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Bad Samaritan – A clever thriller that keeps you on edge to the end

| Cris Alvarez

Some people might know that David Tennant can do creepy but I didn’t. Bad Samaritan presents us with Tennant’s version of evil that’ll be difficult to shake from your memory and isn’t that what we all want from a thriller?

Bad Samaritan will be released on May 4, 2018 and focuses on a young artist who earns his keep as a valet and also as a petty burglar. One errant burglary leads to his discovery of a frightful secret that he tries to report to the police. This good act sets the psychopath he’s discovered on his trail and you can imagine what happens next. Actually you can’t, because the script takes well-worn thriller tropes and spins them on their head in a deliciously intelligent and intense way.

The movie sets the stage with a very sinister opening note however, it takes an odd and worrisome turn, with a following sequence that feels snatched from a National Geographic montage of Portland, Oregon. Our hero is quickly introduced and he seems a bit cliché at first but after that the movie quickly sheds its problems and slowly raises the stakes bit by bit until you’re racing along at a rapid pace that rarely ever slackens. It’s a testament to the movie that at a running time of one hour and forty-seven minutes, not once did I want to check the time. In fact, the movie seemed much shorter because of how well it held my attention. Even knowledge of the movie’s instigating events won’t slow you down because of how well they’re presented by the director, Dean Devlin. Mr. Devlin has a solid directing resume and he applies his knowledge of action and thriller movies well in Bad Samaritan.

The music, while initially overbearing, shifted to the background at the right time and then worked well throughout. The script was tight without only one or two minor plot point weaknesses that didn’t affect my enjoyment of the film. Most of the characters, especially the main ones, were fresh and interesting and oddly, everyone, good and bad, proved to be intelligent and engaging. This movie played on the idea that sometimes you can do everything right and circumstances will still get in the way. To explain what I mean would give away important parts of the movie and I won’t do that but, you can trust me.

The cinematographer and director worked so well together in setting up visual and contextual tension and to such good effect I found myself thinking – well done sirs. They were both playful and serious in just the right amounts. While it’s no doubt difficult to fool audiences in this day and age, simply because we’ve nearly seen it all, Bad Samaritan was able to delight with so many smart touches. The actors played their parts very well and there were even a few truly emotional points in the movie. I believed what the characters were giving me.

Bad Samaritan is not just a good thriller, it’s a good movie. It’ll make you think a little more about technology and safety, since that’s a big part of the story too, and leave you feeling that you’ve spent your time well. The only thing that keeps me from giving the movie an A- is that they didn’t tackle a large societal problem. What we do get is a very interesting, character-driven gem.

Ready Player One – A botched attempt to make an 80s movie in 2018

| Cris Alvarez

A better title for Ready Player One could have been Ready Cheesy One. At some point in the film, maybe halfway, it struck me that the film was a bad remake of any number of 80s Spielberg movies. Then I did the proverbial imagined palm to the forehead and remembered that this is a Spielberg produced film. I immediately wanted to ask the legend what happened to his touch.

The number of issues I had with this film makes it difficult to figure out where to start. To be fair, I did take a step back and put myself in a kid’s shoes to consider whether it might be fun for the younger crowd. It had a lot of action, flash, and bang but it seriously lacked the heart that we got from these movies when they came out thirty years ago. I decided that when you have a cheesy plot and a simplistic script, you need charismatic actors to make it work. Alas, RPO sorely lacked the necessary ingredients. The best acting came not from the young stars but from the old guys and the game avatars. The human stars were the two- dimensional characters of the film and on top of that they were simply boring. Their motivations and attitudes were cliché and made for a yawn fest. I think the editor also got bored because the pacing mistakes were awful. The starts and stops in mood were almost hilariously jarring. I suppose the idea was to speed past the drama and get back to the video game effects as fast as possible. Oddly, the movie was so heavy on narrative at the start I was getting bored at minute one.

As for the game aspect of the film, there were a few cool peaks involving some very interesting dance game scenes, but the ground combat and car races were simply blase. The producers also could not maintain the logical consistency of the “Oasis”, the name of the game world everyone played in. Logical inconsistencies were so prevalent in this movie I wondered if anyone took the time to even worry about the movie-game mechanics. I can imagine that experienced gamers will be more than willing to pick out the things that don’t make sense. For example, if hundreds of people have been playing one particular racing game, dozens, perhaps hundreds of times, over and over to win, and have not succeeded, why would all the drivers on the bad guy team drive the same type of vehicle? The good guys did better with a mish mash of exotic vehicles so why didn’t the baddies try out various vehicles instead of multiples of the same exact one. Oh, that’s right. The bad guys are dumb. The bad guys also showed zero teamwork though they had been playing together as a team over and over in the game. The movie’s credibility sank from the start.

There’s another problem with the game world we’re shown. The heroes always seemed to have just the right tool when they needed it in the game to survive or win. Yeah we got the usual quick narrative as to how and why but it seemed all too convenient at times. Basically, the movie threw game obstacles and solutions at the characters, both good and bad, as the plot saw fit. It barely followed any semblance of sense. Aargh.

The movie did have some shining moments. I mentioned the dance sequences, but there were also some great scenes with the older actors that involved human issues and not game ones. The avatars at times showed real humanity that was touching. But then the movie would immediately shift from emotion to some action or slam bam sequence so fast it made me wonder if the movie was scared to bore younger audiences with touchy-feely stuff. There were also some fantastic Easter eggs that involved, table top role playing games, classic rock, and of course old school video gaming. My favorite was a plot focus on the first game I played as a kid. In fact it was a game I loved and played a lot. However, there were so many hidden eggs in the movie, I started to choke on them. After a while it felt like every old and new game property that wanted a piece of the action wormed its way into the movie. The producers were obviously really nostalgic for the late 70s and 80s. I’ll point out that’s the hay day of Dungeons and Dragons.

So let’s see, I slammed the acting, the editing, and the overall production. I still haven’t mentioned the music. It mostly stunk. They pulled a GotG by using classic rock at importune times to work up the audience. Then the incidental music took up the slack by being overbearing throughout. It was like a cranked up, poor version of the music that we heard in Spielberg’s old 80s movies. There were even a few segments that sounded like Disney fanfare parade music. Side note. I’m a huge Disney fan. But the Disney-esque music in this movie was horribly misplaced.

So in sum, the movie started pretty poorly, throwing characters at us that we barely cared about. The bad guy was cardboard and of course had a speaking defect to add to his creepiness. Why Hollywood keeps using speech impediments to make someone look creepier or more evil is a disgusting discrimination I’m surprised is still used without comment from audiences. The movie eventually threw in some interesting drama and character development and I had hope. That hope was short lived and the movie made sure to drag me down again into pits of despair. They dredged me up occasionally with a few more peaks but the valleys were too numerous. Oh, what could have been. The art design was fine and solid but nothing particularly noteworthy. It’s interesting that almost no movie based on a video game has succeeded. It looks like a movie trying to start a video game franchise from nothing also doesn’t work. If you must see RPO, wait for the small screen.

Lost in Space reboot crackles with thrills and drama

| Cris Alvarez

It seems to take a few years after a war ends before decent television drama about that war appears. When I sat down for the Netflix premier of Lost in Space at Awesomecon 2018, a lively war-influenced television drama was the last thing I expected. After all, Lost in Space is a simple story about a family sent to colonize another planet and getting lost along the way. They crash into an alien planet and have to contend with a series of unknown dangers. However, Netflix has given us more than a simple castaway story in space.

The original Lost in Space ran for three seasons from 1965 to 1968 and ranged from adventure to comedy to pure camp. It reflected the country’s excitement and anxiety over competing with the Soviet Union in the race to the moon and beyond. This new version of Lost in Space also harnesses citizen interest in space exploration but the enemy presented to us is a bit different from the one peeking over the Iron Curtain in the 1960s.

The opening scene is a captivating one that mixes good science with a dash of dramatic license. We literally drift softly into the story before we and the Robinson family almost immediately crash headlong into danger. Once the ride starts, it carries us through the whole hour, with new thrills each step of the way.

The production values are top-notch. The ships, sets, costumes and landscapes are wonderful sci-fi candy for the eye. The one regret many viewers will never even know they should feel is not seeing the first episode on a large screen. It should be viewed like a movie since that’s how good it looks. I’m sure it’ll look great on the small screen but it’s a shame that’s how most people will see it. To avoid spoilers, I won’t describe any of the amazing shots we’re treated to but they made the nature landscape lover and space fanatic in me joyful.

The script was just as strong as the visuals. The writers took great pains to introduce many interesting scientific concepts in a seamless and easy to understand way. They obviously cared about engaging the audience intellectually without burdening the story. They effectively used flashbacks to build the family drama that permeates the story and balanced thrills with thoughtfulness well. I mentioned before that watching Lost in Space as a drama touched by war surprised me. At the risk of revealing the mildest of spoilers, Mr. Robinson is a Marine veteran who’s been on several mysterious deployments to the Middle East. A regular special forces type. In real life, families separated by war creates major family tension. In Lost in Space these difficulties and their repercussions translate into believable and heartfelt drama. The writers don’t pull the punches and this dynamic was refreshing, albeit sad, to watch as it materialized on screen.

The one minor downside to the series is the acting. The characters are at times a bit melodramatic and some emotional sequences are forced on us. However, the consistency of this problem across all the characters suggests this is a directing problem rather than an acting one. That’s not to say I didn’t believe the motivations, fears and foibles of the characters because those were well-developed. But some of the reactions to problems briefly took me out of the moment. It’s a small complaint and certainly not one that should dissuade anyone from watching this series. I did find it curiously refreshing to see that one character, Judy Robinson, seems very much like a youthful version of Michael Burnham from Star Trek: Discovery in both attitude and ability. Being a fan of both Discovery and Michael Burnham, this little touch made me happy.

Lost in Space takes some of its plot cues from such series as Lost, Battlestar Galactica, and Game of Thrones. These shows throw groups of characters together – good, bad and morally middling each with their own secret agendas and mysteries. One might think the adventures of one family wouldn’t lend itself well to such a story but in the last ten minutes you’ll be rewarded with some rather intriguing twists.

By the end, I was both mesmerized and a bit teary-eyed over the nostalgic Easter eggs tossed my way. I’m a bit sappy I guess but I do like my old school sci-fi. Overall, the first episode of Lost in Space was a load of fun and I can’t wait to see the full series. Be warned. There are too many twists for you to wait too long to see it once it premieres. I have a feeling that once the show drops on Netflix on April 13^th fans are going to be debating it vigorously from day one. Don’t be that one fan lost in space.