Phil_M_A_Kerr

[Edit: there's a mid-credits scene! I only know this because after leaving the complex I noticed the rain. I rushed back into the cinema to grab my umbrella which I'd forgotten. I heard movie dialogue & thought perhaps they were ...testing the sound system? Doh!!! I wouldn't last a minute if I were a character in one of those films.)

With some time off work I had the mental space to catch a random movie. If I'm busy I get choosy about which fillems I watch but if there's time to relax there's nothing better than catching a flick that's outside of this faux cinephile's purview.

I can't ever recall seeing the OG in this franchise. My formative years were with OG Jason & Freddy. I struggled with Scream - showing my age here hahaha - which arrived a good decade after my nightmare-spawning duo of Voorhees & Kruger. But in an attempt to hang on to my youth (don't we all?), I conjure an affinity with those later 90s stars. In reality, my first real scream queen was Jamie Lee Curtis, whilst the scream princess was a TV-addicted youngster, Drew Barrymore.

Nevertheless, it was heartwarming to see JLH, Prinze, & co strutting their stuff with poise and authority. But they're minor roles, really. A new generation of talented up-&-comers carry the burdensome baton of guilt around Southport and they're up to the task.

You get the feeling that the story took second place to maintaining an atmosphere of constant tension. The direction, cinematography and editing give the film its elevated heartbeat. It's only when characters start explaining stuff that I began to think about tomorrow's chores. And that was momentarily and only twice, maybe thrice.

It's a commendable late entry in the franchise that as many thrillseekers will get a kick out of as film boffins will turn their nose up at.

One final note; these slasher films give movie makers licence to embrace the darkness. Literal darkness. Unlike celluloid films of yesteryear, modern movie cameras can see Everything. Ergo, there's a tendency to show Everything. Not on this occasion. Spooky shadows abound and unlit areas are embraced.

Haven't watched Celine Song's Past Lives yet, but might check it out some day.

This movie was a great, and much needed, change of pace. My three previous movies were massive: F1, Jurassic Rebirth, then Superman. This wasn't a change of pace in just topic, though. Celine Song's ethnicity gives the film a different pace to many dramas. It's contemplative in what seems like a buddhist state of detached observation. There's plenty of drama, yes, and it's interspersed with but never drowned out by melodrama. It's one of those movies that does its best to tell you that life isn't ... like ... a movie.

I think the performances from Johnson, Pascal, and Cap were excellent. If you'd forgotten to notice that Chris Evans is an actor, his role here as ... an ... actor ... gives him many opportunities to show of his character acting chops.

The pacing reminded me a little of Peter Chan's Comrades: Almost A Love Story (1996), and Kim Ki-duk's Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter ... And Spring(2003).

Super strong supporting cast, too.

Our other random aspiring daters are exploited as awkward comedy fodder, it should be noted. Right or wrong, there was much chuckling from the audience.

The movie is fast-paced, that's for sure. That's its strength and its weakness. There's much to admire in Gunn and Henry Brahm's visual style. The much talked about wide lenses, in their hyper-real bending of the edges, actually add realism because it's counter to the manicured, digital algorithm-designed CGI-scapes that we're subconsciously accustomed in today's films. Gunn is an old hand at creature designs and he doesn't rest on his laurels here. There's finesse in the interweaving of real sets and CGI. You wouldn't expect any less in this top tier IP.

Director Gunn came to prominence via his Galactic Guardians and their prominent role in the Avengers phenomenon. One successful sub-franchise feeding into the mother franchise. There were so many characters, in the end, that we were familiar with it was astonishing. With Superman, we're probably trying to get to that sense of caring for a stacked ensemble too quickly. Our concern for characters is spread too thin to amount to real dramatic impact. The late Gene Hackman's Luthor and his desire to rule Australia is a fond memory. I note that in the TV versions of Supes, Lex is around the same age as Kal El. Perhaps for the big screen, however, an actor with serious gravitas, say Bradley Cooper, would have been a better match against the Kryptonian. I'm rooting for Hoult to be the next Bond, so I do like the guy, don't get me wrong. And perhaps for Jor El maybe a now senior actor, Mr Johnny Depp? Just personal ideas should I ever reach the colossal heights to which James Gunn has risen in the movie business.