Keith Powers – Movies of the Soul

Vampire Owl: Are they calling vampires by new names now?

Vampire Bat: They are not even sure that we exist.

Vampire Owl: They are calling us these names without even knowing about our existence.

Vampire Bat: People can even hate non-existing entities.

Vampire Owl: Will that make sure that they exist?

Vampire Bat: Well, that depends on the final conclusion.

Vampire Owl: I am not letting them conclude about us.

Vampire Bat: Why do their conclusions matter to us? Are they hunting us?

Vampire Owl: Because they think and we exist?

Vampire Bat: Thoughts and existence are not co-existing around here.

[Gets a parippu vada and three cups of Munnar tea].

What is the movie about? :: Tally (Joey King) and Peris (Chase Stokes) are best friends in a post-apocalyptic world where future seems to offer not much divergence. It is shown that the world has fallen into the ultimate chaos after a group known as “Rusties” exhausted all natural resources and polluted its environment, leading to fight among themselves. To keep the remaining humanity alive, Earth’s best scientists created a set of genetically modified orchids which acted as the energy source without polluting the air or water. Humans who went through the worst and their descendants had to undergo a surgical procedure to enhance human beings in both appearance and fitness so that they could all look the same, with everyone beautiful, lovely and charming. The surgery is performed on humans who are called “Uglies” until then, and would turn them into the “Pretties”, letting them into the colourful area of the city where there are celebrations and only happiness, with no sad or grieving face ever seen.

So, what happens with the events here as we just keep looking? :: Tally and Peris are Uglies, but Peris would leave for his surgery first as he is older. He is excited about it as the batch is welcomed to a new world by the representatives of the new world. The two have scars on their hands, which they promise to keep despite the procedure means to make them perfect without even such a scar. They also promise to meet again and rekindle their friendship. But as she finds him again, she realizes that he is not really bothered about her, and had even broken the promise by getting the scar on the hand removed. This leaves Tally sad and depressed, but is forced to flee the area as she is chased by machines, but is helped by Shay (Brianne Tju) who has been planning to rebel against the government. Shay is hoping to travel to “The Smoke”, a land of freedom within nature based on a book written Henry David Thoreau, one of the last copies of those older books available during the time when not much has remained against chaos.

And what more is to follow as things get stranger and weird? :: Shay who becomes best friends with Tally, asks her to reject the surgery and remain what she really is. She believes that hope is in the outskirts of the city and only a man named David (Keith Powers) who leads the resistance against the government can lead them to hope and truth, and they will remain who they really are, not perfect, but as the right people. As Shay leaves Tally to find David in the outskirts of the city, Dr. Cable (Laverne Cox) hold the surgical procedure of Tally. She tells Tally that that David is a dangerous man who will hurt Shay, and is building a weapon to destroy the city and what remains of this perfect civilization. Cable feels that only Tally can find Shay as their friendship is very deep. She asks Tally to do something right now and save her new friend, and find herself becomes the perfect person among Pretties and rejoin with her former best friend. She wonders if this is the right thing to do, but as she cares for Shay and her own surgery, she would have to agree. But how far will she go to achieve her newly found objective?

The defence of Uglies :: The movie is led nicely by Joey King and Brianne Tju follows the same path really well. The themes remain very much clearly seen, from beauty standards to conforming to the laws and freedom as well as self-worth. The impact of technology on people is clearly seen and also its adverse effects on the environment. It reminds us that the future will never be bright, and that there will always be someone to control humanity. The movie seems to have built a world that we will remember for long, as there is a bright one, a devastated one and one in between, all of them looking like a lot of work has been done around here. The stylish world of the Pretties world will surely catch the attention of lovers of futuristic designs and the other world is of interest to the lovers of post-apocalyptic and dystopian situations. The looks of different sections of people also get our attention. There is also some fine futuristic action as the movie gets to an end, a certain amount of mystery is also felt around here. There is surely hope for a future sequel too considering where the movie ended.

The claws of flaw :: The movie’s supporting cast do not come up with that much as we look at it, and the characters are also not that much developed except for the two main ladies. The story does seem to be just a repetition of what we have been seeing all the time, and it does not bring that much of a change when on the screen. There is not that much time taken in making the world better, as there are more things under-explored than what is shown in style. The archetypes seem to be given more focus not just with the situations and the world, but also with the characters who give the feeling that we have surely seen them before. There could have been more commitment around here, and even with themes, going deeper does not seem to be something of relevance here. The ending is also not that strong, even if it was meant to stay faithful to the novel. It is a case of wonder why so much power is not felt around here, even though such strong themes are dealt with, and from the title itself, the exploration of the themes seems to begin and only feel like getting stronger as the world moves forward.

How it finishes :: The movie goes through the pattern set by The Hunger Games, The Maze Runner and Divergent, with the setup closest to the last one mentioned – then there are these movies‘ sequels. If you like these movies and its sequels coming right out the Young Adult movies, you are sure to like this one too, for the world and action remains interesting with themes and messages that catch our attention, despite not using the strengths to the best or finishing that well as one would expect from a movie like this. The lack of originality and the presence of predictability do not affect this one like in some other cases, as it remains visually that good and the leading lady handles the situation well, and as messages are rather direct, there is no holding back. As it released directly to Netflix, the visual style might not be that powerfully felt, but this is the kind of entertainment that we can have on a fine weekend, and there is no shortage of enjoyment in this movie of the post-apocalyptic and dystopic future that would come to us in one way or the other.

Release date: 13th September 2024 (Netflix)
Running time: 102 minutes
Directed by: Joseph McGinty Nichol
Starring: Joey King, Keith Powers, Chase Stokes, Brianne Tju, Jan Luis Castellanos, Charmin Lee, Laverne Cox

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@ 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