Review: Avengers: Infinity War

(Dir: Anthony Russo & Joe Russo, 2018)

So here we are; nineteen films into the Marvel Cinematic Universe and quite unexpectedly Avengers: Infinity War, the biggest team-up to date and part one of the supposed culmination to the overarching story, is not a total disaster. In fact, far from it. The most telling reason why is the presence of the Guardians of the Galaxy cast and their prominence in the film – they're not the lead characters, no-one is really, but considering their previous separate existence they get a solid amount of screen time here. Expectedly this thoroughly ups the entertainment factor, providing loads of humour and allowing for more fantastical off-Earth scenes. Most of the Marvel films have become oh so serious, so the presence of Rocket, Groot, Drax, Star Lord and Gamora just raises the spirits of the viewer (unless you actually dislike these characters!), offering more snarky wit. Equally, the involvement of Dr Stephen Strange adds another dimension that was never previously present, and having now properly established the Spider-Man character in Homecoming ensures his role here is welcomed (rather than that awkward attempt to shoe-horn him in last time solely because the source material demanded it – one of the many failings of Civil War).

Whilst having all these characters on-board totally lifts Infinity War, it really emphasises just how unexciting it's become watching (almost all of) the core Avengers. Both Iron Man/Tony Stark and Captain America/Steve Rogers have become utterly boring characters – long gone is the joie de vivre and inspiring sense of duty. Now they're just tiredly written and tiredly acted, with both Robert Downey Jr and Chris Evans clearly just going through the motions – a position they've been forced into over recent films. Thankfully they're overshadowed here. Similarly both Falcon and Rhodey, who were quickly assimilated into the group, offer little of anything, whilst Red Witch and Vision still seem out of place having never been portrayed interestingly. The ploy of playing Hulk/Bruce Banner off against how he was used in Thor: Ragnarok does work, and speaking of Thor, he still remains the best and most interesting of this group.

The big surprise here is Thanos. The way things usually roll with anthropomorphised-but-not-quite-human CGI villains is an awkward attempt at believability, thus they lack any real perception of threat let alone anything for the viewer to grasp onto. Something about this character still doesn't seem right visually, however he's really well written and voiced – Josh Brolin offers a strong sense of pathos that makes him a little more erudite and thoughtful than the bombastic all-destroying villain he'd been billed as. This makes him all the more interesting as it's possible to see his point of view, taking it beyond the usual megalomania of ruling the world and destroying it just because.

Infinity War is a film led by a continual march of action scenes, none of which astound or offer anything new, but all prove enjoyable (typical modern blockbuster!). However it's when it pulls back to the characters new to the Avengers films that it really flies. It's just a shame that since the first phase of films the core Earth-bound characters have been written into such dull story lines that they've become a chore to watch (yes there is something interesting in the relevance of heroes and who they are accountable too, just not in the approach that's been taken). And the problem with this number of characters means the newer ones whom people might want to see, like Black Panther / King T'Challa, are given short thrift. Nonetheless Infinity War proves to be the most enjoyable team-up yet in this series, concluding in the way you don't actually expect it will, even if the ultimate resolution in next year's part four is kind of obvious. So it's third time lucky for the Russo brothers making an interesting film in this series – but had Joss Whedon gotten a third go, would he have been blessed with such luck too?

Review: A Quiet Place

(Dir: John Krasinski, 2018)

How much faith do you have in your fellow cinema-goer? Presented with a Friday night free to go to the cinema I had doubts about whether it was actually worth watching A Quiet Place in an auditorium filled with other people (on opening night in Leicester Square no less). You know, the popcorn-munching, sweet wrapper-rustling, not so subtly talking, perpetually phone-checking masses who seem to populate cinemas these days. Would it be worth sacrificing the massive screen and immersive sound for the controlled isolation of a home viewing experience in a few months time? Fortunately the answer was no as it (amazingly) turned out to be a respectful audience. A Quiet Place is a hell of an atmospheric film, putting a lot of weight into it's sound design and the very concept of silence, clearly gripping the entire audience. The tagline sums the plot up nice and succinctly – if they can hear you they can kill you – but it's more than that. With the sole cast members comprising the family headed by John Krasinski and Emily Blunt, it feels more character driven than expected. We work through the family's unique dynamic and understand how they manage to survive, mostly resorting to sign language to communicate, rarely able to utter a word unless it's a whisper. These linguistic limitations certainly enhance the film.

A sinuous tension roils beneath the surface as we wait for the one inevitable sound that will summon a rapid, savage attack by these mysterious creatures. And when it comes it's all controlled masterfully, with a handful of breathtaking set pieces that leave you teetering on the edge of your seat. Krasinski, who directed the film, gets the balance between the suspense, horror and quieter family moments just right – neither overdoing it nor leaving you feeling as if it's lacking. We only get little snippets of information about the creatures and why they're on Earth and that's enough, as there's greater fear in knowing less. Admirably the prologue jumps straight into an incident that directly affects the family 80 days in rather than focusing on how they survived the initial onslaught, which in other hands would be the more obvious way to kick things off. The overall brevity helps too.

A Quiet Place is a genuinely suspenseful film that delivers on it's central premise superbly, proving yet again that reducing the reliance on the spoken word can really enhance a film. There are a few minor nitpicky issues but they're easily overlooked if you let it take you on it's ride. Well under halfway through the year and A Quiet Place is one of the best films released so far.

Review: Mute

(Dir: Duncan Jones, 2018) 

Recently we've seen a handful of films that have proven exceptionally effective by having their main characters communicate (mostly) through means other than the spoken word – chiefly The Shape of Water, A Quiet Place and War for the Planet of the Apes. All of these films forced the characters to be more expressive, and thus the story works that much harder in service of the characters, to the greater benefit of the viewer. Mute attempts a similar approach but fails drastically at it. Lead character Leo (Alexander Skarsgård) is the titular mute, searching for his missing lover in a world primed for verbal communication and commands. All well and good in theory but the way Leo is portrayed, with a completely unexpressive oak-like façade, the mute equivalent of the archetypal monosyllabic male, makes him a frustrating character to centre a film around. Skarsgård is usually a solid actor but it's as if we're watching a robotic version of him here. He quietly exists in this colourful new world until his life is disrupted, but there's actually very little to the character apart from the curious decision to foist upon him a religion with a fear and rejection of technology, which feels awkward and unnecessary.

Almost as if to overcompensate for Leo, we have Paul Rudd's overtly animated, characatureish Cactus Bill, and his friend Duck (Justin Theroux). The pair are clearly having a lot of fun here and in many ways are a more intriguing part of the film. There's something curious about their zany darkness even if it's hardly explored and so never really fits into the world the film is working in. Mute desperately wants to be a futuristic, neon-lit neo-noir in the vein of Blade Runner, but it forever feels derivative. Curiously the film massively underplays the future-Berlin setting – there's little to no explanation about how or why the city/world is as it is, as it's solely concerned with it's own little microcosm. Too many films with settings like this try and grab the viewer by the hand to go "look at what we've created!", which can feel overly gratuitous. But in Mute's case the setting feels utterly incidental. Why bother going to the effort of creating a world like this without showing off a little of it? There are lots of miniscule moments hinted at without any elucidation (that TV news story shown in the café!?). There's just no context to the world we're in and it doesn't connect to the story in any way – transplant the story to a different setting (WWII Berlin for example) and it would only require the most minimal of tweaks.

The only explanation for this setting is director Duncan Jones, whom having made one extremely good sci-fi film – his debut Moon – is now effectively pigeonholed into the genre. Sure Warcraft may be a little deviation but it plays in the same sandbox, whilst Source Code is sci-fi through and through, even though it's better in idea than execution. The frustration with Mute is that along with it's flaws in execution and a lead character who doesn't work, the idea just isn't very good – there are hints of some mysterious plot reveal, something to tie it into this world, but instead it goes for the blandest most unoriginal answer possible, whilst the most appealing aspect (its setting) is left unexplored. This is a ridiculous analogy to make in 2018, but scouring a phone book with a magnifying glass in search of a specific number would surely have been a more satisfying experience.