The Princess (2022)

 

The unnamed Princess of an unnamed kingdom awakens to find herself locked in the top of her castle's highest tower, there to await a forced wedding with the nobleman Julius.  Since the laws of the land say that a woman cannot inherit the throne, and the king has no sons, this marriage would make Julius the heir to the throne.

With the castle in their hands, Julius and his mercenaries do not expect any further trouble, but they are about to find out why the Princess always made her father so exasperated: despite his objections, she has studied martial arts for most of her life.  

The Princess kills the two mercenaries sent to guard her, then begins to make her way down the tower, using her lethal martial arts skills and knowledge of the castle's secret passageways to kill or avoid the mercenaries that are searching for her.

But the numbers of those mercenaries steadily grow, and the Princess can't get out of every single scrape unharmed.  Can one young woman, no matter how skilful, prevail against such odds?

The Princess begins in media res, using flashbacks to explain how the title character came to be imprisoned as well as how she learned her deadly skills.  This is a smart play since it lets the movie immediately leap into the first of its many action sequences.  The film thus hits the ground at pace, dragging the audience along for a theme park style ride of ever escalating action hijinks.

And I have to say, the film's action choreography team deserve kudos for the work they have done here.  The Princess has many fight and stunt sequences throughout its length, and in lazy hands those scenes could easily have become tediously repetitious.  Fortunately, the choreography team have done an excellent job of keeping them varied and interesting.  They have ensured that the Princess faces many different situations and many different enemies, each with their own strengths, weaknesses and complications, which helps keep the action fresh and distinctive.

The film's script also uses occasional moments of humour - often but not only slapstick or mild farce - to leaven the action and give the film a bit of variety.  This is a smart decision, because even with the creative choreography, the film does maybe start to run a little out of steam in its latter stages.  I think this is because it is so high octane, right from the start, that it struggles to find a real 'gear change'.  That limits its ability to create a sense of escalating danger.

The most obvious example of this failing comes in the death of one of Julius's primary agents.  This character was lots of fun and got built up really well - they are, in fact, rather more interesting and engaging than Julius himself - but their ultimate defeat doesn't feel all that much more difficult or special than that of many of the other villains.

That lack of escalating stakes aside, The Princess is a fun action romp.  I certainly don't regret having seen it.

Ms Marvel (2022)

 

Kamala Khan is a 16-year-old Pakistani-American high school student from Jersey City. Kamals's an aspiring artist, avid gamer, and devout Avengers fan - particularly Captain Marvel. She's also living with the challenges of being brown and Muslim in the modern day United States.

While Kamala does have a circle of friends - Muslim and non-Muslim alike - she's very much on the fringes of mainstream society, a situation she dreams of changing by nailing it with the best Captain Marvel cosplay anyone's ever seen.

What she actually gets instead is unexpected super-powers, which seem to stem (or perhaps, have been triggered) by a golden bangle that used to belong to her grandmother.

As Kamala struggles to adjust to her new abilities, and use them for good, her accidents and fledging efforts to be a hero attract attention from multiple parties, including the US Department of Damage Control, and inter-dimensional beings known as the Clandestine.  Who of these are friends and who are enemies?  Kamala might lose her freedom or her life if she gets the answer wrong.

Ms. Marvel is a thoroughly enjoyable superhero coming-of-age, outsider to champion style tale.  It's anchored by an excellent cast; Iman Vellani brings real charm and pathos to the central role of Kamala, and she's ably supported by the talented group of actors who play her friends and family.  I hope we get to see them feature in the upcoming film The Marvels as I think there's a lot of fun possibilities in seeing these characters interact with the wider Marvel Cinematic Universe.

I also liked that the show draws a lot of its back-story and development from the 1947 Partition of India.  It's good to see a Disney show draw on an event from non-US/European history.  It was a traumatic and dangerous time - up to 2 million people may have died - that's largely unknown or forgotten in the west, but which continues to have profound implications in Asian politics.  It was also good to see the characters spend time in Pakistan (at least, in the fiction; in the real world, these scenes appear to have actually been filled in Thailand and in Atlanta).

If I was forced to find fault with the show, I would probably call out that it tries to pack an awful lot of story into only six episodes.  The Clandestine plotline moves very fast as a result, and feels a bit rushed at times.  Some secondary characters also end up not being given as much time as I would have liked to see spent with them.  Another couple of episodes would, I think, have given the show more time to breathe.  

I certainly wouldn't have objected to spending more time with Kamala and Co., and if the worst thing I can say about a program is that I wanted more, it's safe to say that it's one I enjoyed!

Avalon High (2010)

 

When Allie Pennington enrols at Avalon High, she expects her school experience to be much as it always is.  A six or twelve month pitstop while her parents, both scholars of medieval literature, work out a contract at a local university and then move on.

Allie's expectations are wrong for two reasons.  First, because her parents have decided it is time to spend a few years in one place, so their daughter can have a stable preparation for college.  And second; because Avalon High is steeped in Arthurian lore and some of the student body seem to bear an uncanny resemblance to figures from Camelot.

Could an ancient prophecy really be pointing to her dreamy classmate Will as the reincarnation of King Arthur himself?  And could his rebellious step-brother equally be the evil Mordred?  It seems crazy, but all the pieces seem to fit.  The only question seems to be, can Allie save this reincarnation of the Round Table from the fate that befell the original?

Avalon High is based on the Meg Cabot novel of the same name.  I've read the book, and much as with the Maze Runner movie, this is one of those relatively rare cases where the film is a significant improvement on the book.  Cabot's novel has literally no twists or surprises; it's just A-B-C-D, following the most obvious for the plot.

This is not to say that the plot of the movie isn't frequently obvious; the script doesn't just sign-post upcoming developments, it puts them on floodlit billboards surrounded by blinking lights.  But it picks a more interesting set of revelations to unfold, and at least pretends that other outcomes are possible.  If nothing else, that allows the audience to feel smart if they guess what's coming.  Whereas the book tells you "this is what is going to happen" ... and then just has it happen.

The movie is definitely helped by a likeable young cast.  They gamely take on the sometimes unsubtle dialogue and chintzy costuming of the film, and generally make a good fist of it.  It's no surprise to me that they've largely gone on to enjoy solidly successful careers in film & TV.

Ultimately, Avalon High is not a particularly innovative or deep piece of film-making, but it is capably executed, breezy fun that tidily ticks off the beats of its plot.  Harmless family adventure with a few chuckles along the way.

Obi-Wan Kenobi (2022)

 

Ten years after the destruction of the Jedi and the establishment of the Galactic Empire, Obi-Wan Kenobi is in hiding on the desert planet of Tatooine, where he watches over the young Luke Skywalker.

Kenobi's mission requires him to keep his head down and avoid drawing any Imperial attention.  The Empire's Jedi-hunting Inquisitors are ruthless and effective, and respond to even the faintest hint of Jedi activity.

Despite many temptations to take a stand against injustice, Kenobi refuses to abandon his charge.  Nothing is important enough to abandon Luke.  Or so he thinks.

But then word comes that the young Princess Leia Organa has been kidnapped, and - as you almost certainly already know, unless you've lived under a rock for the last four decades - Leia is every bit as important as Luke.  It seems that Kenobi will have to buckle on his light sabre for one more mission, after all.

Obi-Wan Kenobi never quite managed to make me forget that the fates of many of these characters have been thoroughly defined over the past four decades, but it is honestly about as good and exciting an adventure as it can be, given the canonical narrative straight-jacket within which it must work.  While the futures of major Star Wars characters like Obi-Wan, Leia and Darth Vader are already established, the show wisely looks to introduce new characters about whose lives and fates real tension can be established.  It also does a surprisingly deft job of allowing Kenobi to have a planet-hopping adventure that could reasonably have gone unmentioned before now.  Smart scripting work, overall, even if it can't entirely take eliminate the weaknesses from being a 'flashback' story.

The show also profits from strong central performance.  Ewan McGregor is predictably excellent as Obi-Wan, very much channelling that Alec Guinness vibe for the role; but he is well-matched by the precocious Vivien Lyra Blair as young Leia.  She's an excellent choice, believably a younger, spirited-but-still-naïve version of the character as played by Carrie Fisher.

On the villainous side, Moses Ingram does good work in the role of the Jedi-hunting 'Third Sister', slowly revealing a more complex character than her brash aggression initially suggests.  Regrettably, Ingram suffered a lot of racial abuse and death threats online over the role, which were completely unjustified and hateful, and regrettably show how many people still want Star Wars (and for that matter, other media) to go back to just being all white dudes.

Another thing I enjoyed was the show's choice to depict Owen and Beru as much more than just the querulous aunt and uncle of A New Hope. It's a nice acknowledgement that, with all that was ultimately revealed in the films, they had to be very brave to take him in.  Of course, when the original film came out, little of that context was there!  It's good to see the writers recognising that it makes sense to change their characterisation, given the way the franchise has developed since then.

On the subject of the franchise's development, I do hope to see less trading on nostalgia in the future, with Star Wars. For one thing, there's really only so much space between the lines to fill in this earlier material.  For another, a franchise that is constantly feeding on its own history like this is not growing or evolving, and will ultimately become stale.

Until then, though, Obi-Wan Kenobi is a solid show, and well worth your time if you are a Star Wars fan.  Just don't be a Star Wars fan who is also a racist dirtbag, please.

The Spy Who Dumped Me (2018)

 

Audrey Stockman spends her birthday upset after being abruptly dumped by her boyfriend Drew.  What may be most galling of all is that only her BFF Morgan seems suitably upset on her behalf.

There's more to Drew's sudden break-up than Audrey knows, however, as she learns when she is abducted by two mysterious men.  They inform her that Drew was actually a CIA agent, and has gone missing.  They ask her to let them know if she hears from Drew, then let her go.

This is pretty much the signal for Audrey's life (and Morgan's, since as besties they are kind of a two-for-one deal) to become very complicated.  Spies, assassins and all kinds of other dangerous individuals are suddenly very interested in her, and in particular, in an old trophy of Drew's that she has in her possession.

Armed only with their moxie, Audrey and Morgan now have to stay one step ahead of everyone who is chasing them, while trying to unravel the significance of the trophy.  It's going to be a wild ride!

I very much enjoyed The Spy Who Dumped Me, and think there is a lot about it to like.  For one thing, stars Mila Kunis and Kate McKinnon have great chemistry together and are a huge amount as the out-of-their-depth Audrey and Morgan.  For another, when the humour works, it really works - the carjacking scene may be one of the funniest things I've seen this year.  The script also maintains momentum pretty well; I was never bored.

But it is still a bit of an uneven movie in some respects.  One of the key ones is that it attempts to blend outrageous farce - such as the carjacking scene, to name but one example - with extravagant, high octane, high body count action scenes.  It's at times a bit jarring to see Kunis and McKinnon being affably goofy amidst the carnage that is wrought around them.

Overall though, this was pretty good fun.  Glad I watched it.

Moon Knight (2022)

 

Steven Grant is a mild-mannered, rather ineffectual gift-shop employee at the British Museum.  Grant suffers from what appears to be chronic sleep-walking, often waking up in places he has no idea how he got to.  This persists even after he takes to chaining himself to his bed at night.

Grant's problems extend far further than an uncommonly severe case of somnambulism, however.  In fact, he has dissociative identity disorder.  Which would be serious enough all by itself, but it turns out that his other identity, Mark Spector, is the avatar for the Egyptian moon god Khonshu, who is engaged in a centuries-long battle to prevent the return of the malevolent goddess Ammit.

Grant becomes aware of his alter-ego (and his alter-ego's alter-ego), just as the struggle against Ammit enters its most critical (and lethal) stage.  With the aid of Spector's wife Layla, the two men will need to find a way to co-exist long enough to save humanity from Ammit's devastating plans.

There's quite a lot to like about Moon Knight.  For instance, Oscar Isaac is excellent in the main roles of Grant and Spector.  He convincingly portrays both identities as genuinely different people, including changes in accent, demeanour, body language and mannerisms.

Khonshu is also an interesting figure.  The moon god is a not especially friendly mentor figure to Spector; and at times, nearly an outright adversary to Grant.  He works to a different set of ethics and priorities than those generally held by modern western people, and this creates an interesting conflict within the show.

I also very much enjoyed May Calamawy as Layla.  The character is a good one and her performance is strong.

Despite all these positives, however, I felt the show was less than the sum of its parts.  I largely blame this on the writing, which I felt has a couple of weaknesses.

The first is the villains.  Ammit is quite a memorable foe, but her human minions are rather less interesting.

The second is pacing.  The show has a lot of backstory and information to unload, and things sometimes bogs down as it does so.  I didn't find myself ever truly swept up into the first couple of episodes, and when things finally seemed to get rolling, the show then took a very sharp left turn. As a comic book character, Moon Knight has had a lot of different depictions and styles and story arcs, and for my money the show tries to include too many disparate elements in its brief run of only six episodes.

She-Wolves of the Wasteland (1988)

 

It is the bleak post-apocalyptic future. The “bacteriological wars” have devastated the Earth. All human men are dead, and only small numbers of women have survived to eke out a pretty miserable existence in the wasteland the wars left behind.

The most powerful figure in this world is the Reverend Mother, who commands an army of bounty hunters that terrorise the other woman.  The Reverend Mother also allegedly commands 'dark powers' and seems to have some source of 'seed', with which she impregnates slaves dubbed 'breeders'.

She is not a nice person.

Keela is a pregnant breeder who escapes the Reverend Mother's clutches and goes on the run.  But many bounty hunters pursue her, and she is soon on the cusp of being re-captured.

Enter Phoenix, a bikini-clad warrior woman who rescues Keela and takes her to a secret valley of clothing-averse Amazons where they can be safe.  This safety lasts just long enough for Keela to have her son (a male child!  Dun dun dun!) before she and Phoenix are on the run again.

Also known as Phoenix the Warrior, this 1988 release was the last film of Persis Khambatta, who is best known for playing Lieutenant Ilia in Star Trek: The Motion Picture.  Perhaps it goes without saying, but this is quite a big step down.  

Upon release, this film almost certainly banked on the promise of skimpy outfits and/or topless women in order to draw video rentals.  And to be fair, it does shamelessly deliver both of those things, as well as a lot of the big, big hair you'd expect of the genre.

Unfortunately, it fails to deliver decent acting, competent fight choreography, or a script that makes a lick of sense.

The lack of decent acting will become apparent as soon as you start the film.  Any given five minutes of the film's runtime tends to mostly consist of people not quite looking at the camera while woodenly spouting some kind of exposition to move the film along to its next set piece.

For fight choreography, while none of it is good, the hysterical stand-out of ineptitude is the bounty hunters' assault on the friendly amazons.  It mostly involves lots of women standing awkwardly in place while firing at other women a few yards away.  Despite the short ranges, the vast majority of attacks miss.  Which to be honest is probably not surprising given how uncomfortable they all look with their weapons.

Meanwhile, the film's script seems to have taken its plotting structure straight out of an old school cinema serial - just about every 15 minutes there's a miniature cliff-hanger where one or more of the good guys gets captured, only for the entire situation to be resolved about thirty seconds later so they can set up the next capture sequence.  The most egregious example of this is probably the wacky cult of deformed mutants who worship a mangled concept of TV as "the spirits of the airwaves".  These are abruptly introduced out of nowhere, capture the heroes to hand over to the big bad, then vanish completely from the film never to be mentioned again.

Lots of things happen in She-Wolves of the Wasteland.  Few of them seem to mean anything or lead anywhere much, though, and the script shows little interest in examining the consequences of its own events, or even giving us closure on the fates of major characters.

Only for hardcore fans of trashy 80s post-apocalyptica.  Like me!