Pacific Rim: Uprising (2018)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2018
	Director: Steven S. DeKnight
	Actors: John Boyega (Star Wars 7-8), Scott Eastwood, Cailee Spaeny
	Country: USA, CN
	Genre: Action, SF
	Conditions of visioning: 24.03.2018, cinema Hoys Antofagasta
Synopsis: After having defeated the giant Kaiju monsters, some believe that this is not the end and prepare for whatever may come.
Review: In the first Pacific Rim directed by Guillermo del Toro I loved the robots and monsters, the choreography of the battles and the music. The Mexican director is not at the wheel on this one but is credited as producer and visual consultant, maybe to help ensuring a good continuity with his movie. I find this sequel to be a good one in fact, delivering just what one was expecting to see: more robots, monsters, heroism, battles destroying cities, aerial shots... but it doesn't fall in the trap of getting everything bigger and louder like in the Transformers saga for example. The movie could be said to follow a similar structure as the first one, but that's exactly what we liked and what we want more of! As the surprise effect has passed, I was not so much in awe when watching the battles this time around, but I still enjoyed them a great deal. The main theme, remixed from the original, doesn't work as well. I found the story less cheesy although the character of Amara Namani (Spaeny) is quite useless (but not as much as a similar one in Transformers 4: Age of Extinction) and a pseudo-romance shared by the two main characters leads to nothing. That's what you get when trying to squeeze mandatory female characters in a robot buddy movie for a male audience. John Boyega is so much more at ease (and fitting) in that role than as Finn in Star Wars: The Force Awakens. And oh what a great idea to have the climax take place in (spoiler, highlight to read) Mount Fuji and Tokyo, Japan, birthplace of the Kaiju culture, even thought the logic leading there doesn't make one once of sense. Not a masterpiece but that's a movie I will enjoy watching every time in the future, maybe even more than the original as it is less trying to build emotions.
Rating: 6 /10

Midnight Special (2016)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2016
	Director: Jeff Nichols
	Actors:  Michael Shannon (Man of Steel, The Shape of Water), Joel Edgerton (Bright), Kirsten Dunst (The Virgin Suicides, Spider-Man 1-3), Adam Driver (Star Wars 7-8)
	Country: USA
	Genre: Drama, Fantasy
	Conditions of visioning: 15.03.2018, in-flight entertainment, 10" tablet screen
Synopsis: A father and son go on the run, pursued by the government and a cult drawn to the child's special powers.
Review: I did not expect much from that movie, but it surprised me and turned out to be pretty good. One thing I love is that it may take place nowadays, it has a nice 80's look thanks to its setting in the USA south-midwest (not big modern cities) that time seems to have passed by. The same goes for the characters: clothes, look (mustache forever), behavior... The religious cult reminds of a Stephen King story like The Mist. Then as I wrote for example about Mercury Rising, a story with a child is always more touching and the threats feel more important. The kid is well played by Jaeden Lieberher and the other actors surrounding him are all very good and convincing. And the simple story keeps on surprising until the very end. A nice fantastic movie that comes highly recommended.
Rating: 8 /10

Sense8 - Season 1 (2015)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2015
	Creators:  J. Michael Straczynski, Lana & Lilly Wachowski (The Matrix 1-3, Cloud Atlas, Speed Racer)
	Actors: Doona Bae (Cloud Atlas), Jamie Clayton, Tina Desai
	Country: USA
	Genre: Drama, Thriller, Fantasy
	Conditions of visioning: March 2018, VOD, 10" tablet screen
Synopsis: Eight people around the world get their minds connected when a woman spiritually gives birth to their cluster.
Review: For a while I have been eager to watch this TV-series brought to us by the revolutionary directors of The Matrix and its sequels, Speed Racer and Cloud Atlas (and the forgettable Jupiter Ascending). It promised an original take at the "super-hero" Fantasy TV-series, and I found that it delivered. But contrarily to the more SF/Fantasy tone I was expecting, the series has a strong emphasis on characters, Drama and Thriller, which is also OK. The spiritual connection of the eight characters is often used to help them solve problems in their life rather than to unite them against a common enemy like other such stories would do (i.e. The Defenders). And they do have problems in their lives, so much that one could criticize from the series that none of the characters have a "normal" life, I mean that they don't fit in 99% of the Earth population as they all have rather conflicting lives and face Death from up close at some point or another. Death is in fact a strong theme is the series which gives it a very dark tone more often than not. On top of those individual struggles there is in fact a common enemy, whose defense against brings the characters closer. I found the series quite slow but as I say that for most TV-series don't take my word for it. I have computed that with eight characters there is room for 27 one-on-one introductions which participates to the slow pace. In that season we cover maybe half of those encounters and some are stronger and more significant than others. I have the feeling that the Wachowskis have used a lot the experience of Cloud Atlas to edit seemingly scenes occurring at various corner of the globe (vs. occurring in different time periods). Apart from the out-of-the-ordinary lives of the characters, the series is very realistic, and it is pretty obvious that the Wachowskis have brought a heavy personal luggage to the story via a character working in the cinema world, one fan of Jean-Clause Van Damme (ahah I love that), other explicit references to Conan the Barbarian including movie extracts and quotes (I love that even more!), and the use of the song Mad World from the soundtrack of Donnie Darko, I don't know if intentionally. But the most obvious contribution is the transsexual homosexual character (the Wachowskis used to be brothers and are now sisters!). Another male is also gay, and sexuality is another strong theme in the series.  The actors are all pretty good. Of the main eight I knew only Doona Bae from Cloud Atlas, and I noticed small contributions by Darryl Hannah (Kill Bill) and Joe Pantoliano (The Matrix, Memento). I am not sure I will continue with the second season right now but may do it in the future.
Rating: 6 /10

The Toys that made Us - Season 1 (2017)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2017
	Director: Tom Stern
	Actors: Donald Ian Black, Mark Bellomo, David Vonner
	Country: USA
	Genre: Documentary
	Conditions of visioning: January 2018, VOD, 10" tablet screen
Synopsis: The history of the success of famous toy lines, and anecdotes behind those.
Review: An attractive concept for a Documentary TV-series, or at least for the geeks among us that look at the period around the 1980's with nostalgia. The series not only enumerates anecdote about the success of those toy lines, but what I found most interesting is that it replaces their success in the context of the period: political, social, economical, fashion... And explains clearly why it worked at that time, and you can deduce that it couldn't have worked under other circumstances. The first episode Star Wars feels a bit apart, as the toys were more a by-product of the movie's huge success. It is also less advertised (see poster above) maybe because of some image rights, or just not to over-shadow the other episodes. Anyway, the chaotic journey of those toy makers is fascinating and very funny at times. The Barbie episode taught me that it really was the first toy for girls, which explained its huge success. The He-Man collection seemed to have filled a gap that all boys needed (have more power) and G.I.Joe is the male pendant of Barbie for boys who also wish to dress-up their toys, in addition surfing on the wave of patriotism always a safe bet in the USA. Indeed I find that the series, as the toy lines, probably means more for an American audience that witnessed the arrival of those toys and the associated advertising at the time. In Europe the diluted wave arrived later and had less impact. Moreover at that time nobody I knew was able to afford those expensive toys so the trend just passed me by. So for me the Documentary doesn't bring much nostalgia, and I saw it more as an interesting piece of American pop culture history. I will review the second part of this first season when its episodes are released: LEGO, Transformers, Hello Kitty, and Star Trek. And a second season has been ordered.
Rating: 6 /10

The Punisher - Season 1 (2017)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2017
	Creator: Steve Lightfoot
	Actors: Jon Bernthal (Fury, Baby Driver, Daredevil TV-series), Amber Rose Revah, Ebon Moss-Bachrach
	Country: USA
	Genre: Action, Thriller
	Conditions of visioning: January 2018, VOD, 11" tablet screen.
Synopsis: Frank Caste a.k.a. the Punisher faked his death to better track the ones responsible for his family's murder.
Review: The most recent TV-series in the Marvel Universe. We were first introduced to the Punisher in the second season of Daredevil in which I liked him even though he suffers the comparison with the 1989 cinema version of The Punisher with Dolph Lundgren. Jon Bernthal plays a Frack Castle driven by the two things that apparently made him who he is: his military training and the traumatic murder of his wife and kids. And he can't do anything else than ruminate his whole life about those two things. That makes him a very straightforward and somehow predictable character: he is going to find and kill the responsibles for his trauma using the skills he learned and what he knows best to do. He is accompanied by a "side-kick" that took three slow episodes to introduce and build a relationship with (that bored me a little). We also get to see two of his former brothers-in-arms, a female FBI agent with her own agenda that becomes linked to Castle, and apparitions of the now journalist Karen Page (also seen in Daredevil and the Defenders) with whom he has a special relationship. I found the series rather slow, and regretted that it doesn't include any SF, Fantasy or reference to other Marvel products, although it is supposed to take place in a world much different from our own (the one of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. for example). The show is slow but keeps you awake with a few twists but more importantly a brutal bloody violence that I found to be too much and often not justified. I watched it to the end for completion but realized the character of the Punisher maybe didn't deserve a full series at his name.
Rating: 3 /10

The Shape of water (2017)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2017
	Director: Guillermo del Toro
	Actors: Sally Hawkins, Michael Shannon, Octavia Spencer, Michael Stuhlbarg
	Country: USA
	Genre: Romance, Thriller
	Conditions of visioning: 12.02.2018, Schauburg, OV Sneak Preview, English/Russian with German subtitle
Synopsis: In the hidden high-security government laboratory where she works, lonely Elisa (Hawkins) is trapped in a life of isolation. Elisa's life is changed forever when she and co-worker Zelda (Spencer) discover a secret classified experiment. The security officer Richard Strickland (Shannon) takes care that the experiment is not discovered. While Dr Robert Hoffstetler (Stuhlbarg) is the scientist who wants to take care about the experiment.
Review: Because I love some works by Guillermo del Toro such as Pacific Rim and Pan's labyrinth, I had to watch this new creation. In order not to expect too much, I did not read anything about it. Which surprise when the movie starts with the arrival of a monster. Ok Del Toro likes monsters, so this was anyway to expect. Then the encounter of Sally Hawkins with the monster and her fascination for it looks like the fascination of the child for the faun in Pan's labyrinth. The story is rather a sequence of nice scenes. Either for the visuals (e.g. the first scene, the bathroom full of water), for the image composition (e.g. two women in the corridor, Strickland´s office) or for the combination of sound and image (e.g. the eggs given by Elisa). The fact of having the main character mute helps a lot not only for the relationship to the monster but also to the viewer as she needs to communicate and to keep the attention. Her communication is slow and sure.  The acting of Michael Shannon is great. Sally Hawkins is unusual as she uses to speak a lot. Her body language, especially of her hands is very good. I do not know whether it is a side effect of learning the sign language but it looks great.
Rating: 6 /10

Call me by your name (2017)

	Also Known As: Llámame por tu nombre
	Year of first release: 2017
	Director: Luca Guadagnino
	Actors: Timothée Chalamet, Armie Hammer, Michael Stuhlbarg, Amira Casar, Esther Garrel
	Country: I, F, BR, USA
	Genre: Romance, Drama
	Conditions of visioning: 26.02.2018, Schauburg, OV Sneak Preview, English/Italian/French version with German subtitle
Synopsis: In summer 1983 in the north of Italy, Elio Perlman (Chalamet) spends his days in his family's 17th century villa transcribing and playing classical music, reading, and flirting with his friend Marzia (Garrel). Elio enjoys a close relationship with his father (Stuhlbarg), an eminent professor specializing in Greco-Roman culture, and his mother Annella (Casar), a translator, who favor him with the fruits of high culture in a setting that overflows with natural delights. While Elio's sophistication and intellectual gifts suggest he is already a fully-fledged adult, there is much that yet remains innocent and unformed about him. One day arrives Oliver (Armie Hammer), a 24-year-old American college graduate student working for his father as research assistant, that everyone seem to like.
Review: The intellectual atmosphere gives some charm to the story. On the other side it seems to set a distance between the intellectual family and Oliver and the rest of the people who are just there around, that is a rather arrogant perspective. Possibly the book is more balanced and less arrogant.  The intellectual lifestyle and the lascivious double meaning of words, music and behaviours are delightful for instance the dialogues about the statue recovered from the lake. The atmosphere of lazy holidays full of intellectual activities (reading books, talking about music, talking about history) and of idyllic spots (secret bath spot of Elio, garden, empty village with kiosk) is given all along the movie. There are some evolutions typical of a coming-of-age story but suggested with originality for instance the peaches and apricots seen as symbol of holidays and lazyness and then of lust. The extremely open minded parents are there like mentors for Elio and may match with the end of 70s beginning of 80s. The way Elio tries out his sexuality (SPOILER with both Marzia and Oliver) and discovers love for the first time is acted very authentically. Esther Garrel has a small role but acts also very naturally. She does not neglect the scenes with no dialogue in which her look and gesture provide her thoughts and emotions.  Luca Guadagnino is already planning a sequel! I would rather recommend to enjoy this romance even if its elitist flair can annoy a lot.
Rating: 6 /10

The Florida project (2017)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2017
	Director: Sean Baker
	Actors: Brooklynn Prince, Brina Vinaite, Willem Dafoe, Aiden Malik, Valeria Cotto
	Country: USA
	Genre: Drama
	Conditions of visioning: 19.02.2018, Schauburg, OV Sneak Preview, English with German subtitle
Synopsis: Halley (Vinaite) lives with her six year old daughter Moonee (Prince) in a budget motel along one of the commercial strips catering to the Walt Disney World tourist clientele outside Orlando, Florida. Halley, who survives largely on welfare, has little respect for people, especially those who cross her. She passed this attitude down to Moonee, who curses and gives the finger like her mother. Although the motel's policy is not to allow long term rentals, Bobby (Dafoe), the motel manager, has made arrangements for people like Halley to live there while not undermining the policy as he realizes that many such tenants have no place to go otherwise.
Review: Depending on the point of view one could believe the movie deals with the relation mother-daughter when the mother has no income or with the free childhood. Indeed Moonee spends most of her time running around the area with her friends, not making much more than jumping, talking to people around, annoying people for playing. On the other side, she spends also time with her mother that are rather moments of tenderness and experiencing adult life than of talking. Sometimes quite chocking but seems just strange from Moonee´s point of view, like when her mother has visitors paying for her services while Moonee is playing in the bathtub. This makes a different way of showing education as well. I found the story a bit boring as many scenes are just repeating. On the other side it is a kind of idealisation of the free childhood.  The major difficulty in this kind of movies is to have children and here they look as free and natural as in the old French movies such as Les 400 coups or La guerre des boutons (the 1962 version).  You can see two of the posters of the movie. One that we can consider focusing the movie on the relation mother-daughter. Another on the free childhood.
Rating: 6 /10 Poster for a movie focused on the childhood

Star Trek: Discovery - Season 1 (2017)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2017
	Creators: Bryan Fuller, Alex Kurtzman
	Actors: Sonequa Martin-Green, Doug Jones (Hellboy 1-2), Shazad Latif
	Country: USA
	Genre: SF
	Conditions of visioning: October 2017 - February 2018, VOD, 10" tablet screen
Synopsis: In a Future where Earth is leading the peaceful Federation of planets, The USS Discovery encounters hostile Klingons. The XO of the ship, Michael Burnham (Martin-Green), applies methods she has learned during her Vulcan upbringing to resolve the conflict.
Review: I am not much of a Trekkie, I had never watched a series of that Universe but I enjoyed the overview provided by the six movies with the original cast, the four with the cast of The Next Generation and the three of the latest reboot. Discovery seemed like a good opportunity to see what could be done nowadays with that franchise for a small screen, at times when it is not anymore alone on that market, having to suffer from comparisons with the unforgettable Battlestar Galactica or the more recent The Expanse for example. One cannot deny that the show looks good. The sets are vast and filled with details, many characters in costume and make-up, special effects, camera movement... And the story is quite rich. Too rich maybe, at least sometimes it feels so. The series tries to show everything that is expected from it: spaceships, heroes, enemies, war, parallel universes, alien species, connections to the other movies/series in the Universe, exploration of new worlds... Unfortunately I found that the latter, at the heart of the original Star Trek story, is here undermined to the benefit a sometimes too present character development. Indeed I liked the presence of veteran martial Arts star Michelle Yeoh, the character of Captain Gabriel Lorca (Jason Isaacs) and the connection with Sarek, Spock's father, but I have had a hard time liking the main character played by Sonequa Martin-Green which I found to be overplaying it., while not fully fitting in the Star Trek Universe. This may be purely personal but I don't like her. So the series may be expensive and expansive, I was not attracted by it. It didn't help that it was released episode by episode. Binge-watching a series you don't really like is easier than waiting weeks to at last see its resolution and fulfill a sense of completeness. To get more involved I also tried watching the associated show After Trek, gathering cast and crew after each episode to talk about it, but I found it far too self-gratifying and quickly stopped.
Rating: 3 /10