We Summon The Darkness (2019)

There's humour in We Summon The Darkness, but it's not really a horror comedy. There's a period setting (late 1980s), but that's not really ever a focus, apart from giving a more realistic grounding for the wild central plot. And there's a good cast, but they're not used as well as they could be. In fact, everything in We Summon The Darkness feels a bit half-assed, to use the technical term.

Alexis, Valerie, and Beverly are three young women on their way to see a heavy metal show. Once there, they meet three boys they seem to click with. The girls invite the boys back to an empty house they're staying at, the perfect spot for some more drinking and partying. But should these youngsters all be letting their hair down in the middle of nowhere, especially with the recent spate of Satanic cult murders?

Writer Alan Trezza previously gave genre fans Burying The Ex, a fun little film enjoyed by myself and about ten other people (so it would seem). That also had Alexandra Daddario in a starring role (she plays Alexis here), but she was surrounded by Ashley Greene and Anton Yelchin. It was also directed by Joe Dante, which was a big plus. Similar to this, Burying The Ex had one neat little idea at the heart of it. Unfortunately, We Summon The Darkness doesn't have anything of note beyond the one little idea it has (a plot beat that is surprisingly predictable from the very opening scenes).

Director Marc Meyers isn't someone incapable of doing good work. But he's no Joe Dante. The biggest mistake that Meyers makes is having complete fait in the script from Trezza, which means neither party does enough to make this as good as it could be.

Daddario does well in her role, although she's the weakest of the three main female cast members, and Maddie Hanson and Amy Forsyth are good in the roles of Val and Bev, respectively, with Forsyth easily the strongest of the three. As for the boys, Keean Johnson, Logan Miller, and Austin Swift are a good mix, even if their very first appearance onscreen doesn't bode well. Other characters pop in and out of the narrative, but the only other one worthy of note is Pastor John Henry Butler, played in an enjoyably atypical way by Johnny Knoxville (who I would very much like to see get a meatier role in this vein).

There's entertainment to be had here, Meyers does just fine with the technical side of things, despite lacking the ability to elevate the material, but We Summon The Darkness feels very much like some comedy act in which the performer is very proud of his jokes, especially one he drops on the audience early on to set the tone, while every audience member sits patiently and waits for the big laugh that never comes. There's nothing here that will make you remember the movie hours after you've watched it, and I can't help thinking it is destined to become a forgotten obscurity within the next year or two. I also can't help thinking that it wouldn't have taken too much effort to save it from that fate. It's a shame that Meyers and Trezza weren't able to make that effort.

5/10

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When We First Met (2018)

Noah (Adam Devine) falls in love with Avery (Alexandra Daddario), but  has to resign himself to the fact that although they had a great first date together, it ended with a hug and nothing else happened between them. She then met, and fell in love with, the perfect Ethan (Robbie Amell). It's been three years since that fateful time, and Avery and Ethan are getting engaged, which leads Noah to get horribly drunk and then encounter a magical photobooth that he once used with Avery, which takes him back to his first time meeting her. Can he change the outcome, and will he like what happens?

Having seen many people mention that this is a romcom riff on Groundhog Day, I can tell you that it's not. Not really. It's a romcom riff on The Butterfly Effect. There's a difference between the two. And that difference is big when it comes to how the film plays out, because When We First Met could have been a lot better than it is, and a lot funnier, if it was hewing closer to the former than the latter.

The cast don't help. As much as I like Devine, I don't think of him as the best choice for a rom-com lead, although he doesn't do too bad here. Daddario is also fine, but she's the sort of actress I can always imagine being bumped for any number of better actresses. Amell does well with his fairly limited role, and Shelley Hennig is decent enough as Carrie, Avery's roommate. It's just a shame that her character is twisted to put together a third act that doesn't feel in line with the rest of the film. Andrew Bachelor fairs a bit better, playing Noah's best friend, Max.

The script by John Whittington doesn't have much going for it beyond the potential fun of the central premise, which is squandered at almost every opportunity. This could have crammed in so many fun failures as Noah tried to change his life. We instead just get a few specific scenarios as Noah is rushed to his big life lesson. Director Ari Sandel doesn't do anything to improve upon the script, relying on the talents of his leads, which again makes it easier to reach the conclusion that there were probably better options than Devine and Daddario to put in the lead roles.

Despite the problems, When We First Met isn't actually a bad film. It's just an average film. There aren't enough laughs, you don't REALLY care that much about the characters, the time travel is fun but not used as well as it should be, and it's passable entertainment when it could have been something much more enjoyable.

5/10

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Percy Jackson: Sea Of Monsters (2013)

Most of the main players return for this sequel to Percy Jackson & The Lightning Thief, an adventure that sees Percy Jackson (Logan Lerman) and friends embark on a quest to get the golden fleece. The fleece is essential because the tree that guards Camp Half-Blood, by providing the protective barrier, is dying and needs to be rejuvenated before the camp residents are left open to attack from those who wish them harm. The group will have to work together to overcome the many obstacles that will be placed in their path, which might inadvertently teach them a thing or two about each other.

I enjoyed this movie, but I enjoyed it despite the many flaws. I enjoyed it because I liked spending time with the characters established in the first instalment (many of them return, although Anthony Head takes over the role that was played by Pierce Brosnan), I liked a number of the new characters introduced, and I loved a lot of the design work and visual effects.

Unfortunately, director Thor Freudenthal and writer Marc Guggenheim seem to think that the first movie wasn't quite goofy enough. They pile on humour during a number of comedic sequences that just aren't all that funny. Admittedly, this may be a problem that affects the source novel (by Rick Riordan), but I try to judge a movie simply as a movie. Which is easy in this case, as I've not actually read any of the Percy Jackson books, though I may give them a try one day. Not all of the humour falls flat. There's one sequence that allows Nathan Fillion to do what he does best, and that had me at least smiling throughout.

The cast all do a good enough job, with Lerman, Brandon T. Jackson and Alexandra Daddario easily slipping back into their main roles, Douglas Smith proving to be a surprisingly kind and sweet cyclops, and Leven Rambin does fine as a tough girl who makes the main character lose confidence in himself. Jake Abel manages to get plenty of screentime, and also manages to put in a better performance than he did in the first movie. It's perhaps telling that there aren't really any bigger names filling out the supporting roles, but Head, Fillion and Stanley Tucci have fun with their small roles, while the likes of Robert Knepper, Missi Pyle, Ron Perlman and Craig Robinson are also in the mix, even if they're either less recognisable or only lending their voices to the endeavour.

Despite being underwhelmed by Percy Jackson: Sea Of Monsters, I enjoyed a number of the big set-pieces and I'd like to see a third movie in this series. Hell, I'd like to see a fourth. But I don't know if that will happen now. The first film wasn't exactly the box office juggernaut that I'm sure the studio wanted, and this sequel performed, as far as I can tell, at about the same level. Movie studios don't always forgive one disappointment, let alone two. It's viewers like me that do that.

6/10

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Percy-Jackson-Lightning-Thief-Monsters/dp/B00EE5BWTU/ref=sr_1_5?s=dvd&ie=UTF8&qid=1391527616&sr=1-5&keywords=percy+jackson

Percy Jackson & The Lightning Thief (2010)

Percy Jackson (Logan Lerman) is a teenager with his share of teenage problems. His mother (Catherine Keener) is living with a douchebag (Joe Pantoliano). He seems to have dyslexia and ADD, and only finds real peace when holding his breath at the bottom of the swimming pool, being timed by his friend, Grover (Brandon T. Jackson). It turns out that Percy is actually a half-blood, the result of a tryst between his mother and his biological father, the god Poseidon (Kevin McKidd). That's why he has dyslexia (his brain is actually designed to read writings in Ancient Greek) and ADD (he's impulsive and good in a fight). And, of course, that's why he likes the water. It's also, unfortunately, why he ends up as the main suspect when Zeus (Sean Bean) has his lightning bolt stolen. The clock starts ticking as Percy learns about himself, learns about many others like him at Camp Half-Blood (including Annabeth, played by Alexandra Daddario), and plans to somehow find, and return, the lightning bolt before the gods start fighting one another. Oh, and he also has to save his mother from Hades.

Based on a popular series of books by Rick Riordan, Percy Jackson & The Lightning Thief is very enjoyable family entertainment that should please fans of the Harry Potter franchise. In fact, that's obviously what everyone was thinking when Chris Columbus was hired as the director. The script from Craig Titley gets all of the information across and paces things perfectly in between some great set-pieces, but there's just something in the execution of the material that stops this from being as great as it should be. It's always entertaining, and there's a lot of fun derived from the updating of the Greek myths, but it suffers greatly, I think, from a weak finale. Especially after the fantastic characters that our plucky group have already encountered before they realise who the real lightning thief is.

Lerman, Jackson and Daddario are all good enough in the main roles, but a lot of the fun here comes from the stars having fun in the supporting roles. Okay, Bean and McKidd are as serious and weighty as they need to be, but Pierce Brosnan is memorable in his supporting turn, Uma Thurman is fantastic as Medusa, and Steve Coogan and Rosario Dawson play well off each other as Hades and Persephone, respectively. Jake Abel seems a bit bland as Luke, a fellow camp resident who provides a lot of help as Percy and his friends prepare for their quest.

All of the choices here, from special effects to music to camerawork, are predictable enough. This is safe family entertainment. It has some grandiose moments, but always works hard to get back to focusing on the teenagers and their teenage ways of working out solutions to their problems (this isn't me being sarcastic, I'm just specifying that the film constantly keeps its target demographic in mind). Unfortunately, despite trying hard, it's probably not cool enough for most teenagers to enjoy. That may explain why the box office performance was pretty disappointing, and it may explain why I like the movie more than many other film fans I know.

Because if there's one thing I know, it's that I have never, ever been cool.

7/10

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Percy-Jackson-Lightning-Thief-Monsters/dp/B00EE5BWTU/ref=sr_1_5?s=dvd&ie=UTF8&qid=1391527616&sr=1-5&keywords=percy+jackson