placed on the characters and their immediate experiences.

RATING: 4 out of 5 Stars                        

Jedd Jong

Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire

Director: Adam Wingard
Cast: Rebecca Hall, Dan Stevens, Brian Tyree Henry, Kaylee Hottle, Alex Ferns, Fala Chen, Rachel House
Genre: Action/Adventure/Fantasy
Run Time: 115 min
Opens: 28 March 2024
Rating: PG13

The Monsterverse began ten years ago with Godzilla. It was going to conclude with the fourth instalment, 2021’s Godzilla vs. Kong, but that movie’s good box office performance led to a fifth movie being greenlit. And so, the Monsterverse lives to roar another day.

A few years after the events of Godzilla vs. Kong, Kong lives a relatively peaceful life in the Hollow Earth while Godzilla tangles with various other Titans on the earth’s surface. A mysterious signal coming from the Hollow Earth catches Godzilla’s attention. Dr Ilene Andrews (Rebecca Hall), her adopted daughter Jia (Kaylee Hottle), vet trapper (Dan Stevens) and conspiracy theorist Bernie (Brian Tyree Henry) travel to the Hollow Earth to investigate. There, they discover hidden civilisations, including a secret colony of giant apes led by the formidable Skar King, who immediately views Kong as a threat to his reign. Kong forms an unexpected bond with Suko, a juvenile ape Titan from the Skar King’s clan.

One of my favourite subgenres is the “B-movie with an A-movie’s budget”, which Godzilla x Kong very much is. It leans into the goofiness of a classic creature feature but infuses it with the energy and kineticism of a present-day action blockbuster. If monster fights are what you want, then Godzilla x Kong has that in spades. The movie has a massive scale, featuring battles that take place in Egypt, Brazil, and Italy, among other locales. The sight of Godzilla curling up in the Colosseum to take a nap, apparently inspired by director Adam Wingard’s cat Mischief, is just wonderful. The Jules Verne-inspired sci-fi adventure vibe that Godzilla vs. Kong had is very much expanded upon in this movie, with more action taking place in the Hollow Earth.

A lot of CGI-heavy spectacles can be dark and muddy, but this movie is vibrant and delights in its colourful visuals. There are comparisons to be drawn to the campier entries of the Shōwa era of Toho’s Godzilla movies, which Wingard cites as an inspiration. Tonally, the movie isn’t ashamed of its silliness, nor is it trying to overcompensate with self-aware winks and nudges. If you liked Godzilla vs. Kong and want that but bigger, then that’s pretty much what Godzilla x Kong is.

While this is a big movie, it also feels overstuffed. There are so many monsters that it seems like some show up only to get defeated in mere seconds. While there are plenty of fights and many do take place in broad daylight, some succumb to too much shaky-cam and choppy editing, such that it can be difficult to keep track of the combatants in the space. There are plenty of monster fights, but Godzilla and Kong only really team up in the third act. The story is very reliant on ancient prophecies illustrated with wall carvings that Rebecca Hall conveys via exposition-laden dialogue. The plot often strains to justify the monster fights, which is the point after all. While a lot of the visual effects work is good, the character animation on Suko seems a little off – he’s supposed to be endearing, but he often too feels artificial, especially next to Kong.

The human characters are never the main draw of a kaiju movie, but it is possible to do them well, as in the recent Godzilla Minus One (or so I hear; that movie never made it to Singapore). Rebecca Hall, Brian Tyree Henry and Kaylee Hottle return from Godzilla vs Kong, all doing more of the same. The mother-daughter relationship between Andrews and Jia is meant to be the movie’s emotional centre, and both Hall and Hottle are doing the best with the material they’re given, but it’s clear the movie isn’t really interested in that.

The new main character is Dan Stevens as Trapper, reuniting the actor with his The Guest director. Stevens is having great fun as the free-spirited maverick vet and has a good rapport with Henry, who was often a little too annoying in the previous movie and seems to benefit from playing against Stevens here. Fala Chen shows up, but unfortunately, her character is mostly a plot device and doesn’t have any lines.

Summary: Godzilla x Kong is a supersized version of its immediate predecessor in the Monsterverse. The movie packs in monster fights and is a vibrant, energetic spectacle. The extensive visual effects work is mostly good, and the movie generally operates in the right mode of silly. The story strains under the weight of the spectacle and the movie isn’t really interested in generating human emotion, but all the actors do what’s asked of them well. Dan Stevens is a fun addition as a maverick vet. If the Monsterverse continues, it might not be able to stay in this lane forever, but for the time being, this is a good place for the franchise to be.

RATING: 3.5 out of 5 Stars                      

Jedd Jong

Madame Web review

Director: SJ Clarkson
Cast: Dakota Johnson, Sydney Sweeney, Isabela Merced, Celeste O’Connor, Tahar Rahim, Adam Scott, Omar Epps
Genre: Action/Adventure
Run Time: 116 min
Opens: 15 February 2024
Rating: PG13

Audiences want anything related to Spider-Man, right? Sony’s Spider-Man Universe, which has yet to properly feature Spider-Man himself, puts this to the test. On the heels of two Venom movies and Morbius comes Madame Web.

It is 2003. Cassandra Webb (Dakota Johnson) is a paramedic from New York. She starts seeing mysterious premonitions and doesn’t know what to make of them. In the meantime, Ezekiel Sims (Tahar Rahim) hunts three young women after seeing repeated visions of them killing him. It turns out that Ezekiel was with Cassandra’s mother Constance (Kerry Bishé) in the Peruvian Amazon while she was researching rare spiders, hoping to harness their healing properties. Cassandra must protect teenagers Julia Cornwall (Sydney Sweeney), Mattie Franklin (Celeste O’Connor) and Anya Corazon (Isabela Merced), all destined to become superheroines, from Ezekiel.

Madame Web is trying for something. It is vaguely a psychological thriller with a few effective jump scares and there’s an attempt to depict Cassandra’s clairvoyance in a cinematic way. While Dakota Johnson has established throughout an entertaining press tour that she doesn’t really want anything to do with the movie, she is still an interesting lead, as far as movies like this go. It does feature some very comic book-y conceits including a warehouse full of fireworks, and perhaps more movies should contain warehouses full of fireworks. There is also a very fluffy stray cat whom Cassandra lets into her house and who handily steals the show.

This feels like less than half a movie. It feels like the origin story of an origin story in that everything feels several steps removed from what it’s supposed to be. “Her web connects them all,” so proclaims the movie’s tagline. And yet, Madame Web doesn’t really feel connected to anything. It’s an origin story for Cassandra Webb, sure, but it also sets up three other heroines without really showing actual origins for them (i.e. how they got their powers and became superheroines). There’s plenty of clunky expository dialogue that suspiciously feels like automated dialogue replacement (ADR), and its Easter Eggs feel like photocopies of Easter Eggs. This is a movie that is set in 2003 and feels like it was made in 2003, which unlike the statement “this movie is set in the 70s and feels like it was made in the 70s” being said about a movie like The Holdovers, is not a good thing.

In addition to the expected superhero origin movie tropes, Madame Web also tosses in the “mysterious indigenous person who is the spiritual guide to the hero” device. José María Yazpik plays Santiago, one of the Las Arañas, a tribe of people with spider-like powers who live in the Peruvian Amazon, and this layer of mysticism makes Madame Web feel even more dated than its 2000s comic book movie trappings already make it feel.

The movie does function somewhat, but it doesn’t really add anything to any existing cinematic version of Spider-Man, nor does it really stand on its own. This is far from a bad cast, but they’re not given very much to do. Each of the three younger supporting heroines is reduced to one or two traits (Julia’s awkward, Mattie’s rebellious, Anya’s aloof and good at maths).

Ezekiel Sims is a one-dimensional villain and his Spider-Man-like costume, which isn’t what he wears in the comics, seems like a flailing attempt to create more of a connection from this movie to Spider-Man. The action sequences feel overly frenetic, and the set-pieces feel cramped rather than spectacular. The movie promises that we’ll get to the good part in some future movie which seems far from guaranteed, and as such feels like it never arrives at the pay-off.

Summary: Madame Web is further evidence that Sony’s Spider-Man Universe is a misbegotten venture. These are Spider-Man movies without Spider-Man, and Madame Web is a movie that feels like it’s reaching to connect to something larger and fails to. While Dakota Johnson, Sydney Sweeney, Isabela Merced and Celeste O’Connor are all watchable, their characters feel perfunctory. Madame Web ultimately feels like half a movie, building to a payoff that never arrives, with the promise that these characters will appear in future movies, something that seems far from a sure bet at this point. There are no post-credits scenes.

RATING: 2 out of 5 Stars                        

Jedd Jong

Poor Things review

Director: Yorgos Lanthimos
Cast: Emma Stone, Mark Ruffalo, Willem Dafoe, Ramy Youssef, Christopher Abbott, Kathryn Hunter, Jerrod Carmichael, Hanna Schygulla
Genre: Fantasy/Comedy
Run Time: 141 min
Opens: 20 January 2024 (Limited screenings only at The Projector)
Rating: R21

It’s awards season again, and director Yorgos Lanthimos of Killing of a Sacred Deer, The Lobster and The Favourite fame can always be counted on to make an awards contender movie that’s a bit of an odd duck. This might be his oddest duck yet – or a duck’s head sewn onto a dog’s body, if you will.

Bella Baxter (Emma Stone) is a woman who leapt off a bridge and was brought back to life by surgeon Godwin Baxter (Willem Dafoe). Godwin raises Bella as his ward. Bella has a child-like demeanour but learns and evolves quickly. Max McCandles (Ramy Youssef), whom Godwin takes on as his assistant, begins to fall for Bella. As Bella’s intelligence and curiousity develops, she yearns to experience the outside world. She runs away with the caddish lawyer Duncan Wedderburn (Mark Ruffalo), embarking on a journey of self-discovery and experiencing a sexual awakening. Bella’s journey takes her from London to Lisbon, then on a cruise to Alexandria, on to Marseilles and Paris. Bella begins to form her identity and learn more about the human condition, as her former life before she was found and resurrected by Godwin catches up with her.

Poor Things is adapted from the novel by Alasdair Gray. The surreal Victorian fantasy setting of Poor Things is immediately captivating. Production designers James Price and Shona Heath and costume designer Hannah Waddington contribute to an entirely fabricated reality. Inspired by the painted skies and miniature used to create the Himalayas in Powell and Pressburger’s Black Narcissus, and the soundstage-bound look of Francis Ford Coppola’s Bram Stoker’s Dracula, Poor Things is a carefully constructed bauble, a movie that lives in a snow globe. Director of Photography Robbie Ryan shoots the movie partially on Kodak’s 35mm Ektachrome colour reversal motion picture film stock, giving the movie a tactility despite its artificiality. The atmosphere of the movie is heightened, and Tony McNamara’s screenplay is often brazenly funny, but there is a subtlety beneath the surface and the movie’s mannered exterior belies its many complexities.

As can sometimes happen with movies like this, there is a barrier that can form between the movie and the audiences because Poor Things is so mannered and so deliberately constructed as to sometimes feel impenetrable. While we are drawn into Bella’s journey, the movie’s 142-minute-long runtime feels excessive, especially because the structure of the movie includes what can best be described as a surprise fourth act where one might think the movie would end. Poor Things is a very different movie from Barbie, but just like Barbie, Poor Things’ version of feminism will be subject to scrutiny, as it should be. Both movies are about women learning to exist in the outside world, and discovering their autonomy after an existence of being defined by others. Some have taken issue with how the movie presents exploitation as something that women should just accept and attempt to repurpose, and not everyone will agree with its depiction of bodily autonomy, given the spectrum on which opinions on that topic exist.

This is very much Emma Stone’s movie to carry, something she does with confidence and magnetism. Usually, if a performance is described as “fearless” or “brave”, it still denotes a certain degree of preciousness and connotes a blatant bid for awards. Stone’s turn as Bella is fearless and brave in a way befitting of a Lanthimos movie. Having worked with Lanthimos on The Favourite, Stone feels completely comfortable in a challenging role, unfazed by the sheer amount of nudity and fully embracing Bella’s evolution from blank slate to someone with an identity and agency. One of the most interesting aspects of the character is how she speaks: Bella starts off speaking in simplistic repeated phrases, but her vocabulary builds over time. During the middle stretch of the film, she speaks like she’s reading from a thesaurus, listing off synonyms, and we see how her increasingly complicated thought processes are reflected in her speech. This is a role that Stone commits fully too, but also one that she’s having a great deal of fun with.

Mark Ruffalo is hilarious as the lawyer who finds himself utterly obsessed with Bella, someone whom he initially thought he could take advantage of. Ruffalo’s delivery and comic timing, enhanced by a mid-Atlantic accent, are hilarious even when the character becomes increasingly unlikeable, and both Bella and the audience begin to chafe at him.

Willem Dafoe is perfectly cast as the Victor Frankenstein-esque Baxter Godwin. He is paternal towards Bella but is something of a mad scientist himself. The movie’s black comedy manifests itself in moments like when Baxter recounts experiments his own father did on him. Baxter is very much a sympathetic monster, one who is driven to create other sympathetic monsters. His work, including chimerical animals like the aforementioned duck-dog hybrid, is ethically dubious, but it’s easy to feel affectionate towards him.

Ramy Youssef’s Max McCandles is the most decent person in the story, someone whose affection towards Bella keeps getting shunted aside as she goes on her adventures. Of all the men in the story, Max is arguably the one who views Bella the least as an object, but he still sees her as fulfilling a societal role.

The rest of the supporting cast is wonderful, including Kathryn Hunter as a wily madame and Christopher Abbott showing up late in the movie as a cruel and self-absorbed aristocratic general.

Summary: Poor Things is a deliberately weird, sometimes-unsettling and alienating but often funny movie about self-discovery. Director Yorgos Lanthimos embraces the movie’s surrealistic setting and its deliberately artificial design elements are captivating. Emma Stone’s performance as a Frankenstein’s Monster-like character experiencing a sexual awakening and gradually gaining agency and forming her identity is one that’s irresistible and richly layered. Mark Ruffalo is hilarious as an untrustworthy cad, while Willem Dafoe is perfectly cast as the Victor Frankenstein-like father figure. Every awards season has the oddball kid, and Poor Things has firmly established itself as that this year.

RATING: 4 out of 5 Stars                        

Jedd Jong

The Beekeeper review

Director: David Ayer
Cast: Jason Statham, Emmy Raver-Lampman, Bobby Naderi, Josh Hutcherson, Jeremy Irons, David Witt, Phylicia Rashad, Jemma Redgrave
Genre: Action/Thriller
Run Time: 105 min
Opens: 11 January 2024
Rating: M18

In the 2006 remake of The Wicker Man, Nicolas Cage memorably yelled “OH, NO, NOT THE BEES! NOT THE BEES! AAAAAHHHHH! OH, THEY’RE IN MY EYES! MY EYES!” As it turns out, it’s the beekeepers whom we should fear more than the bees.

Adam Clay (Jason Statham) is a beekeeper who lives on farmland in rural Massachusetts. When his kindly neighbour Mrs Eloise Parker (Phylicia Rashad) falls victim to a phishing scam and loses all her life savings, she kills herself. Adam seeks to avenge her death, taking on spoiled tech mogul Derek Danforth (Josh Hutcherson), who operates a network of scam call centres and data mining outfits. Derek is the son of Danforth Enterprises founder Jessica Danforth (Jemma Redgrave) and employs former CIA director Wallace Westwyld (Jeremy Iron), who used to date his mother. Mrs Parker’s daughter Verona (Emmy Raver-Lampman) happens to be an FBI agent, and on the trail of Adam, she discovers he is a retired member of an elite, top-secret organisation called the Beekeepers. Adam calls on his skills as he blazes a path of vengeance that leads all the way to the top.

The Beekeeper is a largely satisfying, old-fashioned action movie that harks back to the 80s and 90s. One could imagine a lower-budget direct-to-streaming version of this starring someone like Scott Adkins, perhaps scrappier and junkier but still entertaining. Director David Ayer lends The Beekeeper slickness and polish, and the movie is nowhere as pervasively unpleasant as something like Sabotage or Bright. Yes, there’s still plenty of brutal action, but The Beekeeper isn’t as preoccupied with being edgy and gritty as other movies in Ayer’s filmography. The hero is nigh-invincible and noble, the villains are despicable and extremely easy to hate, and the action is efficient. Second unit director and fight coordinator Jeremy Marinas, who recently worked on John Wick: Chapter 4, oversees the gunplay and fisticuffs. The action is not especially inventive, but it gets the job done and Statham is a dab hand at this kind of physical acting. The Beekeeper also benefits from an absolutely stacked supporting cast – there’s not really a reason for Jeremy Irons or Jemma Redgrave or Phylicia Rashad or Minnie Driver to be here, but the movie is better for it.

It’s no secret that John Wick has spawned a legion of imitators, and John Wick already borrowed a lot from action movies past to begin with. The Beekeeper very much wants to be John Wick, and it has a lot going for it, especially an already-credible action star in the form of Jason Statham. However, there are times when The Beekeeper doesn’t know how intentionally silly it wants to be. Its protagonist speaks almost entirely in zen, bee-related homilies, intoning things like “I’m a beekeeper. I protect the hive. Sometimes I use fire to smoke out hornets.” Sometimes the earnestness is charming, but other times, it’s goofy. Screenwriter Kurt Wimmer has plenty of genre credits to his name, including Equilibrium, Ultraviolet and Salt. The Beekeeper has a largely predictable “ex-super-agent goes on revenge” formula and attempts to spice it up with some world-building – where John Wick had switchboard operators, The Beekeeper has a room of agents on old-timey computers with monochrome monitors. It runs the risk of feeling hokey rather than badass.

This movie features Jason Statham doing exactly what audiences want and expect Jason Statham to do. A big part of what makes this work is that we have all dreamed of an avenging angel violently dealing out justice to scum of the earth scammers who prey on the defenceless. There is something cathartic about seeing Statham set fire to a scam call centre and drive staples into a scammer’s face.

Josh Hutcherson is supremely entertaining as the ideal villain for this type of movie: someone who’s young, overprivileged, callous, cruel and just annoying. It’s clear that he’s having fun, and while he obviously isn’t a physical match for Statham, he works as the guy pulling the strings.

Emmy Raver-Lampman is saddled with some clunky dialogue, especially the banter between her and Bobby Naderi’s Agent Wiley, but has enough screen presence to power through it. Meanwhile, Jeremy Irons just needs to be onscreen to provide gravitas. It’s a shame that Minnie Driver is almost completely wasted in a thankless part as Westwyld’s successor at the CIA.

Summary: The Beekeeper is a better action movie than its January release date, often an indicator of a studio needing to dump a movie, indicates. Jason Statham does what he does best in a straightforward story with plenty of forward momentum and brutal action. Director David Ayer is less self-indulgent here than with some of his other movies. Best of all, The Beekeeper has villains that audiences will just love to hate, with Josh Hutcherson making for a slimy rich kid tech bro. Just like many John Wick-alikes, The Beekeeper isn’t especially memorable, but there’s something old-fashioned and satisfying about it.

RATING: 3.5 out of 5 Stars                   

Jedd Jong

Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom review

Director: James Wan
Cast: Jason Momoa, Patrick Wilson, Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, Amber Heard, Dolph Lundgren, Nicole Kidman, Temuera Morrison, Randall Park
Genre: Action/Adventure/Fantasy
Run Time: 124 min
Opens: 20 December 2023
Rating: PG13

When Aquaman was released in 2018, few could have foreseen that it would go on to become the highest-grossing DC movie of all time. Five years later, its sequel rolls around, bringing with it the end of the DC Extended Universe. DC movies will continue to get made a new cinematic universe is in the offing, but the oft-tumultuous journey that began with Man of Steel in 2013 ends with Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom.

Arthur Curry/Aquaman is settling into life as a husband and father and as the King of Atlantis. An old threat rears his head in the form of David Kane/Black Manta (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II), who was defeated by Aquaman in the first film and has since been plotting his revenge. Black Manta has discovered the remnants of the fabled Lost Kingdom of Necrus in Antarctica, acquiring the powerful Black Trident. He is haunted by the Kingdom’s long-dormant leader King Kordax (Pilou Asbæk), the brother of Atlantis’ first king Atlan (Vincent Regan). Aquaman turns to his half-brother, the exiled former ruler of Atlantis Orm Marius/Ocean Master (Patrick Wilson). Orm is being punished for murdering the Fisherman King in the first film and is imprisoned in a desert cavern. Together, they must overcome their differences to battle Black Manta and save Atlantis and the world at large.

One of the best things about the first Aquaman film was that it didn’t seem bound by the desire to be tough, gritty, and badass which had constrained some DC movies before it. Director James Wan leaned into the sillier aspects of the source material, embracing them in a whole-hearted way rather than acknowledging them with self-aware winks and nods. At its best, Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom echoes that. The movie excels when it leans into its fantasy adventure elements, with much inspiration taken from Jules Verne stories like 20 000 Leagues Under the Sea and The Mysterious Island. The production design by Bill Brzeski includes lots of steampunk touches, and the Octobots with their multifunctional mechanical limbs are especially cool. Black Manta has a Bond villain-esque volcano lair, and our heroes briefly visit a “dive” (heh) bar that’s a hangout for undersea no-goodniks. Parts of the movie burst with imagination and spectacle and it’s mostly breezy rather than water-logged. There are also sequences when Wan lets his horror flag fly – one of the movie’s villains commands an underwater zombie army, after all – and those are fun.

Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom has, like many DC movies before it, weathered an infamously troubled production process. The movie was delayed multiple times owing to the Covid pandemic and was in production while leadership of DC Films and Warner Bros changed hands more than once. For a movie that was extensively reshot and reworked, Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom is not a trainwreck. It does sometimes feel disjointed and emotionally hollow, and it is harder to connect to the characters than in its predecessor. At some point, it was intended to link more directly to the larger DCEU, with Ben Affleck, then Michael Keaton, set to appear as Batman. It is better off for not having to remind audiences of other movies besides the first Aquaman (there is quite a bit of footage from it that shows up in flashback recap sequences), but it’s also a little disappointing that the DCEU doesn’t come to an end with more ceremony. The one mid-credits scene is an unfortunate final image for the DCEU.

If the first movie was patterned after Romancing the Stone, then this one wants to be 48 Hours. The dynamic between Momoa and Wilson is often fun even if some of the back-and-forth banter, laden with pop culture references to things like Castaway and Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, can feel a little forced. Wilson is in fine action hero form, and while Orm’s redemption doesn’t carry a lot of dramatic heft, he is a sufficiently charismatic foil to Momoa, whose Aquaman is probably close to how the real-life Momoa behaves a lot of the time.

Yahya Abdul-Mateen II is suitably imposing and it’s great to see him get a second stab at playing Black Manta, now sporting a costume that even more strongly evokes the classic comic book design. He’s a generic villain but he’s also cool. Many cast members from the first movie, including Nicole Kidman, Temuera Morrison, Dolph Lundgren, Amber Heard and John Rhys-Davies reprise their roles, but it sometimes seems like they’re just there rather than doing very much in the story.

Summary: Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom is not the momentous conclusion to the DC Extended Universe that some might have hoped, but it is an enjoyable fantasy adventure movie. It has dynamic and entertaining action sequences and boasts some incredible design work inspired by Jules Verne and steampunk. Jason Momoa and Patrick Wilson make a fine buddy duo, but the movie’s more emotional notes can ring rather hollow. Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom sometimes feels disjointed, but given its tumultuous production history, is far from a disaster.

RATING: 3.5 out of 5 Stars                   

Jedd Jong

SGCC 2023 Mega Picture Post: Day 2

Another SGCC is done and dusted! Here are my photos from Day 2, 10 December 2023.

SGCC 2023: Anakin Skywalker cosplay

SGCC 2023: Theodora in princess dress

SGCC 2023: Kiki cosplay by Trinita

SGCC 2023: Atlantis The Lost Empire Princess Kida cosplay

SGCC 2023: DC Group cosplay

SGCC 2023: Poison Ivy cosplay by Nisakidcat

SGCC 2023: Poison Ivy and Bane cosplay

SGCC 2023: Damian Wayne Robin cosplay

SGCC 2023: Indiana Jones cosplay 2

SGCC 2023: Blue Beetle cosplay

SGCC 2023: Moon Knight Jake cosplay

SGCC 2023: Fennec Shand cosplay

SGCC 2023: Wolverine and Deadpool cosplay

SGCC 2023: Barbie and Ken cosplay 1

SGCC 2023: Barbie and Ken cosplay 2

SGCC 2023: Barbie cosplay

SGCC 2023: Red Hood cosplay

SGCC 2023: Spider-Punki cosplay

SGCC 2023: Pennywise cosplay by Prince de Guzman

SGCC 2023: The Mandalorian and Grogu cosplay

SGCC 2023: Love, Death + Robots Jibaro cosplay

SGCC 2023: Moon Knight cosplay

SGCC 2023: Horizon Zero Dawn Aloy cosplay

SGCC 2023: Suicide Squad Isekai Joker cosplay

SGCC 2023: Rocket Raccoon cosplay

SGCC 2023: Mando Mercs cosplay

SGCC 2023: The Incredibles family cosplay

SGCC 2023: Optimus Prime mascot appearance

SGCC 2023: Catwoman cosplay

SGCC 2023: The Suicide Squad Harley Quinn dress cosplay

SGCC: 2023: Red Hood cosplay by Leroy

SGCC 2023: The Suicide Squad Harley Quinn jacket cosplay 1

SGCC 2023: The Suicide Squad Harley Quinn jacket cosplay back

SGCC 2023: Wonder Woman cosplay

SGCC 2023: Heather Duke cosplay by Victoria

SGCC 2023: Singapore LARP group

SGCC 2023: Avatar The Last Airbender and the Legend of Korra group cosplay

SGCC 2023: Penguin cosplay by Shahril

SGCC 2023: Harley Quinn Suicide Squad cosplay

SGCC 2023: Joker cosplay by Shaun

SGCC 2023: Guts Berserker Armour cosplay

SGCC 2023: Cosplay competition finalists 1

SGCC 2023: Cosplay competition finalists 2

SGCC 2023: Cosplay competition judges

SGCC 2023: Cosplay competition first prize winner

SGCC 2023: Cosplay competition first prize winner

SGCC 2023 Mega Picture Post: Day 1

If you’ve been reading my site for several years, you might remember my coverage of Singapore Comic-Con (SGCC), formerly the Singapore Toy, Games and Comics Convention (STGCC). I covered the convention professionally as a member of the media for many years. The last time I attended the convention in person was in 2018 – I was either travelling while the convention was on in subsequent years, or it wasn’t being held physically because of the COVID-19.

Now, a staple of my coverage of SGCC was the Mega Picture Post, and I’m bringing that back for 2023. It’s always great to get to see my geeky friends at these events, and SGCC 2023 is also special for me because it’s the first time I’m attending with a date. We both had a great time on Day 1 (9 December 2023). The highlights for me included the Cybertron Fest booth, which was very well done even though I’m not a big Transformers fan myself, and the cosplayers we met who were dressed as DC (and especially Batman-related) characters. I will admit that I’m not a fan of the attempt to integrate digital content creators and influencers into the event with the ‘Creator Con’ subsection.

Here are some photos of the people, places and things at SGCC 2023 (Day 1).

SGCC 2023: Namor, Robin, Catwoman, Batman and Superman cosplay

SGCC 2023: Zatanna cosplay

SGCC 2023: TARDIS

SGCC 2023: TMNT Mutant Mayhem Leonardo and Donatello statue

SGCC 2023: TMNT Mutant Mayhem Raphael and Michelangelo statues

SGCC 2023: TMNT Mutant Mayhem statues

SGCC 2023: E-Web cannon

SGCC 2023: Battlestar Galactica collection

SGCC 2023: RoboCop and Forbidden Planet collection

SGCC 2023: Mario Kart arcade games

SGCC 2023: Cybertron Fest

SGCC 2023: Optimus Prime statue

SGCC 2023: Jada Toys booth

SGCC 2023: Jada Toys Chun-Li

SGCC 2023: Jada Toys Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire Godzilla

SGCC 2023: Biker Scout and mini Biker Scout cosplay

SGCC 2023: Doctor Who Tenth Doctor costume display

SGCC 2023: Doctor Who Thirteenth Doctor costume display

SGCC 2023: Infinity Studios Gimli and Legolas statues

SGCC 2023: Infinity Studios Daenerys statue

SGCC 2023: Infinity Studios Neytiri statue

SGCC 2023: Infinity Studios Neytiri proof

SGCC 2023: Infinity Studios Superman bust

SGCC 2023: The Dark Knight Joker bust

SGCC 2023: Infinity Studios Catwoman bust

SGCC 2023: Infinity Studios The Dark Knight Batman and Catwoman busts

SGCC 2023: Infinity Studios The Batman bust

SGCC 2023: SH Figuarts display

SGCC 2023: SH Figurats Batman (The Flash)

SGCC 2023: SH Figuarts Spider-Man 2099

SGCC 2023: SH Figuarts Star-Lord and Rocket Raccoon

SGCC 2023: Spy x Family Anya statue

SGCC 2023: Kinetiquettess Stranger Things Vecna statue

SGCC 2023: Kinetiquettes The King of Fighters Leona Heidern statue

SGCC 2023: Kinetiquettes Invincible statue

SGCC 2023: Kinetiquettes Omni-Man statue

SGGCC 2023: Kinetiquettes Street Fighter Cammy statue

SGCC 2023: Swarovski Batmobile

SGCC 2023: Swarovski Batman, Joker and Catwoman

SGCC 2023: Swarovski Black Panther

SGCC 2023: Swarovski Yoda, Grogu and The Mandalorian

SGCC 2023: Cal Kestis, Seventh Sister and General Leia cosplay

SGCC 2023: LEGO Avengers Tower

SGCC 2023: LEGO UCS Venator

SGCC 2023: Sabermach display 1

SGCC 2023: Sabermach display 2

SGCC 2023: XM Studios Tony Stark suiting up statue

SGCC 2023: Tony Stark suiting up statue closeup

SGCC 2023: XM Studios War Machine statues

SGCC 2023: XM Studios Spider-man and Venom statue

SGCC 2023: XM Studios Samurai Batwoman statue

SGCC 2023: XM Studios Batman Beyond statue

SGCC 2023: XM Studios Samurai Batman group statue prototype

SGCC 2023: XM Studios Samurai Batman statue prototype

SGCC 2023: Royal Selangor Iron Man statue

SGCC 2023: Spider-Man Miles Morales cosplay

SGCC 2023: Mandalorian cosplay

SGCC 2023: Superboy and Spoiler cosplay

SGCC 2023: Wonder Woman cosplay by Samara Gan

SGCC 2023: Jinx cosplay

SGCC 2023: Lilith and Morrigan cosplay

SGCC 2023: Spider-Punk cosplay

SGCC 2023: Snow White cosplay

SGCC 2023: T-800 cosplay by Shaun Lu

SGCC 2023: Fightsaber performance curtain call 1

SGCC 2023: Fightsaber performance curtain call 2

SGCC 2023: Fightsaber performance curtain call 3

SGCC 2023: Spider-Man Miles Morales cosplay

SGCC 2023: Rocket Raccoon cosplay

SGCC 2023: Dazzle D.Va cosplay by Kiyo Cosplay

SGCC 2023: Inquisitor cosplay

SGCC 2023: Harley Quinn and Robin cosplay

SGCC 2023: Ada Wong cosplay by Riiyuukii Cos

SGCC 2023: Aziraphale and Crowley cosplay

SGCC 2023: Robin and Robin cosplays

SGCC 2023: Ciri and Jaskier cospaly by Shahdar and Drew Pictures

SGCC 2023: Ghostbusters and Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man cosplay

SGCC 2023: extra adorable Spider-Gwen and Spider-Man cosplay

SGCC 2023: Mary Jane and Spider-Man cosplay

SGCC 2023: Elesh Norn cosplay by Neptys Cos

SGCC 2023: Cylon cosplay

SGCC 2023: Raphael and Michelangelo mascot appearances

SGCC 2023: Catwoman cosplay

SGCC 2023: Joker and Harley Quinn cosplay

SGCC 2023: Spider-Man and Ghost Spider cosplay

SGCC 2023: Zelda and Link cosplay

SGCC 2023: Bluey stage performance featuring Jo Tan and Edward Choy

SGCC 2023: Starfire cosplay

SGCC 2023: Rapunzel and Flynn cosplay

SGCC 2023: Harley Quinn and Poison Ivy cosplay

SGCC 2023: Aquaman cosplay by Rocky Go

Wonka review

Director: Paul King
Cast: Timothée Chalamet, Calah Lane, Keegan-Michael Key, Paterson Joseph, Matt Lucas, Matthew Baynton, Sally Hawkins, Rowan Atkinson, Jim Carter, Tom Davis, Olivia Colman, Hugh Grant, Natasha Rothwell, Rich Fulcher, Rakhee Thakrar
Genre: Musical/Fantasy
Run Time: 116 min
Opens: 6 December 2023
Rating: PG13

In late 2023, audiences learned how an idealistic young man eventually became a powerful figure with a penchant for child endangerment – but enough about The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes. Wonka tells the origin of the enigmatic and mercurial chocolatier from Roald Dahl’s Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.

Young Willy Wonka (Timothée Chalamet) arrives in the big city, with dreams of setting up shop in the famed Gallery Gourmet. The inventive chocolatier faces immediate resistance from the Chocolate Cartel, comprising Slugworth (Paterson Joseph), Prodnose (Matt Lucas) and Ficklegruber (Matthew Baynton). While looking for a place to stay, Wonka is tricked by innkeepers Mrs Scrubbit (Olivia Colman) and Bleacher (Tom Davis). Wonka befriends the others who are indebted to Mrs Scrubbit, including young orphan Noodle (Calah Lane). Wonka devises a plan to pay his debt and start selling his chocolates, but a small, mysterious, orange-skinned, green-haired man (Hugh Grant) keeps stealing his stash.

Wonka is one of those projects that seemed to elicit a collective eyeroll when it was announced. After all, it’s hard to think of a more cynical IP extension cash grab than an origin story about Willy Wonka. It’s a good thing then that this is in the hands of director and co-writer Paul King, the man who brought us Paddington and Paddington 2. Together with co-writer Simon Farnaby, King infuses the same earnestness, sweetness, silliness, and kinetic filmmaking from the Paddington movies into Wonka, delivering something that is wholly captivating and enchanting.  

There is an old-fashioned charm to the movie’s visuals, which feel sufficiently tactile even when they’re enhanced by digital visual effects work. Costume designer Lindy Hemming and production designer Nathan Crowley, who both worked on Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight trilogy, are among the crew members who make Wonka look incredible. Cinematographer Chung Chung-hoon, an oft-collaborator of Park Chan-Wook, gives the movie an inviting richness and warmth that makes it feel real and alive despite its deliberately artificial, constructed elements. Wonka avoids specifying exactly when or where it’s set, combining texture and detail with a heightened sensibility.

Wonka is a musical through and through, featuring original songs by Neil Hannon of the Divine Comedy. “A World of Your Own” is a stirring anthem that bravely tries to live up to “Pure Imagination”, the theme from the 1971 Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory film, that also gets featured here. Weirdly enough, Wonka seems very influenced by Sweeney Todd – the opening number is reminiscent of “No Place Like London”, there’s a Mrs Lovett-esque “Mrs Scrubbit”, and there’s even a scene that takes place in a barbershop (but fear not, for nobody gets baked into any pies). There are shades of Oliver! and Annie and there’s a palpable love for musicals that runs through Wonka.

There are times when Wonka runs into the “prequel problem” where it’s trying to explain certain bits of lore or planting (chocolate) easter eggs and references. It’s certainly nowhere near as clumsy as we’ve seen before, but it does sometimes feel like it interrupts the flow of the story. This is most evident in the Oompa-Loompa subplot featuring a digitally shrunken Hugh Grant, who says a line made famous by Gene Wilder’s iteration of Wonka in the 1971 movie. This movie’s iteration of the Oompa-Loompas also runs into the Uncanny Valley problem – it is unsettling seeing a green digital facsimile of Hugh Grant’s face.

Timothée Chalamet has been carving an interesting movie star career for himself, consciously avoiding comic book blockbusters. His foray into a big-budget franchise was Dune, indicating that he’s going for slightly more prestigious stuff. Wonka allows Chalamet to be in a family-friendly holiday blockbuster while further shoring up his reputation as a Serious Actor. Interestingly, he kind of has the wrong energy for this – Chalamet is weirdly intense rather than goofy and whimsical, but it also works because the character is an obsessive genius. This is not an effortless performance, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. It looks like Chalamet has stayed up all night learning the choreography, and something is endearing about that.

Just like in King’s Paddington movies, the supporting cast is wonderful. Calah Lane is a safe distance from treacly as Noodle, making her feel like a fully realised character instead of a stock sidekick. Sally Hawkins has a small but impactful role as Wonka’s mother in a flashback sequence while the afore-mentioned Hugh Grant is an amusingly stuffy and self-serious presence. Paterson Joseph has a great time hamming it up as a moustache-twirling villain, while Keegan-Michael Key is weirdly compelling as a corrupt police chief easily bribed with chocolate. Rowan Atkinson pops up as a priest. It feels like everyone fits in the world King has crafted, except Chalamet, and yet, that’s what makes it interesting.

Summary: Wonka is far better than it has any right to be. A prequel to Charlie and the Chocolate Factory telling the origin story of Willy Wonka sounds like exactly the kind of studio IP extension project that people roll their eyes at, and yet, director Paul King turns it into something magical. An earnest, whimsical musical tale bursting with life and detail, Wonka is an exuberant, warm, silly and emotional experience. Timothée Chalamet brings both intensity and charm to the title role and he’s surrounded by an excellent supporting cast. Wonka sometimes runs into the problem a lot of prequels do of feeling the need to explain and set up little things, but it’s much less pronounced an issue here than in other movies like it. Wonka takes what could have been a cynical cash grab and processes and refines it into something genuinely enchanting.

RATING: 4 out of 5 Stars                      

Jedd Jong

Next Goal Wins review

Director: Taika Waititi
Cast: Michael Fassbender, Oscar Kightley, Kaimana, David Fane, Rachel House, Beulah Koale, Will Arnett, Elisabeth Moss, Uli Latukefu, Rhys Darby, Angus Sampson, Luke Hemsworth, Taika Waititi
Genre: Comedy/Sports
Run Time: 104 min
Opens: 7 December 2023
Rating: NC16

Everyone loves a good underdog story, and it’s hard to out-underdog the American Samoan national men’s football team. Consistently coming in at the bottom of the world rankings and suffering a humiliating defeat on the world stage, Next Goal Wins is based on the 2014 documentary of the same name, telling the true story of the attempt to turn things around.

Thomas Rongen (Michael Fassbender) is a Dutch-American Major League Soccer coach who receives a nightmare assignment: he must coach the American Samoan team, or he will be fired. Thomas reluctantly relocates to American Samoa, where he is enthusiastically welcomed by Tavita (Oscar Kightley), the president of the Football Federation American Samoa, whose son Daru (Beaulah Koale) is on the team. Thomas initially clashes with Jaiyah (Kaimana), a faʻafafine (third gender or non-binary in Polynesian culture) player and is frustrated with the overall state of the team. Thomas must also convince Nicky Salapu (Uli Latukefu), who was the goalkeeper during the team’s disastrous 0-31 loss to Australia in a 2001 World Cup qualifier, to return to the team. Thomas must get the team ready for the qualifiers ahead of the 2014 World Cup, facing off against Tonga.

Next Goal Wins is far from Taikia Waititi’s most challenging work – this is no Jojo Rabbit – but it doesn’t need to be. It’s a full-on silly, charming comedy that is consistently funny and amiable and is filled with likeable characters. Michael Fassbender is completely out of his comfort zone, but then again, so is Thomas Rongen. This is Fassbender’s first all-out comedy, and the famously intense actor has an energy that doesn’t really match the rest of the movie, but that also makes him interesting to watch – and it’s especially funny if you put this on as a double bill with David Fincher’s The Killer. Unfortunately, even with Fassbender giving it all he can, the character still feels like an ornery caricature, and is apparently worlds away from the real-life Thomas.

The supporting cast is a delight, with Oscar Kightley putting in a winning performance as the hapless president of the local football association. Kightley’s comic timing is impeccable, and he serves as a wonderful foil to the angsty Fassbender. David Fane, who plays the team’s former coach Ace, is goofy in a human cartoon sort of way.

Kaimana’s turn as Jaiyah Saelua, the first transgender player ever to compete in a World Cup game, is the movie’s emotional linchpin. There are times when it feels like Jaiyah should be the focus of the story, and not Thomas, and the movie attempts to provide enough background about the role of faʻafafine people in American Samoan culture. Kaimana is a charismatic performer, but ultimately doesn’t do Jaiyah justice by positioning her as an accessory to Thomas’ character development. For example, the movie invents a scene in which Thomas deadnames Jaiyah, and they get into an altercation, after which it is Jaiyah who apologises to Thomas first. This didn’t happen and was invented to add drama to the proceedings.

Next Goal Wins fully leans into every inspirational sports drama trope and dresses it up with broad comedy and slapstick. It is largely enjoyable, but there are times when it feels like the real story is being trivialised and watered down. It also succumbs to the pitfall of making a story about a group of people about the outsider, under the assumption that is easier for audiences to relate to said outsider, even as it consciously avoids a ‘white saviour’ narrative. It leans on racial stereotypes even as it is trying to highlight the American Samoan culture, often rendering them as an overall silly people for the sake of comedy. The goofy tone also threatens to smother the genuine emotional moments that the movie is trying for. The movie also comes at a time when it seems like, deserved or not, the tide of public opinion has turned against Waititi, especially in the wake of the director’s Thor: Love and Thunder and his recent admission that he made the Thor movie solely for the money. Waititi’s sensibilities, including a seeming refusal to take things even a little seriously, do hurt the movie at times. He shows up in a cameo as a priest that some might consider annoying, but it is brief.

Recommended? Yes.

Summary: Next Goal Wins is very much a standard inspirational sports drama, just loaded with broad comedy. Director Taika Waititi imparts plenty of silliness to the proceedings and the movie is often charming and enjoyable. Michael Fassbender seems out of his depth, and that’s part of the fun of it. He’s surrounded by wonderful supporting actors including Oscar Kightey, who showcases impeccable comic timing as the hapless president of the local football association. Unfortunately, Next Goal Wins doesn’t do justice to Jaiyah Saelua, the real-life faʻafafine footballer, but Kaimana is a charismatic presence in the role. Next Goal Wins might not be the best version of this story, but as a crowd-pleaser, it works more often than it doesn’t.

RATING: 3.5 out of 5 Stars                   

Jedd Jong