BLACK ADAM : Tuesday 25th October 2022.

I saw the M Rated 'BLACK ADAM' earlier this week, and this American Superhero film is based on the DC Comics character of the same name, is a spin-off from the 2019 film 'Shazam!' and is the eleventh film in the DC Extended Universe (DCEU). It is Directed by Jaume Collet-Serra whose prior film making credits include his debut in 2005 with 'House of Wax', then four films with Liam Neeson - those being 'Unknown' in 2011, 'Non-Stop' in 2014, 'Run All Night' in 2015 and 'The Commuter' in 2018, with 'The Shallows' in 2016 and 'Jungle Cruise' most recently in 2021. This film was originally slated for a Christmas 2021 release but was moved from that date due to the COVID-19 pandemic. It was then given an end of July 2022, release date, but was then moved again, having seen its World Premiere in Mexico City on 3rd October and was released here in Australia, the US and a number of other territories from last week, having cost in the region of US$195M to produce, has so far recouped US$156M, and has garnered mixed or average critical reviews. 

The film opens up in 2,600 BC long before the ancient city of Rome and the empire of Babylon came into being. We are taken back to the city of Kahndaq where the tyrannical King, Akh-Ton (Marwan Kenzari) rules with an iron fist and has his subjects mine for the rare precious blue metal 'Eternium' in open mines with their bare hands. When he has sufficient supplies he crafts the crown of Sabbac which bestows great power on whoever shall wear the crown. After attempting to stage a revolt by the downtrodden and weary slaves, a young slave boy is given the powers of Shazam by the Council of Wizards because he is deemed pure of heart to wield those powers, so transforming him into Kahndaq's heroic champion, who allegedly kills Ahk-Ton and brings and early end to his reign. 

History lesson over, and we fast forward to the present day Kahndaq which is under marshall law overseen by the ruthless Intergang. We then meet up with archaeologist and University Professor Adrianna Tomaz (Sarah Shahi) who tries to locate the Crown of Sabbac with the help of her brother Karim (Mo Amir) and their colleagues Samir (James Cusati-Moyer) and Ishmael (Marwan Kenzari). As Adrianna obtains the crown hidden deep in a cavernous cave buried within a mountain, Intergang members appear and ambush them, demanding that she hand over the crown. As Adrianna is held at gunpoint on her knees, she reads an incantation on a tombstone laying beneath her that awakens Teth-Adam (Dwayne Johnson), whom she believes to be Kahndaq's champion, from a long overdue rest and recuperation. Adam immediately sets about slaughtering just about all of the Intergang army.

Shortly afterwards US government official Amanda Waller (Viola Davis) has caught wind that Teth-Adam is on the rampage and deems that he is a threat to world peace and contacts the Justice Society of America (JSA) - Hawkman (Aldis Hodge), Doctor Fate (Pierce Brosnan), Cyclone (Quintessa Swindell), and Atom Smasher (Noah Centineo) to bring him into custody, and forcibly if need be. The JSA arrives in time to stop Teth-Adam from causing yet more destruction to Kahndaq than he has already caused, and Intergang's troops. The JSA explains to Adrianna that Adam was not a saviour who was laid to rest in a tomb, but a madman who was imprisoned and entombed for all eternity.

Ishmael reveals himself as Intergang's leader to Karim and overheard by Adrianna's teenage son Amon (Bodhi Sabongui). Ishmael shoots Karim in the stomach and a chase ensues with Amon, who steals the crown to prevent Ishmael getting his grubby hands on it, but Ishmael gets the better of young Amon and captures him, but not before Amon had switched the crown in his back pack for a set of school books. Adam, Adrianna, and the JSA who now have possession of the crown intend to use it to trade for Amon. They reach Ishmael, holed up in his abandoned mine headquarters who reveals that he is the last descendant of King Ahk-Ton and, wanting his rightful place on the throne, demands the crown, which Adrianna willingly gives up in order to save Amon's life. Ishmael betrays his part of the deal and shoots at Amon, and Adam, trying to save Amon, loses control and destroys the mine encampment with his power, killing Ishmael in the process. 

Wracked with guilt, Adam flees to the ruins of Ahk-Ton's palace, where he explains to Hawkman that the legends of Kahndaq's champion were in fact wrong, and it was Adam's son Hurut (Jalon Christian) who was granted the powers of Shazam and became Kahndaq's champion. Knowing that Hurut was invincible, Ahk-Ton's assassins were instructed to execute Hurut's family, including Adam and Hurut's mother. Hurut granted Adam his powers in order to save his father's life, and Ahk-Ton's assassins immediately killed the depowered Hurut. An enraged Adam then slaughtered all of the king's men, Ahk-Tok and destroyed Kahndaq's palace. He was subsequently deemed unworthy by the Council of Wizards and entombed within the Rock of Eternity. Feeling incapable of becoming a true hero, Adam surrenders, by uttering the word 'Shazam'. 

The JSA takes him to a secret Task Force X black site located deep under the sea under the pack ice. Dr. Fate, who is able to see into the future, has a premonition of Hawkman's impending death. As the JSA returns to the city, they realise that Ishmael intentionally made Adam kill him while he was wearing the Crown of Sabbac so that he could be reborn as the host of the demon Sabbac, who rises from the underworld to claim his throne. 

Sabbac commands the Legions of Hell to terrorise Kahndaq, with Adrianna and Karim initially fighting them off while Amon rallies the people of the city to join in the fight. The JSA prepares to face Sabbac in Ahk-Ton's ruins, but Dr. Fate creates a magical force field that prevents Hawkman, Cyclone, and Atom Smasher from entering. He reveals that Hawkman's death can be avoided with his own sacrifice. Dr. Fate fights Sabbac on his own and uses his astral projection to release Adam after talking to him in his cryo sleep and asking him to wake-up and come to their aid. Sabbac kills Dr. Fate, resulting in the force field disappearing, and so allowing the others to join in the fight. Just as Sabbac is about to overpower and dispense with the JSA, Adam arrives and joins the battle. With help from Hawkman using Dr. Fate's helmet, Adam kills Sabbac. 

The three remaining JSA departs on good terms with Adam, who accepts his new role as the protector of Kahndaq and takes on a less old fashioned name replacing Teth-Adam with Black Adam. In a mid-credits sequence, Amanda Waller communicates with Adam and warns him against leaving Kahndaq. Adam says that there is no one on Earth who can defeat him, to which Waller responds that she was not referring to someone from this world. Superman (Henry Cavill) arrives shortly thereafter and suggests that they should talk!

'Black Adam' is an entertaining enough romp that is heavy, very heavy, on the CGI action sequences and the OTT violence that lurches from one action set piece to the next with a frenzied frequency that after a while seems to all meld into one elongated tale of 'shoot first, ask questions . . . never'! Sure, the myriad of action scenes are well realised but when you come to appreciate that nobody or nothing can ever harm the indestructible Adam, it all becomes a bit ho hum! Dwayne Johnson's big bold badass antihero superhero delivers all the kicks, punches and death blows that you would expect of him, and delves sufficiently into his back story to make his character arc relatable, but that is where the characterisation ends and the exposition sadly falters for the four new superhero types that this film introduces us to. For fans of Dwayne Johnson and big spectacle relentless comic book action then this film is for you, but for those of us who saw it under the pretext of a new dawn in the DCEU, then you are likely to be a tad disappointed. 

'Black Adam' merits three claps of the Odeon Online clapperboard out of a potential five claps.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-

THE INVISIBLE MAN : Tuesday 3rd March 2020.

'THE INVISIBLE MAN' which I saw at my local multiplex this week is an MA15+ Rated American and Australian Co-Produced supernatural horror film Directed, written for the screen and based on a story by the Australian Screenwriter, Producer, Actor and film maker Leigh Whannel. This is a modern updated retelling of the classic H.G.Wells story and the 1933 film version both of the same name. Filmed here in Sydney, Australia, this film has been in development since 2007 and in 2016 the project was announced to have been resurrected as part of Universal Studios shared cinematic universe consisting of their classic monster characters, but when 'The Mummy' was released in 2017 to poor press and less than favourable Box Office takings the studio halted all of its projects sitting in development. Subsequently the studio revised its plans, and this film was back on track. Costing US$7M to make, the film was released Stateside last week too, has so far grossed US$56M and has generated positive Critical acclaim. In November 2019, it was announced that a spin-off film centered around the female counterpart to Invisible Man was in development. Elizabeth Banks will star in, Direct, and Produce an adaptation of 'The Invisible Woman', based on her own original pitch it seems, as distinct to the Sci-Fi comedy film of 1940 of the same name.

The film opens up with a couple sleeping in bed in a luxurious house with sweeping views across a calm ocean. It is about 3:40am. The woman wakes up, and stealthily sneaks through the house trying not to disturb her Diazepam drugged partner. Her bags are already packed. She disables the security monitors in order to make a clean getaway, and in doing so has to go down into her partners laboratory. There she sees for the first time a mysterious looking piece of equipment with three shackles on either side at ankle, waist and shoulder height. She moves past this, for this is not her mission to wonder WTF! Zeus the Rottweiler dog follows her out of the house and in trying to remove the shock collar, the dogs backs up slightly, bumps the sports car and sets of its alarm. She scales the high concrete wall and flees through the woods and to the road to meet her sister picking her up in her car. Just as she gets into the car, the shadowy figure of a man hurtles towards the vehicle and smashes through the passenger side window with his fist. The sisters narrowly escape being caught after a violent struggle. The man, with a bloodied hand, picks up her prescription bottle of Diazepam in the road that she dropped during the escape.

The woman we learn is Cecilia Kass (Elisabeth Moss) who two weeks later is in hiding in a secret location with childhood friend and now Police Detective James Lanier (Aldis Hodge) and his mid-teenage daughter Sydney Lanier (Storm Reid). One day, and against Cecilia's express wishes (for wanting to keep her location a secret from anybody and everyone), her sister Emily (Harriet Dyer) visits the Lanier household. Emily delivers the news that Cecilia's abusive and over controlling sociopathic partner Adrian Griffin (Oliver Jackson-Cohen) has committed suicide. At a hearing of Adrian's Will, which is handled by Adrian's brother and lawyer Tom Griffin (Michael Dorman), it is announced that he left Cecilia US$5M payable over the next four years or so in monthly instalments of US$100K, upon condition that she does not get a criminal record and that she remains sound of mind.

During the days and weeks that follow, Cecilia becomes agitated by a seemingly unseen presence in the house. One day when James has gone to work she leaves breakfast cooking to awake Sydney and a kitchen knife removes itself from the bench top and the stove turns itself up and the cooking bacon and eggs rapidly overheat, burn and the pan catches fire. At a job interview for an architecture firm, Cecilia opens her portfolio to demonstrate her work to her prospective employer only to find it empty. After trying to stand, she faints and is taken to hospital. The next day the doctor calls with the results of her blood tests, reporting they found high levels of Diazepam in her system. Immediately afterwards, she finds the same prescription bottle with which she drugged Adrian and had dropped in the road the night she made her escape, in her own bathroom with his bloodied fingerprints on the label.

Cecilia arranges a meeting with Tom, bringing James along, and states that she firmly believes that Adrian, who was a leader in optic science, discovered the means to make himself invisible and faked his own death just to torment her. Tom of course vehemently denies this notion saying that his ashes sit in a casket on the mantlepiece in his office in their plain view. He goes on to explain that Adrian had also abused and sought to control him and was the type of person to make one think such a thing despite not doing so. Cecilia visits Emily, only to learn that she was sent the previous evening a hateful email from Cecelia's account, saying that she feels suffocated by her and she never wants to see her again. Emily tells her that Adrian is dead and slams the door in her face. Cecilia goes home to read the email in her 'sent' box, and breaks down. 

She is comforted by Sydney, but suddenly out of nowhere Sydney is violently struck in the face by an unseen figure while her head is turned away from Cecilia, making it look like she was responsible. James, furious, rushes his daughter out of the house and orders Cecilia to go to her sister (which is hardly an option either!). She tries to call Adrain's old mobile phone number and listening intently she can hear it ringing and vibrating coming from the roof space above her room. Venturing up into the attic space, she locates Adrian's mobile phone together with both the missing knife and her missing portfolio of architectural drawings. Sensing she is being watched she peers gingerly over the hatchway to the attic and is able to finally reveal the figure when she pours white paint over him. 

A violent struggle ensues and she flees the house. Catching an Uber, she returns to Adrian's beachside home to investigate and discovers the rig that she has seen earlier is used to produce a suit that uses cameras to render the wearer invisible. Inadvertently she presses some buttons on a key pad and the rig generates one such suit. She takes it and hides it in the walk in robe before escaping another attack from the figure, wearing a separate suit. Cecilia arranges a meeting with Emily at a busy city restaurant and starts to tell her sister about the suit. The invisible figure slits Emily's throat at the table where they are seated and puts the knife in her hand to frame Cecilia for the murder. As other diners look on, and start to panic fleeing the restaurant, Cecilia is held down by a waiter until the Police arrive.

Protesting her innocence and man handled kicking and screaming Cecilia is held in a secure treatment facility presumably awaiting trial for the murder of her sister. Cecilia is informed by the medical staff that she is recently pregnant within the last four weeks or so. Tom visits her and quietly offers to have her released and her record wiped clean if she agrees to return to Adrian and raise their child together as though none of this had ever happened, implying that he helped his brother stage his suicide, and explaining that the birth control pills that she was secretly taking were substituted by Adrian for a placebo. 

Tom just requires a signature, but seeing that Cecilia is unsure gives her three days to consider his offer. In the process while Tom is distracted, she manages to steal a gold fountain pen from his briefcase, which she uses later to slit her wrists in the shower in a bid to entice Adrian out. When the figure tries to stop her, she stabs him repeatedly. This causes his suit to fail intermittently and flicker in and out of visibility, attracting the attention of several Security Officers. Adrian incapacitates, injures and murders the security staff as he escapes the building. Cecilia follows him out of building in the pouring rain and attempts to kill him with a security guard's gun. Adrian subdues her and admits that he will not harm her while she is pregnant. He speeds off in a car and Cecilia commandeers another passing vehicle and gives chase. En route she calls James and alerts him that Adrian intends to kill Sydney instead, and to make his way home immediately. 

Cecilia arrives at James' house, where she finds them both being violently attacked by an unseen intruder. She sets off a fire extinguisher that renders the unseen figure visible, and shoots him four times in the chest, dead. She removes the facial covering of the suit to reveal not Adrian as expected, but Tom instead. When police converge on Adrian's home, they locate him locked up and bound behind a boarded up wall in the basement, but very much alive, and subsequently claiming that he was his brother's captive all along. A few days later at Police Headquarters, Cecilia claims to James that Adrian sent Tom to his house in his place, knowing exactly what would happen, and that they had shared the use of his invisibility suit. All charges against Cecilia seemingly now dropped. James however, remains skeptical about Cecilia's claims. 

Attempting to get Adrian to admit to his role, she agrees to meet him for dinner at his home to discuss her pregnancy. She offers a reconciliation, but only if he is brutally honest with her about his involvement. When Adrian continues to deny it, Cecilia starts to cry at which Adrian moves to comfort her. All the while, James is listening in remotely and recording their conversation via a wire that Cecilia is wearing. 

Cecilia smiles and says she needs to go clean herself up, disappearing into the bathroom. Moments later, the room's security camera captures Adrian taking a kitchen knife and slitting his own throat, followed by Cecilia emerging from the bathroom, screaming and crying at the dying Adrian now collapsed on the floor in a pool of his own blood, and calling the police. She then steps just out of the camera's view and taunts a dying Adrian with a smirk and the word 'surprise' - the same word that Adrian used when she was under sedation in the treatment facility. Hearing Cecilia's screams for help James is seen just about to enter the house as Cecilia is exiting. Asking what happened, and seeing the invisibility suit in her carry all bag, she assures him that Adrian committed suicide, which he reluctantly accepts. She proceeds to leave with Zeus in tow, as he enters the house. 

I really enjoyed 'The Invisible Man' for its fresh modern approach to a story that is 120 years old, and for it turning the tables to centre on the put upon protagonist (Moss) rather that the antagonist invisible man himself (Jackson-Cohen). The film is deftly handled by Whannel who here once again proves that he can do a whole lot more with a whole lot less and still eek out the tension, emotion, scares and the atmosphere of dread and paranoia in this smart of the moment retelling update of a classic of the horror genre. Moss gives another top performance as the increasingly unhinged Cecilia as her life begins to unravel in a series of bizarre circumstances, before coming good with what must be almost the prefect crime herself. This offering certainly provides the much needed jolt in the arm that Universal Studios 'Dark Universe' needs to re-establish its credibility and move forward with a renewed focus on its standalone shared classic monsters genre that reigned supreme from the 1920's through the '50's.  

'The Invisible Man' merits four claps of the Odeon Online clapperboard from a possible five.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-

JACK REACHER : NEVER GO BACK : Tuesday 25th October 2016.

The character of Jack Reacher first burst onto our cinema screens in 2012 as portrayed by Tom Cruise in the title role, and now he's back, in 'JACK REACHER : NEVER GO BACK' which I saw this week. Based on the best selling series of books by Lee Child, that first outing was developed from Child's 2005 book in the series 'One Shot' as Directed by Christopher McQuarrie and Co-Produced by Cruise for US$60M with a worldwide Box Office take of over US$218M, and generally positive critical Reviews too. Now in 2016 Jack Reacher is back and Tom Cruise is reprising his role in Lee Child's 2013 novel adaptation 'Never Go Back'. Once again Co-Produced by Tom Cruise but Directed and Co-Written for the screen by Edward Zwick this time, the film was made for US$60M, and so far made back US$60M.

The film opens up as per the early trailer promoting the film. Reacher (Tom Cruise) is sat in an empty diner with his back turned towards us, when outside pull up two Police Officers, surveying the human carnage comprising four or five strewn bodies outside the diner where are amassed a bunch of onlookers. One witness recounts that the man inside took them all out single handedly within a matter of seconds, and then took a seat at the bar in the diner. The Police walk in and promptly handcuff Reacher rifling through his meagre belongings. Reacher proclaims that within 90 seconds two things will occur - first the pay phone will ring and second, the senior Police Officer will be wearing the cuffs for the part he plays in a human trafficking ring which Reacher has just brought down. And so it comes to pass!

Next up we see Reacher speaking over the phone with Major Susan Turner (Cobie Smulders) who thanks him for alerting her to the human trafficking bust. The two develop a friendly rapport which also serves to set the scene for the relationship that will unfold. He vows to look her up when next he is in her neck of the woods, and arriving a few days later Reacher seeks her out at his old military headquarters at Fort Dyer. He walks into her office to be greeted by Colonel Sam Morgan (Holt McCallany) who delivers the news that Turner has been arrested and held on charges of espionage. Reacher instantly smells a rat!

Reacher locates Turner's designated military lawyer Colonel Bob Moorcroft who explains that Turner is being held over the suspected murder of two of her own soldiers in Afghanistan. While they're at it Moorcroft has done some digging on Reacher too and has 'evidence' that a Candice Dayton has filed a paternity suit against Reacher and claiming that he is the father of her daughter Samantha Dayton (Danika Yarosh), now aged fifteen, even though Reacher denies it vehemently. At a subsequent meeting Moorcroft meets Reacher on the street and hands over some further information, but is later found dead at the hands of 'The Hunter' (Patrick Heusinger) - an assassin. Reacher is framed for this murder given the two were last seen together, and that meeting ended rather acrimoniously.

Reacher is later called in to meet with Morgan and is promptly taken into custody for Moorcroft's murder, assigned a military lawyer, and is carted off to detention with Turner. Whilst being held over for questioning his spies out of the window two goons making there way into the prison, supposedly to transfer Turner to another facility. With some quick thinking and astute observations, Reacher grasps the situation and over powers the two goons in Turner's cell, and then he and she get the hell outta there. With Reacher and Turner on foot with the Military Police in hot pursuit, followed by The Hunter, the pair successfully evade capture but not before some close quarter hand to hand combat in the kitchen of a restaurant. By now they have deduced that Morgan is somehow involved, and so make their way to his house where they question him in no uncertain terms and download a bunch of relevant files to aid their own investigations. Later, The Hunter, arrives at Morgan's place and deduces that Reacher and Turner must have got away with something, and so he kills Morgan with the desk top telephone set, which has Reacher's finger prints all over it from his earlier visit.

One of the files downloaded to the USB stick at Morgan's place contained photo surveillance images of Samantha, and so they deduce that she must be in danger. The two hot foot it to her house where they find her two old hippy type foster parents dead, and Samantha hiding in a cupboard. The action then takes us to New Orlean's where the three now are in search of Daniel Prudhomme (Austin Herbert) who witnessed the murders of the two soldiers that Turner is accused of. They track him down in an old warehouse that is home to a bunch of drug addicts, of which he is now one, and learn that Prudhomme was part of a private military security organisation originally hired by the US Government, called ParaSource. Their US$1B contract had been cancelled and so ParaSource had fallen very quickly on hard times with mounting debts, and need to secure a new lucrative income stream.

Prudhomme comes clean with everything he knows including the cover up of the murders. Turner contacts a friend in the Military Police, Captain Anthony Espin (Aldis Hodge) to take Prudhomme into safe custody in exchange for everything he knows that will implicate ParaSource, but in doing so they are ambushed and Prudhomme is killed by ParaSource contractors. Needless to say Reacher and Turner overcome their attackers in a hail of gun fire and explosions.

Acting on information gleaned from Prudhomme, Reacher, Turner and Espin make for a local airport where a consignment of returning weapons is due to land a few hours from now. There, General James Harkness (Robert Knepper), the now CEO of ParaSource, is on hand to meet the arriving aircraft. Reacher and Turner have every reason to believe that the crates will be empty having sold them to the insurgents in Afghanistan, and upon intercepting Harkness and his goons, demand that the crates be opened. As per the flight manifest all weapons are in the crates intact, and Turner is left with egg on her face and a lot of explaining to do. Harkness demands that she be taken into custody by her own Military Police, but Reacher thinks that things just don't add up, and so opens up another crate, pulls out a rocket launcher and thumps it barrel end hard on the ground, ejecting several bags of opium. The process is repeated for all crates revealing over 50kgs of smuggled opium. Harkness is taken into custody so clearing both Reacher and Turner of their alleged crimes.

Meanwhile Harkness was able to trace a credit card transaction back to Samantha in the hotel where they were staying, and sent The Hunter to track her down. A foot chase between Samantha and The Hunter and two others ensues through the streets of New Orleans at night, whilst the city celebrates Halloween with a street carnival. Reacher and Turner make for the hotel and have to trace Samantha's steps in order to rescue her from certain death at the hands of The Hunter. Chasing through masked revellers, decorated parade floats, and the jostling crowds of party goers Reacher and Turner take out the two henchmen, leaving The Hunter with a captured Samantha dangling on a rooftop ledge. Samantha breaks free from her captor, leaving Reacher and The Hunter to fight to the death. Needless to say you'll guess easily enough who rises victorious albeit a little battered and bruised!

In the end with their names cleared Turner returns to Fort Dyer and to her former position. Reacher meets with Samantha in a diner and it is revealed that the woman who served him his coffee is her biological mother, and as Reacher and the woman didn't recognise each other despite the passing of fifteen years, that Reacher can't be her father, and that it was a planned ruse anyway to secure some easy money with which to start afresh. After a tearful farewell, Reacher thumbs a lift to the next town carrying just the jacket on his shoulders and a toothbrush in his pocket.

This instalment is enjoyable enough and a worthy follow on to that earlier film. It moves along at a good pace, is a simple enough story and is fairly predictable by the numbers leave your brain at the door fare too. Tom Cruise is convincing enough as the tough as nails take no prisoners vigilante drifter Jack Reacher, but there are no surprises here and a plot that we have seen before countless times. The action is fairly pedestrian and comes in fits and starts waiting for the big crescendo on the roof top in downtown New Orleans, and Samantha's final farewell to Reacher on the steps of her new school is soap box stuff! Watch out for the cameo of author Lee Child (Jim Grant). If you're a fan of the genre, or Tom Cruise, or Lee Child's series of Jack Reacher novels, then this is likely to be for you, but you can easily save yourself the price of a cinema ticket and wait for the BluRay or DVD in a few months time and watch it from the comfort of your own home.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-