Movie review: "Mile 22"

directed by Peter Berg
written by Lea Carpenter

For years now, director Peter Berg has collaborated with Mark Wahlberg on dramas about American tragedies. Lone Survivor, Deepwater Horizon, and Patriots Day all took real-world events as their subject matter, with varied but generally positive critical reactions and widespread popularity. Clearly, Berg and Wahlberg have a comfortable relationship, so although the former previously failed to craft a successful summer blockbuster with 2012's Battleship, a new action film from the duo still had potential, especially given Wahlberg's continued box office success.

However, Mile 22 suggests that Berg should have stuck with what was working, as he struggles to find a story compelling enough to compensate for the lack of real-world inspiration. More importantly, the film features some shockingly bad editing, and lacks even a single visually coherent action scene, instead waiting not even a second between cuts. The basic responsibility of any action movie is to ensure the audience can follow the action, and in that sense, Mile 22 is perversely inept. Considering that fundamental failure, it hardly even matters that the film also has an unlikeable protagonist and terrible dialogue. All anyone wants from an action movie is clear, comprehensible action, and this film can't even deliver that.

Movie review: "Solo: A Star Wars Story"

dir. by Ron Howard
writ. by Jonathan and Lawrence Kasdan
One of the key themes of December's Star Wars: The Last Jedi was that obsessing over the past is futile, and yet, Disney has seen fit to fill the gaps in its yearly release schedule not with intriguing new stories from disparate corners of the galaxy, but with yet more prequels which tell stories we already know about. Solo: A Star Wars Story, despite having its fair share of new characters, is a worse offender than Rogue One, as it insistently strings together explanations for nearly every aspect of Han Solo's persona in the original trilogy, while including at least a minor reference to every single piece of backstory which had been mentioned in those original movies.

That doesn't leave Solo with much room to take significant risks within its own story, so thankfully it instead takes on an upbeat tone and a breezy pace, diverging from grim foreboding of Rogue One in favour of a lightweight caper, albeit at the expense of the novelty and unique style of the earlier film. But if Solo contains few of Rogue One's strengths, it also fixes its primary weakness with a far more memorable cast of characters, and the action at the very least remains imaginative and exciting even if it's far less stylish than other recent Star Wars entries. Solo is the most disposable of the recent Star Wars films, but as a fluffy summer blockbuster, it is more than satisfactory.

Movie review: "Logan"

BEST NEW FEATURE
directed by James Mangold
written by Scott Frank
Logan will be the final movie starring Hugh Jackman in the titular role. As the third film revolving around the character, it seeks to provide something of a sendoff both to Wolverine himself and to the universe around him, and for this purpose takes inspiration from the Old Man Logan comic as well as from old Westerns. The film is a more personal and intimate affair than preceding X-Men entries, and it's exactly because it's so much smaller in scope than the average superhero movie that it's so immensely satisfying.

Movie review: "John Wick: Chapter 2"

BEST NEW FEATURE
dir. by Chad Stahelski
written by Derek Kolstad

When 2014’s John Wick became an instant cult classic, it wasn’t merely for its beautifully choreographed action but also for its hinted mythology and the partial reluctance of the title character. Like many of the best action movies, it had an identity all its own, and was concerned with very little aside from what was necessary to set up and deliver its thrills. Three years later, this sequel takes everything which made the original great and doubles down, making for a film which is bigger, bolder, stranger, and at times even more poignant than its predecessor.

Star Trek Beyond movie review

dir. by Justin Lin
The latest entry in the popular-but-divisive Star Trek reboot film series has been praised as a return to form after 2013's controversial Star Trek Into Darkness, and in many ways it's the closest these films have come to the tone and format of the original TV show. However, despite its many charming character moments and thoughtful tangents, Star Trek Beyond continues down the action-oriented route that this reboot series has become notorious for, and for all its moments-and there are plenty-its by-the-numbers plot and poorly-shot action never make this latest entry exciting enough to justify the wasted potential of its deeper elements.

Captain America: Civil War movie revew

BEST NEW FEATURE
dir. by Joe and Anthony Russo
In 2015's Avengers: Age of Ultron, the sheer scale of property damage was upped to unprecedented levels for the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU). At the time, it seemed like a shift away from the relative damage control that the original Avengers was retroactively praised for upon the release of 2013's Man of Steel, and worse, a dip into generic, pandering action movie tropes. Captain America: Civil War, the beginning of the third "phase" of the MCU, had not only the tough job of improving upon the widely-beloved Captain America: The Winter Soldier, but also the duty of restoring faith in this franchise after Age of Ultron proved so polarizing. While Civil War is unfortunately not as tight as The Winter Soldier, it provides a sprawling, introspective look at the Avengers and their place in the world that not only deepens the Marvel universe, but makes Age of Ultron better by extension, all while remaining gripping throughout.

Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation movie review

BEST NEW FEATURE
dir. by Christopher McQuarrie
The fifth instalment in the long-running spy action franchise is a wonderful reminder of why we like these movies in the first place.

Ant-Man movie review

dir. by Peyton Reed
distributed by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures
full cast at IMDB
The newest superhero origin story from Marvel Studios may not be the studio's best effort, but it's a thoroughly enjoyable watch all the same.

Jurassic World movie review

Jurassic Park is widely regarded a classic, but its sequels are... less so. Jurassic World seeks to reboot the series, with an all-new cast and all-new technology. So does it reach the heights of the original? Not even close.

Mad Max: Fury Road movie revew

BEST NEW FEATURE
George Miller's return to his iconic Mad Max franchise is not only the series' strongest entry, but quite possibly one of the best action movies ever made.

The Avengers: Age of Ultron movie review

The sequel to 2012's smash hit The Avengers was bound to be the biggest film of the year, and nothing seems poised to top it at the box office. Marvel Studios films are reliably high-quality action fare, and Age of Ultron is not the studio's first failure... but it also doesn't hold a candle to its predecessor and isn't one of the studio's strongest efforts.

Furious 7 review

BEST NEW PICTURE

Furious 7 is the newest instalment in the long-running The Fast and the Furious franchise. It's also the first one I've watched. Thankfully, this is a great piece of testosterone-fuelled fun, with just enough substance to serve as high-quality entertainment.