Midnight Special

#StokerScore 7/10

Sci-fi. Often a genre that puts people off before they even consider the film, the actors or the story and the diversity of the genre means that this is not without reason. As with any genre of movie some are well made, well thought out, well written and clearly drawn characters. They can catch the viewers imagination by looking at a subject from a different angle or just playing with our emotions. And then there are the opposite of these and unfortunately sci-fi has too many bad movies. Movies that could have been great but were just too careless.

why is it never somewhere easy, like the local mall?

Close Encounters of The Third Kind was Spielberg's 1977 sci-fi opus that followed a group of people who were motivated to find a place where they would meet aliens, aliens who are increasingly witnessed by people with an affinity. Twenty years earlier John Wyndham wrote The Midwich Cuckoos in which a group of children are born to regular parents but who are ultimately not human.

Midnight Special appears to draw from both of these sources in its tale of Alton, a young boy who seems to be sickening due to his being 'special'  (he cant go out in daylight and needs special goggles and ear protectors to sleep) and the attempts of his parents and their friend to help Alton to reach his destination before either a religious cult or the federal government can stop them.

The movie has a great cast with Michael Shannon and Kirsten Dunst as the parents, Joel Edgerton as their friend and Adam Driver as an NSA advisor. Jaeden Lieberher holds his own as the young boy, never coming across as a kid who can't act.

annoying

not annoying

The story keeps you involved and we're thrown right into the mix from the get go. Background is filled in through conversations and characters have motivations for their actions. But where the story lets itself down is never really explaining how Alton came to be nor the meaning behind the big reveal towards the end of the movie. It certainly left me with more questions than answers.

Nevertheless, the story was well told, effects were astonishing for such a cheaply made movie and if you can get past the questions and allow your imagination to answer them for you, you'll love this...

Jurassic World

StokerScore 7/10

40 years ago this year, the template for Summer blockbusters hit our screens. Jaws is as revered enough now as it was then and is getting a cinematic re-release in honour of the fact. It's part of the reason that I chose this fan art poster from the internet rather than Universal's own poster.

But is Jurassic World bigger than Jaws, as the poster might suggest? Hell, is it even bigger than the first Jurassic Park?

For me the answer is no and no. But that doesn't make it a bad movie. 

From the outset, a clever opening scene slow reveal sets the tone for a movie which tries hard to be original but ends up following the course of the first movie just a tad too much. The action and scale are huge, the trailer hasn't given away all of the movie's good stuff and the lighter tones, there's a great put-down that made me really laugh, detract sufficiently from the full scale slaughter on the screen (c'mon, this was shown in the trailer so it's not a spoiler). 

When we finally see the dinosaurs I felt equally as awed as when I watched the first JP. But the underlying message of the film, that we're always in need of something newer and shinier, isn't really adhered to by the screenwriters who rehashed a little too much from JP1.

That being said, the actors are spot on, with the disappointing exception of Vincent D'Onofrio's villain who doesn't really seem to do too much and whose motives are never really fleshed out, the new additions to the park are excellent and I'm sure John Hammond would have relished seeing his dream become reality.

Finally, is there an opportunity for a sequel? Well, considering the numbers for its opening weekend I guess the accountants will demand one even if no-one else does but I can't help thinking it'll have to be better written if I'm going to enjoy it more.