Films. Together. Strong.

Conditions: Back to the Grind

Film Review: Ghost in the Shell

After doing some research I found out that Ghost in the Shell apparently wasn't actually inspired by the movie RoboCop. And that's a little bit of a surprise, because they have got a lot in common. RoboCop of course tells the story of Alex Murphy, a cop who gets fatally injured on duty, but is then transformed by a corporation into a mechanical policeman. Ghost in the Shell also features someone who is fatally injured and is transferred into a mechanical exoskeleton. Both movies go on to deal with the person in general trying to remember who they were before they were turned into Frankenstein's monster. Where they differ is how each character resolve their origins.  RoboCop realises that the forces that created him also want to control him.  The major in Ghost in the Shell realises that the forces that created her also lied to her.

As revelations go, it's not a huge one.  Deception seems to be the name of the game in the dystopian future the film is set in.  There's some kind of master hacker criminal who is attacking the system and the Major seems to have a connection to him.  Lots of action sequences in strange rainy alleyways draw us into a kind of obvious mystery.

Eventually we are told the dangerous hacker was a previous experiment carried out by the government, but he realised what the government had done and escaped.  He's trying to wake everyone up, starting with the Major.  There's a truth regarding how she came to be turned into a robot, and who she was before and eventually, like Robocop before her, the government turns against her too.  You can see what the movie is reaching for, but ultimately it seems a little too simple, a little too shallow for it's own good.  I mean, it looks great, and Johannson is convincing as the lost robot, but where's the actual drama here?  It seems more like a missed opportunity.  Two dead cops out of five.


Film Review: War for the Planet of the Apes

Just as we begin to lament about the non stop flood of children's movies and comic book movies, here amongst the deck is an honest to goodness masterpiece, just sitting there.  The re-imagined Planet of the Apes saga has delivered some exceptional stuff, and the conclusion of the Caesar story is both amazing and sad.  Who would have thought when this all started out that the sequels could deliver something like this?  After the events of the last film the humans are now at war with the apes, and the start of this film shows us snippets of that war.  Caesar suffers a great loss at the hands of Colonel Woody Harrelson, the designated bad guy, and leaves his tribe to seek revenge.  Haunted by memories of how hatred consumed Koba, he fears losing himself the same way, and so do his friends who come along.

Something of a road trip happens, with these characters we've come to know.  They discover a young girl who is affected with a new disease, that takes away people's ability to talk.  They find a new ally, an ape who has learned to talk at a different facility, so really the pieces are coming together to make this a true Planet of the Apes.  But, Colonel Woody has the upper hand - he found and interred the entire ape clan after Caesar and co had left them, they're all kept in cages at night and by day he and his army force them to build a gigantic wall.  But the wall isn't about holding back the apes, oh no.  The wall is to defend against his fellow humans.  What's left of the human armed forces is starting to splinter and crack.  They've declared the Colonel insane and have sent forces to take him and his army down.  Caesar finds himself trying to save his people while sandwiched between two converging armies.

This film is a powerful and gripping war film.  It exhibits the best aspects of big budget Hollywood spectacle while still holding tight to character and drama being the driving force of the story.  It's amazing something like this could be made, and even more amazing that the key characters are apes.  It's a moving and exceptional spectacle, and a fitting end to the trilogy of films about Caesar and the Planet of the Apes.  Five hand gestures out of five.

- Peace out