After taking a month off to recharge my batteries, which mostly involved playing retro games and reading Sonic the Hedgehog comics, I’m back just in time for a double feature of Dwayne Johnson vehicles with a number at the end of them! I’ve been a huge fan of Dwayneson The Rockson Johnson for many years, but his misguided attempts at joining the fledgling DCEU left him in perhaps the lowest point in his career since making The Tooth Fairy. Hopefully the fact that he not only still gets roles in big tent pole movies, but that studios are willing to put two of them up against each other at the same time bodes well for his future endeavors, and hopefully they are great movies as well. Let’s find out!!
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Moana 2
Moana 2 is owned by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures
Directed by David Derrick Jr, Jason Hand, and Dana Ledoux Miller
After saving her island and calming the seas, Moana (Auliʻi Cravalho) has spent the last few years exploring the various islands around her in hopes of finding more people to connect with. Evidence is rather scarce, however, and it seems that there’s another god throwing another tantrum that is causing the various peoples of the world to stay far apart, and Moana is once again called to adventure for the fate of the world. Maui (Dwayne Johnson) is sadly unable to join her on this quest as he’s stuck dealing with the demigod Matangi (Awhimai Fraser), so Moana puts together a crew of villagers (Hualālai Chung, Rose Matafeo, and David Fane) who she hopes are up to the task which only looks more daunting as the stakes get ever higher.
When I wrote my review of the first Moana, I lamented the fact that it was stuck being a simple movie and couldn’t expand into something broader in scope to make the most of its interesting mythology. Oh, how naïve I was back then. In so many ways, the first film was a product of an entirely different world and a media landscape that has been turned entirely on its head. In 2016, the idea of Disney putting this kind of budget and star power into a TV show was laughable. Nowadays, it’s almost quaint to see one of their biggest money-makers staying firmly in one space and not being spread across a dozen different projects, though I guess we’ll see if they get a guest spot in whatever Kingdom Hearts game Nomura is cooking up next. Still, this movie didn’t escape the New Disney Machine unscathed, and a lot of the charm of the first film is lost in an attempt to turn this into yet another franchise for the Mouse House. In that sense, it’s not just fighting one uphill battle; it’s fighting two at the same time, as it already has many of the obvious problems you run into while making a sequel while also shouldering the responsibility of being a lead in to more Moana content in the future. The end result is a movie that pantomimes the beats of the original film without any of its heart; so, much like Te Kā, it’s a shadow of its former self as it stumbles to find what’s gone missing. First and foremost are the character arcs, as we’ve already overcome all of Moana’s struggles. In the first film, her story was personal and relatable as she was in opposition to the rest of her culture’s values and had to struggle to find who she truly was while going on this journey; even failing at critical junctures due to shortcomings in her character. She grew over the course of that first movie, which was great, but now that we’re post-hero’s journey and the lack of any character development is the gaping black hole that sucks all the tension and drama out of this story. She’s on another epic quest, but it hardly feels like one because there’s no adversity. There are challenges, sure, but nothing that isn’t resolved by acrobatics and proper swimming technique, and without any moments of doubt, even when Moana fails at something, the conclusion feels almost inevitable. Perhaps a radically different quest for her to go on would have given her new depths to plumb, but instead we’re just going through the motions of the first one and what few things are new are, at best, a lateral move as they fail to elevate the material or drag this bore of a storyline out of the mud. She’s got a proper crew this time which would have been a refreshing change of pace from the first film, but they aren’t particularly interesting, and it also means that Maui gets less screen time, which is a shame as he is still the most fun character in this series. The songs sound okay, but they’re little more than echoes of the original film’s soundtrack and only add to the hollow feel of everything. The most interesting development in this movie is the introduction of other gods, as it’s a genuine elevation of the stakes, with Matangi being the standout of the entire movie. She has an interesting dynamic as her allegiances remain ambiguous throughout, and she has the only song on the soundtrack that doesn’t sound like a half-hearted rehash. Unfortunately, even this bright spot is marred by the film’s ultimate goal of being an advertisement for future installments, and so it fails to integrate naturally with the story they are trying to tell here. It’s disappointing how little of an identity this has given how much personality we got in the first film, and if you’re spending the entire running time begging me to stick around for the sequel, why am I even bothering with this one at all? Perhaps everything I have to complain about here is just an old man yelling at clouds and that the target audience will adore this much like they did the first one. I wouldn’t even call it a huge betrayal, as there’s just enough humor, action, and solid animation to keep you occupied the whole way through. For those reasons, I’m going to give it the most lukewarm of passes imaginable, but this franchise has spent all its goodwill on this mediocre outing and is gonna have to really step up its game for the next one if it wants to be more than just another bland franchise to add to the pile.
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Red One
Red One is owned by Amazon MGM Studios
Directed by Jake Kasdan
Being Santa Claus (JK Simmons) is an incredibly tough gig, but it gets a little bit easy when you’ve got Callum Drift (Dwayne Johnson) watching your back and spotting you on the bench press. Still, even the best magical bodyguards can have an off day, and Santa gets kidnapped mere days before Christmas by a group of nefarious foes led by a mysterious woman (Kiernan Shipka). Of course, they couldn’t have done it alone as Santa’s secret fortress of toy-making was sussed out by master hacker Jack O’Malley (Chris Evans), and this gives Callum as well as the folks at MORA (Mythological Oversight and Restoration Authority) a chance to get him back before this truly becomes the year without a Santa Claus! Can the unlikely duo of Callum and Jack muster up enough cooperation and good ol’ Christmas Magic to make this a Holly Jolly Christmas, or does Jack’s permanent spot on the Naughty List bode poorly for Santa’s safe return?
Frankly, I had no idea what to expect going into this one given its goofy premise, but there were a few signs that this wasn’t going to be a total disaster. The cast has a couple of big stars who are fairly good at picking projects, the film is directed by the guy who made Walk Hard which is still the one of the best comedy since the turn of the millennium, and JK Simmons is a darn good pick for Santa Claus, so I had a certain amount of optimism going into it. Those expectations were not quite reached as this movie should have been even better than it ultimately was given everything it had going for it, but for a big budget Holiday spectacle, it does its job just fine. In fact, in a long line of Men in Black wannabes, this might be in the upper echelon with a buddy cop dynamic that genuinely works and a couple of smart ideas that elevate the material beyond the novelty of its mere existence. It gives us just enough heart that you can’t dismiss it as entirely cynical, and I enjoyed the nuances of the characters, who could have been as flat as the cardboard cutouts in the lobby of your local multiplex given the general vibe of this being a Christmas Blockbuster. The standout moments are definitely the ones involving Krampus as Kristofer Hivju’s performance could have carried a whole movie on its own, but there’s enough creativity on display and well realized action set pieces for this to have its own identity. Still, like Moana 2, it can’t fully escape the trappings of modern day blockbusters which always want to keep the door open for a possible franchise. MORA is barely a step above Prodigium as far as bad world building organizations, and only gets a few points by not inserting itself so heavily into the plot. This unfortunately means that Lucy Liu is severely underutilized in a movie that could have used a little more pushback against the shenanigans of its two stars to more effectively sell the drama and urgency of the situation. I also think the villain needed a human element to give the scheme a little more depth than just a magical being doing evil magic stuff. The movie was crying for some sort of dopey billionaire type who personified everything that Dwayne Johnson hated about humanity, which would have given his arc a little more weight to it. As it stands, that job is handled entirely by Chris Evans, who also has to eventually become the heart of the movie and the battle between his naughty side and good side doesn’t quite mesh correctly. I suppose that’s my overall criticism of the movie, as all the elements are almost there but don’t quite fit together as snugly as they should. The stars are charismatic and play their roles well, but the arcs aren’t as fully developed as they should be. The Christmas Magic is great to see and some of the concepts go the extra mile into wicked fun, but there are parts where they pull back too much. Men in Black wasn’t without its share of issues, but it never felt like it was trying to be any friendlier or cleaner than it needed to be, and that boldness is what makes it the superior film. A little more edge or perhaps a stronger and more complex narrative would have pushed this into all-time classic territory, but even if it feels a little too nice for its wild premise, it still stands out at a time that is dominated by superhero movies and legacy sequels. Of course, this somewhat original movie that exceeds expectations in the Dwayne Johnson movie to tank at the box office while the boring rehash of a decent animated movie is what’ll clean up at the theaters for the next few weeks, but measuring a movie’s worth on its popularity has never been a sound metric, and I know which one I’ll be rewatching next year.
The Reviewers Unite 