Betty Gilpin – Movies of the Soul

Vampire Owl: The vampires haven’t been into the hunt much these days.

Vampire Bat: Well, only the werewolves hunt now, as we have outlawed the same.

Vampire Owl: The law hasn’t really been officially passed yet.

Vampire Bat: There is nothing official about the laws these days.

Vampire Owl: You mean to say that the bats no longer hunt either.

Vampire Bat: Yes, it has been brought to a halt with the spread of COVID-19.

Vampire Owl: You mean to say that we are also afraid of viruses now.

Vampire Bat: Yes, only the ones passed on by humans, not the one’s from bats.

Vampire Owl: I am pretty sure that the humans created their own viruses.

Vampire Bat: They have been doing everything harmful to their own people and planet, which is why we should close the connection portal with their world forever.

[Gets a vancho cake and three cups of masala tea].

What is the movie about? :: Athena Stone (Hilary Swank) is going through a group text about something grand which is supposed to happen soon, and it is referred to as “the hunt”, even though they had agreed not to text about it. Everyone in the group seems to be excited about it, but won’t talk about this one particular thing. Later, another one of the texters is on an airplane, and they find a man coming out of nowhere, and everyone in the flight panics, saying that he was not supposed to wake up so early. He is then attacked, and after losing a lot of blood and an eye, he is thrown back to an area where others are also kept sedated. Soon, eleven people wake up gagged in a forest. They find a large wooden box in the middle of an open area with weapons and the keys. Soon, some people start shooting at them, and as some of them die too soon, the others are supposed to try and survive this event of being hunted with advanced weapons by strangers.

So, what happens with the events here? :: Three captives somehow manage to escape over a barbed-wire fence to what seems to be part of normal civilization. They get into a service station, only to find out that it is run by people who are part of the hunt, and after poisoning the first person who tries to have food from there, this particular elderly people gets rid of others with guns and grenades. The couple enjoys the killings, and calling themselves elite, hopes to get rid of these people who were kidnapped and put in there. The next one to arrive is an army veteran, Crystal Creasey (Betty Gilpin) who has a conversation with the couple, finds out that they are lying about almost everything, and that they are all part of the plan. She also finds out that despite what they are trying to make them believe, they are not in the American state of Arkansas, but in Croatia, and there are traps set everywhere to make sure that they die, even if they are not taken out by attackers.

And what else is to follow with this strange hunt? :: Everything seems to go deeper than what is seen on the outside. Then, she comes up against another survivor, Gary (Ethan Suplee) who has a grand theory related to all of these, with some rich liberals trying to hunt the commoners for entertainment. He is very much focused on the same, but Crystal is not bothered about the same, and is focused only on surviving, as this does reminds her of some of her past. They also get in a train, and it also has some refugees – they find out that one of those refugees is a crisis actor, and others are real refugees. Gary ends up blowing him up with a grenade and is later killed. At the same time, Crystal ends up with the soldiers who don’t know what is going on, and she meets Don (Wayne Duvall) from the original eleven who was repeating the story which she was also narrating. But the soldiers do have problems believing them, and they understand that there might be hunters in between real people. Can they escape from all this trouble or meet their doom?

The defence of The Hunt :: Betty Gilpin is the biggest asset of this film, and this is the first time I am seeing her – she does make a perfect choice in an action film, maybe she will make it as a scream queen of horror consistently too, especially in slashers. The movie here is really good, and with its thrills and action sequences, continue to score throughout its run. There is a lot of action happening around here, and the fight scenes are really good, especially the final fights, not just in the manor, but also before that. The idea that the film actually makes fun of people on not just one side, for both the liberals and the right wing people are part of the humour. The film has some serious gory stuff going on at all times, but it is also a funny one along with all the action and thrills that go on. The atmosphere set for this one is nice, and there are some fine visuals to go with it. With the twists and turns in there and with expectations of the unexpected, The Hunt makes things happen, and it is efficient in doing the same.

Positives and negatives :: Hilary Swank is excellent as we already know she would be, but she is there only a few minutes. We would have expected her to stay throughout the film, but unfortunately, that is not the case, and the same is about Emma Roberts, who has almost no screen space around here, getting killed too early. The idea of using the funny side more than the darker side might not appeal to everyone either. The idea of revenge also gets a shock with the tale of the tortoise and the hare being told in a different way, with all the gore that is a feature of this film. There are many shades being explored in this film, and the way the leading character tells that tale, is nothing less than amazing in a very creepy manner. There seems to be many different messages that run through the film, and it also provides us with the choice to take any among them. The journey here is great, and we only wish that it didn’t end in an hour and half which is too less for this film, and it surely requires a sequel that explores similar elements again.

How it finishes :: The film also has references to George Orwell’s Animal Farm, and it has some fine dialogues, both monologues and one-liners which we can remember. There are so many creepy moments in here, and with its twists and turns, as well as the action, it has us interested in every second of its short, one and half hours run. In the beginning, you might feel that this could be like The Hunger Games and the German film, Breakdown Forest – yet, very soon, you will know that this is entirely different, and the innovation that it uses to skip away from the usual stuff also needs to be appreciated. The Hunt knows what it is doing, and with its realization of the possibilities of the same, a seemingly usual kind of premise is developed into something divergent, with class. With a lady lead that suits perfectly in here, there is a lot more to this film than what is seen in the trailer. If this was not affected by the first wave of pandemic, there was scope for more popularity, for sure.

Release date: 13th March 2020
Running time: 91 minutes
Directed by: Craig Zobel
Starring: Betty Gilpin, Emma Roberts, Hilary Swank, Ike Barinholtz, Wayne Duvall, Ethan Suplee, Sturgill Simpson, Chris Berry, Amy Madigan, Kate Nowlin, Reed Birney, Glenn Howerton, Sylvia Grace, Justin Hartley, Jason Kirkpatrick, Walker Babington, Macon Blair, Teri Wyble, Usman Ally, JC MacKenzie, Steve Coulter, Dean West, Vince Pisani, Steve Mokate, Hannah Alline, Tadasay Young, Jim Klock

<— Click here to go to the previous review.

*** This is not to be confused with Haunt.

@ Cemetery Watch
✠ The Vampire Bat.

What is the movie about? :: From a distant future of war and destruction, we come back to December 2022, as a biology teacher and Iraq War veteran, Dan Forester (Chris Pratt), is highly disappointed during the Christmas season, as he fails in his dream, which was to get a job at a research center. As he watched the FIFA World Cup with his family at a Christmas party, he was shocked to see a few soldiers from thirty years into future arrive in the middle of the ground. They warn everyone that humanity is facing extinction while facing a group of aliens unless they get some help for this timeline. The world’s militaries respond with drafting, and a huge number of well-trained people are sent into the future, but less than 20% survive, and there is always the need for more people to be sent to future. There are lots of rebellions against the war, because people feel that they are going to die anyway, and there is no need to finish one’s life much earlier. Everyone is depressed because there is the clear idea that it is the alien group that is going to win in the end, and there is no real hope related to that.

And what more is to follow? :: As the hope remains low, there is not much that there is left to be done, but the drafting goes on, and Dan is also chosen to fight in the war of the future. His family is not happy with what has happened, and his wife Emmy Forester (Betty Gilpin) hopes that he can find a way to bypass the drafting with the help of his father James Forester (JK Simmons), a former veteran soldier who has turned an anti-government activist after the Vietnam War. But he has to go anyway, and joins the team which is undergoing basic training under the troops from the future. But there is an emergency as there is an attack going on in the future, and without any further training which was to last about seven days, they are sent forward in time to Miami Beach but the coordinates get messed up, with most of the members of the team dying. Soon, they are ordered by Colonel Forester (Yvonne Strahovski) to rescue the nearby lab personnel and recover their research data before the area is bombed for clearance from alien infestation.

So, what happens with the events here? :: The team does manage to complete the mission, and they barely escape from the situation. Charlie (Sam Richardson), a techie, and Dorian (Edwin Hodge), a third time traveler into the future are the two survivors who are able to make it to the camp. Now, there is a lot to be done in a future, which seems to point towards human extinction, and the alien control over the planet one way or the other. In the new world of the future, they have to capture a female alien, and the types are rarer than the males which are basically everywhere. As they are living in a future where there are not many safe areas, with most of the continents already infested by the creatures which have reproduced enough to limit the human activity to certain areas, a research into causing the aliens to go extinct instead of humanity is a near possible adventure. The question also remains if there is a future that they can save, and if all these are worth the pain which they take.

The defence of The Tomorrow War :: There is an interesting future in store within The Tomorrow War, as this film with both aliens and time travel have you interested in the science fiction elements yet again. This is a combination which has worked really well before, with films like Edge of Tomorrow, working so well with the audience – being in a tomorrow with a war going on against aliens is a fair deal as far as any sci-fi fan is concerned. There is a lot of action in store here, and the alien detail is nice, even though having similarities with the Alien franchise which we have been missing since Prometheus and Alien Covenant, two films which had us asking for more. The visuals of the future Earth is also very nicely detailed, and the destroyed cities make us want to have more battles with aliens out there. The post-apocalyptic side of the film remains strong, thanks to all the action and the special effects, with the visuals never ceasing to remain stunning. This one can also have a prequel about the coming of the aliens, and maybe bring a franchise into motion.

Positives and negatives :: This is the kind of film which could have scenes which the Russian movie The Blackout had in its early stages, and that particular flick’s first half could actually be one interesting prequel to this one, with connections being made to the colder areas of Russia. There was surely scope for more terrifying sequences with aliens. To add to it, the pseudo-intellectuals can always find a reason to blame this film, but I am yet to discover what exactly would be their reason this time, for they have all randomly bashed Hollywood action films which were nothing less than grand. After all, it is not easy to make a film like this, and if Bollywood would try anything close, they can do nothing else than mess it up completely, with a long line of cast which is there in the name of nepotism instead of skills and quality. There are a few things which can be predicted here, and some of them come naturally to us, and not as surprises. There could have also been a few sequences about the missing years of alien attack, and a clearly defined theory about what has happened with the aliens.

Performers of the soul :: Chris Pratt whom we had last seen in Avengers: Endgame and Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom gets to save the world again, and this time against the aliens. We could be having another Guardians of the Galaxy or Jurassic World in his usual roles, but this one has indeed established another memorable action role for him. Yvonne Strahovski is very much suitable to action flicks and thrillers, as we have seen before with The Predator, I, Frankenstein and Angel of Mine. But her presence in the future feels kind of restricted. Betty Gilpin has very less to do in comparison. JK Simmons has some nice moments to be added in the end. Others like Edwin Hodge and Sam Richardson are good additions to this kind of a movie. Others like Mary Lynn Rajskub, and and Seychelle Gabriel also have limited presence, but one would want them to have extended roles to play here. The film could have expanded rather than keeping its focus into the personal side in an alien invasion situation which is moving towards human extinction as well as the end of the world as we know it.

How it finishes :: The Tomorrow War will remind the audience of Edge of Tomorrow, even though the core idea remains different, and the film lacks someone like Emily Blunt in its full run. There is no denial of the fact that the film is complete entertainment, and you don’t really need to listen to some self-proclaimed great critics who write for some newspapers – they are more interested in providing lower reviews to science fiction in comparison to Bollywood nonsense as most of them are not able to understand the idea or enjoy the grandeur on the screen. You can only guess who impressive this would have been on the big screen, if not for the COVID-19 pandemic. These are the kind of films which can stun us with what is displayed on the screen with the special effects and maybe even a little bit of 3D effects. As of now, it seems that it is better for us to remember that feeling and enjoy the film on a laptop with Amazon Prime Video. After all, we are all restricted in that case, but not restricted as far as enjoying action-packed science fiction is concerned.

Release date: 2nd July 2021 (Amazon Prime)
Running time: 139 minutes
Directed by: Chris McKay
Starring: Chris Pratt, Yvonne Strahovski, Betty Gilpin, JK Simmons, Sam Richardson, Edwin Hodge, Jasmine Mathews, Ryan Kiera Armstrong, Keith Powers