’The Marvels’

Short, playful but ultimately turgid MCU superhero feature as Captain Marvel finds her powers entangled with two others. Together they must work together to save the universe.

In an average teenage girl’s bedroom in Jersey City, super-fan Kamala Khan (Iman Vellani) is surrounded by Captain Marvel paraphernalia. But she also has a heavily-carved amulet. It’s the twin to the one recovered by Dar-Benn (Zawe Ashton), leader of the tyrannical Kree. To have both would provide her the power to rebuild their planet, the very planet unintentionally destroyed by Captain Marvel (Brie Larson). Dispatched by Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) to deal with the threat, Marvel finds herself entangled with Kamala and the amulet as well as her estranged niece, Captain Monica Rambeau (Teyonah Parris). Together they must destroy the Kree threat to the stability of the universe.

With zippy dialogue, the three gel well together on screen as directed by Nia DaCosta. But even the short 105 minute running time feels too long as the narrative unconvincingly regurgitates seen-it-all-before scenarios with its ‘B-Team’ feel.

Rating: 35%

Director: Nia DaCosta (Candyman, Little Woods)

Writer: Nia DaCosta (Candyman, Little Woods), Megan McDonnell (TV’s WandaVision), Elissa Karasik (TV’s Loki, Lessons in Chemistry)

Main cast: Brie Larson (Room, Captain Marvel), Teyonah Parris (If Beale St Could Talk, Candyman), Iman Vellani (TV’s Ms. Marvel)

‘Stowaway’

A claustrophobic race-against-time space narrative as a crew of three on a two-year mission to Mars, led by experienced Marina Barnett (Toni Collette), unexpectedly becomes four.

It’s a regular run, with the colonisation of the distant planet already underway. But when an injured engineer (Shamier Anderson) is discovered, unconscious, on board, the straightforward journey becomes a lot more complicated. With food and oxygen carefully packed and rationed, it’s up to scientists Daniel Dae Kim and/or Anna Kendrick to work out a way to get them safely to Mars.

Stowaway (directed by Joe Penna) gently unfolds but, with limited sense of urgency or tension, there’s little in terms of emotional investment in the characters or narrative.

Rating: 54%

Director: Joe Penna (Arctic)

Writer: Joe Penna (Arctic, TV’s Release), Ryan Morrison (Arctic, TV’s Release)

Main cast: Toni Collette (The Sixth Sense, Hereditary), Anna Kendrick (Pitch Perfect, A Simple Favour), Shamier Anderson (Race, Destroyer), Daniel Dae Kim (TV’s Lost, Hawaii Five-O)

‘Memory: the Origins of Alien’

Solemn though it may be with its low lit graininess, Memory: the Origins of Alien is an insightful exploration of creative teamwork as Ridley Scott (director), H.R.Giger (artist) and Dan O’Bannon (writer) work with crew and actors to produce a classic of the sci-fi horror genre.

Forty years after its general release, with its chest-bursting scene, Alien continues to shock. It spawned many a sequel and made Sigourney Weaver a star. This documentary explores, through talking heads, interviews and all-important film clips, Alien‘s genesis and references – from the Furies of Ancient Greece through to John Carpenter’s Dark Star via many a schlock horror film of the 1950s and 60s.

Director Alexandre O. Philippe, an award-winning filmmaker of films about films, confirms the status of Alien but without getting totally under its skin. It’s interesting but doesn’t quite satisfy.

Rating: 63%

Director: Alexandre O. Philippe (78/52, The People vs George Lucas)

‘Ad Astra’

Cerebral, portentous, pretentious (with the occasional flash of thrilling beauty), Ad Astra finds Brad Pitt travelling across the universe to find his rogue, assumed-missing father (Tommy Lee Jones) in order to save Earth.

Muted tones, emotions and action with a laidback, sparse soundtrack (the sublime Max Richter) lang with Pitt’s existentialist voice-over reflecting on interstellar life, absent parents and the mission itself results in a cold, distant, wannabe epic from director James Gray. He mixes Conradian themes of Heart of Darkness (aka Apocalypse Now) with Terrence Malick, Kubrick’s 2001 and occasional moments of Gravity.

Joyless, with wasted cameos from the likes of Ruth Negga, Donald Sutherland and Liv Tyler, Ad Astra falls short of its own aspirations as a commentary on the human condition. But it also falls woefully short of an entertaining space adventure.

Nominated for Sound Mixing Oscar in 2020.

Rating: 48%

Director: James Gray (The Lost City of Z, The Immigrant)

Writer: James Gray (The Lost City of Z, The Immigrant), Ethan Gross (Kept, TV’s Fringe)

Main cast: Brad Pitt (12 Years a Slave, Thelma & Louise), Tommy Lee Jones (Men in Black, Lincoln), Ruth Negga (Loving, Breakfast on Pluto)

‘Avengers: Endgame'(Marvel #21)

Directed by Anthony Russo and Joe Russo, it’s a welcome sombre note to the Marvel proceedings, particularly after the wall-to-wall battles of last year’s Avengers: Infinity War.

After the defeat by Thanos (Josh Brolin) and destruction of half the world’s population, the surviving Avengers are (mostly) unsurprisingly resigned and introspective – even Iron Man himself (Robert Downey Jnr) has settled into an idyllic familial rural lifestyle. But the sudden ‘spitting out’ of Ant Man (a very funny Paul Rudd) from the quantum realm changes everything.

It’s a fittingly gargantuan and fabulously grandiose conclusion of 21 Marvel films – but with its humour, pathos and not too much reliance on excessive battles, the result is Avengers: Endgame is suitably one of the best.

Nominated or 1 Oscar in 2020 (visual effects).

Rating: 62%

Director: Anthony Russo (Captain America: Civil War, Captain America: The Winter Soldier)), Joe Russo (Captain America: Civil War, Captain America: The Winter Soldier)

Writer: Christopher Markus (Captain America: Civil War, The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe), Stephen McFeely (Captain America: Civil War, The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe)

Main cast: Robert Downey Jnr (Iron Man, Sherlock Holmes), Paul Rudd (Ant-Man, The Catcher Was a Spy), Chris Evans (Captain America: Civil War, Gifted)

‘Thor: Ragnarok’ (Marvel #18)

The Marvel Comics domination of all things box-office continues unabated with the third instalment of the Thor stand-alones (although Thor: Ragnarok also features Mark Ruffalo as Bruce Banner /The Hulk).

There’s a lot of humour in the latest episode as Thor (a returning Chris Hemsworth) must face up to not only his brother Loki (Tom Hiddleston) but his unknown-he-had-one sister,  Hela (a splendidly vindictive Cate Blanchett), intent on revenge for her banishment from Asgard.

It’s entertaining enough (courtesy primarily of NZ director Taika Waititi) and a considerable improvement on the previous Thor: The Dark World, although the constant on-screen battles of all things Avengers is starting to wear more than a little thin.

Rating: 57%

Director: Taika Waititi (Hunt for the Wilderpeople, What We Do in the  Shadows)

Writer: Eric Pearson (TV’s Agent Carter), Craig Kyle (TV’s X-Men: Evolution), Christopher L. Yost (Thor: The Dark World, Max Steel)

Main cast: Chris Hemsworth (Thor, In the Heart of the Sea), Tom Hiddleston (Thor, Only Lovers Left Alive), Cate Blanchett – Lord of the Rings, Carol)

‘Alien: Covenant’

It’s not the most coherent of the Alien/Prometheus films and, at times the action seems a little rushed after an overly slow intro, but Alien: Covenant is nothing if not spectacularly crafted.

Thrills and (literally) spills abound as the synthetic David (a sublime Michael Fassbender) looks to creation and immortality. But the real story of course is the virus that evolves into the deadly creatures – and what’s low in number in Alien: Covenant is still enough to create carnage on an unchartered planet and aboard the colony ship, Covenant. With Oram (Billy Crudup), the disliked captain, struggling, it’s left to Katherine Waterston to take the lead against the so-called perfect living entities.

Ridley Scott returns and plumbs the same scares from the original to great effect along with several references to earlier films in the franchise as the action keeps on coming and the gore count keeps on rising. Pity about the storyline and the inept crew.

Rating: 58%

Director: Ridley Scott (The Martian, Alien)

Writer: John Logan (Genius, Skyfall), Dante Harper

Main cast: Michael Fassbender (Prometheus, 12 Years a Slave), Billy Crudup (20th Century Women, Almost Famous), Katherine Waterston (The Current War, Fantastic Beasts)

‘Passengers’

An unexpected template of a space feature (did we really need yet another outside the spacecraft repair scenario?) which evolves into a two-handed stage play with Chris Pratt and Jennifer Lawrence waking up somewhat earlier than intended on their 300 year journey to the distant Homestead II planet colony.

It’s not bad – it’s just not particularly original – although there’s an enjoyable series of interludes with Michael Sheen as the android barman.

Nominated for 2 Oscars in 2017 (production design & original score – Thomas Newman)

Rating: 48%

Director: Morten Tyldum (The Imitation Game, Headhunters)

Writer: Jon Spaihts (Doctor Strange, Prometheus)

Main cast: Chris Pratt (Guardians of the Galaxy, Jurassic World), Jennifer Lawrence (Silver Linings Playbook, The Hunger Games), Michael Sheen (Frost/Nixon, Midnight in Paris)

‘Star Trek Beyond’

I loved the 2009 reboot with Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto et al – but its been a downhill interstellar journey since then.

Sure, it tells its story well enough – but that story has been told a million times before (and in other Star Trek stories of long ago). The Federation has pissed someone off in the past and now they want revenge. Cue mass destruction (or threat thereof) of fleets, planets, solar systems.

But at least this was not just about Kirk and Spock and their macho strutting – under director Justin Lin, the Enterprise crew and the building of the team is much in evidence.

Nominated for 1 Oscar in 2017 (makeup/hairstyling)

Rating: 52%

Director: Justin Lin (Fast & Furious, Annapolis)

Writer: Simon Pegg (The World’s End, Hot Fuzz), Doug Jung (Confidence, TV’s Dark Blue)

Main cast: Chris Pine (Star Trek, Hell or High Water), Zoe Saldana (Guardians of the Galaxy, Avatar), Zachary Pinto (Star Trek, Margin Call), Idris Elba (Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom, Prometheus)

‘Star Wars VII: The Force Awakens’

The behemoth that is Star Wars was never particularly on my personal radar. Back in the early 80s, the original trilogy was ticked off in one sitting. The reboot trilogy? Nope.

Did catch up with them on Blu-Ray – and surprised at just how poorly made they were. Wooden acting, stilted dialogue and surprisingly poor special affects. Watched them in preparation for what is poised to be the most successful film in history (knocking Avatar off its number one perch).

And here’s the rub – Star Wars: The Force Awakens is good unadulterated entertainment! Sure, in spite of new characters, there’s a certain familiarity – or, more cynically, just a rehash of old stories – that makes the new simply derivative of the old. But it sort of doesn’t matter. There’s a sort of fuzzy warmth to it as a result – and add a great new heroine in Rey (London-born newcomer Daisy Ridley) and the next trilogy is set for a stratospheric success.

Director J J Abrams has done it again. Having successfully rebooted Star Trek and produced the last two highly successful Mission Impossible films, he can now add Star Wars to his Midas list.

Nominated for 5 (technical) Oscars in 2016.

Rating: 66%

Director: J. J. Abrams (Star Trek, Super 8)

Writer: Lawrence Kasdan (The Bodyguard, The Big Chill) J. J. Abrams (Mission Impossible III, Armageddon), Michael Arndt (Toy Story 3, The Hunger Games: Catching Fire)

Main cast: Daisy Ridley (TV’s Silent Witness), John Boyega (Attack the Block, Half a Yellow Sun), Harrison Ford (Witness, Indiana Jones & the Raiders of the Lost Ark), Oscar Isaac (Balibo, Ex Machina)