ANT-MAN AND THE WASP : QUANTUMANIA - Tuesday 21st February 2023.

I saw 'ANT-MAN AND THE WASP : QUANTUMANIA' this week, and this M-Rated American superhero film is based on the Marvel Comics characters of Scott Lang (aka Ant-Man) and Hope van Dyne (aka The Wasp) and is the direct sequel to 2015's 'Ant-Man' and 2018's 'Ant-Man and The Wasp', is the 31st entry into the Marvel Cinematic Universe and the lunching film of Phase Five of the MCU. As with the two previous films, Peyton Reed returns as Director for this third instalment. The film saw its Premier screening in Los Angeles on the 6th February, before its worldwide release last week, having gained mixed Reviews from critics, although it has so far earned US$288M off the back of a production budget of US$200M, making it the third highest grossing film of 2023 so far. 

The film begins with the back story of Janet van Dyne (Michelle Pfeiffer) trapped for some thirty years in the Quantum Realm, where one day she encounters Kang (Jonathan Majors) an exiled traveller who crash lands his craft, and who explains that they can both escape from the Realm if she helps him repair the Multiversal Power Core that is necessary for him to leave and for Janet to return to Earth to be reunited with her daughter. After many attempts to repair it have failed they one day have success but as Janet plugs in the power core she sees a vision of Kang conquering and destroying entire timelines. Kang reveals he was exiled by his own variants out of fear, which leads Janet to turn on him. Outmatched, Janet uses her Pym Particles to enlarge the Power Core and therefore render it useless.

Back in the present day and following the Battle of Earth, Scott Lang (Paul Rudd) has become a successful memoirist having penned a best selling autobiography titled 'Look Out For The Little Guy' which charts his adventures with The Avengers, and has been living happily with his girlfriend, Hope van Dyne (Evangeline Lilly). Scott's now-teenage daughter Cassie (Kathryn Newton) has become a political activist, resulting in her doing jail time before being bailed out by her father. While visiting Hope's parents, Hank Pym (Michael Douglas) and Janet, Cassie reveals that she has been working on a mechanism that can establish a link to the Quantum Realm. 

When demonstrating how the device works, Janet panics and shuts it down, but contact had already been established so opening up a portal which sucks Janet, Hank, Cassie, Hope and Scott down into the Quantum Realm. Scott and Cassie land together and are found by natives who are rebelling against their ruler, while Hope, Janet, and Hank land in close proximity elsewhere and set off to a sprawling city to find Scott and Cassie. 

Hope, Janet, and Hank meet with Lord Krylar (Bill Murray), a former close friend of Janet's, who explains that things have changed since she left, and that he now answers to Kang, who is now the Realm's ruler. The three are forced to flee and steal Krylar's ship. The Langs, meanwhile, are told by rebel leader Jentorra (Katy O'Brian) that Janet's involvement with Kang is indirectly responsible for his rise to power. The rebels soon come under attack by Kang's forces led by M.O.D.O.K. (Mechanised Organism Designed Only for Killing), who is revealed to be Darren Cross (Corey Stoll), having survived his apparent death at Scott's hands when he was unevenly shrunken to subatomic size in the Quantum Realm and became a mutated, cybernetically enhanced individual with an oversized head. 

Scott and Cassie are taken to Kang, who has them detained in cells. He demands that Scott helps get his power core back and restore it to its normal workable size or else he will kill Cassie. Scott is taken to the core's location and shrinks down. Once inside he is overwhelmed by a mass of variants of himself, but Hope arrives and helps him gain the power core and using several Pym Particles reduces it in size. Kang, surprise surprise, reneges on his deal with Scott, and captures Janet and destroys her ship with Hank on it. 

After being rescued by his ants, who were also pulled into the Quantum Realm, they evolved rapidly, and became hyper-intelligent, Hank helps Scott and Hope as they make their way to Kang, aided in vast numbers by an army of ants, and Scott who has grown to an enormous size that he towers over Kang's domain. Cassie rescues Jentorra and they begin an offensive uprising against Kang and his army. During the fight, Cassie convinces Cross to turn sides and fight Kang, though he sacrifices his own life in the process.

Janet is able to fix the power core as she, Hank, Hope, and Cassie jump through a portal home, but Kang appears before Scott is able to make the jump and attacks him nearly beating him into submission. Hope returns and, together with Scott, destroy the power core and knock Kang into it, causing him to be pulled into oblivion. Cassie reopens the portal at her end for Scott and Hope to return home. As Scott happily resumes his life, he begins to rethink what he was told about Kang's death being the start of something terrible happening, but quickly dismisses the notion as he joins the family to celebrate Cassie's unbirthday at a restaurant, making up for all her birthday's that Scott missed. Remember to remain in your seat for the customary mid-credits and end credits sequences. 

'Ant-Man and The Wasp : Quantumania' is everything you have come to expect from a big budget, big spectacle MCU offering, with its heavy handed use of CGI to build a world and all the fantastical creatures and structures contained within it, to its use of A-list acting talent to give the film gravitas, to the introduction of a new cosmic villain that we are likely to see across multiple MCU films into the future in Kang the Conqueror all wrapped up with Scott Lang's quirky and not too serious take on his world and his new found place as an Avenger. All of that said, there is so much seemingly endless spectacle on screen here, that at times it's difficult to keep track of exactly what is going on. The story is also pedestrian and predictable and the plot is thin on the ground and seems to serve no other purpose than to introduce us to a new super villain and establish the next phase of the MCU. However, at a lean 123 minutes running time it doesn't outstay its welcome.

'Ant-Man and The Wasp : Quantumania' merits three claps of the Odeon Online clapperboard from a possible five claps.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-

ANT-MAN AND THE WASP : Tuesday 10th July 2018.

'ANT-MAN AND THE WASP' which I saw this week keeps the Marvel machine grinding forever onwards churning out superhero fare for us to spend our $20 or so on at the local multiplex. And so it is too with this sequel to 2015's 'Ant-Man', which off the back of a US$110M Budget grossed US$520M at the global Box Office, was generally well received by Critics and audiences alike, and picked up three award wins and another 33 nominations from around the circuit. This 20th film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe is Directed by Peyton Reed once again, who came on board one month after the release of the first instalment. This film was released in the US last week too, but not in the UK until early August. Paul Rudd, who plays Ant-Man/Scott Lang also takes a Co-Writer credit this time around. The film cost US$162M to make, has so far grossed US$185M and has been generally well received. This is the first MCU film to have the name of a female Superhero protagonist in its title . . . . about time methinks!

Set two years following the events that unfolded with 'Captain America : Civil War' and prior to the events that came to pass just recently in 'Avengers : Infinity War' and now under house arrest (explaining his absence from 'Avengers : Infinity War') Scott Lang (Paul Rudd) struggles with balancing his choices as both a father to young Cassie (Abby Ryder Fortson) and a responsible superhero. Having had to put his mantle of 'Ant-Man' on ice for the last two years for being caught in the middle of the Avengers fight which was in violation of the Sokovia Accords, Lang is now only three days away from being able to step foot outside his own home. He has been patient, compliant and responsible, while Hope van Dyne (Evangeline Lilly) and her father Hank Pym (Michael Douglas) - a former S.H.I.E.L.D. agent, entomologist, and physicist who became the original Ant-Man way back when, have gone underground, are also in hiding and have cut all ties these past years with Lang.

Then one day, Hope and Pym are able to open a portal through to the Quantum Realm where Janet van Dyne (Michelle Pfeiffer) was lost back in 1987, has not been seen since and is presumed dead. At that same precise moment Lang has a vision of Janet with whom he became entangled when he himself was in the Quantum Realm two years earlier and from which he was able to successfully return. Lang calls Pym for the first time in two years to explain his vision, but gets Hank's voicemail. A short time later Hope kidnaps Lang, miniaturises them and sets a decoy back at his house so as not to arouse suspicion by the FBI Agent Jimmy Woo (Randall Park) that he has broken the terms of his house arrest.

Pym believes that Lang's vision was a message that Janet is still alive, albeit trapped within the Quantum Realm. Needing a piece of hi-tech equipment to create a stable tunnel through which to access the Quantum Realm, Hope meets with her 'supplier' - a black market arms trader named Sonny Burch (Walton Goggins). But Burch has other plans for Hope when he realises the potential of what she is working on, and he wants in on the action. A fight breaks out between Hope, who by now has assumed the powers of her alter-ego 'The Wasp' and is able to thwart Burch and his goons, but not so with a mysterious figure come to be known as 'Ghost' (Hannah John-Kamen) for her power to be able to travel through solid matter.

In the fracas Ghost escapes with Pym's miniaturised laboratory causing him, Hope and Lang to visit the one man they think can help them retrieve it - Bill Foster (Laurence Fishburn), a former partner of Pym's but they fell out decades before and had not spoken in thirty years. Reluctantly, Foster helps Pym locate his lost laboratory at Ghosts place of residence. Gaining entry Ghost is able to easily overpower the threesome and reveals that her name is Ava Starr and she has suffered from molecular instability since she was a child when her father, also a former partner of Pym's, died in an explosion with her mother too, while conducting a Quantum experiment which resulted in Ava's unstable condition. Foster reveals that his is in cahoots with Ava and is in fact her guardian, and is determined to make Ava better by harnessing Janet's Quantum energy. But Pym will have none of this as he believes that this would kill Janet, and so they escape with the aid of some giants ants.

With their laboratory back Pym and Hope resume their plan to fire up the tunnel. They are able to contact Janet through Lang, who gives them detailed coordinates with which to locate her in the Quantum Realm. But time is of the essence and they only have a limited window of two hours before the opportunity is lost for a century or so. Burch meanwhile has reassembled his gang of goons and through Lang's security company 'X-Cons' and his partners Luis (Michael Pena), Dave (Tip 'T'.I.' Harris) and Kurt (David Dastmalchian) are able to locate Pym's lab. Burch calls an FBI Agent he has on the payroll, who in turns contacts Woo and alerts them to Lang's presence while supposedly under house arrest. Lang hot foots it back to his house just in time for Woo to walk in expecting to catch him out - but not so. However, with Ant-Man indisposed, the FBI converge on Pym's lab and arrest him and Hope leaving Ghost to once again steal the miniaturised lab.

Lang let off the hook by Woo, is able to come to the rescue of Pym and Hope and help them escape custody, and they locate the lab in a well executed and at times completely over the top car chase sequence through the streets of San Francisco as Ant-Man goes from being very little to very large. Lang and Hope divert Ava while Pym enters the Quantum Realm to retrieve Janet. Luis, Dave, and Kurt help apprehend Burch, so Lang and Hope can stop Ava who has already begun sapping Janet of her energy. Pym and Janet arrive back safe from the Quantum Realm, and Janet voluntarily grants some of her energy to Ava to temporarily stabilise her.

Lang returns home once again, just in time for a now suspicious Woo to unbuckle his ankle bracelet at the end of his house arrest period. Ava and Foster go into hiding, with Foster vowing to find a cure for her. Wait for the mid-credits sequence, which brings us right up to date, and naturally Stan Lee's obligatory laugh out loud one liner cameo.

It's good to see some levity arriving in the MCU in the form of 'Ant-Man and The Wasp' after the more depressing and distressing 'Captain America : Civil War' and 'Avengers : Infinity War' episodes. Here the more light handed approach works well with the storyline that is not overly complicated and delivers just the right amount of humour to keep it grounded. The action set pieces are well executed and work best when Ant-Man and The Wasp are reduced down to their insect size or conversely Ant-Man grows to be a towering giant of some sixty feet. Both Paul Rudd and Evangeline Lilly have settled well into their roles and despite their occasional verbal sparring, feel comfortable around each other and with their gifted super powers. Michelle Pfeiffer's role is a little under cooked, and Walton Goggins is half baked, but these are minor criticisms of a worthy and respectable sequel that is fast paced, good humoured, light hearted and still packs a punch.

'Ant-Man and The Wasp' merits four claps of the clapperboard, from a possible five.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-

MURDER ON THE ORIENT EXPRESS : Tuesday 14th November 2017.

'MURDER ON THE ORIENT EXPRESS' which I caught earlier this week is the classic 1934 Agatha Christie murder mystery novel upon which this film is based, that has been committed to the big and small screens a number of times over the years, most notably in 1974 as Directed by Sidney Lumet and starred an ensemble cast. That film was nominated for six Academy Awards and won one - for Best Supporting Actress going to Ingrid Bergman. It was also nominated for ten BAFTA's and walked away with three for Best Supporting Actor and Actress to John Gielgud and Ingrid Bergman respectively, and Best Music. All up the film won nine awards and received a further sixteen nominations, and at the Box Office returned US$36M from its US$1.4M budget outlay. The films cast included Albert Finney as the super sleuth gentleman detective Hercule Poirot, Sean Connery, John Gielgud, Anthony Perkins, Michael York, Richard Widmark, Lauren Bacall, Ingrid Bergman, Vanessa Redgrave and Jacqueline Bisset. In 2001 a made for television movie was released of the same name, featuring the same storyline, and the same title but set in the present day and starring Alfred Molina as Hercule Poirot, Peter Strauss and Leslie Caron. Then in 2010 the popular long running television series 'Agatha Christie's Poirot' with David Suchet as the detective aired in Season 12, Episode 3 'Murder on the Orient Express' which featured the acting talents of Hugh Bonneville, Jessica Chastain, Barbara Hershey, Toby Jones, David Morrissey, and Eileen Atkins. There has also been a BBC Radio 4 serialisation of the book and a video game adaptation over the years too.

And so now in 2017 we have this latest lavish reiteration of Christie's famed novel with Kenneth Branagh on Directing duty and starring as the hirsute Belgian detective Hercule Poirot with a ensemble cast for this production that reads like a Who's Who of British and American acting talent. The film was released in the UK on 2nd November, and in the US and Australia on 9th November. and has so far grossed US$105M off the back of a US$55M production Budget. The film has generated mixed Reviews from Critics, but all universally praise the casting and production values.

The film opens up with a scene setter in a 1934 Jerusalem at the site of The Wailing Wall where Poirot announces to a gathered crowd of onlookers who the culprit is in the theft of a valuable religious artefact. Job done, but not without a scuffle, he is ready to depart to Istanbul to travel onward to London to work on another case that needs finalising, and in between time he is to take some much needed R&R. In Istanbul, while checking out the culinary delights of a local market he happens across an old friend, and a Director of the Orient Express, Bouc (Tom Bateman) who offers the Detective a sleeper cabin on the unusually booked out Orient Express. Managing to squeeze Poirot into a shared cabin, we quickly grab glimpses of the other well to do passengers as they board, that Poirot will be sharing his journey with. The first of which is a Caroline Hubbard (Michelle Pfeiffer) a trophy ex-wife to several ex-husbands, clearly wealthy and hungry for a man, who instantly tries to chat up Poirot, but he'll have none of her advances, preferring to keep himself very much to himself, and besides, he's got a Charles Dickens book to catch up on.

As the train gets underway, Poirot is introduced to Samuel Ratchett (Johnny Depp), an American businessman who looks more like a mobster than a professional purveyor of fine arts, collectables and antiquities that he claims he is new into and still learning as he goes. Ratchett is joined on the journey by his bookkeeper come lawyer come personal assistant Hector MacQueen (Josh Gad). Over a pastry in the dining car, Ratchett confides in Poirot that he has recently undertaken some dodgy deals back in Istanbul selling fake wares, and those hard done by now want pay back and are vying for his blood, and sending him threatening letters. Ratchett pleads with Poirot to act as his personal bodyguard, for a handsome fee, for the duration of the trip to ensure his safety, but Poirot politely declines. Later that night while Poirot is trying to get to sleep he is constantly disturbed by noises coming from outside his cabin in the interconnecting hallway. Later on that night when the commotion has settled down, a lightning bolt strikes the side of a snow covered peak sending an avalanche crashing down upon the advancing train, causing the engine carriage to derail, halting the journey in its tracks on a remote mountain side.

The next morning, Poirot learns that Ratchett was murdered in his bed sometime during the previous night - stabbed a dozen times in the chest. Poirot and Bouc investigate the crime scene and the murder case, with Bouc being the only non-suspect on the train, because he slept in a different carriage the night before, unlike everyone else. Initial evidence points to a suspect working alone, with Caroline Hubbard claiming that during the night there was a strange intruder present in her cabin. Several clues are left in Ratchett's cabin, including an unused pipe cleaner, a fine lace bloodstained handkerchief with the letter 'H' engraved, and a partially destroyed note linking Ratchett to the case of an abducted child Daisy Armstrong some years previously.

The Armstrong child was held for ransom, and then killed. Ratchett is identified as being John Cassetti, the murderer of the child. Grieving, Daisy's mother Sonia collapses and gives birth to a still born premature baby and dies in child birth, and shortly thereafter, her father Colonel Armstrong commits suicide. The family's housemaid Susanne, was found guilty of the murder on trumped up charges allowing Cassetti to go free, and she hanged herself while in custody, only to be determined innocent after the fact.

More evidence is uncovered during the course of the investigation, while rail workers dig out the engine carriage from the snow. Poirot and Bouc systematically interview all the other suspects gathering further insights into their individual backgrounds, possible motives, and sorting through the lies from the truth. Poirot discovers through his expert powers of deduction, that all suspects are in some way linked to the Armstrong household, the family, or the ensuing court case. Whilst interviewing Governess Mary Debenham (Daisy Ridley) who upto now has been the most aloof about Ratchett maintaining her silence, Poirot is confronted by Dr. John Arbuthnot (Leslie Odom Jnr.) who claims responsibility for the murder, and who is also the secret interracial love interest of the Governess. A scuffle breaks out, in which Arbuthnot, a trained former sniper, shoots Poirot in the arm, but who is then incapacitated by Bouc. Poirot however, can see that Arbuthnot had never intended to kill him, and was acting out of love for Mary Debenham.

By now, Poirot has amassed enough evidence, but the prime suspect still eludes him. He calls everyone together in the nearby train tunnel while the rail workers set the engine carriage back on the tracks. He has two theories. One is that there was a lone murderer who masqueraded as a Conductor, killed Ratchett and fled the scene of the crime undetected under cover of darkness. The other is much more complex and involves every passenger suspect aboard the train being linked to the Armstrong's, to Susanne and the subsequent trial in some way - giving them all a possible motive.

Poirot concludes ultimately that each and every one of them had reason for killing Ratchett and therefore in this case, unlike every one of the cases he has solved before, there is no right or wrong, it is not black and it is not white, there is no guilty nor innocent, and as such he will have to live with that imbalance. This outcome does not sit easy with the Super Sleuth, but he must accept it on this occasion and under these circumstances.

Upon arrival at the next train stop, Poirot presents the evidence of a killer acting alone to the Yugoslavian Police, who accept his story, leaving the passengers to continue their onward journey, each wrestling with their conscience. As the Detective leaves the train, a messenger alerts him that he is required urgently in Egypt, as there has been a murder on the Nile. Poirot accepts the case, forgoing his much needed R&R, as the Orient Express departs the station, and he jumps into a waiting car.

The film also stars Judi Dench, Willem Dafoe, Derek Jacobi, Penelope Cruz, Olivia Colman and Lucy Boynton amongst others in supporting roles offering minimal dialogue that belittle their acting credentials leaving them to wallow in the background. There is no doubt that Branagh has cast an impressive line up of A-List Actors who bring a gravitas to the proceedings and no doubt a pulling power into movie theatres the world over. The production values are high and the era has been recreated faithfully with its costumes and set designs, and the CGI adds to the depth of this period piece whodunit with its stunning vistas. But, is that enough to carry off this film? Despite such an ensemble cast, I couldn't help feeling that our amassed group of fine acting talent were left wanting to do more with their characters, but instead are largely sidelined with very little dialogue of note. Branagh meanwhile, chews up every scene and with his enormous well kempt moustache arriving fifteen seconds in the room before he does, he puts together the pieces of this murder jigsaw puzzle with relative ease it seems whilst telling everybody that he is the greatest Detective the world has ever seen. And, when the ending comes and the big reveal, it's all a bit of an anti-climax really, that sees Poirot going back on his principles that have served him so well throughout his career to date - first time for everything I guess, including his Oscar worthy facial fuzz extraordinaire. A classic story that looks good on the screen and has a lot going for it, but ultimately are period piece whodunits still a drawcard for the modern audience . . . . only you can answer that one!

Depending on the success of this film, Branagh has indicted his willingness to adapt further Christie novels involving the master of investigative deduction, Hercule Poirot, and judging by the closing scenes of this film it looks as though 'Death on the Nile' could be up next.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-

mother! : Tuesday 19th September 2017

'MOTHER !' is a psychological horror film Written by Darren Aronofsky in just five days, and is Co-Produced and Directed by him too. His previous screen Directing credits include 'Requiem for a Dream', 'The Fountain', 'The Wrestler', 'Black Swan' and 'Noah' and so far during his career to date he has amassed 35 award wins and 79 other nominations. The film had its worldwide Premier at the very recent Venice Film Festival where the film was both booed and received a standing ovation at the same time, was released in the US and in Australia on the 15th September, and it would be fair to say that this film has polarised audiences the world over. Some have praised it for the performances of the principle Actors and for Aronofsky's Direction, whilst others have criticised it for its story, disturbing scenes, muddled mixed messages and its metaphorical narrative. The film cost US$30M to make and has so far recovered US$26M.

The film opens up with a blackened landscape ravaged by fire, homing in on a grand stand alone colonial style house that is burnt out, but still standing. A man, Him (Javier Bardem), places a large crystal like object on a three pronged pedestal in his study, and immediately the house begins to reform to its former glory, with all signs of fire damage washing away, and in turn the burnt out landscape surrounding the home is restored to a lush green gardens bordered by verdant woodland. A form rises out of the bed from the ashes on a bright sunlit morning, and up sits Mother (Jennifer Lawrence) who calls after Him, her husband. She ventures down stairs searching for Him, opening the front door on a new day, when he suddenly appears behind her. He is an acclaimed author and poet with a severe case of writers block that he is seemingly unable to shake off, and she goes about her daily routine of restoring the property after the fire - an ongoing work in progress making steady and sure progress. However, Him's creative blockade begins to undermine their peaceful country living existence, and soon Mother begins having visions around the house of things that unnerve and unsettle her.

One day, a Man (Ed Harris) rocks up at the door, claiming that he was told that their property was a Bed & Breakfast, and he is looking for somewhere to stay having recently moved into the area. Almost immediately Him is taken in by the Man, and as it is approaching the evening Him offers to let the Man stay for the night. Mother agrees albeit very reluctantly. She witnesses the Man having severe bouts of coughing fits to the point where he is physically sick. The two men stay up late into the night drinking, chatting and laughing like long lost mates. The next day, there is another knock at the door, and the Man's wife, Woman (Michelle Pfeiffer) arrives to take up residence, marching on in believing the place to be a Bed & Breakfast too.

Fairly quickly Mother becomes frustrated by Man and Woman's presence around her home, invading their privacy, offering unwanted advice, and making a very unwelcome nuisance of themselves. Mother wants them gone, but Him says that their presence makes the house feel lived in and alive. Furthermore, Him reveals that Man is dying and he has learned that they are big fans of his work, and that Man wanted to meet Him before he dies. Later, Man and Woman take it upon themselves to go into Him's private study that is out of bounds to visitors. In doing so they are intrigued by the crystal object and while handling it, they let it fall to the floor shattering it into a thousand pieces. Him is furious and can hardly contain himself. Him and Mother agree to ask them to leave.

While preparing to leave there is another knock at the door and in barge to feuding young men - Man and Woman's grown up boys - the Oldest Son (Domhnall Gleeson) and his Younger Brother (Brian Gleeson). They are arguing and shouting at each other over the recently discovered will of their father which leaves everything to the Younger Brother. They fight in an all out brawl that sets tables and chairs sent flying and household objects trashed. The Younger Brother is accidentally mortally injured at the hands of the Oldest Son, who flees upon seeing blood oozing form the back of his brothers head, leaving Man and Woman to take their youngest son to the nearest hospital, accompanied by Him. When Him returns, he reveals that Younger Brother has died and has been subsequently buried. Later that evening a horde of people arrive at the house for the wake immediately making them selves at home and further frustrating Mother for their blatant disregard of her household, their possessions and their privacy. She reaches breaking point, when a couple who deliberately break a kitchen sink that has not yet been set, flood the lower house when they break the plumbing and water gushes out of every service pipe. When all the 'guests' have left Mothers berates Him for allowing so many unwanted and unwelcome people into their home. The couple argue fiercely, which turns into them having sex. The morning after, Mother announces that she his pregnant.

This news fills Him with a joy and an elation that motivates and inspires his creative juices. Suddenly Him has rediscovered his writing mojo and frantically puts pen to paper. In due course he lets Mother read the final pages of his work and then announces that his latest work has been published already. To celebrate, Mother prepares a romantic dinner for two, by now increasingly pregnant. As she is about to serve up dinner, Him is outside on the front veranda surrounded by a growing multitude of his fans all wanting an autograph and a piece of him. More fans arrive, and then more, and pretty soon, these fans are wanting to use the toilet, the telephone, helping themselves to the dinner spread she had so lovingly prepared earlier, and in due course ransacking the house of the couples possessions as mementos and keepsakes of their author hero. The house soon descends into chaos as armed Police arrive, and a disoriented Mother who is heavily pregnant, stumbles from one room to another seeking safe refuge, but none is to be found.

Him's Publisher arrives, The Herald (Kirsten Wiig) who at first is sympathetic to Mother and seeks to safeguard her, but soon takes part in the unfolding madness by executing at point blank range several of his fans before more are lined up for the same outcome. Then the military arrive in force to protect Mother and the house quickly becomes a war zone with the onset of her labour. She finds her husband who leads her up to his study where she gives birth to a boy. Outside the study door it has gone eerily quiet. Mother refuses to give up her child to Him, fearful for what he may do, and can she now trust him given everything she has seen and experienced. He says that the crowd beyond the door just want a glimpse of the newborn child, but she refuses. Then she falls asleep cradling the baby, and when she wakes and the baby is no longer in her arms she runs outside the door to see the child being crowd surfed across the room downstairs. Needless to say it doesn't end well for the baby or Mother, with Mother turning on the crowd and slicing and dicing those within easy reach with a broken shard of glass. The crowd turn on her, ripping at her clothes, forcing her to the ground and punching and kicking her to within an inch of her life. Him intervenes and stops the crowd. Mother is able to get away to the cellar where the oil tanker is located that fuels the furnace that heats the house. Despite her husbands pleas, Mother ignites the fuel oil so sending the house, the gathered crowds, herself and the immediate surrounding countryside up in ball of flame.

Both Mother and Him survive the explosion. Mother however, is badly burned all over, her skin charred black. Him, however, is untouched despite his very close proximity to the explosion. Placing her on a bench he asks her for whatever love she has left for him, and she agrees to give it. He then places his hands on her chest and digs in with both his hands pulling out her heart. In his hands the heart turns to charcoal which he crushes in his hands to reveal a crystal like object, identical to the one destroyed previously by Man and Woman. He places the crystal on a three pronged pedestal in his study and immediately the house begins to regenerate from burnt out war torn husk to a newly renovated home, and with it the gardens and surrounding countryside return to their lush green foliage. A new Mother forms in bed out of the ashes, rises up and calls after her husband.

It is easy to see why this film has been so divisive. It is the sort of film you'll either love for its original story telling, bold Direction and strong performances, or you'll hate it for its pretension, its steady descent into complete chaos, its graphic imagery, and its mixed messages. This is not a horror film in the traditional sense, but that doesn't make the film any less terrifying. The horror here too is in the confusion that rains down on Mother and the feeling of helplessness she feels when her peaceful lovingly renovated home is invaded by various individuals on multiple occasions. There are those that will interpret Aronofsky's work here as a metaphorical Garden of Eden, with Adam and Eve, Cain and Abel, Mother Earth and a God like figure all playing out to the climax of the film where the Earth is cleansed of all sin and everything is made new again. Or the power of a mans relationship over his wife, or some other hidden meaning! But that's OK, because that's what Aronofsky wants - to promote discussion, debate and dialogue about his film - good, bad and indifferent! This is a visually stunning, bold and audacious, original film set within the confines of a large isolated country house, that will provoke further thought and discussion long after the credits have rolled, but, it won't be for everyone!

-Steve, at Odeon Online-

DARK SHADOWS - archive from 17th May 2012.

Saw 'DARK SHADOWS' last night at my local independant. Tim Burton does it again with his rendition this time of the cult US 60's dark tales TV series of the same name. His stable mate Johnny Depp and wife Helena Bonham Carter star alonside Michelle Pfeiffer, Eva Green and Chloe Grace Moretz. The storyline is weak, but the humour is subtle, the imagining of 1972 coastal Maine is well conceived, the set pieces well done, the effects solid and Johnny Depp in top form as he always is and seemingly relishing the role. 

A worthwhile romp that sees Depp in 1752 charting a course for the new land in America from England as one young Barnabas Collins with parents Joshua and Naomi. Fast forward 20 years and life is good, the family is successful  and they have a coastal fishing port named after them in Maine - Collinsport where they have a waterside canning business for the daily fish haul. The Lord of Collinwood Manor is Barnabas - rich, handsome, debonair and powerful in the local community at least, until that is he falls for Angelique Bouchard (Eva Green) a witch of a woman . . . literally! When things go awry for the two, Bouchard turns Barnabas in to a vampire, and then buries the poor fellow alive for all eternity.

Fast forward again 200 years this time, and Barnabas is awoken from his eternal coffin by a construction crew, and after feasting on their blood in the world of 1972 he discovers that things seem to be a far cry in the dark from the world he left behind two centuries before. Clambering up to a ramshackle Collinwood Manor expecting to take-up where he left-off he soon encounters the last vestiges of a dysfunctional family falling apart at the seems, and shadows of the former wealth and riches he once knew. 

There is Elizabeth Collins Stoddard (Michelle Pfeiffer), Dr. Julia Hoffman (Helena Bonham Carter), Carolyn Stoddard (Chloe Grace Moretz), Roger Collins (Johnny Lee Miller), Willie Loomis (Jackie Earle Haley), and even Christopher Lee and Alice Cooper make an appearance too amongst others. With Bouchard still around and making her presence felt even after 200+ years, the old flame is rekindled, but is this just a ploy to recapture the family's wealth, riches and business interests or are their affections genuine? Needless to say there are a few twists and turns, crosses and double crosses as only witches, vampires, ghosts and ghouls and dysfunctional otherworldly family members can conjure.

This is everything you would expect from Tim Burton - the maestro of bringing the unusual & fantastical to life, and worth the price of a ticket for sure. Its is colourful and entertaining but don't expect much more than that. The film was made on a budget of US$150M and came in with a global Box Office haul of just close to US$250M so on that basis not a huge success and it received mixed reviews in the process. It picked up three award wins across the globe and a further eleven nominations. You can judge for yourself now on DVD and Bluray.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-