Ad Astra

I got to see this at the IMAX when my bike was getting serviced and it took longer than expected. I enjoyed it. The opening sequence is excellent, and introduces Brad Pitt as a cool-headed space-pilot. But he also has existential doubts, centred around his distant father, played by Tommy Lee Jones. TLJ is really good, and never once breaks into his manic cowboy act that I find rather annoying.

The film is slow and stately, but takes place in space so is still exciting. A bit like Space Odyssey or Gravity, but not Solaris which is still boring. It's also set in the future where space travel is relatively normal. Could it happen in our lifetime? Probably not.

I have a few qualms about the plotting, which seems un-necessarily contrived. There's really no reason for Brad to go to the moon on the way to Mars, except for us to have a good look at the moon and see some Space Pirates. I also don't know why later on the crew of the shuttle that he boards all decide to kill him. Space madness perhaps? And the whole thing could easily have been made without the plot-device cosmic surges.

Overall I thought this was elegant and interesting. Not quite Bladerunner 2049 but I'd watch it again, on an even bigger screen if possible.

Amazon Prime

During an accidental trial of Amazon Prime this is what I've watched, with ratings out of five:

• The Sick - 3
• Wonder Woman - 1
• The Acccountant - 4
• Handmaiden - 3
• Molly's Game - 2
• Lean on Pete - 3
• Safety not Guaranteed - 2
• John Wick 2 - 2
• Guernsey Literary & Potato Peel Society - 2
• The Post - 3
• The Boys (Series) - 5
• Model Minority - 4
• Margin Call - 4
• Basic - 2
• Inglorious Basterds - 3
• Chalet Girl - 2

Overall a pretty good bunch.

Once Upon a Time in Hollywood

I made a special trip to see this, but was slightly disappointed. I felt a bit like a child watching a film for adults, and not quite getting it. The main two characters were good, and there were some gripping scenes, but I found the overall narrative too slow and disjointed. Tarantino and other Americans might enjoy nostalgic flashbacks to old American TV but it means little to me. It felt like just when the story got going there was another ad break.

The most interesting bit was the connection with the Mansun family. Brad Pitt visits their creepy farm, and later hippy killers come to the house he's at. As far as I can tell this is just a coincidence.

Avengers: Endgame

[CONTAINS SPOILERS]

The last time I went to the cinema was to see the previous Avenger's film, which finishes with half the Universe disappearing. This one starts bravely with an extended period of grieving, a bold move for an action movie, then Ant-Man pops up with some chat about the quantum realm and they all go back in time to fix it.

Aside from my inevitable complaints about time travel (see later) it's an OK plot and the pacing is good. The film acknowledges that the magic stones are not worth much attention and instead focuses on the characters. The best of these is Thor, who is always enjoyable. Lots of the other superhero cameos are colourful but rather silly. I don't understand why The Incredible Hulk stays as the hulk other than for a rather poor joke about him not being angry before, and every time I see Thanos's stupid chin it reminds me I'm watching a child's film.

There's a decent attempt to try and explain the rules of time travel. Each time an event in the past is changed it creates a new timeline, leaving the original one unchanged. But by that logic I'm not sure how they actually do change their timeline and defeat Thanos. My other gripe is that when they bring back all the people who disappeared five years ago they come back at the age they were when they disappeared. That's going to be a bit confusing. And what about the people who've remarried and have a new family then their old wife comes back?

At three hours long and a late showing in 3D I was getting rather tired by the end. I'm sure I saw Loki steal a stone at some point and not give it back, presumably I had a little nap while that was going on.

Overall I found this a bit too much. It's a glut, a binge of colourful entertainment which will not stay with you long.

Avengers: Infinity War

This is the latest big-budget addition to the Marvel Franchise. There are loads of characters from other movies. It seems a bit strange seeing them together on the screen; like this should happen in fan-fic and not the actual movie.

The plot is suitably ridiculous, a giant bad guy wants to collect six stones to give him ultimate power. The only oddity is that rather than using this power to destroy the whole universe he wants to destroy exactly half of it. To the film's credit this idea - bad guys collects stones of power - is introduced early on and you can then accept it and move on.

The heroes repeatedly defeat his minions but fail to stop him gathering more stones, until the inevitable final battle. With so many characters there's a few sub-plots going on. My favourite was Dr. Strange, the worst was Vision. I don't think I'd ever get used to calling someone Vision. The film is a bit more self-knowing than the other ones, and Spider-Man in particular makes light of them being heroes.

The only emotional connection is that the big bad guy's daughter is one of the good guys, so he is conflicted about killing her. This relationship is the core of the film, and expect will be what fixes the odd ending in the inevitable sequel.

With the huge amount of CGI the danger does not seem at all real, and the constant action scenes are colourful rather than really exciting. But there's enough constantly going on to keep me entertained, and I certainly felt I was getting value for money. Even watching late at night it never dragged, and I'll probably watch the next one too.

Star Wars VIII - The Last Jedi

I saw this a week ago and quite enjoyed it. I can' remember it perfectly as over the festive period I've since watched Bad Company, Jack Reacher: Never Go Back and Spiderman: Homecoming.

But what I can remember is that the film has the standard Star Wars setup of rebels on the run against an enormous enemy. In that sense it particularly parallels the second film in the original trilogy, Empire Strikes Back, most obviously for the scenes on the salt planet, which look very similar to the ice planet Hoth.

There are also Jedi training scenes, but this time they are the other way round, as Luke is the master. And the training goes rather differently. In fact it is the presence of old Luke Skywalker that sets this film apart, and his progression is the most satisfactory.

There is also a recurring theme about the nature of hope, which at its worst consists of Leia repeatedly talking about hope, but at its best is the boy at the very end offering hope for the future, and perhaps a hint of what will come in the final chapter.

The humour is acceptable but not particularly funny, but I suppose audiences expect it now. I think if you're making a Star Wars film you should be aiming for the sort of thing other people want to parody, not parodying yourself (I'm thinking of the visual gag with the iron).

Perhaps because I saw the film at a late showing I found the pacing of the film slightly wrong, and there are two more acts than I expected. I'm all for long epic films, as long as they build up correctly and you don't think "Is it about to finish?" then it carries on for another half hour.

I need to watch this again, to see how it connects to the other films. It was enjoyable, but I think the off-shoot films (like Rogue One) might actually provide more hope to the Universe than Episode Nine.

Blade Runner 2049 - Danny's Review

Last night I watched the original Blade Runner. It's very atmospheric, there's no cheap special effects, and you feel for the characters. So I was a bit worried about the new version. If it was too ponderous then without the weight of history making it a classic it might just seem a bit slow and pretentious, and if it was too fast with too much CGI I would certainly dismiss it too.

The basic plot [SPOLIER ALERT] is that thirty years ago Deckard and his android wife Rachel gave birth to a child, the very first replicant baby. That baby has now grown up and everyone wants him. The Replicant underground want to rally round him as proof that replicants are More human than human and start a revolution. The Wallace Corporation (the new Tyrell Corporation) want him so they can figure out how it happened and make loads more replicant as slaves. And the police want him destroyed to prevent unrest. This all takes a long time to play out, with lots of large nearly empty orange rooms and spooky music.

The slowness is at times slightly irritating, but is mostly OK if you don't know what's going to happen so there's some tension. There's a big sag is in the middle where the hero (Ryan Gosling) goes to meet a woman who makes the artificial memories the replicants are given. There is some irrelevant and annoying CGI here with a birthday cake, only rescued by the thought that Harrison Ford's face was pretty big on the poster, and since he still hasn't turned up yet he must be arriving pretty soon.

When Ford does lumber onto screen there's some more CGI rubbish then him and Gosling finally team up, to reach a reasonably satisfying conclusion. There's a lot more plot than in the original film, which doesn't all seem to add up, but has plenty of depth and some interesting ideas on what it means to be human. I particularly like the deep affection Gosling has for his Virtual Reality girlfriend, only to realise that she's just programmed that way.

If the replicant army hasn't enslaved me I'll watch it again in 2049.