Eternals (2021)

Its fair to say that Marvel have rested on their laurels over the last few years so the idea of them trying to do something different is something that got me curious. What also added to the expectations that I had was the director. I really enjoyed Nomadland and thought that Chloe Zhao deserved her Oscar. So it was disappointing that she has gone from Nomadland to Eternals.

Gemma Chan plays Sersi and she becomes the new leader and she had no presence to her at all. She was never given the journey to get her from cowardly lion to brave leader and as a result I never felt like she was someone to be taken seriously. Richard Madden plays a legally different version of Superman and was the only one who reacted the way you would expect when their truth is revealed. He became the physical villain to stop Sersi and when this happens the character became interesting because sadly up until this point Madden is very dull and whilst he has better screen presence than Chan, he still isn't someone that I would build a film around. Angelina Jolie is clearly there to pick up a paycheck. She never feels like she’s part of the action and has her Jekyll and Hyde character. She got to do some action scenes but we knew she could do it because of films like Tomb Raider but Thena feels like a side character. Barry Keoghan was underused as Druig. It seemed like his power was too powerful and like Captain Marvel got sidelined until his power was useful. Lauren Ridloff was good as the legally different Flash. As a deaf character it felt like she had some freshness and it was a shame that she got sidelined until the final act. I did think the romance between Makkari and Druig was underused to the point where I wondered why they bothered including it. Lia McHugh was the only character that seemed to have any development as not-Maisie Williams. She decides to follow not-Superman just because she fancied him and then gets rewarded with mortality. Kumail Nanjani (Kingo) is perhaps the best in this film because he brings a nice dose of comedy to the film. He is helped with his sidekick Harish Patel (Karun) who seems to whip out a camcorder at every opportunity.

Ultimately the problem with this film is that everyone involved is taking it too seriously. They don't inject much humour into the characters and there were long periods where a bit of humor would have been much appreciated. Also there is the fact that there are too many characters. If there had been three or four then it might have worked but there was way too many. People appear and then disappear and it's hard to really care about them when they spend a fraction of the movie on screen. There were way too many flashbacks which don't really add anything apart from the one where not-Superman kills Ajak. 

I was bored by Eternals. The film had absolutely no right being over two and a half hours long. I nearly nodded off at one point and felt like the endless  flashbacks could have been cut out (with the exception of the revelation one) and the film would have been a snapier film. There were parts of this film that reminded me of Nomadland but when the action scenes came, they seemed like generic action scenes and not the sort of thing that Chloe Zhao would come up with. Like most Marvel films, this probably wont be the last time we see some of the characters. The line from Kit Harrington about his character’s history being complicated was clearly meant to be a tease so I suppose time will tell whether it was worth it but this has to be one of the worst Marvel films I have seen since Captain Marvel and at least that film was shorter.

Ghostbusters Afterlife (2021)

I think that is pretty much accepted by everyone that the 2016 version of Ghostbusters was terrible. The idea of having four female ghostbusters was squandered and the vocal minority that were able to act like they were right in voicing what they perceived was what was happening to their beloved franchise. Ultimately the jokes were so bad and the idea of putting comedy before the story meant that the film died a death and it seems like they have gone back to basics with this version directed by Jason Reitman son of Ivan Reitman.

The film Callie and her children (Trevor and Phoebe) who are forced to live in the house occupied by Callie’s father Egon who became estranged from his daughter and grandchildren. Callie feels a lot of resentment towards her dad but as the film progresses this softens and there is a lovely moment between Callie and a CGI Egon. Paul Rudd plays Mr Grooberson who is the 2021 Louis Tully even down to the running out of a Walmart and the creature crashing through the door to chase after him and he becoming possessed. 

The thing about this film is that its trying to create its new generation of beloved characters. Phoebe (McKenna Grace) is the new Egon and does very well in being a mirror image of Egon yet having enough qualities to feel new enough. Finn Wolfhard does get sidelined for most of the film as Trevor and only comes into the film in the second half. Logan Kim is the Stantz of the group. He’s a bit over excited with what he’s seeing and normally being a podcast obsessed would be irritating but Kim manages to make Podcast seem likeable and a good part of the group.Celeste O’Connor is the Winston of the group and aside from the romance stuff with Trevor. As she is saddled with that storyline like Wolfhard only gets the shine when the film gets into the second half. As a foursome they work really well even though they are all different people they still come together when needed like they did in 1984 and like they failed to do in 2016. 

Having Egon appear via computer trickery was a nice touch although it was slightly jarring that he didn't utter a word. It was a shame that Harold Ramis passed away in 2014 but it seemed like they wanted to have him in it but didn't know or could get the voice right. I also thought that the romance thread between Trevor and Lucky that didn't go anywhere was a bit of a waste of time. The central plot leaned a bit too much towards the first film which was disappointing because a mix of new and old is always good but it leant just a bit too much towards the old.

It was nice that Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd and Ernie Hudson came back for a bit more than silly cameos. They werent in it all the time but at least the first film was remembered in a nice way and I was worried that they were going to swoop in and save the day after the younger characters had done all the heavy lifting but thankfully they didnt and had some good one liners but it did look like the years hadnt been kind to Aykroyd and Murray.

Overall I thoroughly enjoyed Ghostbusters: Afterlife. It would have had to try really hard to be worse than Ghostbusters 2016 but judging this film on its own merits then its a fun film. There are two post credit scenes. The first being with Sigourney Weaver and Bill Murray nodding to the first scene that Peter had in the 1984 version which was fun but not really leading to anything and then the final scene is between Janine and Winston which shows how successful Winston has become and has kept the original building and now keeps Ecto-1 in it. Whether this leads to another film only time will tell but if the films continue in this vein then I wouldn't mind seeing more.

Last Night in Soho (2021)

I don't know the last time that I was looking forward to a film quite as much as I was looking forward to Last Night in Soho. I have been waiting to see this film since last October but the pandemic kept pushing it back and for a long time I was looking forward to this and No Time to Die to the most. The set up of the film is that Eloise (Thomasin Mackenzie) travels from her home that she shares with her Gran to attend a fashion school in London but after spending one night with her nightmare dorm mates she takes up lodgings with Ms Collins played by the late great Diana Rigg. She soon starts seeing events involving Sandie from the 1960’s who is trying to become a singer but soon becomes involved with Jack (Matt Smith) and we see Sandie being ‘killed’ and the film is Eloise trying to get justice for Sandie as she seemingly starts to lose her mind.

I really love this film. Firstly, the performances are really good. Anya Taylor Joy and Thomasin McKenzie are really good and are complete contrasts of each other. Joy’s Sandie is a confident and ambitious person whilst McKenzie’s Eloise is shy and always seems like she is fighting to stay in control of what she is seeing. Matt Smith is really good as Jack. He starts off as a charming guy who can make things happen but very quickly shows his true colours and basically becomes a pimp. Terence Stamp I think has a slightly underwritten role but manages to make his character seem just as unlikeable as Jack. For a long time I honestly thought that Stamp and Smith were playing the same character. I think this might be because of how the trailers made it seem but in reality Stamp’s character was the cop that we saw in one particular flashback. Michael Ajao is very good as John who becomes Eloise’s love interest and always seems to want to help her and even when she freaks out when they are about to make out he is still trying to help her. I thought that it was a lovely performance from him. Perhaps the single best performance comes from Diana Rigg who at first seems like she is just the cranky landlady but in the final act the films reveals that she is in fact Sandie and the blood that we saw wasn't from Sandie but in fact from Jack which I genuinely didn't see any of that coming and to be honest I wouldn't have tried to work it out cause I was just enjoying what I was seeing and all the great visuals that cinematographer Jeong Jeong-hun who worked on stuff like Oldboy and the first IT film. He makes this film work and if it weren't for the great visuals then the film would have failed miserably. Diana Rigg goes out in style with a performance that might have only mae sense in the final 20 minutes but it was bloody good. The last shot of her is in a burning room and she is sitting on the end of the bed and it just a great visual and its obvious why she doesn't feature too much in the promotional material because it would have ruined the twist.

The things that dont quite work are the gang of classmates that seem to exist purely to snigger at Eloise for being slightly different to them. The night when there is the party in the dorm and she decides to move out is exactly what I would have done. The characters don't really contribute to anything although Jocasta was by far the worst. Also at the end the film decides that she can just resume her career with no apparent repercussions for nearly stabbing Jocasta with some scissors but these are minor things because everything else is amazing in this film. Some might think that the film is style over substance then I think they are missing a lot from this film. It’s not the best Edgar Wright film because its not better than Hot Fuzz but its a damn good second best and shows that Edgar Wright is more than just flashy cut scenes and transitions.