Tag: Patrick Wilson

Moonfall

Rated: MMoonfall

Directed by: Roland Emmerich

Screenplay Written by: Roland Emmerich, Harald Kloser, Spenser Cohen

Produced by: Roland Emmerich, Harald Kloser

Starring: Halle Berry, Patrick Wilson, Donald Sutherland, Michael Peña.

‘We’re not prepared for this.’

Part disaster movie, part sci-fi, comedy and drama, Moonfall begins its journey in space.  Where an anomaly throws a routine repair mission into a tragedy.

Jocinda (Halle Berry), AKA space wife loses her memory.  And space hero Brian Harper (Patrick Wilson) loses everything.

After the tragedy is chalked up to human error, back on earth, Harper is now a fallen hero.

Fast forward ten years and something’s not right.

The moon is out of orbit and the first one to realise is megastructure conspiracist, K. C. Houseman (John Bradley).

But no one will listen.

‘Make them listen,’ says his mum.

So he does.

Being a Roland Emmerich film (think, Independence Day (1996), The Day After Tomorrow (2004) and 2012 (2012)), I expected a big budget disaster movie, and as already introduced, Moonfall is part disaster, part everything else.

Some notes hit, like the chuckles evoked from conspiracist, I-lost-two-mops, Houseman (you’ll recognise John Bradley as Sam in, Game of Thrones).  And some notes didn’t with the suspense lost in the drama of Jocinda and her ex, military man, Doug Davidson (Eme Ikwuakor) and bad-boy son, Sonny (Charlie Plummer).  And what I think was supposed to be an exchange student (?) Michelle (Kelly Yu).

I got a little lost down some rabbit holes.

But there’s a good foundation with a strong performance from Patrick Wilson and the movie’s saving grace, John Bradley.

And the effects on the big screen managed to distract from the sometimes forced, ‘I work for the American people and you’re keeping them in the dark,’ sentiment that made up about an eighth of the movie.

What was lacking in the emotional subtleties was glossed over with exploding cosmic rocks like fireworks and a looming, disintegrating moon pulling the ocean up and over high rise buildings.

Entertaining on the big screen and one of the better disaster movies with some attempt to dive into some interesting concepts.

What I enjoyed the most was the comedy.

So, a bit of an all-rounder.

I didn’t love it; didn’t hate it.

I had a giggle, liked the effects, made me wonder while some of the drama made me cringe.

The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It

Rated: MA15+The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It

Directed by: Michael Chaves

Story by: James Wan, David Leslie Johnson-McGoldrick

Starring: Vera Farmiga, Patrick Wilson, Sterling Jerins, Julian Hilliard, Ruairi O’Connor, Bonnie Aarons, John Noble, Eugenie Bondurant, Sarah Catherine Hook.

“If you gaze long into an abyss, the abyss also gazes into you.” -Friedrich Nietzsche.

Based on a true story.

July 18, 1981.  Lorraine (Vera Farmiga) and Ed (Patrick Wilson), priest and the Glatzel family keep vigil over eight-year-old, David (Julian Hilliard): a young kid.  Possessed.

‘I just can’t remember one quite like this,’ says Ed, as the film opens with all the drama of an exorcist.

Set in Brookfield, The Devil Made Me Do It follows the possessed rather than the origin of a demon, giving this third instalment of, The Conjuring series, a different tone.

Here, there’s a hint of the courtroom, with Arne (Ruairi O’Connor), the boyfriend of David’s sister, charged with First Degree Murder and facing the death penalty; Arne’s defence, ‘Not guilty by reason of demonic possession.’

Enter Ed and Lorraine with the interesting premise of swearing to God before giving evidence an argument of: if there’s acknowledgement of God, why not the Devil?

The film is built around a real case, with recordings of the exorcism played-out with the rolling credits.  Creepy.  Probably the creepiest part of the film.

Not to say there weren’t scary bits – there’s still moments of Lorraine traveling through to an other world as she follows her visions making contact with the source of evil.  Made even scarier when she realises the contact goes both ways.

‘Being brave doesn’t mean you’re not scared,’ a comment made by Arne to young David before possession turns him into a killer.

There’s certainly some dark themes here, but I have to say the horror in this instalment lacks the same impact as the previous Conjuring films.

And the darkness here is offset by the ever-resilient love story between Ed and Lorraine, ‘My home is here with him,’ says Lorraine about Ed.

There’s also the young love between the accused and girlfriend, Debbie (Sarah Catherine Hook).

So there’s more of a dramatic tone, somewhat humanising the horror.  Which for me took away some of the edge to those scares – rather than putting more weight behind the characters.

Not sure why.  Maybe I just didn’t believe the young love between Arne and Debbie and the whole standing by her man.

And somehow the foundation of this instalment, with the court case and recordings seemed less believable.  How’s that for irony.

But all I can do is review how the film hits me – and it hits OK with more emphasis on the relationship between Ed and Lorraine making the film a balance of love story and horror, for me, diluting the impact of the scares.

Annabelle Comes Home

Rated: MAnnabelle Comes Home

Directed by: Gary Dauberman

Written by: Gary Dauberman and James Wan

Produced by: Peter Safran, James Wan

Starring: McKenna Grace, Madison Iseman, Katie Sarife, Patrick Wilson, Vera Farmiga.

‘Not all ghosts are bad, right?’

In this third instalment of the Annabelle series, we find Lorraine (Vera Farmiga) and Ed Warren (Patrick Wilson) taking the doll, Annabelle off the hands of some very frightened nurses – circa the end of The Conjuring (2013).

The relationship between Ed and Lorraine is as always, close and personal and sweet – unlike their life’s work of containing the demons infesting the lives of those still of this world.

It’s a familiar feeling, seeing the Warrens return, and the doll, Annabelle.

James Wan (director and co-writer of, The Conjuring 2 (2016) and also co-writer of the original, The Conjuring) co-wrote this instalment, along with Gary Dauberman.  But the direction is all Dauberman – his debut after successfully writing the two previous Annabelle films.

And the atmosphere is tense.

There’s something about Lorrain’s eyes that’s used so well here – the expressive concern compared to the doll’s wooden cracked stare.  This is just one of the many techniques used to ramp-up the tension.

The demonologists leave their young daughter Judy (McKenna Grace) in the hands of the ever-reliable baby-sitter Mary Ellen (Madison Iseman) while they venture out to another job.

Most of the film is set in that 70s style house of laminate kitchen, low hanging lights and orange and brown decor.  Back to the house holding the room with three locks and a sign asking, Do Not Touch Anything; filled with all the objects touched with evil, to have a priest pray over every week to keep the demons where they’re supposed to be: contained.

This is the focus of the film, the Occult Museum and the misguided friend, Daniela (Katie Sarife) who releases all within in it.

The film isn’t about Lorraine and Ed, this is about the three young girls fighting for their souls and sanity while the demon that controls the doll Annabelle acts as a beacon that calls all the other spirits.

The suspense is built on the creepy atmosphere of the house, bit by bit – the sounds of static and touches of orchestral sounds keeping up the edge.  And the turn of light through blue, green, yellow and red cellophane revealing hidden spirits turn the house into something like a freak show – all set to a sometimes still silence while you wait and wait for that next scare.

There’s some lightness to break the tension, ‘Don’t touch her, you’ll get obsessed,’ says one kid at Judy’s school.

And there’s a kind of sweetness to the relationship between the girls and the want-to-be-brave boyfriend that manages not to be cheesy, making Annabelle Comes Home not horrific but still scary because of the suspense.

Some of the objects in that room really get the heart pumping – who would have thought a reflection seen in an old tube TV could be so creepy.

So there’s plenty of tension but the violence doesn’t evolve.  It’s more the threat that kept me on edge.

In the end, the film felt more like a homage to the Warren family, with the recent passing of Lorraine Warren: 1927 – 2019.

I wonder if she’s still floating about, haunting anything – like ringing her spirit bells, just for fun.

Aquaman

Rated: MAquaman

Directed by: James Wan

Story by: James Wan, Will Beall, Geoff Johns

Screenplay by: Will Beall, David Leslie Johnson-McGoldrick

Based on characters created by: Paul Norris and Mort Weisinger for DC

Produced by: Rob Cowan, Peter Safran

Starring: Jason Momoa, Amber Heard, Willem Dafoe, Patrick Wilson, Dolph Lundgren, Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, Nicole Kidman, Ludi Lin and Temuera Morrison.

Aquaman was always going to be a difficult adaptation – the film about ‘fish boy[‘s].  No, it’s fish men!’; the setting underwater.

But with James Wan as director and one of the writers, I went into the film somewhat reassured.

Then the film opened with Atlanna (Nicole Kidman), Atlantean royalty meeting a surface dweller, and I was thrown because I just couldn’t believe I was seeing an Atlantis queen falling in love, the contrast a little too much.

Perhaps it was seeing Nicole Kidman as an action figure?!

And there were times when I really couldn’t decide whether to laugh with the film or at it – the guitar riff to highlight a joke not helping.

Yet, as the film progressed and Jason Momoa as Aquaman opened up to give us a down-to-earth (well, half-surface dweller, half-Atlantean Arthur Curry) hero, I became more absorbed.

Forbidden love between a queen of the sea and a man from the surface bears a forbidden son, a half-breed.  Aquaman.

Yet even as a half-breed, Aquaman has the right to claim the throne of Atlantis instead of his younger brother Orm (Patrick Wilson) who plots to become the Ocean Master; to bring together all seven kingdoms of the underwater world: Atlantis, Brine, Fisherman, Xebel, Trench, Deserter and the Lost.  Together they can destroy those on the surface.

Afterall, aren’t the surface-dwellers creating pollution and trashing the sea into poison for those who inhabit its waters?

Those who want peace with the surface dwellers not war, rise to the surface to seek Aquaman to fight for the throne to then save those above and below, with love-interest Mera (Amber Heard) abandoning Atlantis, just like his mother.  All leading to the meeting of the two brothers on opposing sides of an inevitable battle.

The writers have created enough twists and turns to keep the film interesting and it has to be noted the film has a different tone to the other DC, Justice League films.

Aquaman is more a technologically based world with an 80s-esq tone including synth soundtrack and fluorescent lit underwater worlds that become more spectacular as the film progresses.

Let me state again, it gets better!

There’s the expected cheese, because, yeah, this is Aquaman: Son of the land, king of the sea.

But Wan has offset this with humour and his own unique style.

Jason Momoa’s performance as Aquaman certainly helped.

So after an ordinary beginning, Aquaman ramps up to a deliver a visually stunning entertainer that was able to take a laugh at itself with a story that comes full circle.

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