Saturday, February 9, 2019

Alita: Battle Angel


DIRECTOR: Robert Rodriguez
LEAD CAST: Rosa Salazar, Cristoph Waltz, Jennifer Connelly, Mahershala Ali, Ed Skrein, Jackie Earle Haley & Keean Johnson
SCREENWRITER: James Cameron & Laeta Kalogridis
PRODUCER: James Cameron & Jon Landau
EDITOR: Stephen E. Rivkin
MUSICAL DIRECTOR: Tom Holkenborg
GENRE: Science fiction/Fantasy
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Bill Pope
DISTRIBUTOR: 20th Century Fox
LOCATION: USA
RUNNING TIME: 122 mins.
Technical assessment:  4
Moral assessment:  3.5
CINEMA rating:  V 13
MTRCB rating:  PG
After the cataclysmic war known as “The Fall”, Earth has become a monumental trash heap where everyone scavenges to survive, kept alive by the thought of one day finding relief in Zalem, a city of the elite high up in the sky.  One day as the compassionate cyborg scientist Dr. Dyson Ido (Cristoph Waltz) scavenges for treasure among the trash, he finds the bust of a female cyborg with a human brain, half dead.  In his his clinic he succeeds in giving it a robotic body.  The cyborg awakens but can recall nothing about her past or identity; Dr. Ido then names her Alita (Rosa Salazar), after his deceased daughter.  Alita becomes comfortable with her new body and as her unique skillset surfaces, the curious cyborg discovers that Dr. Ido is a warrior-hunter.  As the story unfolds, layer upon layer of secrets are peeled off, revealing the surprising depth of each character.
Alita: Battle Angel is the big-screen adaptation of Yukito Kishiro’s manga, “Battle Angel Alita”.  With its great attention to detail and character development, the film has created a world where viewers may easily get carried away, especially if it is watched on a giant screen.  While the bleak setting, Iron City, is a veritable junkyard, the movie is not depressing; while the lead female is a robot, she is not cold.  The visuals are breathtaking; the action, wow!  Director Rodriguez’s eye for action is complemented by cleverly placed close-ups that give the story its heart.  Waltz as a kindhearted man proves his acting mettle once more in a role that’s the opposite of his usually villainous, ruthless film persona.  Salazar, on the other hand, inspires sympathy—is it due to her role, or her soulful eyes?
An aspect worth pondering in Alita: Battle Angel is the wide range of human emotions depicted.  The story is set centuries into the future—year 2563—and yet, the characters’ responses to emotional stimuli remain the same as ours today.  Note the relationship between Alita and Dr. Ido, Chiren’s maternal instinct causing her change of heart, Alita’s self-sacrificing love for Hugo, etc.  Whether it is anger, love, ambition, or hatred fueling their actions, the characters—human or cyborg—are so like us, responding the way we do now, or even as our counterparts did centuries ago as history proves.  The desire for power or dominance is still there, so is the human longing for love.  Also, man still itches for greener pastures, as the gap between society’s rich and poor, the elites and the scavengers, remains unbridgeable.  If only the externals are changed 500 years from now, is the movie saying that the human brain is the same yesterday, today and forever?  What about human existence, purpose, or destiny—will it be forever a mystery?—TRT

Friday, February 8, 2019

Dragon Ball Super: Broly


Director: Tatsuya Nagamine  Lead Cast: Masako Nozawa, RyĆ“ Horikawa, Bin Shimada, Chris Ayres  Screenwriter: Akira Toriyama  Producer: Toei Animation  Musical Director: Norihito Sumitomo  Genre: Anime, Action  Distributor: Warner Bros.  Running Time: 1 hr 41 min 
Technical assessment: 3.5 
Moral assessment: 3 
CINEMA rating: V13 
MTRCB rating: PG 13 
In some universe somewhere, there are ultra-aggressive warriors called Saiyans. They become a threat to a super god Frieza who wipes them out. But some survive, including three Saiyans: Goku and Prince Vegeta who land on earth, and Broly who had been exiled to another star as an infant by Prince Vegeta’s father who was then King of Saiyan. Broly exhibited powers that surpassed the prince’s, and the king did not want anyone to eclipse his son. Broly’s father Paragus joined Broly in exile, raising Broly for combat and revenge against Vegeta. But neither Paragus nor Broly could restrain his immense power. Years later, the three Saiyans face off in a battle when Frieza’s soldiers steal Bulma’s dragon balls, which have magical powers. Bulma is Vegeta’s wife. Broly—used as pawn by Frieza—grows stronger, while Goku and Vegeta, on the opposite side, discover their new strength of fusion as they combine to become Gogeta. 
Many anime fans consider this latest instalment in the Dragon Ball franchise the best in the series. Even viewers alien to the Dragon Ball vocabulary like the flashbacks that give context to the story, helping them understand that Kakarot the baby is now the grownup GokuAnd the dialogue has enough to explain that Frieza’s and Bulma’s motive in gaining possession of the dragon balls is not power over the universe but aesthetics and personal vanity. Anime has a great following among adults and children, and this movie plays up every Super Saiyan power that can be visualized on screen with distinctive fight scenes suffused with vibrant colors, exaggerated movements, and hyped-up sounds and expressions 
The movie is from beginning to end, battle scenes—glorified, alluring, and interjected with some humor. That is the nature of anime, and to say that the director should have made it otherwise would be to strip it of its own genre. But lest it be overlooked, the movie requires parental guidance when children are in the theater, which is not unlikely because Dragon Ball appeals to the young. There are. of course, some good messages. For one, we see how Broly’s potentials are laid to waste because he was brought up in an environment of hatred and fighting. His father manipulated him. Frieza is a cruel leader whose insecurities propel him to further acts of violence. But good is good, and cannot be extinguished. Goku reaches out to Broly after their showdown. Broly has episodes of tenderness and madness. These are allegories of life that lay hidden in the mesmerizing world of anime. And, unless viewed with a careful eye, they can seep into our consciousness as norms, especially among the young.MOE 



Friday, February 1, 2019

Sakaling Maging Tayo


DIRECTOR: J.P. Habac
STARRING: McCoy De Leon, Elisse Joson, Bembol Roco, Chai Fonacier Paulo Angeles, Milo Elmido Jr.
COUNTRY:  Philippines
LANGUAGE: Filipino
RUNNING TIME: 90 minutes
Technical Assessment: 3
Moral Assessment: 3.5
Cinema Rating: A14
MTRCB Rating: PG
Magkaeskuwela sila Pol (McCoy De Leon) at Laya (Elisse Joson) sa isang pamantasan sa Baguio ngunit hindi sila magkakilala. Nang minsang masilayan ni Pol si Laya, napahanga na siya agad dito. Pero dahil sadyang torpe, hindi nagka-lakas loob si Pol na magpakilala kaya’t naging pawang ligaw-tingin lang siya kay Laya mula sa malayo. Magtatagpo ang kanilang landas isang gabi sa isang bar—si Pol na gumigimik lang at nanonood ng music festival at si Laya na may mabigat na dinadalang problema at desidido nang bumalik ng Maynila.  Sa pagtatagpong yun, magsisimula ang isang makabuluhang pagkakaibigan sa pagitan nilang dalawa at ang posibilidad na ma-in-love sila sa isa’t-isa.
Payak ang kuwento maging ang pagkakagawa ng Sakaling Maging Tayo ngunit hitik  ito sa damdamin at sinseridad. Walang histerya, walang sigawan, sampalan o mabibigat na eksena pero sinalamin nito ang saloobin ng mga kabataan ukol sa maraming bagay na bumabagabag sa kanila. Maayos ang pagkaka-direhe at mahusay ang mga nagsiganap. Nababagay silang lahat sa kanilang karakter na ginampanan—pawang hindi mukhang umaarte lang ang mga tauhan at napakagaan nilang panoorin. Ang Baguio bilang kalugaran ng kuwento ay umakma rin sa daloy ng kuwento—banayad at tahimik. Hindi man nakapag-paiyak ang pelikula, nakapagpukaw naman ito ng ilang mahalagang usapin ukol sa kabataan at pag-ibig.
Mariing ipinakita sa pelikula kung ano ang ibinubunga ng kapusukan at maling desisyon. Ngunit mas mariin pa rito ang pagsasabing hindi pa huli ang lahat upang magdesisyon nang tama—at sa bawat pagkakamali, pinakamahalaga ang may matutunan dito. Nagsusumigaw sa pelikula ang aral na ito nang walang halong panenermon at panghuhusga. Patunay na ang paggawa ng mali ay isa na talagang kaparusahan kung kaya’t nararapat maging bukas sa pagsisisi at pagbabago. Si Pol ay isang mabuting halimbawa lalo na sa mga kabataang lalaki. Angat siya sa karaniwan—dalisay at mapagmahal bilang anak at kaibigan, at maging bilang mangingibig. Si Laya bagama’t nagkamali ay kapuri-puri pa rin sa pagpupursigeng magbago at ituwid ang kanyang mali. May takot sa kahihinatnan ngunit hindi takot ituwid ang landas. Nababagay sa kanyang karakter ang kanyang pangalan—pinili niyang maging malaya sa isang mapang-abusong relasyon at malaya sa mga maling desisyon, pagkat ang pagbibigay ng lahat-lahat para sa minamahal ay hindi parating tama.  Ang dapat ay ang pagmamahal sa sarili at pagsasaalang-alang sa kinabukasan. Higit sa lahat, maging maingat sa pagpili—at parating piliin kung ano ang tama.  Hindi ito magiging madali, ngunit ito ang makapagbibigay ng kapayapaan ng isip at damdamin—at sa bandang huli ng sakripisyo ay ang mga tunay na biyaya. Walang maseselang eksensa sa pelikula ngunit usaping pag-ibig at sekswal ang pinaka-buod nito na tinalakay sa disenteng paraan—bagay na dapat maituro sa kabataan 14-gulang pataas upang sila ay magabayan sa kanilang magiging desisyon sa buhay.—RPJ
   

                                                             

Thursday, January 31, 2019

The Kid Who Would be King



DIRECTOR:  JOE CORNISH
LEAD CAST:  LOUIS ASHBORN SERKIS, DEAN CHOUMOO, REBECCA FERGUSON,
PATRICK STEWART, TOM TAYLOR, RHIANNA DORIS, ANGUS IMRIE;  SCREENWRITER: JOE CORNISH;  PRODUCER:  NIRA PARK, TIM BEVAN, ERIC FELLINER;  EDITOR:  JONATHAN AMOS, PAUL MACHLISS;  MUSICAL DIRECTOR:   ELECTRIC WAVE BUREAU;  GENRE: FANTASY ADVENTURE;  CINEMATOGRAPHER: BILL POPE;  DISTRIBUTOR:  20TH CENTURY FOX;  LOCATION:  UNITED KINGDOM;  RUNNING TIME:    120 minutes
Technical assessment:  3
Moral assessment:  4
CINEMA rating:  V13
Twelve-year-old Alex (Louis Ashbourne Serkis) and his best friend Bedders (Dean Chaumoo) are picked on everyday by school bullies.  One day as the two boys are pursued in an abandoned building, they fall over an open space and land near a rock where an ancient-looking sword is… well, planted.  They can’t believe the sword is what it seems, but it is—King Arthur’s legendary sword, the Excalibur.  And so Alex draws the sword out of the stone, thereby unleashing Morgana (Rebecca Ferguson), the evil sorceress of the Arthurian era, who now wants to destroy the world.  But Merlin (Patrick Stewart) soon enters the picture in the new-kid-in-school form, and the plot thickens.
Opening the film is a colorful animation of something that happened “Once upon a time”—about a king called Arthur, who united his kingdom with his Knights of the Round Table and whose famous sword, Excalibur, was caught in a vast rock.  The sword could be drawn out solely by an authentic descendant of Arthur.  Who would have thought that the celebrated sword would wind up in 21st Century US of A?  That the underdogs in The Kid Who Would be King would turn out to be the chosen ones in this sword-centered contemporary adventure fantasy clearly says this movie is made for boys their age.  And maybe subteen girls who wish to find superhero boyfriends.
The appreciation of The Kid Who Would Be King depends on the maturity of one watching it.  The story has more layers than an onion and is heavy with symbolism.  To the very young it is obviously a good-vs-evil thing and we know very well which should win.  But to the more experienced, the battle is not simply between Team A and Team B.  The message is that one triumphs over evil when one succeeds in battling the dark forces within oneself, the demons of fear, self-doubt, insecurity.  When one remains in sin—in darkness, not in light—evil inevitably wins.  (Morgana waits for darkness to strike).  However young people may view it, the film is empowering in that it gives hope—lest we throw in a spoiler, just watch what happens to the bullies.—TRT