Note: While care has been taken to ensure this review contains as few spoilers as possible, if you’re looking to go into The Super Mario Bros. Movie completely fresh, we’d advise just scrolling down to the bottom and reading the review conclusion!

It’s hard to believe it’s been 30 years since Nintendo last entrusted its most precious IP to Hollywood to produce a big-budget film. Well, given some of the sentiment towards 1993’s Super Mario Bros. maybe it isn’t so hard to fathom the lengthy dry (dry) spell, but it certainly makes this new occasion all the more monumentous. Yes, Mario is back on the big screen and this time it’s by way of a team-up with Illumination, of Minions fame, for a 3D-animated adventure.

If you’ve been paying any attention to the pre-release marketing for the film, you’ve probably got a pretty good idea of what’s going on here, story-wise. I’m obviously not going to touch on too many plot points for the sake of not spoiling anything, but the basic gist is this – Mario and Luigi are trying to boost their struggling Brooklyn plumbing business when they wander into a massive network of pipes underneath the city. Here, they stumble upon a mysterious green pipe (you know the kind) and are unceremoniously pulled from the real world into the “Mario” universe.

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It’s here that the pair are separated, with Mario landing in the Mushroom Kingdom and Luigi in an altogether more dangerous realm controlled by the big bad Bowser, who’s just obtained the all-powerful Super Star. This naturally sets Mario on a mission to find his missing brother in the midst of Bowser’s war on the various realms, teaming up with Toad, Princess Peach and eventually Donkey Kong to take down the King of the Koopas – whose motivation for the hostile takeover is his amusingly-dreamy desire for a fairytale wedding with Peach.

What that means is that you’re essentially getting an Isekai-style romp through a number of recognisable Mario-verse worlds that’s as threadbare as many of the games it riffs on, a concoction of nostalgia-heavy set pieces loosely tied together by the gang’s journey to save Luigi and thwart Bowser’s marital obsessions. It very much comes from the “and then this happened” school of narrative, which might disappoint some hoping for a more inventive or subversive Super Mario story, but it gets the job done and does manage to scrape up a few memorable moments that aren’t simple nostalgia-bait.

Watch us review The Super Mario Bros. Movie on the Press Start Podcast

Go into the film with the right expectations, and you’re bound to have an excellent time. Again, you won’t catch me spoiling any of them here but The Super Mario Bros. Movie is positively lousy with gags and references to everything Mario. Just about the entire history of gaming’s most recognisable character is represented in some form, from direct nods to characters or themes from the enormous back catalogue of Mario games and media to blink-and-you’ll-miss-them sight gags and deep cuts.

Younger audiences will catch the blatant riffs on modern Mario platformers and games like Super Smash Bros. and Mario Kart, and enjoy plenty of the slapstick humour that Illumination’s regular animated movie output is known for, while older viewers will no doubt have a blast doing the ol’ “Leo DiCaprio pointing at the screen” meme when things get super retro.

It was always going to be dangerous territory making a big-budget animated Super Mario Bros. film that relies so heavily on nostalgia and in-jokes to please audiences, but Nintendo and Illumination have absolutely nailed it here, with The Super Mario Bros. Movie feeling far more like a celebration of the mustachioed plumber’s long and diverse history than a soulless cash grab. My only gripe in this department is that a couple of very exciting inclusions that had been hinted at in the marketing amount to little more than barely-there flashes of locales. By far the film’s biggest success is how well and how often it integrates the logic of most Mario games into its world, often to amusing effect.

It also looks positively gorgeous. Nintendo has done well to attach itself to a 3D animation powerhouse like Illumination, who’ve really nailed the assignment when it comes to bringing these iconic characters and locations to life in the highest quality we’ve ever seen. It would have been a heck of a challenge to balance staying true to the relatively simple visuals that fans know while making sure there’s enough detail and expensive-looking sheen to satisfy a modern film audience, but the result is pitch perfect as far as I’m concerned. 

If you’ve never bemoaned the lack of a more powerful successor to the Nintendo Switch before now, you will after seeing the Mushroom Kingdom rendered the way it is here.

It was always going to be tricky to tie these ubiquitous, often barely-vocal characters to such well known voices, but the casting decisions here are almost unanimously spot on (almost) with Jack Black’s Bowser in particular stealing the show and delivering some of the movie’s best scenes. Seth Rogen’s Donkey Kong is featured less heavily but also delivers in spades. Sure, this version of DK pretty much just sounds like Rogen, but I don’t think I’ll ever be able to separate the two in my mind going forward. Oddly enough I was less enthused with Toad, played by Keegan-Michael Key putting on a very strained voice that’s seemingly then been pitched up in post. 

Everyone else is great – Anya Taylor-Joy does Peach justice and Fred Armisen is a delight as Cranky Kong. I almost think picking Pratt as Mario was a conscious decision to keep him as unremarkable and inoffensive as possible, so if that was the plan it’s definitely worked. Say what you will about Pratt, but he certainly knows how to make as little impact, negative or positive, as possible. Charlie Day takes an excellent crack at Luigi though, and the extended, Brooklyn-ite Mario family is thoroughly entertaining in the few scenes they’re a part of – to the point that I wish there’d been even more of their real-world shenanigans here.

Even when the plot takes a backseat to the film’s need to give you as much Mario universe as possible for your buck, there’s no denying every frame is magical, and every musical motif behind it is equally so. The Super Mario Bros. Movie’s soundtrack sits firmly in the “extremely Hollywood renditions of familiar tunes with occasional sprinklings of licensed music” territory that you might have gleaned from the trailers but it did absolute numbers on the nostalgia parts of my brain throughout and I imagine I won’t be alone. 

I’m not entirely sold on some of the pop song choices – Bonnie Tyler’s Holding Out For A Hero must have bigger guns than Donkey Kong for all the animated film montages it’s carried at this point – but that’s quickly made up for by a wholly original song that’s sure to have a viral moment once the film is out there.

The post The Super Mario Bros. Movie Review – A Nostalgia-Fuelled Romp For Everyone appeared first on Press Start.

Naturally, as a big fan of The Last Of Us, and also HBO’s shows such as True Blood and Chernobyl being among my favourite TV shows of all time, I was excited for HBO’s The Last Of Us TV adaption. I was expecting it to be an extremely well produced show, that faithfully retold Ellie and Joel’s journey, but as someone who is super familiar with the story, I wasn’t expecting to be absolutely enthralled with HBO’s adaption in the way that I was.

Rolling credits on the finale this morning, after binging the entire season over the last 3-4 days, I fell in love with this world, and these characters all over again. I’ll try and keep this review as spoiler free as possible, as this is a tricky one. Either you’re ingrained in this world and know it inside out, and any minor variation within the show will be new to you, or you’ll be totally new to this entire story, in which case I’d want to reveal as little as possible.

Just like everyone else, I wasn’t sure about seeing Pedro Pascal as Joel and Bella Ramsey as Ellie. Not because I thought that their likeness didn’t fit the bill, but just because of these characters being so clear in my mind from the games in terms of how they look, how they speak, how they bounce off each other, but right from the get-go when these characters meet in episode one, I was sold.

Pascal and Ramsey have somehow made these characters their own, whilst retaining key mannerisms that made these characters so great to begin with. It’s hard to talk about their journey without revealing anything too important, but even though I knew exactly how the key plot points would play out, I still felt absolutely every struggle and triumph that this duo went through. I genuinely cared for them, and believed their absolute necessity to make it to their end goal, which is what a story like The Last Of Us calls for, and these performances deliver it in spades.

This is true for the entire cast of characters. Whether it be Merle Dandrige as Marlene, Euphoria’s Storm Reid as Riley or Yellow Jacket’s Melanie Lynskey as the newly introduced Kathleen, across the board, I believed every single one of these performances, and felt that in most cases, they actually added to what we’d known previously of this story.

Whilst the story of Ellie and Joel is obviously the hero here, and a lot of the way that story is told is very true to the source material (bar a few minor variations that I’d argue make more sense in context of what happens in the future), it was some of the other stories within this world that really captivated me.

For instance, an entire movie length episode is dedicated to Bill (Nick Offerman) and Frank’s (Murray Bartlett’s) relationship, which resembles a very normal life, within a very abnormal world. This is touched on in the game, but very much as a foot note, where here’s it not only gives context to this relationship and situation which is very different to any other that we come across in The Last Of Us, but it also gives better context to Joel and Tess’ relationship before Ellie.

The same can be said for Sam and Henry, two brothers that we come across in the game, but their existence within the world is much more fleshed out within the TV show, which in my opinion is for the betterment of Joel and Ellie’s journey.

I really can’t stress enough just how much all of these variations which feel minor in isolation come together to flesh out this story and world in ways that I didn’t know or think that I wanted or needed, but it has made me more invested in this story.

As far as the pacing of the show goes, I thought it was fairly consistent, with it doing a great job of breaking out these individual stories into certain episodes, rather than keep you going back and forth before a large cast of characters. It made the stakes feel high in each episode, with the fate of each character that appears never feeling guaranteed that they’ll make it through to the end of the episode.

Whilst the infected don’t play a massive part in this series outside of obvious key points, for the most part, they are extremely believable and just as menacing as they are in the games. Particularly, the first scene which involves a hide and seek encounter with a Clicker. There were a few scenes that involved the infected, which felt a little bit unfinished, but this was an in-progress version of the show, so I’m fairly confident that they’ll be polished before they hit the screen.

The score was a massive part of The Last Of Us, and it’s all the same here, with some extremely familiar tunes coming through at key points to drive home what is happening on screen. This isn’t a huge surprise given it was composed by Santaolalla, who did the original two games as well.

Whilst the bar is low for video game TV and movie adaptions, HBO’s The Last Of Us rises above to be an absolute classic. It’d be a disservice to only go as far as saying that this is a fantastic TV show adaption of a video game, because on its own, it’s a must-watch piece of television.

HBO’s The Last Of Us launches on Foxtel/Binge on January 16th.

The post HBO’s The Last Of Us Review – Falling In Love With A Classic All Over Again appeared first on Press Start.

Long-awaited and as disconnected from the discordant DC Comics cinematic universe as you’d hope, Matt Reeves’ The Batman is very much its own beast. The world built around Robert Pattinson’s Batman is so grounded and true to what we know—injustices, class divide, and the cult of personality are all rife in Reeves’ Gotham—it’s hard to imagine what the existence of a Superman might mean. Reeves has crafted a meticulous character study of Bruce Wayne and grounded it inside of a noir Fincherian psychological thriller that is undoubtedly one of the most intimately crafted Batman films ever made.

Although Batman’s wearied origin tale plays a minor role during the film, Reeves deftly side-steps tugging on this worn-out thread and introduces us to a Bruce Wayne navigating his second year, and finding his footing, as Gotham’s watchful protector. He ventures deep into Gotham’s underbelly after a string of high-profile murders, accompanied by cryptic clues, lead him to revelations that serve to blacken the legacies of Gotham’s most rich and powerful, past and present. For those who read the comics, the threads plucked from Ego, Year One and The Long Halloween will be apparent, but Reeves neatly parcels it into a formative week that dissects and reshapes the duality of Bruce Wayne and The Batman.

The film wears its themes at surface level and while it does attempt to explore them at depth—the corruption in politics, classism and the balancing act of two great motivators in fear and hope—I feel like a lot of The Batman is laser-focused on building a foundation for the future of Reeves’ Batverse and it’s exciting to envision where the next instalment might take us.

Robert Pattinson thrives as The Batman—or at least this version of him. Cast in the role off the back of his performance as Connie in Good Time, Pattinson brings the same unhinged, self-destructive energy in what is a focused, one-step-short-of-nihilistic performance as a hero who desperately wants to believe that no one is beyond redemption. His reclusive Bruce Wayne might not be sailing shirtless on a yacht with a dozen supermodels like Bale’s—and he doesn’t smile much—but the gossamer-thin tightrope he walks throughout his crisis of identity makes for a terribly compelling performance that’s only made more impressive when you consider he spends most of the film masked.

Paul Dano’s Riddler is played to terrifying effect and is truly menacing. Unlike other interpretations of the character who are garishly dressed in spandex, Dano’s look is cobbled together out of cold-weather gear, cling wrap, and his signature bifocals. I loved what he did with a character who, for all of his methodical scheming, seemed like a scared kid who’d startle himself as much as his unsuspecting victim. I still can’t forgive the question mark latte art, which is perhaps the film’s most cartoonish moment, but Dano is electric.

The rest of the cast lose themselves in their respective roles. Zoe Kravitz shines as the sticky-fingered Selina Kyle, while Colin Farrell quite literally disappears into the role of Oswald Cobblepot under a mountain of prosthetics. The only role I felt was a bit of a waste was Andy Serkis as Alfred—the attempt to make him an emotional foil in Bruce’s narrative fell flat as he was simply used so sparingly, which is a shame for an actor of his calibre.

The Batman is superbly shot, and it has been done with a keen eye that has such a respect for the source material. Although it feels like every single one of its near 180-minutes, it’s a film brimming with soon-to-be-classic moments of cinema beyond the superhero genre. It’s a shame the money shot was spent up in the film’s trailer because the second-act car chase is one of the coolest fucking things I’ve ever seen in my life. From the moment the Batmobile roars to life, spitting blue flames from its exhaust and looking like Christine ready to devour all in its path, the next five minutes has got to be the finest five minutes of action in decades.

There’s a vocal minority who’ll forever pledge that the warehouse brawl in Batman v Superman is the best fight put to celluloid, but The Batman is unflinching in its brutality. Not only are the fights well-choreographed, but their rawness also serves to highlight the fledgling ability of this imprecise, raging bull crimefighter. It’s implied that this film’s Bruce was trained to fight by Alfred so, as such, he’s hardly a scalpel forged by the League of Shadows.

Michael Giacchino’s operatic score, like Bruce himself, dances the thin line between fear and hope. There’s the obligatory darkness in “The Batman” theme that feels like an accompaniment to Bruce’s pain and isolation, but there’s an unexpectedly sweet optimism that’s weaved throughout and it actually reminds me a lot of Giacchino’s work on Lost—one of my all-time favourite scores. It sounds like the polar opposite of any Batman theme we’ve had before, it’s full of pleasing major chords, it has a romanticism about it, and evokes a truly human response.

It shouldn’t come as a surprise that the director who helmed the sorely-underrated Planet of the Apes trilogy has created something truly special here. It’s the second-longest superhero film ever made and it feels like it, there’s no getting around that, but ultimately the stories told, as well as the stories set up, make the time spent in this sumptuously shot film worthwhile.

And if he hadn’t already—he had—Robert Pattinson proved that he’s more than Edward. He’s vengeance.

The post The Batman Review – Violent And Desperately Dark appeared first on Press Start.

As one of PlayStation’s most decorated franchises, spanning four mainline games and a few spin-offs, Uncharted was perhaps always bound for a bigger market. The stories of Nate Drake already borrowed so much from Indiana Jones and The Mummy, on paper it’s an adaptation that was predestined for success. An Uncharted film made a decade ago, in the days before Nathan Fillion’s youth dissipated, might have had all of the ingredients needed. Sadly, Ruben Fleischer’s take on Drake and the treasure hunter’s world at large feels like it’s unsure of who it’s even for. 

It has the nods that take aim at Uncharted fans, but their repugnance at the handling of the franchise’s cast of characters is all but assured. Strip that away thin film of fan service and there’s barely a by-the-numbers popcorn flick left for the casual moviegoer.

Cast all dream casting aside for this one, as bankable manchild Tom Holland brings Nathan Drake to life for this adaptation. The film is meant to serve as an origin story, which isn’t uncharted territory for the games, and it does play fast and loose with some of the established lore. Like the games eventually told us, Nate and Sam Drake grew up in St. Francis’ Boys Home and spend their nights waxing lyrical over being treasure seekers. After being caught trying to steal the map Magellan used to chart his course around the globe, Sam leaves after a fleeting farewell and a promise that he’ll come back. 

Fifteen years later, the film’s Drake, a flamboyant bartender, uses the gig as a cover for being a quite literal thief. He’s caught in the act by Mark Wahlberg’s Victor “Sully” Sullivan, who forces a regularly apt Holland down to his level with a performance that I’d describe as “better than The Happening, at least.” Wahlberg seems like a stand-in any time Holland tries to raise the emotional stakes, it’s just fortunate that his comedic chops make this interpretation of Sully an enjoyable one at least. 

From here, the pair concoct a scheme to fulfil Drake’s lifelong obsession to finish his brother’s work to uncover Magellan’s lost treasure which, despite being lost for centuries, is the present obsession of the film’s bloodthirsty, yet colourless, villains. It’s all a bit silly, but ultimately the core idea wouldn’t be out of place in Uncharted, it’s through its use of the characters—the game’s absolute strength—that it falls over. 

Nathan Drake’s identity has always been wrapped up within the fact that he’s a supposed descendant of Sir Francis Drake, a fact that this film mentions once in the prologue. I feel like Nate using that ‘lineage’ as his ticket into this dangerous, almost self-destructive lifestyle made him an interesting character, while Holland’s Drake is just a sad boy bartender whose only real interesting character trait is that his brother hasn’t written to him in years. That said, Holland’s charisma is undoubtable even if I still prefer the original in Nolan North. 

I always got the sense that Sully was more of a father figure to Nate in the games. Despite their great on-screen chemistry, and the surprising gulf in their actual ages, Holland and Wahlberg play the relationship as more of a sibling relationship and it falls kind of flat knowing what we could have had. It came as a surprise to me that Sophia Ali wasn’t Australian considering she pretty much nailed the accent and that her presence as Chloe, a real femme fatale in the games, would not feel out of place on Ramsey St. 

Where it misses on the characters, Uncharted feels like a tremendous adaptation of the game’s huge, bombastic action set pieces and they’re driven splendidly by Fleischer, whose eye for action is on point. It’s hard to take exception to the absolute abandonment of logic and physics in the film’s most explosive scene, a live-action take on Drake’s Deception’s plane crash. It’s wild, it’s stupid, and everyone should have died ten times over, but it was bloody fun. I also appreciated the fight choreography found elsewhere in the film, along with the slightly less lethal Nate when compared to the games where the ludonarrative dissonance is hard to avoid. 

That said, a lot of goons would have died in that third act. A lot.  

I was never bored with Uncharted and the plot does barrel along at breakneck pace, even if the crypt-crawling, puzzle-solving second act felt a little slower. It mightn’t do much of anything with its source material, but it does find a nice balance between the heist and adventure genres. Without a bit of base knowledge on who these people are—particularly Drake, Sully, and Chloe—the bevy of betrayals and backstabs is bound to be a bit dizzying, but the twists and turns are unlikely to come as a surprise to the initiated. 

In terms of fan service, the one thing I hoped for prior to seeing the film was for the game’s instantly recognisable theme to be present. The two times it sounds throughout the film are suitably hype, I think fans will be pleased. It stands as proof of the original score’s timelessness, as Ramin Djawadi’s score falls flat otherwise. 

As a game-to-film adaptation, Uncharted feels like it’s at odds with who it’s trying to draw in. It feels like a big enough departure from what the games did right to push fans away, while it relies on callbacks and references to the point where, without a base knowledge of the franchise, you’re going to find it hard to care.

The post Uncharted Movie Review – Drake’s Misfortune appeared first on Press Start.

After two films at the helm, Jon Watts has a handle on all of the magic ingredients that go into making a Spider-Man film. Although Far From Home didn’t quite reach the heights Homecoming did, No Way Home feels like a punctuation point on a superbly-crafted trilogy and a celebration of the entirety of the Spider-Man cinematic history, past to present.

Spider-Man: No Way Home is an Avengers: Endgame scale, live-action take on Into the Spider-Verse that, despite its flaws, feels like the movie event of the year.

The film picks up where Far From Home left off, Peter’s identity as the masked vigilante Spider-Man is world news and his life has been flip turned upside as a result. After this newfound notoriety keeps the trio of Peter, MJ, and Ned from getting into their college of choice, Peter enlists the help of his wizard-friend Stephen Strange to see it can’t weave a spell to help the world forget he’s Spider-Man and restore normality to his friends’ lives. The spell goes haywire and, as a result, the multiverse cracks open as ghosts from Spider-Man’s past pour in through the dimensional tear.

Despite its enormous runtime of just shy of three hours, the pacing is something of a struggle for No Way Home. It introduces the key conflict, the returning villains, and establishes Peter’s day-saving plan all within a whirlwind opening act that flies by at breakneck speed. Fortunately, in keeping with the two prior films, the film takes a hard left turn at the halfway mark and is a tour de force of fan service from that point on. The only regretful thing is that, with the exception of the first ten minutes, we don’t see a lot of Peter’s school life which I felt were some of the strongest parts of the first two films.

To say the film doesn’t suffer slightly from overcrowding would be a lie, with so many villains on board, the film scrambles for a focal point before thankfully settling on the strongest of the lot in Doc Ock and Norman Osborne—roles you wouldn’t believe Alfred Molina and Willem Dafoe had spent decades absent from. The others are just there and serve to heighten Peter’s struggle and add a little bit of levity, but they ultimately don’t enjoy the lion’s share of the spotlight. No Way Home, while being a vehicle for plenty of soon-to-be iconic on-screen Spider-Man moments, also has a great sense of humour and it’s a load shouldered by the entire cast.

There’s a line delivered by Norman Osborne that brought the house down.

The film’s three acts are all punctuated by blockbuster-level action scenes that are all wonderfully choreographed. As someone who often zones out during the ‘boom-crash’ segments, all of the key set pieces are visually pleasing—especially the stoush between Dr. Strange and Peter in the mirror dimension, featured heavily in the trailers, as they struggled for control over the MacGuffin device that holds the power to send the villains home to suffer their predetermined fates.

There are a few instances where it’s super obvious a green screen is involved, but I think that the film ultimately looks terrific considering some of the extremes it goes to. I expect them to sell a great many toys as the suits in No Way Home are all pretty rad, particularly the recon suit Peter wears in place of his paint-splattered get-up. The score and sound design are expectedly top-notch, particularly our first encounter with Electro—the almost unnatural warbling of his power surge made our theatre seats rumble. Michael Giacchino’s score is characteristically epic as he bounces expertly from the film’s bolder moments to its surprising amount of tender, heartfelt scenes.

There are plenty of commendable acting chops on display in No Way Home. Alfred Molina and Willem Dafoe take up their respective guises as though they’d never left them behind while Tom Holland elevates to another level and delivers an at-times powerful performance as Peter, supported ably by both Zendaya and Jacob Batalon.

Spider-Man: No Way Home dives down into the rabbit hole without fear, pulling out plenty of tricks from the hero’s storied cinematic past. Despite its problems, it feels like a worthy closing chapter to the Homecoming trilogy all the while opening new doors for Tom Holland’s Peter Parker who, it was announced recently, will return for another three films.

The post Spider-Man: No Way Home Review – Sensational, Spectacular, Amazing appeared first on Press Start.

It’s no secret that Resident Evil has already been put through the wringer due to its storied live-action saga at the hands of Milla Jovovich and Paul W. S. Anderson. The first film withstanding, which I have decided wasn’t that bad, the films were considered universally dreadful and the only thing worse since put to celluloid by two consenting adults was Hulk Hogan’s sex tape. 

Along comes Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City, directed by Johannes Roberts, which does achieve its goal of better adapting the source material on which it’s based, but we were still left asking ourselves whether it was better or worse for it. For a film that’s about Raccoon City and our heroes escaping its poisonous clutches over the course of one frantic night, I do wish they got out of dodge about an hour sooner—and the film’s only 107 minutes long. 

While my experience with Resident Evil is limited to its more recent outings starring Ethan Winters, I’m familiar with several of the touchstone moments from the classic games—such as the iconic turning head reveal of the first undead in the Spencer Mansion’s dining hall—which this film manages to recreate pretty faithfully. This film combines the first two games into one tight, nonsensical package as, beyond the key moments that fans will recognise, there’s hardly any semblance of a plot. Instead, the film lurches from set piece to set piece, turning to wink at white-knuckled Resi fans all the way. 

Not everything is by the books, however, as Leon’s holding cell deep and meaningful doesn’t amount to Tyrant bursting through the wall like the Kool-Aid mascot, and Wesker’s heel turn—which is justified in-game—feels unearned and odd here. These creative liberties don’t necessarily hamper the things this film does well, but it does raise questions of where the sequel could go from here. With the city levelled by Umbrella in the last act, it’s hard to imagine we’ll ever see Nemesis in future instalments. That is unless they go off-script in a big way. 

I do believe the film was helmed well enough by Roberts, whose experience with horror-thrillers held him in good stead here. I got a sense of classic, decades-old horror from the opening at the orphanage, but the film found it hard to strike the balance of action and horror throughout the runtime. When you consider they’ve tried to inject humour in too, it’s easy to see why the tone felt all over the place. The scene where Leon dozes off to the nineties pop classic “Crush” by Jennifer Paige only for the fuel truck to jackknife and explode outside the station felt like the epitome of this tonal mess. There are a few good moments—the boy hiding under the table got me good—but the scares largely fell by the wayside in lieu of fairly serviceable action. 

Considering the film’s shoestring budget, it’s unreasonable to expect everything to look entirely on-point. I do think, and it’s true of the practical effects in general, the make-up across the board was pretty great, particularly Lisa Trevor’s twisted visage, whereas the generated imagery was hurt by budgetary constraints. It wasn’t always bad, William Burke’s mutation did look particularly cool but it took everything I had to not laugh out loud at pretty much any explosion or zombie dog put on screen.  

The film’s cast was a genuine mixed bag. I liked certain interpretations, such as the Redfields themselves, however, I felt Jill Valentine and Leon S. Kennedy, portrayed by Hannah John-Kamen and Avan Jogia respectively, were dealt bad hands, especially the latter. In the games he’s a resilient rookie cop, here he’s the butt of every joke and I feel like they did him dirty. And for a guy who, I feel, has been good in The Umbrella Academy for a couple of seasons, Tom Hopper’s turn as Wesker is nothing short of dreadful. 

And the mid-credits scene he strongly features in—while not directly his fault—took this movie down a whole point. It’s that bad. 

Because of the seemingly directionless narrative and abhorrent dialogue, it’s hard to sell this as a better film outright over the original Paul W. S. Anderson adaptation, though I think it is a better Resident Evil film. It has such an earnest desire to take all of the moments fans adore from the first two games and put them on the silver screen and I believe it does that, even if it’s to the detriment of every other facet of the film. 

The post Resident Evil: Welcome To Raccoon City Review – Get Out Of Town appeared first on Press Start.

Just as Mortal Kombat — the life or death tournament after which the games and film are named — comes around every so often, so does a video game film adaptation that doesn’t absolutely miss the mark. I didn’t expect lightning to strike again so close to the surprisingly decent Sonic the Hedgehog film, yet Simon McQuoid’s Mortal Kombat is as faithful a love letter to the confronting violence and martial arts on which the Mortal Kombat brand has built its name. 

It’s difficult to avoid clunky, distracting exposition when dealing with an established canon focused on an enduring centuries-long arm wrestle between good and evil — Marvel is guilty of it, so I didn’t expect a video-game tie-in like Mortal Kombat to avoid committing one of popcorn Hollywood’s biggest sins. In an effort to justify the usual, exhaustive drivel that’s trotted out to quickly put the game’s history and its characters into context, the filmmakers introduce Cole Young.

New to the series and portrayed by Lewis Tan (Iron Fist, Into the Badlands), Cole represents the casual filmgoer who mightn’t have a working knowledge of the rules and players in Mortal Kombat. It’s just a shame he’s a bit dull and underdeveloped compared to the other larger-than-life caricatures, though his role as an analogue for the viewer is an essential one. 

Because in his presence, it’s easier to accept Sonya Blade pulling the curtain back on her hideout’s conspiracy board, full of dot-connecting red string, which impossibly explains every precise detail of what’s driving the plot forward. From the conspicuous dragon markings that brand Earth’s chosen fighters — a plot device that invites further questioning I feel — to the realms beyond Earth and the stakes if our heroes fail to end their planet’s losing streak in this upcoming tenth Mortal Kombat. This kind of super exposition is necessary if a film is to cram decades worth of lore into a two-hour film, and it’s easy enough to excuse when McQuoid succeeds in capturing the game’s essence to a tee. 

While the plot is there and serves as the fuel forcing this locomotive of a film towards the credits, Mortal Kombat really feels like a love letter to all of its more important facets. It’s got graceful martial art choreography that feels like an authentic performance piece within the film, I adore that they’ve cast so many actors with proficiencies in many disciplines. It’s also rich with the extreme gore and violence that the game series has built its reputation upon, they held nothing back which helped the film along to a hard-earned R18+ rating. Although I’ll long have a soft spot for the cast in the Mortal Kombat film from my childhood, I definitely appreciate the diverse cast that has been assembled for McQuoid’s take, including more than a few homegrown performances from Josh Lawson, Sisi Stringer, and Jessica McNamee who all catapult themselves into their roles — particularly Lawson with his rough as guts, ocker mercenary Kano who, I expect, had more than enough fun making this picture.

Sub-Zero, first introduced as Bi-Han, is a genuine scene-stealer in Mortal Kombat, Joe Taslim plays him with a menacingly cold precision — pun intended — that just leaves his presence hanging over the entire film. Tasked by the wooden one-note conqueror Shang Tsung with cutting the band of heroes off at their knees, the way he hunts Earthrealm makes him feel more like an unstoppable force of nature. Just about every scene Sub-Zero is in feels like fan service, which is something Mortal Kombat has plenty of if nothing else. Countless fatalities, famous catchphrases, character face-offs, and that moment when the unmistakable theme kicks in. Where most video game adaptations miss the mark, Mortal Kombat is true to the source.

I appreciate that McQuoid resisted the urge to cash in every big-name fighter, keeping both sides of the tournament bracket from Outworld and Earthrealm relatively focused with a nice mix of classic and relatively new. Especially in a film about literally removing the entrails from the other side that both the studio and the director helming it saw enough sequel potential here to show restraint in choosing their fighters. 

Although the film finds itself bogged down in its middle act as the fighters train to unlock their mojo. I imagine this gave Ludi Lin, who plays Liu Kang, a sense of déjà vu as it reminded me a lot of his Power Rangers film where the titular rangers toiled in a cave trying all manner of introspection and punching to discover hidden power, much like the regrettable twenty minutes in Mortal Kombat’s middle-arc. However, there are two particular conflicts full of sweet, sweet brutality that bookend the film, making the two hours feel particularly tight in spite of its issues.  

I’m particularly impressed by the production values of McQuoid’s Mortal Kombat, for the most part. While Outworld is presented as a rather inexpensive, barren waste, the film’s budget is more evident in locations like Raiden’s temple and the beautiful and serene Japanese compound belonging to Hanzo Hasashi, who’d later become known as Scorpion. A lot of care has been taken to make Mortal Kombat as violent as possible and the visual effects are bloody impressive, save for one brief moment, which can be seen in the trailer, where Kano uses his eye laser from the side profile. There are some instances where the fully-rendered characters looked off when lit well, fortunately, McQuoid did well to stage them in darker settings for the most part to hide the warts a bit. That said, the costume department deserves a pat on the back for at least Scorpion and Sub-Zero’s attire, it’s come a long way from a basement-built, cheap look of over two decades ago. 

I feel as though this darker, grittier interpretation of Mortal Kombat does take itself a bit more seriously than the film from my childhood. Though it’s missing the campy eccentricity of Christopher Lambert’s Raiden and the unforgettable and immortal portrayal of Shang Tsung by Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa, the cast all turn in honest performances as their characters. I do wish we got more time with Hiroyuki Sanada, arguably the film’s most decorated actor, who’s so under-utilised as Scorpion it hurts, though he kills it with the little screen time he gets. I’ll give a special shoutout to Ludi Lin’s rig in this flick, he got into spectacular shape for his role as Liu Kang and I can only say the all-lettuce diet was worth it all. 

While it’s got script issues and the middle act feels like it gives too much breathing room on the two-hour fight card, Mortal Kombat is a fine first round and exists as further proof that video game adaptations aren’t predestined to fail outright. Having proven to have a keen eye and clear care for the source material, I hope Simon McQuoid gets another chance to expand on this universe and once again marry Mortal Kombat’s dark fantasy setting with its spectacular brand of savagery.

The post Mortal Kombat Movie Review – Nether Been Better appeared first on Press Start.

We don’t normally review movies, but given Aladdin is one of my favourite movies of all time, and I feel many of you will share the same sentiment, I felt like I wanted to get my thoughts out there. Now, I had felt a little worried (or underwhelmed) with some of the previews that I had seen over the last 6-12 months, and those echoes were widely shared among others online, but I felt compelled to write this for exactly that reason.

The new Aladdin is absolutely fantastic. It’s not better than the original, and it didn’t need to be, but it tells the story of Aladdin, Jasmine and their colourful cast of friends pretty perfectly for the current climate. If I was comparing the two, I’d say that it sets alongside the original extremely well, and offers up something different that doesn’t take away from what made the movie great in the first place.

I’m going to dive right in to the most divisive part of the live-action adaption – Will Smith as Genie. I thought he was absolutely fantastic and captured the essence of Genie perfectly. Now, it was going to be tough for anyone to match Robin William’s charisma, and I’m not even sure that Williams himself could have delivered the type of performance that he did in the original, in a live-action performance, but Will Smith nailed it.

During his musical performances, he brought a RnB/Soulful vibe, which was much appreciated and made the songs feel much more current (but still faithful to the originals). Musically, it was much closer to the Broadway version of Aladdin, which worked well. There’s some rapping and beat boxing, which you’d think would be out of place, but given its subtlety it worked really well.

Narratively, the Genie played a more important role in the overall story of the movie (no spoilers). It gave him a character arc (outside of being Aladdin’s Genie), and allowed him to work well with Aladdin, Jasmine as well as Dalla (Jasmine’s maid who is completely new to this adaption and plays a major role in the movie).

It’s really hard to talk about Dalla without going into spoiler territory, but she plays a major role in the movie from start to finish and does a really good job at bringing certain parts of the plot (that felt loose before) together. She also has a really clumsy sense of humour, which captures the original playful tone of the movie.

Visually, the movie is stunning and this is captured really well in the ‘Friend Like Me’ and ‘Prince Ali’ musical performances. I was wondering how they’d recapture the magic of these songs in a live-action adaption, but it absolutely surpassed what we saw in the animated version of the movie. It was magical, out of this world and absolutely brought a smile to my face, which is exactly what I want from a Disney movie.

The entire soundtrack has a new lease on life, and I can’t wait to listen to it all on repeat once it releases (as an adult this time around).

Both Aladdin and Jasmine’s performances were captured perfectly by Mena Massoud and Naomi Scott respectively. Their delivery of lines (most of which are classics) and mannerisms made them feel like the perfect actors to play these characters. There were a few scenes which felt a little bit clumsy in a live-action setting, but nothing that ruined it for me.

Jasmine’s role in particular feels more prominent. Her message is definitely of female empowerment which is illustrated by her performance of Speechless (a brand-new song to this version of the movie). It’s a classic song and instantly has the hallmarks of a Disney classic. It didn’t feel out of place, and is definitely catchy.

Abu and Iago still play a major part in the movie. Iago in particular is much subtler in the way that he speaks. He talks under his breath (like a normal parrot should), but still plays a major role as Jafar’s sidekick, is influential to some key scenes in the movie and doesn’t feel out of place with the rest of the movie.

I must admit, the movie does have a bit of a pacing issue near the beginning and somewhere in the third quarter of the movie. It feels as if there are a few too many setbacks for Aladdin (that feel a little unbelievable). He gets out of them way too easily, which makes them feel a little bit superficial, but at the end of the day, him overcoming these setbacks does make for an even better, feel good ending.

The post Aladdin Review – A Whole New (And Fantastic) World appeared first on Press Start.

Possibly one of the year’s most anticipated films, with a robust marketing campaign and a strong ensemble cast, Suicide Squad looked to fill the crater that DC Films had created in the wake of the less than stellar reception of Man of Steel and Batman v Superman.

And here’s the good news: Suicide Squad is good. It’s a solid film and that’s enough for DC at the moment to keep spinning the wheel of hype to garner more interest in the DC cinematic universe. Unfortunately, some butchering in the editing department kills this film, and what could have been a great film is merely good enough.With David Ayer behind the lens and the pen, it’s a bit surprising to see the film stick to a PG-13 rating (M equivalent here), with such a motley crew of dark characters, the edge is definitely dulled by the restrictive rating. It would be a dream to see a hard R for a film like this, but nevertheless, the cast still gets to shine in their respective parts.

It’s hard for Will Smith to not be Will Smith but his performance is more than fine as Deadshot. What’s perhaps best about the film is that it doesn’t really focus on one character as the leader. The final act really does use each character in pivotal moments, and it’s great that the best part of the final act doesn’t go to someone like Margot or Will but to Jay Hernandez’s El Diablo. Will Smith is given the most amount of screentime, but each character is allowed to shine (with the exception of Killer Croc and Katana, who don’t really have much of a presence).Perhaps the outstanding performance is Margot Robbie, who despite the overhype and oversaturation in marketing, absolutely kills it as Harley Quinn. She plays the psychopathic queen to the Joker so, so well, and every moment she gets on screen is a delight. She plays with the rest of the cast in ways that elevate the ensemble from good to great and is the glue that brings it all together. Jai Courtney also shines in what could be his first decent movie role as Captain Boomerang, hamming up the Australian accent to full comedic effect. Cara Delevingne rounds the cast as the Enchantress, and is clearly enjoying herself on screen, with some incredibly hammy dialogue and acting that’s too silly to not enjoy.

In terms of pacing and editing, this is where the film absolutely fails. The first act is over in an instant, not giving characters enough time to develop and introduce themselves. The escalation of the world event that leads to the Suicide Squad being deployed is so jarringly done that the transition from act 1 to act 2 feels completely out of touch. Scenes feel out of order at some points, and a lot of transitional dialogue is sacrificed for a character joke. Action scenes feel incredibly rushed and there is barely any breathing room. I feel this film could have used an extra 20 minutes not just to develop characters more, but just to allow some more natural breathing room and extended action scenes to really let them pop. It’s that poor of an editing job that it completely kills the pacing and tone of the film at some points, and it’s a damn shame that such a solid cast is brought down because of this. The last act, in particular, suffers from some major issues, as themes of teamwork and friendship are brought to a climax that don’t feel as earned as they should have due to the haphazard edit job that makes the first two acts feel so rushed.Jared Leto is solid as the Joker, but due to the inconsistent editing between scenes he causes an almost jarring presence within the film, and he is given no room to breathe and develop as a character. What’s left on screen is solid, and Leto is a fine actor, but there isn’t enough to judge his interpretation.

Suicide Squad holds up due to its well-written dialogue between characters and some very strong performances that turn these comic book misfits into people with actual depth, but the film is brought down by some very poor editing choices that completely kill the pacing and tone. What’s left is still a solid film, and despite its flaws, is very much the win that DC Films needed.

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