Ani-MAY-tion: Batman: Soul Of The Dragon (2021)

I have enjoyed many of the animated Batman movies from the past couple of decades, some of them rank alongside some of my favourite live-action features, and so I went into Batman: Soul Of The Dragon with a certain amount of optimism. It looked as if Batman was being thrown into the middle of a Bruce Lee escapade, and that was alright by me. Okay, there’s no ACTUAL Bruce Lee here, but we all know this is a pairing of Batman and Lee in everything but name.

The plot revolves around a mystical and powerful sword. It was guarded for years, but now may have fallen into the wrong hands. If the sword is used to open a secret gate then our world will be at the mercy of some grand horrors. Fortunately, Batman is on the case, and he is accompanied by some skilled martial artists who used to train alongside him many years ago.

This should have been a slam dunk. I cannot think of the last time I was so excited by the premise of an animated Batman movie, and I kept putting off my viewing of it with a heavy heart. The fact that it ends up being a sub-par adventure for the Caped Crusader is almost unforgivable. There’s no reason for this to be as relatively dull as it is, and things aren’t helped by a supernatural element coming to the fore in the third act.

Writer Jeremy Adams supplies a dull and lifeless script, seemingly uninterested in using the period and setting to occasionally let loose and have some fun with the characters, and director Sam Liu (who helmed one of my favourite animated Batman films a few years ago) does little to liven things up in between the moments of dialogue. The fights lack a certain amount of power and flair that I was expecting, and the pacing isn’t helped by the non-chronological structure, making things feel a bit too drawn out as we are pulled towards a finale that doesn’t seem half as interesting as other movie ideas I had in my head.

The voice cast do well enough. David Giuntoli is fine in the role of Bruce Wayne/Batman, although he isn’t up there with the best actors to take on the role, but I was much happier to hear the performances from Mark Dacascos, Michael Jai White, and Kelly Hu. I am not saying that I recognised them immediately, but they were a great fit for their respective roles, and I am generally a fan of them in anything they do. James Hong also has a small role, and is always a welcome delight, while Josh Keaton is stuck playing a fairly uninteresting villain.

It’s all okay, I guess, but almost every department deemed a bit more. The visual style should have been bolder, the soundtrack should have been more interesting, and the plot should have mixed in more recognizable elements from one or two classic martial arts movies. We should have been given a great “Bruce Lee” movie with Batman added in as a special ingredient. Instead we got a mediocre Batman movie with “Bruce Lee” and co. mishandled and wasted.

4/10

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Prime Time: The Misfits (2021)

The continuing disappointment of mediocrity from director Renny Harlin continues with this film, a comedy crime caper that takes a pretty good cast and spends too much time not making the most of their talents. Some people can overcome the flimsy script, Pierce Brosnan having the lead role is a big plus, but it’s a shame that the overriding feeling once the end credits roll is that you’ve just watched something quite lazy and carelessly thrown together.

The title almost tells you everything you need to know. A group of criminals are put together for a big job. They have various skills, and they are happy to be called The Misfits. The target is a man named Schultz (Tim Roth), someone who has made his fortune by building prisons, but has used one such building to house a secret stash of gold. How? Why? Those questions don’t matter. You just need to know that this heist somehow seems overly complicated and ridiculously simple at the same time.

Harlin directs competently enough, this is a light-hearted caper that he can just have some fun with, ensuring that his cast always looks good and there are shots of expensive lifestyle accessories showing the rich pickings around our “heroes”, from lovely watches to lovely supercars. It’s the script that provides all the problems, too preoccupied with banter and wit to actually remember that there should be at least a small bit of tension here and there. It’s no surprise to find that the script was co-written by someone who has previously delivered mainly comedic fare - Robert Henny - and someone who can do enjoyably stupid or just stupid stupid - Kurt Wimmer.

Brosnan seems to be having a ball in his role though, and that enthusiasm is infectious enough to help make the film a lot more tolerable. As for the others in the team, they’re all likeable enough. There’s Nick Cannon, Jamie Chung, Mike Angelo, and Hermione Corfield (playing the daughter of Brosnan’s character), each playing someone bringing their own particular skillset to the group, and you also get fun supporting turns from Rami Jaber, Qais Qandil, and one or two others who are proving to be a help or hindrance to the main plan. Roth is a standard mark - two steps behind, and with plenty of reasons to make his loss justified and more satisfying - and he does what is asked of him, but sadly never feels as dangerous as he should.

It’s slick and bathed in sunshine, but The Misfits is also absolutely disposable. Which isn’t a crime, it just makes it a film that you should never prioritise ahead of many better viewing options you might have. But for something to watch when you don’t want anything overlong (this clocks in at just over 90 minutes), overly complicated, or overly emotional, this absolutely fits the bill. It’s a simple slice of entertainment, benefiting hugely from the star power of Brosnan.

5/10

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Prime Time: Flight 7500 (2014)

Directed by Takahi Shimizu, the man who delivered so many great scares in the Ju-On: The Grudge movie series, as well as some other decent films, you could be forgiven for expecting good things from Flight 7500. Those expectations should be drastically lowered when you notice that this is written by Craig Rosenberg, a writer who also delivered The Uninvited (a middling remake of a classic) and The Quiet Ones (which is just terrible). Expectations should then nosedive when you realise that this is based on/inspired by a true story.

A varied bunch of passengers get on a plane, all seated and looked after by Laura Baxter (Leslie Bibb) and Suzy Lee (Jamie Chung). You have a pair of newlyweds, Rick (Jerry Ferrara) and Liz (Nicky Whelan), a moody goth (Scout Taylor-Compton), and Brad (Ryan Kwanten) and Pia (Amy Smart), a couple who have recently broken up, but don't want to ruin a non-refundable holiday for their friends by letting them know. There are others on board, some of them getting a story arc, many of them not, but it's this core group that becomes the focus of the movie.

I hope people don't misunderstand me here when I say that this is genuinely awful. While it is technically decent enough, in terms of the sound work and some general cinematography, it's almost constantly getting enough wrong to ruin any potential scares and/or atmosphere. The geography of the plane, the positioning of characters compared to one another, the confused looks from people as sounds or movements occur just off-camera, it's all very poor. And for a film set on a plane, it rarely feels as if it is actually set on a plane (I am talking about the background noise and little movements that you normally see in plane-set movies, replicating the real experience, they're missing here).

That might not be so bad if the cast was stellar. This is not a stellar cast, and they're sorely mistreated by Rosenberg's weak script. I tend to like Kwanten, but he's rarely managed to get himself movie roles that work well for him (a notable exception being the excellent Red Hill). I tend to dislike Smart, and have rarely seen her in a role that another actress couldn't have done better with, but it's not her fault that this movie decides to give her a few lines of dialogue and then largely act as if she's a background character. Bibb and Chung are treated slightly better, and Whelan is made so smug and lacking in self-awareness that she 's amusing enough, but those are the only people who have some trait that makes them remotely memorable. Even Taylor-Compton, doing standard goth girl schtick, suffers from writing that confuses hair and make-up with actual characterisation.

The ending, which at least comes along soon enough (the runtime is only 80 minutes, approximately), is obviously part of the movie that some felt would make the whole journey worthwhile. It doesn't, and those familiar with the real-life event this is based on may find that it leaves an unpleasant taste. It doesn't justify anything that viewers have just sat through, and it easily ranks as one of the worst horror films from Shimizu, who has so many other greats you can choose from.

2/10

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Big Hero 6 (2014)

A treat for both Marvel and Disney fans, Big Hero 6 is great family fun, full to the brim with humour, in-jokes/references and gorgeous animation. It's got a big heart, and features a central character, Baymax, that should easily win a place in the heart of any child.

Hiro is a young boy with a fantastic brain for science and robotics, but no self-motivation. If he applied himself then he could do something truly great, and his brother, Tadashi, knows this. Tadashi takes Hiro to his place of work, a surprise visit that opens Hiro's eyes to the cool possibilities available to someone of his intellect. He also gets to meet Baymax, a health care robot that resembles a humanoid made from marshmallow (yes, he's a BIT like Mr. Stay Puft). It's not long, however, until tragedy strikes. Struggling to cope with his grief, Hiro ends up growing closer to Baymax, and eventually retooling the robot into something quite far removed from his original incarnation. This might help them to bring down a strange supervillain who has appeared in town, one wearing a Kabuki mask. However, Baymax encourages Hiro to contact, and receive support from, a number of friends, which allows a small team of potential heroes to be formed.

Although it's a bit too sweet and cutesy at times, I can't recommend Big Hero 6 highly enough to those who want to watch a superior animated movie aimed at a younger audience. From the city environment - San Fansokyo (a lush amalgamation of San Francisco and Tokyo architectural styles) - to the character design, and the tech on display, this is one of those movies that serves up a veritable feast in every scene.

Directors Don Hall and Chris Williams oversee everything with keen eyes, keeping those gorgeous visuals attached to a script (written by Jordan Roberts, Daniel Gerson and Robert L. Baird) that never shifts the focus away from the main characters. The voice cast includes quite a few famous names (Alan Tudyk, James Cromwell, Damon Wayans Jr, Maya Rudolph, Jaime Chung, T. J. Miller, Genesis Rodriguez), and every single performer does a great job, with highlights being Wayans Jr, Miller, and Rudolph. The two leads may not have name recognition, Ryan Potter voices Hiro and Scott Adsit voices Baymax, but the most important thing here is that their voices work, and work brilliantly.

You're never more than a few moments away from a good laugh, the action scenes are exhilarating, and any one of the main characters could make a cool role model. But be warned, the film also manages to explore loss and grief without sugar-coating the heartache. There may be one or two conversations being had between parents and children as they leave the cinema, and it's something worth being prepared for. Is there anything here on a par with the potential trauma many of us experienced when we first saw Bambi? Maybe not. But it's almost too close to call.

Based upon some comic material that I was formerly unaware of, this proves once again that you don't necessarily need brand recognition or a built-in fanbase to deliver a near-perfect blockbuster movie. You just need some TLC.

8/10

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