Movie Review Detroit

Detroit (2017) 

Directed by Kathryn Bigelow

Written by Mark Boal

Starring John Boyega, Will Poulter, Algee Smith, Jacob Lattimore, Kaitlyn Dever

Release Date July 28th, 2017 

Recently I listened to Malcolm Gladwell’s incredible podcast Revisionist History and in the very first episode he discussed a fascinating sociological concept called Moral Licensing. Moral Licensing is in essence doing something that is right and then using that right action, essentially a good deed, to justify bad behavior. Gladwell’s example was a painter in 19th Century England, Elizabeth Thompson, whose painting, titled Roll Call, became the first by a female artist to take a respected placement in the Royal Academy of Art. Unfortunately, the good deed by the male dominated Royal Academy of featuring the remarkable painting gave them, in their minds, the bona fides to justify not electing Thompson to become a member of the Royal Academy. They’d done their good deed and had nothing, in their minds left to prove.

I thought a great deal about Moral Licensing as I watched Kathryn Bigelow’s remarkable new film Detroit. This story about the riots that raged in Detroit, Michigan in 1967 and more specifically about an incident of police brutality that resulted in the deaths of three innocent black men, at the Algiers Hotel, led me to wonder if just becoming a police officer—a peace officer, someone whose job in the world is to protect people—gives some lesser officers the notion that they have moral license to do as they please. They’ve proven their bona fides as a good person by offering to protect the innocent, thus how they do their jobs is justified by virtue of having accepted the position.

I am not generalizing here; I respect police officers and the remarkable difficulty of their job. Scientifically and psychologically, however, there is a kernel of truth here. It could happen to anyone in such a position: a doctor, a politician, even a film critic who uses his position as a writer to espouse a point of view and then, if his point of view is well-viewed, he or she can take license to go further and espouse further and potentially do harm because they feel they have a moral high ground that doesn’t really exist.

Find my full length review at Geeks.Media 

Movie Review Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. #3

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. #3 

Directed by James Gunn 

Written by James Gunn

Starring Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldana, Dave Bautista, Bradley Cooper, Pom Klementieff, Karen Gillan, Sean Gunn, Will Poulter, Vin Diesel, Chukwudi Iwuji 

Release Date May 5th, 2023 

Published May 3rd, 2023 

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. #3 arrives at a strange time for a Marvel movie. The Marvel film universe appears, in many ways, to be in decline in relevance and popularity. The biggest stars such as Robert Downey Jr, Scarlett Johansson, and Chris Evans, have left the MCU and the fan base is growing impatient with how the latest phase of this universe is unfolding. Add to that, Guardians writer-director James Gunn who has already abandoned Marvel to take over the leadership of the D.C Film Universe even as his final MCU movie is only now arriving in theaters. 

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. #3 is feeling like a bit of an afterthought. Intended as a coda to James Gunn's little corner of the Marvel Universe, the film has the feel of an afterthought as well. The villain pales in comparison to Kurt Russell's towering Ego in Volume 2, the lack of the Peter Quill-Gamora dynamic feels like a pivot that no one in the Guardians universe wanted to make but were forced into, and what has replaced that dynamic here feels quite slapped together and unwelcome. 

The story of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 picks up on an outpost called Knowhere. The Guardians and their allies are regrouping for their next gig, saving the universe when someone brings the fight to them. Adam Warlock (Will Poulter), glimpsed in a post-credits sequence in Volume 2, comes to Knowhere with the intent of kidnapping Rocket (Bradley Cooper). He's here on the orders of the Grand High Evolutionary (Chukwudi Iwuji), the man who created Rocket many years earlier. 

The Guardians turn back Warlock but not before he nearly kills Rocket. The rest of the plot will center on the gang having to enact a heist to steal the plans they need to save Rocket's life. This will involve a reunion with Gamora (Zoe Saldana), now a member of The Ravagers, who has no memory of her other life as a member of the Guardians. She's a completely different person than the Gamora the Guardians knew and she angrily asserts just how much she doesn't know the family she'd had in another life. She's willing to help out of sympathy for her sister, Nebula (Karen Gillan), but she'd rather killer Peter than listen to any of his memory of who she might have been before. 

Find my full length review at Geeks.Media 

Movie Review The Chronicles of Narnia The Voyage of the Dawn Treader

The Chronicles of Narnia Voyage of the Dawn Treader (2010)

Directed by Michael Apted

Written by Christopher Markus, Stephen McFeely, Michael Petroni

Starring Georgie Henley, Will Poulter, Skandar Keynes, Ben Barnes, Tilda Swinton

Release Date December 10th, 2010 

Published December 9th, 2010

The struggle to bring “The Chronicles of Narnia: Voyage of the Dawn Treader,” based on the 3rd book in C.S Lewis’s popular series, has been troubled not by poor creative effort but by the perils of Hollywood business. After “The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe” debuted in 2005 to terrific reviews and boffo box office, “The Chronicles of Narnia” was seen by Disney and Walden Media, a Harry Potter-esque cash cow.

Then, the struggles of “Prince Caspian” began. Though the film sailed into production with writer-director Andrew Adamson having completed the screenplay while filming Lion, upon release Caspian was seen as a box office failure with a mere 141 million dollars at the North American box office.

Caspian was not helped by critics who lambasted the film as a shallow follow-up to the well liked first film in the series. Prospects for “Voyage of the Dawn Treader” ever reaching the screen seemed dim after Disney chose not to move ahead on the project in 2008. Then, miraculously, 20th Century Fox snapped the series up and set out to re-energize the franchise. Whether the effort works at the box office we will see but the artistic rebirth is accomplished as ‘Dawn Treader’ returns the magic of The “Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.”

It’s been three years since Lucy (Georgie Henley) and Edmund (Skandor Keynes) have been to Narnia, the magical realm of the regal Lion Aslan (Liam Neeson), with their brother Peter and sister Susan. The oldest of the Pevensie children have moved on (actors William Mosley and Anna Popplewell do make cameos here) while Lucy and Edmund remain in England, living with the family of their irksome cousin Eustace (Will Poulter).

While they await word of when they can rejoin their family, Lucy and Edmund also patiently await a return to Narnia where they but not their siblings can return only once more. That chance comes when a magical painting begins moving and a ship somehow appears on the horizon. Soon, the painting begins to come to life and when Eustace attempts to pull it off the wall, all three children find themselves engulfed and emerging in Narnia.

Waiting for Lucy, Edmund and Tagalong Eustace is the Dawn Treader, the first ship in the Narnian army and the current home of King Caspian (Ben Barnes). Caspian welcomes the kids aboard and an adventure begins to retrieve the Seven Lords whose magic swords will lift a curse that has plunged part of Narnia into darkness.

Alongside the main plot is also a quest to find the Utter East, the land of Aslan. Reepicheep (voice of Simon Pegg) the valiant mouse warrior hopes to voyage to Aslan’s land as his final adventure while Caspian believes he may find his father there.

Director Michael Apted, who picked up the reigns from Andrew Adamson, now an executive producer, brings a clear focus to the story of ‘Dawn Treader.” Where “Prince Caspian'' was weighed down by a great deal of exposition; so much that the film never picked up speed and prodded to a dull conclusion, “Dawn Treader” begins with a brief character reset and quickly we are aboard the glorious ship and away for adventure.

“Voyage of the Dawn Treader'' bounces swiftly from set piece to set piece with a clear eyed purpose, and is aided greatly by the best effects work of the series courtesy of Moving Picture Company and Framestore CFC, with an assist from the legendary WETA Workshop (LOTR). Michael Apted takes command of this franchise, gives it an epic scope, a sharp, dynamic look and even a surprisingly light heart.

The humor of “Voyage of the Dawn Treader” is a direct rebuke to the bullish self seriousness of the dreary “Prince Caspian.” “Son of Rambow” star Will Poulter does much of the comic heavy lifting as the nettlesome cousin Eustace. In his first Narnian outing, and possibly not his last, Poulter deftly plays Eustace’s refusal to believe what is happening around him for great laughs while setting us up for a terrific character turn with a surprisingly poignant pay off.

Much of “Chronicles of Narnia: Voyage of the Dawn Treader” comes as a surprise. No, the makers have not managed to make Ben Barnes any less wooden as Caspian or made the religious overtones any less burdensome but what Michael Apted does is lessen the issues by making all around them better. Better effects, better story, better pace; just about everything in Dawn Treader is better, even than “The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe.”

Yes, it is a rare occurrence but this, the third Narnia movie, is the best of the series. Top notch action and effects and a director fully in control of all the aspects of epic, popcorn moviemaking have resurrected a dying franchise. The box office will make the final decision but from an artistic perspective “The Chronicles of Narnia” have begun again and the newly in charge Mr. Apted has me anticipating another adventure in “The Silver Chair.”