Avengers: Infinity War review

For inSing

AVENGERS: INFINITY WAR

Directors : Anthony and Joe Russo
Cast : Robert Downey Jr, Chris Hemsworth, Mark Ruffalo, Chris Evans, Scarlett Johansson, Benedict Cumberbatch, Don Cheadle, Tom Holland, Chadwick Boseman, Paul Bettany, Elizabeth Olsen, Anthony Mackie, Sebastian Stan, Tom Hiddleston, Idris Elba, Peter Dinklage, Benedict Wong, Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldana, Pom Klementieff, Karen Gillan, Dave Bautista, Vin Diesel, Bradley Cooper, Gwyneth Paltrow, Benicio del Toro, Josh Brolin
Genre : Action/Comics
Run Time : 2h 29m
Opens : 25 April 2018
Rating : PG13

We’re going to do things a little differently.

Going into Avengers: Infinity War, you’ve been told to avoid spoilers like the plague, and yet, we want you to read this review, which will be spoiler-free.

This will be a review, and yet not a review. We’re hoping that you’ll read this, but if you don’t wanna, that’s fine.

We’ll say it up front: this is a particularly tricky movie to write a spoiler-free review of, but we’ll give it the best shot we’ve given anything.

Marvel has hyped Avengers: Infinity War as the most ambitious crossover event staged in entertainment media. They’re not wrong. No matter which way you look at this movie, it’s tricky to put together. It’s a puzzle with the pieces constantly moving.

Even with Captain America: The Winter Soldier and Captain America: Civil War under the Russo brothers’ belts, there are still many times during Infinity War when one is wont to wonder aloud “how did the guys from Arrested Development and Community get here?” This is a film with a sprawling scope, even for a genre which is all about scope. The Russo brothers, with the in-built support at Marvel Studios, do a commendable job of wrangling it all.

This reviewer would love to have been a fly on the wall while the Russo brothers and screenwriters Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely were hammering this out. Imagine all the iterations, all the bits and pieces that maybe didn’t quite work, before we got here.

This year marks the tenth anniversary of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. A studio hasn’t quite been able to announce to the audience “right, you should’ve seen all 18 of these movies, or at least most of them, before you watch this. Off you go, then.” Not even long-running franchises like the Bond movies, Star Wars, or Harry Potter can really demand that, and know that most audiences would have fulfilled that demand. There’s a swaggering confidence about Infinity War, and yet it’s not off-putting or self-congratulatory. If anything, Marvel Studios is deliberately making things really difficult for themselves going forward.

Over the years, the MCU has garnered its fair share of detractors. There are purists, there are ardent fanboys who have fixated on one niggling aspect or another that dissatisfied them, there are those who loyally back the other team (this reviewer has been accused of being both paid off by Disney and being biased towards DC movies), there are those who say it’s all too funny and nothing is taken seriously enough. Depending on the context, some aspects of these criticisms are valid, but it’s important to take a step back and consider all the myriad hurdles that the people making these films have cleared to get here.

At the core of Infinity War is a MacGuffin hunt that has spanned multiple movies, with so much being set up in previous instalments, leading up to this. The film takes inspiration from the Infinity Gauntlet comic book arc in 1991, written by Jim Starlin, and the 2013 Infinity crossover event, written by Jonathan Hickman. Infinity War is the culmination of intergalactic warlord and ‘mad titan’ Thanos’ (Josh Brolin) search for the Infinity Stones. We’ve seen five of the six stones in previous movies, and he’s looking to collect them all.

This is a quest that has attendant consequences and sacrifice, and from the beautifully staged, dramatic and grave opening scene onwards, viewers have a good idea of what to expect. There are plenty of jokes, but unlike in previous MCU movies, this reviewer felt less of a sense that said jokes were stepping on the dramatic beats.

This reviewer wasn’t the biggest fan of Civil War, because there was noticeable bloat and the central conflict didn’t really get enough room to breathe. Weirdly enough, that seems like less of a problem here. Clocking in at 149 minutes and costing an estimated $300-400 million, it seems a foregone conclusion that Infinity War would be more bloated than a beached whale, but it moves with great finesse.

Infinity War could easily have come off as a string of unrelated set-pieces. It’s evident that this was not constructed by devising the set-pieces first, with the plot being filled in around those. Our massive ensemble is handily organised into groups, with said groups meeting and then diverging as the story progresses. The groups all make sense, and there is considerable time dedicated to reinforcing and evolving existing relationships.

The romance between Wanda Maximoff/Scarlet Witch (Elizabeth Olsen) and Vision (Paul Bettany) elicited the most emotion out of this reviewer. The Guardians of the Galaxy team up with Thor (Chris Hemsworth), and we delve a little deeper into the relationship between Gamora (Zoe Saldana) and her estranged adoptive father Thanos.

It seems like Markus and McFeely really enjoyed writing the Guardians, nailing the voices of each character. There’s a consistency which feels organic and yet must’ve been challenging to achieve. Tony Stark/Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr) and Doctor Strange/Stephen Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) butt heads and egos, while Bruce Banner (Mark Ruffalo) faces more struggles in getting control of his alter ego, the Hulk. A good portion of the film is set in Wakanda, which in Black Panther, has just opened itself to the outside world, its people getting more than they bargained for here.

It wasn’t really that long ago when we thought we’d never see Peter Parker in the MCU, so it’s a genuine thrill to see Holland’s Spider-Man interact with so many characters and feel like he was always meant to be in this line-up.

Thanos feels like an actual character rather than just an obstacle our heroes must overcome. We get just enough back-story and there is respectable gravity to the proceedings. There’s a lot of fantastic acting on display from everyone involved. This is not a movie in which the spectacle does all the legwork.

Avengers: Infinity War is a staggering work of virtuosic audacity. Its filmmakers play the audience like a fiddle. The ending is either a howl-inducing gut punch or sheer genius – maybe both at once. You’re probably going to be frustrated at some point or another, but there will be gasps, there will be cheers, there will be laughter, and depending on how fragile the audience at your screening is, there might be open sobbing.

Given the nigh-insane parameters the filmmakers were working within, Avengers: Infinity War is the best movie it could’ve been.

RATING: 4.5 out of 5 Stars

Jedd Jong

Rampage movie review

For inSing

RAMPAGE

Director : Brad Peyton
Cast : Dwayne Johnson, Naomie Harris, Malin Åkerman, Jake Lacy, Joe Manganiello, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Marley Shelton
Genre : Action/Sci-fi
Run Time : 1h 47m
Opens : 12 April 2018
Rating : PG13

Dwayne Johnson, arguably the closest thing this generation has to 80s action heroes like Sylvester Stallone and Arnold Schwarzenegger, shares the screen with monsters who dwarf even him in this creature feature.

Johnson plays Davis Okoye, an Army Special Forces soldier-turned primatologist working at the San Diego Wildlife Sanctuary. George, an albino silverback gorilla with whom Davis shares a close bond, begins growing and displaying violent, erratic behaviour. George has come into contact with a mutagen developed by Energyne, after a genetic splicing experiment conducted aboard a space station goes horribly awry.

Geneticist Dr Kate Caldwell (Naomie Harris), a former Energyne employee, arrives to help Davis deal with George’s mutation. In the meantime, a wolf and an alligator have also been exposed to the mutagen. As the creatures become ever fiercer, government agent Harvey Russell (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) attempts to control the situation, while butting heads with Davis and Kate. The pair must foil the dastardly plans of Energyne’s head honchos Claire Wyden (Malin Åkerman) and her doltish brother Brett (Jake Lacy), who draw the creatures to Chicago where they will wreak untold havoc.

Rampage is based on the classic arcade game of the same name. In the original game, players controlled one of three mutated, formerly-human monsters, causing as much destruction as possible to proceed to the next level. There was not much in the way of plot, and there didn’t need to be.

The plot in the Rampage movie serves little purpose other than to fill time and justify the giant monster action sequences. The film reunites Johnson with Brad Peyton, who directed him in Journey 2: The Mysterious Island and San Andreas. Like San Andreas, there is plenty of disaster movie mayhem on display in Rampage, but while it was a little uncomfortable watching that movie right after the 2015 Nepal earthquakes, the wanton destruction is easier to enjoy in Rampage, given that there haven’t been any giant gorilla, wolf and alligator attacks in major metropolises lately.

The visual effects work, especially on George, portrayed via motion capture by Jason Liles, is excellent. When the giant monsters are onscreen, which is the case for a significant portion of the film, things are entertaining and silly. There are some violent moments which push the PG-13 rating and it’s hard not to derive some joy from that. Even then, the city-levelling climactic action sequence can get a little numbing. Anything involving our human characters is tedious, thanks to stock back-stories and cringe-worthy exposition-laden dialogue. “It’s going to be a lot more emotional, a lot scarier and a lot more real than you’d expect,” Peyton said of the film when it was announced. Alas, Rampage is none of those.

Dwayne Johnson delivers the performance one would expect: that of the charismatic, larger-than-life action hero who’s here to save the day. It’s nothing different from what we’ve seen before, but it gets the job done and he’s good at this stuff. Davis shares quite a bit in common with Jurassic World‘s Owen Grady: they’re both former military men who work with dangerous animals and have bonded with one creature under their care. Johnson tries to sell the relationship between Davis and George, and while that is never emotionally affecting, Johnson can’t be faulted for it.

Harris’ Dr Kate Caldwell comes complete with a groan-inducing motivation for getting back at the company that’s done her wrong. Harris tries to make the material work, but the film seems to struggle with figuring out what purpose her character serves for most of the movie.

Rampage is at its cheesiest not during the monster attack sequences, but when it turns its attention to the villainous Wyden siblings. Claire is coolly evil while her brother bumbles about in the background. While both Åkerman and Lacy look to be enjoying themselves, neither is ever actually threatening, and the cartoonish nature of their performances undercuts the stakes of the monster madness.

Jeffrey Dean Morgan drawls his way through a reasonably fun supporting part as a shadowy government agent, while Joe Manganiello shows up very briefly as a private military contractor. Everyone’s playing to type, and Rampage contains frustratingly little in the way of surprises or spontaneity.

Nobody can accuse Rampage of not delivering the all-out giant monster goods, but the movie stops considerably short of being the expertly-made escapism it could’ve been. There’s a tonal struggle between being ridiculous and being earnest that Peyton lacks the skill to reconcile. Rampage doesn’t take itself too seriously at all, but its clumsy attempts at emotional beats and its predictable, store-bought monster movie plot stand in the way of it being truly entertaining.

RATING: 2.5 out of 5 Stars

Jedd Jong

A Quiet Place movie review

For inSing

A QUIET PLACE

Director : John Krasinski
Cast : Emily Blunt, John Krasinski, Millicent Simmonds, Noah Jupe, Cade Woodward
Genre : Horror/Drama
Run Time : 1h 30m
Opens : 5 April 2018
Rating : PG13

In this horror thriller, silence is not only golden, but it’s the one thing that will keep what remains of humanity alive.

Vicious creatures that hunt by hearing have wiped out much of the earth’s population. The Abbott family, consisting of Lee (John Krasinski), his wife Evelyn (Emily Blunt) and their children Regan (Millicent Simmonds), Marcus (Noah Jupe) and Beau (Cade Woodward), are among the few people that remain. Living in a farmhouse, they have adopted a life of silence, as any sound they make could be their last. Grappling with loss and fear, the family that stays quiet together survives together.

A Quiet Place is directed by John Krasinski, who also rewrote a spec script by Bryan Woods and Scott Beck. Krasinski’s previous directorial efforts Brief Interviews with Hideous Men and The Hollars were indie comedy-dramas, the kind of films you’d expect from an actor making his foray into directing. With A Quiet Place, Krasinski boldly steps into genre territory with a film that seems like the work of a seasoned horror filmmaker.

Krasinski wastes no time in reeling the audience into the world he creates, and once the movie gets a hold of us, it never lets go. The set-up is elegant, and the movie doesn’t get bogged down with too much exposition. The threat is firmly established, and we get to know the characters and the world they’re living in without it ever feeling boring. There is minimal gore, rendering the little explicit blood and violence that we see even more effective.

The set pieces are simple but staged with great finesse, and the sense of dread is all-encompassing. The grain silo scene is a nail-biter of the highest order. The film falls back on more than a few jump scares, but these are earned because of the effort with which the world is drawn, and because the premise justifies them.

Charlotte Bruus Christensen’s cinematography conveys the family’s melancholy, and the manipulation of light and shadow during the creature attack sequences is right up there with the similar scenes from Alien. A film like this lives or dies by the sound design, which is executed meticulously and ramps up the tension.

Beyond the atmospherics, A Quiet Place does something many horror films struggle with: it makes the audience care deeply about its characters. We get invested in the plight of this family and want to see them make it through their ordeal. The cast is small, the scope is intimate, and while we’re curious as to what happened to the rest of the world, our focus is trained on the Abbotts.

All the performances are affecting, and the film benefits from real-life husband and wife Krasinski and Blunt playing off each other. The couple visibly draws on their own experiences as parents to portray people who go to great lengths to protect their children. At no point does this seem self-indulgent, even with Krasinski starring, directing and co-writing. Both Krasinski and Blunt convey great warmth and sadness. While there are moments when the characters are deathly afraid, these performances don’t feel like what one would typically find in a horror film, further elevating the material. Blunt in a farmhouse toting a shotgun also brings Looper to mind, and Looper coming to mind is rarely a bad thing.

Millicent Simmonds is outstanding as Regan. The character has agency and her personal frustrations, regret and tension with her parents are given considerable attention. Simmonds is deaf in real life and lends the film great authenticity. Krasinski stated that he cast Simmonds so she could teach the cast what it’s like to live in a silent world. Most of the ‘dialogue’ in the film is delivered via American Sign Language, which Simmonds taught the cast.

Jupe’s Marcus is sensitive and frightened – his father is gently trying to teach him the survival skills he needs. The interaction between the parents and their children is thoroughly convincing, and this helps immensely in selling the premise.

While rival horror-centric studio Blumhouse has critically acclaimed successes like Get Out, Platinum Dunes, founded by Michael Bay, Andrew Form and Brad Fuller, has been mostly pumping out poorly-received remakes of classic horror franchises. Ouija: The Origin of Evil was the closest a Platinum Dunes horror movie came to be excellent. A Quiet Place is the studio’s finest offering yet.

As hard as it would’ve been to believe ten years ago, Jim from The Office has made one of the finest suspense horror movies in recent memory. Krasinski demonstrates precise control and heart, giving the film a sense of novelty as he makes it into so much more than just its gimmick.

RATING: 4.5 out of 5 Stars

Jedd Jong

The Hurricane Heist movie review

For inSing

THE HURRICANE HEIST

Director : Rob Cohen
Cast : Toby Kebbell, Maggie Grace, Ryan Kwanten, Ralph Ineson, Melissa Bolona, Jamie Andrew Cutler, Ed Birch, Moyo Akande
Genre : Action/Thriller
Run Time : 1h 42m
Opens : 5 April 2018
Rating : PG13

In 1996, Rob Cohen’s Daylight involved a mix of traffic, crime and very inclement weather. Cohen revisits those elements in the delightfully-titled The Hurricane Heist.

A hurricane is about to hit the Gulf Coast of Alabama. A gang of thieves, led by corrupt U.S. Treasury officer Perkins (Ralph Ineson), has planned the perfect crime: make away with $600 million under the cover of the storm. Meteorologist Will (Toby Kebbell) and his mechanic brother, former U.S. Marine Breeze (Ryan Kwanten), must brave the hurricane and foil the audacious robbery. They join forces with Treasury Agent Casey (Maggie Grace), Perkins’ former partner, as the hurricane reaches Category 5 levels and the dastardly robbers get ever closer to making off with their loot.

When this reviewer first heard of The Hurricane Heist, he was surprised it wasn’t bound straight for home video/streaming. The plot and characters feel very made-for-TV, and the visual effects are often unconvincing. However, there is a good deal of practical stunt work that is executed with a level of skill.

The Hurricane Heist was always going to be silly. The challenge is for the film to cross that threshold into being entertaining, without making the audience feel like the movie is something they must endure. The movie is only partially successful in this regard. The first two acts of the film are often tedious and while there’s a lot going on during the action sequences, it feels kind of numbing. Then, the climactic chase involving three semi-trucks outracing the hurricane’s eye wall packs in the over-the-top action that the audience came for. It isn’t quite enough to make up for the earlier parts of the film, but it’s something.

 

Rob Cohen directed big-budget fare in the 90s and early 2000s, including Dragonheart and, as the poster is quick to remind us, The Fast and the Furious and xXx. Indeed, the font for the title on the poster seems suspiciously reminiscent of The Fast and the Furious. While those films have gotten increasingly extravagant, Cohen’s box office disappointments (including 2005’s Stealth) mean that he has to make do with limited resources. The film was shot in Bulgaria, the go-to location for budget-challenged Hollywood filmmakers.

Toby Kebbell makes for a more interesting leading man than the bland, generically handsome guys one would find leading movies of this type. He affects a Southern drawl which Kebbell seems to know is unconvincing but which he tries to keep consistent. He gets a laughably standard backstory and motivation, and there’s nothing here that’s remotely affecting on an emotional level, but Kebbell is clearly trying his best.

Touches like the hero’s brother being named ‘Breeze’ seem to indicate a certain level of self-awareness, but The Hurricane Heist always feels a notch or two away from peak B-movie enjoyment levels.

Maggie Grace is a serviceable leading lady, while Ralph Ineson happily chomps into the scenery as the villain. We’ve seen The Witch so we know Ineson is capable of nuance, but it’s just as well that he dispenses with anything resembling that, eventually yelling “MY MONEY!” as he tries to keep a speeding semi-truck with a storm front bearing down behind it under control.

The Hurricane Heist is packed with clichés and is aimed at undiscerning action movie fans looking to pass a lazy Sunday afternoon. The movie never feels insultingly cheap and there is a bit of charm to the less-than-convincing visual effects, but it never makes a commitment to the full-on stupidity that would’ve brought it into ‘so bad it’s good’ territory.

RATING: 2.5 out of 5 Stars

Jedd Jong

 

The Titan movie review

For inSing

THE TITAN

Director : Lennart Ruff
Cast : Sam Worthington, Taylor Schilling, Tom Wilkinson, Agyness Deyn, Nathalie Emmanuel, Diego Boneta, Noah Jupe
Genre : Sci-fi
Run Time : 1h 37m
Opens : 5 April 2018
Rating : NC16

In 2009’s Avatar, Sam Worthington played a man who transfers his consciousness into an alien body. In this sci-fi thriller, Worthington turns into an alien-like being again, albeit under different circumstances.

It is 2045, and mankind is forced to find new means of survival. Overpopulation and environmental destruction have doomed earth. Professor Martin Collingwood (Tom Wilkinson) has devised a revolutionary new procedure which will alter the genetics of test subjects, changing their physiology so they can live on Titan, Saturn’s largest moon. Collingwood believes that this “forced evolution” is the future of humanity.

Former soldier Rick Janssen (Sam Worthington) is one of the test subjects in the Titan program. Together with his wife Abigail (Taylor Schilling) and son Lucas (Noah Jupe), Rick moves to a research facility where he will undergo the transformation into a new species adapted to life on Titan. Unexpected side effects begin to occur, with the other test subjects turning uncontrollably violent. Abigail realises that she hasn’t been told everything about what exactly will happen to her husband and must face the horrifying reality that this terrifying leap forward in evolution might just be the end of humanity as we know it.

In Singapore, The Titan is being released on Netflix and in theatres. Smaller-scale sci-fi films have always fascinated this reviewer – it’s fun to see how filmmakers circumvent budgetary restraints and tap on their creativity to convincingly create world with limited resources.

The Titan has an intriguing premise and establishes it with a degree of plausibility. The production values pass muster, and the film benefits from the picturesque shooting location of the Canary Islands in Spain. The film has a slow build and there is a sense of dread as to what unexpected mutation lies around the corner for Rick. Towards the end, it enters action movie mode, and that’s when the movie feels a little clumsy and not fully realised.

The theme of man playing god has often fascinated filmmakers, and while The Titan stays a safe distance from schlocky silliness, its exploration of this theme lacks depth. The wider social implications of this type of genetic experimentation don’t quite take hold. Director Lennart Ruff, working from a screenplay by Max Hurwitz (with Arash Amel receiving a ‘story by’ credit), attempts to put the focus on the characters rather than the technical aspects of the procedure. Unfortunately, the characters aren’t especially interesting.

Sam Worthington seemed destined for A-list stardom after the success of Avatar, and while that has eluded him, he’s continued working steadily in smaller projects. Rick is a rather generic hero and the movie doesn’t get far enough into his head for us to appreciate the inner torment he experiences as he undergoes the procedure. It’s not a bad performance, but it could’ve been more affecting.

Taylor Schilling’s Abigail is a paediatrician, and she has a more proactive role in the story than most designated love interests in films of this type do. Thanks to her medical expertise, she can tell that’s something is amiss, and takes it upon herself to find out just what is happening to her husband. The film’s most emotional moments are when we see Abigail process that her husband is being taken from her bit by bit.

Wilkinson lends gravitas and dutifully delivers exposition, but by the end of the film, Dr Collingwood emerges as a rather one-dimensional character.

The other test subjects, who are played by actors including Nathalie Emmanuel, Diego Boneta and Aaron Heffernan, aren’t given huge amounts of character development. The fates that befall the less fortunate test subjects are shocking enough but aren’t quite as horrific as body horror movie aficionados have come to expect. The film’s restraint in not falling back on over-the-top gore is admirable.

The Titan isn’t bad, it’s just one of those films that sounds more interesting on paper than it winds up being. As a smaller scale sci-fi film, The Titan doesn’t take its premise far enough to truly capture the imagination but is unique enough to warrant curiosity.

RATING: 3 out of 5 Stars

Jedd Jong

Midnight Sun movie review

For inSing

MIDNIGHT SUN

Director : Scott Speer
Cast : Bella Thorne, Patrick Schwarzenegger, Rob Riggle, Quinn Shephard, Nicholas Coombe
Genre : Romance
Run Time : 1h 32m
Opens : 5 April 2018
Rating : PG13

Watching the sunset is one of those cliché things couples do, but in this romantic teen drama, that’s not an option for Katie Price (Bella Thorne). 18-year-old Katie has had a rare condition called Xeroderma Pigmentosum since birth. This means that even the slightest exposure to sun could lead to cancer and eventually death. She spends the whole day in her house behind specially-coated windows and is homeschooled by her father Jack (Rob Riggle).

Katie’s social interaction is limited to her best friend Morgan (Quinn Shephard). Katie has long harboured a crush on Charlie Reed (Patrick Schwarzenegger), who passes by her window every day, unaware of her existence. The two finally meet face-to-face when Katie is busking at the train station one night. Charlie is immediately smitten and they both fall for each other. However, Katie is intent on keeping her condition a secret, worried that learning about her illness will change Charlie’s perception of her. Will true love triumph blossom in the darkness?

Midnight Sun is a remake of the 2006 Japanese film of the same name. It will be difficult for anyone over the age of 13 to take this movie too seriously, as it feeds into the fantasies of many an adolescent girl. Midnight Sun feels as if it’s an adaptation of a Nicholas Sparks book, and it also feels like a Lifetime “illness of the week” movie. Of course, there are the unavoidable comparisons to 2017’s Everything, Everything, which was about a girl who couldn’t go outside because of an autoimmune disorder. It seems blissfully oblivious to the cynicism it will generate, which perhaps lends it some charm.

This is the second feature film by director Scott Speer, who made his debut with Step Up Revolution and has directed music videos for most of his career. Midnight Sun feels like an extended music video, and perhaps one could imagine it being the plot of an early Taylor Swift MV. There’s too much gloss and artifice, and nothing in the film feels remotely real. At the same time, it isn’t heightened enough to work as a fantasy. This is to say nothing of the dialogue, which is unintentionally awkward rather than realistically reflecting the awkwardness that arises when one talks to their crush.

Like many teen romance films, Midnight Sun is wont to give kids unrealistic expectations of high school romance. Katie falls in love with the first boy she sets eyes upon, and it turns out that he loves her right back. True love, forever and ever. This is compounded by how the film romanticises Katie’s condition. She is adamant that Charlie sees her as more than just her illness, but the film seems incapable of doing the same. Her other defining trait is that she writes songs and plays the guitar, but for the most part, Katie is little more than someone who has Xeroderma Pigmentosum.

Both leads are attractive but have little genuine chemistry. Thorne is appealing and effectively conveys how Katie feels held back by her condition. Schwarzenegger is strapping and exceedingly handsome, fitting into the Abercrombie model mould of Hollywood’s current leading man crop. Neither is terrible, but the dialogue does them few favours and the would-be romantic scenes are hopelessly cheesy.

Rob Riggle plays the requisite cool dad, who has been helping Katie cope with her condition since childhood. Unfortunately, Riggle is more adept at playing cynical, unlikeable comedic characters, and sometimes struggles to muster the sweetness required to play Jack.

Quinn Shephard is an effervescent presence as the stock best friend, but the Morgan character never transcends her designation as the stock best friend.

This reviewer is a hopeless romantic, and there were times when he felt caught in Midnight Sun’s tractor beam. However, it’s easy to realise just how emotionally manipulative the film is, and this reaches laughable levels by the time Midnight Sun reaches its conclusion. It’s derivative of other teen romances and while the target audience might be moved, this film will induce eye-rolling in everyone else.

RATING: 2 out of 5 Stars

Jedd Jong