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The Living Daylights (1987)
Quite possibly my favourite Bond
I hadn't actually heard much about The Living Daylights before I started watching it, even though I'd been reading into the Bond films and their legacy.
It seems to be one that a lot of people overlook apparently, with the Guardian writer, Peter Bradshaw, for instance complaining that Dalton was a bit "humorless", as well as complaining about the lack of sex scenes.
However, The Living Daylights does have a few humorous moments, despite the refreshing seriousness of the plot comparing to some of Moore's crazier supervillain plots (even if I did enjoy Moonraker). Not to mention that Dalton's romance with d'Abo isn't just founded on sex, which is a refreshing and welcome change for Bond at this stage.
Another comment complaint leveled at the film is that the villains are a bit underwhelming, but I really enjoyed the three main villains. The power-mad American military reject was a highlight, but in the end Necros, the tall blond milk-bottle assassin, must surely clinch it as the best antagonist element in the film, and one of the best enemy agents Bond has ever come up against. The story is far more mature and complex than some of the previous efforts, which I really appreciated. But what made it so enjoyable was that it wasn't taking itself *too* seriously in the end. It still had gleeful joy about it, and that was probably helped by the fantastic score by John Barry.
Timothy Dalton does a superb job as Bond, providing just an edge of wry humour with just his presence on screen, but balances it effortlessly with seriousness and his ability to look like a secret agent hero in no matter what circumstances. Maryam d'Abo does a great job as Kara Milovy too, and the romance between her and Bond seems genuinely like it could be a permanent thing, so honest is the connection between them on screen.
If you come to these movies to watch the action sequences - as most do - The Living Daylights has iconic scene after iconic scene. The training exercise gone wrong at the beginning, an escape from Russia, Necros' attack on the manor, Bond fleeing across rooftops in Tangier, the fight with the jailer, the escape from the Russian airbase, and the climactic showdown with the antagonists at the Russian airbase, fighting with the help of the Mujahideen against the Soviets. In this final battle, the film can hardly bear to slow down, with explosions and combat going on all around, but also keeping it paced well. The fight in the sky is a masterful set piece, and fantastically tense - then they have to escape a crashing plane!
But the film manages to slow it down for a little bit with the final showdown against Brad Whitaker. Bond engages in a tense game of hide and seek against the childish, power-mad arms dealer, which feels tense and taut compared to the fantastic bombast previously.
And to top it off, the film's song is by a-ha! The Living Daylights appears to be a vastly underrated Bond, and has become one of my favourite action films. Well worth a watch, as it seems to have almost slipped under the radar all those years ago, or at least faded into obscurity when compared to other Bond films. Fantastic.
Blade Runner 2049 (2017)
A Beautiful Film
It's tough these days to find a film that isn't a regurgitation. I love superhero films as much as the next person, but they just can't rival a good sci-fi think piece in pretty much any way, shape or form (bar insane budget).
I think Blade Runner: 2049 is far and away my favourite cinema experience of all time.
The seats rumbling as K approaches the monolithic pyramid of Wallace Corp... it was a transcendent experience.
Films have a fixation with overexplaining these days. At spilling their guts about everything. We know the backstories and motivations for every single character, we can't seem to get enough information about lore and world information. Blade Runner 2049 is the antithesis of that. We are given just enough information - but we only get that information if we pay attention. 2049 rewards attention. It rewards you looking at those long, gorgeous shots (every frame could be framed on a wall!), at soaking in atmosphere. It's a simply gorgeous, intelligent movie about the fragility of existence, and how we can act heroically in spite of mundane beginnings - and perhaps mundane endings. There might not be anything special about us as a person, or even our species - but that doesn't invalidate life. It doesn't make life not worth living.
I can see how people would not like this film. It's slow and complex and only gives back if the viewer is willing to give to. But damn if I'm not holding back tears now writing this. It's just gorgeous. If you love sci-fi, please watch this.
The Umbrella Academy: Right Back Where We Started (2020)
A Gripping Start
A really engaging beginning to the second series, that starts of with a bang and then develops into soft, sweet character moments, interrupted by bombastic, excellent music choices. Really looking forward to seeing where it goes in future - it looks to have cropped out some of the bits that weren't working in the last season already. Go Umbrella Academy!
Star Wars (1977)
Doesn't get much better than this.
The place where the myth begins, Star Wars is still eminiently watchable (and rewatchable, over and over again) today. Everyone now knows of George Lucas' inspirations, ranging from the political roots of the story's themes to the hero's journey or the monomyth by Lucas' friend Joseph Campbell.
It has everything you'd want from a space-fantasy escapist film. A powerful message of nature and instinct over technology, compelling villains like the threatening Tarkin and infinitely fascinating Darth Vader, guiding the world's most infamous superweapon, the Death Star. If you haven't watched it, you should. If you have watched it - you should watch it again.
Genius.
Terminator: Dark Fate (2019)
Never reaches the dizzying heights of the first two, but still a solid action film
Terminator: Dark Fate was never going to be a "wow, amazing" film. I knew that, and I hadn't really seen any of the trailers. So I went in with pretty zero expectations. And of course, it's not as good as the first two - not as clever, not as scary, not as perfectly shot - but Terminator: Dark Fate is a good action movie. If that's what you want to see, a good action movie, then go and see Terminator: Dark Fate. The characters are good (Linda Hamilton and Arnold Schwarzenegger are of course the highlights, but I thought Mackenzie Davis' Grace was a superb new addition to the franchise), and the CGI was good too.
Not as bad as everyone seems to be saying it is - a good bit of fun, and a good action movie. If you don't like the film, not too hard to ignore either.
Avengers: Endgame (2019)
With Great Power, Comes No Responsibility
I watched Endgame twice. And both times, something just wasn't sitting right with me. The jokes generally landed, the fan service was everywhere, and it seemed like everything generally was wrapped up, even if Thanos was strangely overpowered without the Gauntlet and Captain Marvel's Deus Ex Machina appearance was cheap. It was, while no 10/10 amazing art piece (and of course it wasn't, it was never supposed to be), a seemingly solid blockbuster, with a huge, unstoppable marketing machine and legions of ravenous fans, hungry for more.
All movies, irregardless of whether they set out to do so or not, have something to say. It's the same of all art. As human beings, we absorb messages given to us by these art pieces, even if they were designed 'merely' as simple entertainment.
In the world we live in, we're eager to forfeit choice, and in doing so, we forfeit responsibility. I liked Infinity War because it taught the Avengers something. It taught not only the Avengers, but should have taught the audience as well - heroes can't win every time. It's impossible. The Avengers, irregardless of their status, have lost, and we as a world, and they too, had to live with that.
Endgame's message is cheap and rather disheartening. The Avengers, instead of trying to live with their mistakes, are portrayed as people who'd rather cling on to the past and to their past failures. Tony Stark is the only character in the film who has accepted what has happened and moved on. In real life, there's no opportunity to go back and correct one's mistakes - we have to live with them. There's no 'save, reload' function, no time travel button.
The Avengers, rather than showing their strengths as admirable heroes who'd press on despite their losses, try to reverse their mistake, and despite their best efforts, doom several other realities to chaos or even destruction. They are confident at the beginning of the movie, eager to win against Thanos, but when they find that their loss cannot be reversed, they can't accept it. For five years, they grieve - as does the world.
Where is the human spirit of endeavor? During history, people have always stood back up from tragedy and done their best to rebuild. That's what we do as human beings.
Avengers: Endgame presents a flawed philosophy - it's the mistakes in the past that matter, not the choices in the future. In choosing the past, we absolve our responsibility for the future, and damn... that's dangerous.
Avengers: Infinity War (2018)
Just great fun
I was about ready to give up on the MCU, to be honest. The villains were ineffectual, non-threatening, and the heroes triumphed every time with barely a loss. Civil War was especially disappointing to me in this regard - in the comic book storyline, the panel where Cap lies dead before Iron Man was one of the most personally impactful in Marvel comics.
However, Infinity War does superhero movies right. It's big, it's loud, it's got enough lightheartedness so that you are still aware it's a popcorn movie based on a comic book - it's just fun. It does Thanos right, probably the most worrisome part of the film for me going in. If they couldn't make Thanos threatening, I would have stopped watching. But they did it. Whether they have the guts to stick with their decision in regards to the ending will be something else entirely, but for now, Infinity War has sated my appetite for a superhero movie.
While I don't think it'll be something I'll watch twenty years from now like Blade Runner and will inspire deep, complicated thoughts, Infinity War truly was an epic spectacle, and if you were a fan of any of the previous MCU movies, there'll be something in this one for you.