CAPTAIN AMERICA : BRAVE NEW WORLD - Tuesday 18th February 2025.

I saw the M Rated 'CAPTAIN AMERICA : BRAVE NEW WORLD' earlier this week, and this American Superhero film is based on the Marvel Comics character Sam Wilson / Captain America, and is the fourth instalment in the 'Captain America' film series, a continuation of the TV miniseries 'The Falcon and the Winter Soldier' and the 35th film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU). This film is Directed and Co-Written for the screen by Julius Onah in his fourth feature film Directing outing following 'The Girl Is in Trouble' in 2015, 'The Cloverfield Paradox' in 2018, and 'Luce' in 2019. The first three films in the 'Captain America' film franchise - 'Captain America : The First Avenger' in 2011, 'Captain America : The Winter Soldier' in 2014, and 'Captain America : Civil War' in 2016 grossed US$2,238B at the global Box Office from combined production budgets of US$560M, making this fourth offering a no brainer. That latter film ended the 'Captain America' trilogy starring Chris Evans as Steve Rogers, and Sam Wilson becomes the new Captain America in 'The Falcon and the Winter Soldier'. This film forms part of Phase Five of the MCU, was released here in Australia and the US last week, has so far grossed US$205M off the back of a US$180M production budget, and has generated mixed or average critical reviews.

The film opens on US Presidential Election night and a triumphant Thaddeus Ross (Harrison Ford) takes the microphone to thank the American people for voting him in, and stating that they can achieve great things 'together'. We then fast track five months and Ross sends Sam Wilson/Captain America (Anthony Mackie) and Joaquin Torres/Falcon (Danny Ramirez) to Oaxaca, Mexico to thwart the illegal sale of classified items stolen by the Serpent Society, a rogue special-ops team led by Sidewinder (Giancarlo Esposito). The pair successfully recover the items, but Sidewinder escapes. Following the mission and back on home soil, Wilson and Torres both train with Isaiah Bradley (Carl Lumbly), a super soldier who was imprisoned and experimented on by the US government for thirty years, and his existence kept a secret, even from the former Captain America.

Ross invites Wilson and Torres to a summit with world leaders at the White House, and Wilson accepts on the condition that Bradley is also invited. Ross asks Wilson to help him reform the Avengers. During the summit, Ross explains that a new metal, adamantium, has been discovered on 'Celestial Island', which was formed when the Celestial Tiamut partially emerged in the Indian Ocean, and was petrified by the Eternals. The recovered items were the first refined samples of the metal and were stolen from a Japanese mining operation. To avoid an arms race, Ross proposes a treaty to govern adamantium's mining and worldwide distribution. As he is talking, the 1959 song 'Mr. Blue' by The Fleetwoods, plays and causes several men, including Bradley, to begin shooting at Ross and other gathered dignitaries. Apprehended by Ross's Security Advisor and former Black Widow Ruth Bat-Seraph (Shira Haas), the men come to their senses and deny any knowledge of the attack.

While investigating, Wilson is ambushed by Sidewinder. Wilson over powers and captures him. Torres tracks a call on Sidewinder's phone to a hidden black site in West Virginia called Camp Echo One. Ross tries to keep the treaty alive, but the Prime Minister of Japan Ozaki (Takehiro Hira) blames him for the theft of their adamantium and the subsequent White House attack. Ross realises that the mastermind of these events is Dr. Samuel Sterns (Tim Blake Nelson), who gained advanced intelligence after being exposed to Bruce Banner's blood during the Abomination's rampage through Harlem. Ross imprisoned Sterns at Camp Echo One, publicly blamed him for the Abomination's actions, and promised to release him if Sterns helped advance him to the presidency. Wilson and Torres find Sterns and learn how he uses technology and the song 'Mr. Blue' as a mind control tool. He escapes while they are fighting mind-controlled soldiers.

Bat-Seraph investigates Camp Echo One herself and helps Wilson and Torres. They meet with Wilson's military friend Dennis Dunphy (William Mark McCullough), who has Sidewinder in custody. Wilson learns enough from Sidewinder to deduce Sterns's plan to destroy Ross's reputation. Wilson, Torres, and Bat-Seraph go to Celestial Island where Ross and the Prime Minister Ozaki are racing to claim ownership of adamantium. 

Sterns controls the minds of two American pilots who attack the Japanese fleet. Wilson and Torres intercept the fighter jets and convince the Japanese to stand down. Torres is shot out of the air and plunges into the Indian Ocean, critically injured. Ross tells Wilson that he is dying of heart failure and had Sterns develop pills that have prolonged his life. Ross refused to release Sterns for fear that he would no longer make the pills, leading to Sterns seeking revenge.

Sterns kills Dunphy, preventing him from calling Wilson and explaining that the pills, taken one at a time three times a day, have been adding gamma radiation to Ross's body. At the hospital, where Wilson is watching on as surgeons restart Torres heart, he is consoled by his friend Bucky Barnes (Sebastian Stan). Sterns later surrenders himself to Wilson. During a press conference on the White House Rose Garden, Ross loses control of his emotions and transforms into a red Hulk, and destroys part of the White House. Wilson rushes to stop him. 

Unable to overpower Ross, Wilson attempts to calm him down by reminding him of visits to Washington, D.C.'s cherry blossom trees with his estranged daughter Betty, when she was much younger. The two fight until they can fight no more, and Ross reverts to his normal self. Later, Bradley is exonerated, Wilson invites a recovering Torres to join the Avengers, the treaty is ratified, and work has begun on repairing the damaged White House. Ross resigns and has himself incarcerated at the Raft (an underwater maximum security prison located in the Atlantic Ocean), where Wilson and Betty (Liv Tyler) visit him. 

'Captain America : Brave New World' is an OK entry into the MCU canon - it's not great but it's also not that bad either. Anthony Mackie/Sam Wilson is a more than acceptable replacement for Chris Evans/Steve Rogers even though he is a mere mortal and doesn't posses the super powers that the latter had, but he still has the wings, the suit, the shield and that gadgets that help him get by. Harrison Ford chews up the scenery, especially when he transforms into Red Hulk and looks as though he's having a blast, and there are some parallel's to be drawn here with the current presidential administration too. As for the two villains in the piece - Sidewinder and Sterns, they are largely under utilised and really serve as mere McGuffin's to move the story along. Whilst the action set pieces are well choreographed as we have come to expect from the MCU, the CGI at times leaves much to be desired, especially in the case of the cherry blossom scene in which Cap and Red Hulk go head to head and toe and toe in close quarter combat - so obviously computer generated that the techies must have been asleep at the wheel the day they programmed that sequence! 

'Captain America : Brave New World' merits three claps of the Odeon Online clapperboard from a possible five claps.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-

MEGALOPOLIS : Tuesday 15th October 2024

I finally got around to seeing the M Rated 'MEGALOPOLIS' this week, which was released here in Australia on 26th September. This American epic Sci-Fi film is Written, Co-Produced and Directed by Francis Ford Coppola, whose previous film making credits take in the classic 'The Godfather Parts I, II and III' in 1972, 1974 and 1990, 'The Conversation' in 1974, 'Apocalypse Now' in 1979, 'The Cotton Club' in 1984, 'Peggy Sue Got Married' in 1986, 'Gardens of Stone' in 1987, 'Bram Stoker's Dracula' in 1992, 'The Rainmaker' in 1997 with 'Twixt' in 2011 his most recent film before this one. Coppola spent US$120M off his own money to fund the production of this passion project which he first began considering in 1977 and for which he began script ideas in 1983. Production of the film has been on-again off-again over the years with him returning to the film in earnest in 2019. The film was selected to compete for the Palme d'Or at this years Cannes Film Festival, where it Premiered in mid-May, and has proven divisive amongst critics with mixed or average reviews. Costing in the region of US$130M to produce, the film has so far grossed just over US$11M.

Set in an alternate USA, New Rome is dominated by an elite group of aristocratic families. Although the Roman elite professes to live by a strict moral code, these aristocrats decadently enjoy forbidden pleasures including wild parties, a lavish lifestyle and all the trappings of their wealth and social standing, while ordinary Romans live on the poverty line. Among this elite group is idealist and forward thinking architect Cesar Catilina (Adam Driver) who wins the Nobel Prize for inventing the revolutionary building material Megalon. In addition, he secretly has the ability to stop time. He treats his superpower as a metaphor for his artistic workings - when Cesar stops time and space, everyone and everything else remains frozen.

Despite Cesar's success, he has fallen into bouts of alcoholism. Years earlier, his wife mysteriously disappeared, and District Attorney Franklyn Cicero (Giancarlo Esposito) prosecuted him for murdering her. Although Cesar was exonerated, he remains wracked by guilt, believing that his wife committed suicide because he was too wrapped up in his work. Cesar still longs for his wife, prompting his jealous mistress, TV presenter Wow Platinum (Aubrey Plaza), to leave him. 

Later at a live broadcast event, Cesar and Mayor Cicero offer different visions for the city's future. Cesar proposes using Megalon to build 'Megalopolis' - a utopian urbanist community, while Cicero argues that a casino will provide immediate tax revenue and jobs. During the event, Cesar meets Cicero's well educated, but directionless, daughter Julia (Nathalie Emmanuel). They initially have a disliking for each other, but after showing her his vision for Megalopolis, Julia intrigues Cesar by showing that she is the only person who can still move when Cesar stops time. They become lovers.

Wow marries Cesar's uncle Hamilton Crassus III (Jon Voight) the world's richest man and the CEO and owner of the Crassus Bank. Although Crassus likes his nephew, his mind and health are in decline, and he is easily manipulated by individuals like his other nephew, Clodio Pulcher (Shia LaBeouf) who has his own designs on inheriting the Crassus Bank. At the lavish wedding reception of the happy couple, the headline musical act is pop star Vesta Sweetwater (Grace VanderWaal). 

In an attempt to discredit Cesar, Pulcher leaks a paparazzi video of Cesar having sex with the alleged sixteen year old Vesta, prompting Cicero to condemn Cesar publicly. Although Cicero arrests Cesar for statutory rape, Julia vindicates Cesar by discovering that Vesta faked her age and is actually twenty-three years of age. 

After a redundant Russian satellite crashes to Earth and destroys large swathes of New Rome, Cesar begins construction of Megalopolis from the ruins, financing the project with his family fortune. However, the high cost of building Megalopolis contrasts with the level of poverty on the streets. Pulcher becomes a populist politician, encouraging ordinary Romans to oppose Megalopolis as an expensive folly. The draw of power leads Pulcher from populism to fascist agitator.

Julia, now pregnant, tries to broker a peace accord between Cesar and her father by taking her father to see the Megalopolis construction site. However, Cicero is unimpressed with Cesar's utopianism, although his wife Teresa (Kathryn Hunter) feels the opposite. Cicero begs Cesar to leave Julia - in exchange for which, he offers Cesar valuable blackmail material - a written confession that Cicero knew Cesar's wife committed suicide and maliciously prosecuted Cesar anyway. Cicero gives Cesar three days to decide, but needless to say Cesar declines.

Wow tries to force Cesar to leave Julia and marry her instead by saying that when she has inherited the vast Crassus fortune, she would give it all to him. When Cesar outright rejects her, she freezes his account at the Crassus Bank. She enlists Pulcher to manipulate Crassus into handing over control of the bank. When Crassus learns of Pulcher's duplicity, he has a stroke and collapses. Pulcher hires an assassin in the form of a nine year old boy to kill Cesar, who shoots Cesar in the head at point blank range, while he is signing an autograph for the seemingly innocent young lad. Cesar's doctors use Megalon to rebuild his skull, and repair his severely damaged tissue. 

Cesar and Cicero become allies after rioting Pulcher supporters attempt to storm Megalopolis and City Hall. Pulcher and Wow taunt the seemingly bedridden Crassus, but Crassus kills Wow and injures Pulcher with a hidden bow and arrow shooting a arrow directly into Wow's chest and firing off two arrows into Pulcher's arse. Cesar confronts the rioters, pleading with them to believe in his vision of a better future. His speech wins over the crowd, whose followers hang Pulcher and his right hand man Aram Kazanjian (Balthazar Getty) upside down from a scaffold.

With renewed financial support from Crassus, Cesar finally completes Megalopolis. Cicero, holding Julia and Cesar's baby daughter, Sunny Hope, promises to help Cesar build a better future. On New Year's Eve, as the clock counts down the seconds to midnight, Cesar turns to Julia and asks that she stop time. She does so, freezing them both and all around them leaving only Sunny Hope unaffected by the time stop . . . and she's way too young to click her fingers to resume normal service like her dad would have done!

The film also stars Laurence Fishburne, Talia Shire, Jason Schwatrzman, James Remar, D.B.Sweeney and Dustin Hoffman.  

The film opens up with the words 'Francis Ford Coppola's Megalopolis : A Fable' etched in stone. In other words it is a short story that tells a general truth or is only partly based on fact, and so it is here with references aplenty to real characters and their goings on from ancient Rome transplanted into a future world where those characters play out much as their ancestors might of done in the days of the Roman Empire. And in that respect I guess the film delivers showcasing the wild parties, the sex, the back stabbing, the murders and the political intrigue all wrapped up in a utopian vision of a future city where everyone lives in harmony and happily ever after. Visually the film is rewarding enough but that's just about where the positives end, as the cast of top notch A-list talent appear almost bewildered by what the Director is asking of them except for Shia LaBoeuf who chews up the scenery and his dialogue with reckless abandon, while others - Hoffman, Schwartzman, Shire and Fishburne are underutilised. As for the story - it goes around in circles and never seems to go anywhere leaving you with the feeling that after almost two-and-a-half hours of viewing it is seriously undercooked. It's a real shame because from Coppola I would have expected a whole lot more, but then perhaps his long gestating opus is his last hurrah, he ploughed his own hard earned cash into it, and he finally got to realise his passion project on the big screen, and all the naysayers be damned!

'Megalopolis' merits two claps of the Odeon Online clapperboard from a possible five claps.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-

OKJA : Tuesday 4th July 2017

'OKJA' which I saw from the comfort of my own home last week, courtesy of Netflix which is the chosen method of releasing this film for South Korean Director, Screenwriter and Co-Producer Bong Joon-ho in only his second English language release following 2013's excellent 'Snowpiercer'. The film had its Australian Premier as the closing film for the recent Sydney Film Festival on 18th June, and was in official competition for the Palme d'Or at this years Cannes Film Festival, where it received a four minute standing ovation following screening. The film cost US$50M to make, was released on Netflix on 28th June, and has so far garnered largely positive Reviews.

And so to the story. The year is 2007 and we are greeted by new Mirando Corporation CEO Lucy Mirando (Tilda Swinton), addressing her team in a huge warehouse like building. She is reading from a teleprompter, as it seems that she has recently taken the reins of her fathers company of whom she speaks none to highly off, nor her grandfather either for that matter nor the company they created - manufacturers of napalm no less! She announces that her company has been breeding a 'superpig' - big enough to provide ample supply of food products, delicious to taste, environmentally sustainable, carbon neutral and not in the slightest genetically modified (as she knows that the population at large would not withstand that!). She further announces that the 26 best such superpigs have been sent to the locations around the world where Mirando have a corporate presence, and distributed to farms for their rearing over the next ten years. In 2017 the best of the best fully grown, healthiest pigs will be crowned an outright winner and attend a lavish ceremony in New York. All of this is a big PR exercise in an attempt to re-brand her company and shake off the shackles of her fathers and grandfathers legacy.

Fast forward to 2017, and on a remote farm high in the mountains of South Korea lives young teenager Mija (Ahn Seo-hyun) with her grandfather Heebong (Byun Hee-bong). They were chosen as one of the 26 farms with which to raise a superpig ten years ago, and since then Mija has been lovingly caring for Okja every single day. They have forged a certain bond over that time, an understanding of each other, and a dependence upon one another as both have grown over the ensuing decade.

One day, the time comes when Mija and Okja are visited by representatives form the Mirando Corporation for the purposes of judging the superpig in the 26 strong competition. They are visited at their mountain farm by a small group of representatives that include spokesperson and extroverted celebrity zoologist Dr. Johnny Wilcox (Jake Gyllenhaal, hamming it up and clearly loving it!). They quickly inspect Okja and announce that she is the outright winner and will take her to New York. Meanwhile Heebong takes Mija to the burial site of her parents, and says that he was unable to buy Okja from Mirando, and so his saved up money was invested in a solid gold pig which he presents to her. Devastated by this news Mija returns home only to see the Mirando truck driving away down the mountain side with Okja inside. She gives chase but the truck is too far in front. She returns to the farm, collects some essentials, and leaves for Seoul to the Mirando office there to track down Okja.

Upon arriving in Seoul Mija forces her way past the Mirando Offices security in her search for Okja. From a window above she looks down on Okja being roughly man-handled and secured inside a truck ultimately bound for NYC. As the truck leaves down the side streets Mija gives chase on foot eventually jumping onto the roof of the moving truck. As the truck enters a road tunnel, it is intercepted by another truck of the same size, containing masked and hooded members of the Animal Liberation Front (ALF) who are seeking to liberate Okja from returning to the unscrupulous Mirando Corporation.

Okja is set free from the Mirando truck inside the tunnel with the intention of getting her inside the ALF truck, but chaos ensues as the panicked Okja goes on the rampage trashing several now parked up and backed up cars in the tunnel and frightening the bejeezus out of onlookers. The commotion continues out of the tunnel and down into a subway and a shopping precinct there where several shops come off worse for wear. However, the ALF come good and safely retrieve Okja and Mija before the armed authorities close in.

The ALF soon realise that Mija is Okja's owner, and leader of this ALF Group Jay (Paul Dano) tells her that their plan is to put a camera recording device in Okja's ear and let her be re-captured by the Mirando Corporation to show the world how brutally they treat their animals. In the meantime, social media coverage of Okja's rampage through Seoul has gone viral, and Lucy has to go into damage control with her company executive board members including her closest aide Frank Dawson (Giancarlo Esposito). Lucy hatches a plan to reunite Mija with Okja onstage in New York City so that the world can see what a loving, caring, sharing company Mirando really is. Meanwhile, at the test laboratory where Okja is taken she is forcibly bred with another superpig, and Johnny Wilcox extracts meat samples for testing purposes, all of which have a traumatic effect on the humble animal.

The day of the eagerly awaited carnival arrives and with it the revealing to an awaiting world of Okja as the competition winner, to be welcomed on stage by Mija, Lucy and Johnny. Mija has been tipped off by Jay in her hotel room that the ALF still plan on going ahead with liberating Okja while she is on stage and in front of a worldwide television and live audience. 

On stage Mija is reunited with Okja who heavily traumatised by her ordeals in the laboratory does not recognise the young girl and tries to attack her. More chaos ensues and the world watches on too as the ALF screen secretly filmed footage of Wilcox's mistreatment of Okja. The gathered crowd of onlookers soon turn against Johnny and Lucy, and in the ensuing fracas Jay, Mija and Okja and the other ALF Members - K (Steven Yeun), Red (Lily Collins), Blond (Daniel Henshall) and Silver (Devon Bostick) attempt to escape but are thwarted by armed heavies deployed by Nancy Mirando - sister of Lucy and former CEO of Mirando Corporation (also played by Tilda Swinton) who has been waiting in the wings for her sister to fail.

Okja is captured once again, and the held ALF members are beaten up, but Jay and K are able to escape. They take Mija to a huge slaughterhouse plant where they believe Okja will end up as various cuts of pre-packaged meat destined for the supermarket shelves. Eventually through the night time flood lights Mija sees Okja being led up a ramp and cattle prodded to be slaughtered. Finding entry into the slaughterhouse she sees many dead and butchered superpigs, hanging carcasses and scenes of horrifying animal treatment. She arrives just in time to see Okja being prepared for slaughter. She pleads with the man operating a huge machine that will administer a lethal shot to the head just as Nancy arrives with her entourage.

In turn Mija tries to reckon with Nancy that Okja should be spared, as they have grown up together and have formed a special bond. Nancy will have none of this, until Mija produces the solid gold pig from her grandfather and offers to buy Okja in exchange for the figurine. Nancy agrees seeing much greater value in the gold than one worthless superpig, and allows them to go home, but has Jay and K arrested. As Mija and Okja are exiting they witness many more superpigs being led to the slaughter.

Okja is a film that will make you think, and all credit must go to Director Bong Joon-ho for bringing his story to the big screen and to Netflix for allowing the Director's vision to be fully realised as he intended. This is a film about love and caring unconditionally on the one hand between the two central characters - a CGI superpig and the impressive South Korean child Actress Ahn Seo-hyun who carries the film with a professionalism and a grounded realism well beyond her years. On the other hand the film is about corporate greed, animal welfare, good versus evil, and the way in which we as humans think less and less about the animals we eat for breakfast, lunch and dinner every single day and in vast quantities. The film has moments of real tenderness between Okja and Mija, has moments of tension and action too, and others that will make you smile and laugh out loud. It's a coming of age story, a heist action drama, and a cautionary tale of the little guys against the corporate behemoth. It is beautifully shot, with strong performances, impressive CGI, a compelling message and it will stay with you after the end credits have rolled . . . and wait for these, as there is also a post-credits sequence! 

-Steve, at Odeon Online-