San Andreas

RATING: B-

Disaster films. Most people either enjoy them somewhat, or they really hate them. My enjoyment of them tends to be across the board. Some of them are better than others. One thing that a lot of disaster films lately have in common is their use of incredibly unrealistic scenarios. The Day After Tomorrow and 2012 come to mind in that regard. However, San Andreas is the closest one I've seen in a while to representing an actual possible real-life scenario. 

We have the San Andreas fault, which ends up shifting in the film as it often does throughout history. Only now it's shifting stronger than ever--an early earthquake in Los Angeles goes up to 9.1 on the scale. Now, the thing about that is, the San Andreas Fault actually is a threat to southern California. Would the real thing be a 9.1? Probably not. Hopefully not. But there is always the risk of that general area getting a rude awakening of some sort one of these days. 

As for the plot line besides the earthquake, we have a helicopter Air Rescue pilot named Dwayne Johnson--um, excuse me--Ray Gaines--who is divorced from his wife and is trying to keep in touch with his daughter Blake (wait a minute, is this Taken?). When the massive line of earthquakes hits Southern Cali, he goes into action to save his daughter and estranged wife. And that's pretty much it. 

San Andreas does have some pretty spectacular sequences in it. An early scene with an initial earthquake at the Hoover Dam causes some pretty amazing visuals. There's also a pretty stunning sequence inside of a building *during* the earthquake where Gaines' wife tries to stay alive--one of the more realistic disaster scenes I've seen in a while. 

Unfortunately, like some of its other counterparts, San Andreas does manage to succumb to the usual cartoonish antics near the end (i.e.: filmmakers forgetting how long it is humanly possible to breathe underwater), so it should consider itself lucky it has the visuals and special effects to prop itself up. 

Otherwise, there's not particularly much to the film. The script is mostly a bit of a joke, and so is much of the cast; but Dwayne Johnson manages to do quite well, giving one of the better performances of his career, delivering even the cheesy lines well, and showing some acting range during a bit of a "plot twist" of sorts. 

San Andreas is probably one of the better films of its genre, though to be fair, that's not saying much. These type of films really never bring out A-grade material, but hopefully you already knew that. If you go into the film knowing what to expect, you'll actually be fairly entertained (thanks to Dwayne Johnson and the special effects). You could certainly do a lot worse anyway. 

Inception

RATING: A+

Christopher Nolan is known as one of the best film directors currently in the business. Mostly he's known for the Dark Knight trilogy, all three films of which are brilliant pieces of filmmaking. Unlike some of his other work, though, they're relatively simple films. Not any over-complicated concepts. That's not particularly in the case in his two other recent non-Batman films; Inception and Interstellar. Both of which are mind-bending films. 

Inception takes place in a world where military technology exists that allows people to infiltrate the subconscious of another person through shared dreaming. Dom Cobb is a particular master of the art of "extraction," as it's referred to. He's also trying to get back to his kids, as he's considered a criminal back in the U.S. He is offered an opportunity by a Japanese businessman with connections who can get him his life back; in return for performing "inception" (planting of an idea into a subject's subconscious) on a business rival. 

There's not too much more I can explain about the plot itself of the film without giving away spoilers. There's plenty of complicated concepts, and yet the film does a surprisingly good job of explaining itself (*if* you're paying attention, anyway). It manages to make the "dreams" concepts plausible, thanks to various truth nuggets such as "Dreams feel real when we're in them; it's only when we wake up that we actually realize something's strange." 

Inception overall is a brilliantly made film, loaded with exciting action sequences, an ultimately genius story and plot, well-written dialogue, a fantastic soundtrack from Hans Zimmer, and a strong cast led by Leonardo DiCaprio, who I'm not normally a fan of but does quite well here. The rest of the cast includes Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Ellen Page, Tom Hardy, Ken Watanabe, and Michael Caine (a surprisingly minor role for him, but he still does well as usual). 

The nice thing about Inception is that even those who can't quite grasp the concept or plot will find some appeal in the film with its action sequences and brilliant visuals and strong acting. It's a difficult film to straight-up dislike. The film also helped to confirm that Christopher Nolan wasn't a one-trick pony, and that he was here to stay. And even if Interstellar didn't quite reach the same heights of his other films (it was still quite good), that still remains true. 

Taken

RATING: B-

There was a time when Liam Neeson wasn't really known as much of an action star. Sure, he could play the role, but he wasn't a go-to guy for it. Probably his most popular role in action film before this film came out was Ra's al Ghul in Batman Begins. And he didn't do a *whole* lot of fighting in it. Not like here. 

Background story. Bryan Mills is a former CIA field operative who retired in order to try and get closer to his teenage daughter Kim (especially seeing as he is divorced). Upon his ex-wife's request, he allows her on a trip to Paris with her best friend and her family. Thanks mostly to her best friend's stupidity, Kim and her friend are... well... taken. Bryan is able to get Kim to leave her phone on before the abduction and get some info on the thief, and issues the famous Liam Neeson threat which has since become popular on the Internet. 

"I don't know who you are. I don't know what you want. If you are looking for ransom, I don't have money. But what I do have are a very particular set of skills. ... Skills that make me a nightmare for people like you. So if you let my daughter go now, that will be the end of it. I will not look for you. I will not pursue you. But if you don't... I will look for you. I will find you... and I will kill you." 

Thus begins the wild ride that teaches us a lesson: never, never, never, never, *never* kidnap the daughter of an ex-CIA operative. It will be very hazardous to your health. 

The path to finding his daughter, though, is a surprisingly dark one. He ends up uncovering a sex trafficking ring (which they manage to depict without explicitness and still get the point across) in the middle of Europe, and finds he has 96 hours before he loses his daughter for good. He thus obliterates everyone in his path; occasionally using ethically questionable methods (namely non-fatally shooting the completely innocent wife of a corrupt French cop in order to get intel). He can hardly be considered a complete hero; closer to a driven antihero than anything who simply wants to save what he cares about most... at *any* cost. 

Despite that, Taken is a pretty enthralling action thriller with plenty of cool fight scenes and action sequences and surprisingly clever/funny dialogue at times. The film also manages to cast a light on the disturbing trafficking occurring in the area (while keeping its PG-13 rating with ease). While it's not necessarily a classic, it's certainly a good popcorn flick that holds up a little better than perhaps would be expected. 

Oblivion

RATING: A

Tom Cruise does seem to often be a pretty good judge of action/adventure films to star in. He has several good films on his resume; the Mission: Impossible franchise (save for the second one), Minority Report, and Edge of Tomorrow to name a few. We haven't seen much out of him in the sci-fi genre, though. This is where that changes.

Pairing up with director Joseph Kosinski--a guy with insane talent at visuals and special effects (Tron: Legacy is his only other film directed so far)--we are given this particular film, Oblivion. A post-apocalyptic sci-fi flick where absolutely nothing is as it seems, where plot twists lurk around every corner (though some of them are admittedly predictable), and where the visual backgrounds cause jaw-drops. 

The film centers around a desolate Earth, 60 years after it was mostly destroyed in a war with aliens. Jack Harper (Tom Cruise) and his wife Victoria are assigned to cleanup crew and drone maintenance as the Earth's resources are sucked up and they await to join the rest of humanity on Saturn's moon, Titan. That changes when a pre-invasion space module crashes on Earth with people in stasis chambers. A surviving woman named Julia that appears to be from Jack's past causes Jack to question everything he knows. 

As mentioned earlier, the film is loaded with plot twists. Some of them are a bit more predictable than others (the early mention of mandatory "memory wipes" is pretty suspicious from the get-go), but some are near impossible to see coming. Once the film gets going, it refuses to stop until the very last second, which ends things on a *very* satisfying note. 

Oblivion isn't particularly action-packed all the way; it prides itself more on suspense more often, which mostly works. It kept my interest for all two hours, at least. Overall, the film is strong in nearly every facet, from casting (Tom Cruise, Morgan Freeman, Olga Kurylenko) to the pacing to the action/suspense to the visuals to even (surprisingly) the electronic-fueled soundtrack (M83). The one disadvantage for some may be the occasional plot predictability; despite that, I found it to be one of the best science fiction films released in the last few years. A brilliant flick not to be missed.  

Star Wars: The Force Awakens

RATING: B 

Man, it's hard for a movie to live up to massive hype. When the news of new Star Wars films first came out, there was a mixture of excitement and nervousness. Once the trailers started coming out, everyone went nuts (myself included). The hype for the first installment of the long-awaited sequel trilogy grew much higher. J.J. Abrams and Disney had to know what would happen next. Either they would be revered for all time as the resurrectors of Star Wars, or they would never again be able to step foot outside their houses.

For what it's worth, The Force Awakens is sure to please a lot of long-time fans. It has more of what we all loved about the original trilogy, while still adding its own flavor to the mix. For its basic purposes, it probably achieved its goals. But was it too much to expect a little more? Especially with the awesome theory regarding the identity of Kylo Ren that was around during recent months before the release, which would've shaken things up beyond belief. In a sense, I kind of feel like I got what I *should* expect, but not what I *did* expect. 

I mean, it's definitely good. Just not great. You know? 

So anyways. Episode VII. We are introduced to a Star Wars world 30 years after Return of the Jedi, where all our favorite older characters are indeed that. Older. Way older. Some aged better than others. Luke Skywalker himself has disappeared, while the First Order--a spin-off of the Empire--has risen from the ashes and made a run for control of the galaxy.

And our new leads? Well, we have Rey, a scavenger with a pretty vague past (vague is something that I will probably continue to use a lot in this review), who gets caught up in all of the action. Finn, on the other hand, is a Stormtrooper... who oddly decides, "I don't want to do this anymore." And why? This type of thing *never* happens to Stormtroopers, it seems. They're just the masked minions who can't shoot accurately to save their life. (That has not changed.) Rey is a pretty interesting lead character, but Finn just falls short. He switches sides, and that's that. For a character who does such a thing, his character development is surprisingly lacking. Poe Dameron, on the other hand, suffers only from being underused. Harrison Ford is the one who steals the show, reprising his role as Han Solo incredibly well. 

Kylo Ren, on the other hand, suffers more from poor marketing than anything. Marketed as the powerful, awesome villain with a new unholy terror of a lightsaber, he ends up being sort of a letdown in that sense. What he is instead is certainly interesting (can't say without giving away spoilers), but his unsettling/powerful feel and his attempt to be the next Darth Vader in that sense is quickly thrown away in favor of a different feel. 

Is the story a good one? Sure. There's some big twists and turns along the way (that's J.J. Abrams for you), even if a couple things feel a little derivative almost from previous Star Wars material. There is a bit that's left hanging; by the end of the film, we still know hardly anything about Kylo Ren's vague master Snoke, and what exactly happened to Luke is still sort of left hanging. Oh, and I'm still unsure of how the title "Force Awakens" fits in, cause the Force doesn't really evolve or anything special in this film. It's nothing you haven't seen before, in that respect. 

The movie's pretty entertaining, to be sure, and has some hilarious dialogue, and yet I can't help but feel like something is missing. What, exactly? I'm actually not completely sure. 

In the movie's defense, I may have gone into it with higher expectations than I should have. I was expecting something a little more groundbreaking, and a different kind of shock twist. And while others may also find themselves expecting a little more, overall they should be satisfied. And while I myself am still mostly satisfied, I still wonder about what could've been. 

Nevertheless, we still have two more movies in this sequel trilogy to go. If they manage to pull together the story well enough for said two movies and thus give us a strong overall story for the trilogy, I will likely take back much of my criticism. 

Star Wars: Return of the Jedi

RATING: B+

The third chapter is often a tricky one for trilogies. Everyone is under a lot of pressure to deliver, especially when the past two installments have been successful with audiences. Sometimes what'll end up happening is that the ending will be a decent one, but it won't be the one the audience wants, and everyone suffers for it. 

Return of the Jedi is definitely a decent chapter, but it has been criticized for different reasons. Some were a little disappointed that it ended all too well. Harrison Ford even requested back before they made the movie that George Lucas kill off the character of Han Solo to make things more interesting. And then of course, there are the Ewoks, but there's plenty of time to get to those guys later. 

We unfortunately spend a good first half hour or so dealing with the rescue of Han Solo from Jabba the Hutt, who isn't particularly an appealing character or villain. Parts of that situation even tend to drag on at times. It's really not until we get to the second half of the film where Luke Skywalker goes to confront his father Darth Vader, and his master Emperor Palpatine that things actually really get good. 

Sure, there's a few exciting sequences leading up to the final battle and confrontations--namely the speeder bike chase on Endor, and the battle on the sail barge back during the Jabba sequences. But it's hard to compare all of that with what goes on during the latter half of the film, with Luke confronting his father and struggling to not give in to the dark side of the Force. 

Another interesting note is that within six years (from 1977 to 1983) special effects got a lot better in some ways. Suddenly we are now able to have way more spaceships on screen in the middle of space at once, which ultimately makes for a pretty awesome battle between the Rebellion and Empire in the middle of space near the end as well. 

The biggest problem with this film, really, is the Ewoks, which no one really asked for and ultimately are more of a dumb annoyance more than anything, and watching them actually be a decent fighting force against the Empire only furthers digs the Stormtroopers' already terrible reputation into their grave. 

Overall, Return of the Jedi is definitely the most flawed of the original trilogy, but it offers a satisfying conclusion at the same time. The problem is some of what is thrown in at the same time (the Ewoks). What props up the film so well is its final act (long as it is, running at 40 or so minutes), which is right on par with anything else from the rest of the trilogy. Despite the Ewoks' best attempts, the original Star Wars Trilogy remains a massive part of the legacy of cinema, and Return of the Jedi has its place in it just as much as the other two films. 

Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back

RATING: A+

Back when Star Wars first came out, it had set a standard for sci-fi in general. It had set a high bar for itself, and there was probably plenty of pressure for them to deliver with the next two movies. They did deliver for this one at least, which ultimately may have been partially due to the fact that the "Directed By" part of the end credits was the only one in the franchise to feature a name *other* than George Lucas. 

The stakes are higher in this film right from the get-go; in fact, within the first 20 minutes, we are given an extended sequence (that, among other things, holds up very well despite being from 1980) where the Empire is actually being victorious in massacring a Rebel base. The film goes from there, as Luke Skywalker continues his Jedi training, as the dark side begins to come in play. Vader is determined to make him switch sides. 

By the time the relentless roller coaster of a film ends (with a little bit of a cliffhanger), we've been subjected through plenty of brilliance; the opening invasion sequence, the asteroid field scene, multiple space chases involving the Millennium Falcon, and the climactic lightsaber battle and the earth-shattering revelation that ensues as we are given one of the greatest plot twists of all time and one that set a standard for years to come. Doesn't matter if you've already seen it or you know what's coming ahead of time (like I unfortunately did), it still gives you the chills every time. 

Empire Strikes Back is a step above its predecessor in other ways as well. The script seems to have improved a bit from the iconic yet occasionally unintentionally goofy script from the previous movie, and the soundtrack (courtesy of John Williams) takes a huge step up as well, thanks in part to the composition of the popular Imperial March. 

Ultimately, I find it hard to deny that Empire Strikes Back is the best film in the Star Wars franchise. Was it because George Lucas wasn't directing (Irvin Kershner instead)? Probably. Whatever the case, it's an all-around more exciting and arguably more impactful film. Empire Strikes Back is a classic, and serves as an excellent blueprint for how sequels should be done.