Feature Length Films

Mr. Khan’s Review on ‘Alien: Covenant’ (2017)

Mr. Khan's Reviews

A review on Hollywood feature length film, ‘Alien: Covenant’ (2017). The Production Houses are 20th Century Fox & Scott Free Productions while its Distributor is 20th Century Fox. The Story is written by Jack Paglen & Michael Green.

+ Crew I

  1. Directed & Produced by Ridley Scott
  2. Cinematography by Dariusz Wolski
  3. Screen Play by John Logan & Dante Harper
  4. Edited by Pietro Scalia
  5. Music by Jed Kurzel
  6. Produced by Mark Huffam, Michael Schaefer, David Giler & Walter Hill

 

+ Note

The film is a sequel to the 2012 film Prometheus, the second installment in the Alien prequel series, and the sixth installment overall in the Alien film series, as well as the third directed by Scott. Javier Botet portrays a Xenomorph via motion capture. Goran D. Kleut plays the role of both the Neomorph and the Xenomorph in costume and on set. Each Alien film features a different type of group interacting with the Xenomorphs: Miners in the original Alien; Military in Aliens; Prisoners in Alien3; Smugglers in Alien Resurrection; and Research Scientists in Prometheus while Scientists / Colonists in Alien: Covenant.

During his confrontation with Walter, David asks him if he’d rather “serve in Heaven or reign in Hell”. The line refers to John Milton’s poem “Paradise Lost”, where Lucifer claims it is “Better to reign in Hell than serve in Heaven”. This fits with David’s ultimate desire to no longer be subservient to mankind. In addition, “Paradise Lost” was the original subtitle for this film, before “Covenant” was chosen.

 

+ Main Cast

  1. Michael Fassbinder as David 8 and Walter
  2. Katherine Waterston as Daniels “Dany” Branson
  3. Billy Crudup as Christopher Oram
  4. Danny McBride as Tennessee
  5. Demián Bichir as Sergeant Lope
  6. Carmen Ejogo as Karine Oram
  7. Amy Seimetz as Maggie Faris

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+ Supporting Cast

  1. Jussie Smollett as Ricks
  2. Callie Hernandez as Upworth
  3. Nathaniel Dean as Sergeant Hallett
  4. Alexander England as Ankor
  5. Benjamin Rigby as Ledward
  6. James Franco as Jacob “Jake” Branson
  7. Uli Latukefu as Pvt. Cole

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+ Recurring Cast (Guest Appearances)

  1. Noomi Rapace as Dr. Elizabeth Shaw
  2. Guy Pearce as Peter Weyland

 

+ Plot

The crew of the colony ship Covenant, bound for a remote planet on the far side of the galaxy, discovers what they think is an uncharted paradise, but is actually a dark, dangerous world. When they uncover a threat beyond their imagination, they must attempt a harrowing escape.

 

+ High Points

i – Michael Fassbinder’s performance as Walter & David 8 (Reprising role) is played out magnificently. Both roles were written very differently which was challenging for the actor.

ii – The guest appearance reprised role by Guy Pearce as Peter Weyland was very pleasing to watch.

iii – The story has touch of Prometheus and Alien. I loved both of these films hence made a good combination as Alien: Covenant.

iv – The production design are yet again praise worthy. Ridley Scott is truly a master in its Art direction.

v – The Visual effects and Makeup & hairstyling helped this suspense sci-fi horror film to reach the ranks of a successful film in the Alien franchise.

vi – We are able to witness blood / gore as Alien franchise have in common with intro of new species of Alien race.

 

+ Low Points

i – It’s not rocket science to find out the minor hints / clues that they give for the film’s twists and turns, including how the film is going to end. Almost every twist came out as very predictable.

ii – The character developments usually lack in slasher films. Here too is another example of it. However the backstory they gave in Prometheus for Dr. Elizabeth Shaw was missing for the protagonist as Daniels “Dany” Branson.

iii – It character of Walter was not as inspiring or fascinating as of David 8 in (its predecessor) Prometheus.

iv – There was serious lack of strong supporting cast missing in this film as did in its first part. Such as in the film Prometheus, there was Michael Fassbinder as David 8 (Android), Idris Elba as Janek (the captain of the ‘Prometheus’ spaceship while having a military background), Charlize Theron as Meredith Vickers (daughter of Peter Weyland and had conflicts with Elizabeth Shaw) and Guy Pearce as Peter Weyland (Head of this Trillion dollar company and searching their creators for many answers especially how to stop death).

In Alien Covenant we have Michael Fassbinder as Walter (Android), James Franco as Jacob “Jake” Branson (in Cameo appearance, former captain of ‘Covenant’ spaceship and husband of Daniels) and Billy Crudup as Christopher Oram (New captain of ‘Covenant’ spaceship).

v – Noomi Rapace as Elizabeth Shaw performed much better than Katherine Waterston as Daniels “Dany” Branson

vi – The characters of its predecessor were well written than in Alien: Covenant.

 

+ Overall

A good effort as sci-fi horror thriller of deep, bloody gore film which will leave the viewers satisfied with a welcome back note to Alien franchise especially Michael Fassbinder, who yet again delivered charismatic, cunning character.

 

Rate: 3.50 out of 5 stars

 

Feature Length Films

Mr. Khan’s Review on ‘Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice’ (2016) Ultimate Edition (with SPOILERS)

Mr. Khan's Reviews

A review on Hollywood feature length film, ‘Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice’ (2016) [Ultimate Edition].  The Costume Designing by Michael Wilkinson while it’s Distributor is Warner Bros. Pictures.

 

+ Crew I

  1. Directed by Zack Snyder
  2. Written by Chris Terrio and David S. Goyer
  3. Cinematography by Larry Fong
  4. Edited by David Brenner
  5. Music by Hans Zimmer and Junkie XL
  6. Produced by Charles Roven and Deborah Snyder

 

+ Crew II (Production Houses)

  1. DC Entertainment
  2. RatPac Entertainment
  3. Atlas Entertainment
  4. Cruel and Unusual Films

 

+Note

Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice [Ultimate Edition] is heavily inspired by the graphic novel ‘The Dark Knight Returns’ by Frank Miller, ‘Superman: Peace on Earth’ & ‘Death of Superman’. The comic book fans would be thrilled to see these two iconic DC characters bash each other first time on big screens. However, some people complained the film to be much darker and grittier.

The director used Christianity religious beliefs & their symbolic figures on his characters throughout the film. Such as Superman can relate directly to Jesus Christ (PBUH). The fight scenes of Batman, Superman and Wonder Woman refers to ‘Trinity’ belief. Unlike the Batman in ‘The Dark Knight Trilogy’, this Batman shown as aged, most probably in his 40s with at least two decades of crime fighting experience. I see him as a very different Batman of another time line. I cannot and would not compare it with ones who have already portrayed Batman on screen.

The main henchman of Lex Luthor name ‘Anatoli Knyazev’ is one of the secondary villains of Batman story line up, who is also known as ‘KGB Beast’. Jena Malone character as Jenet Klyburn is also a treat to watch on the Ultimate Edition only.

 

+ Main Cast

  1. Ben Affleck as Bruce Wayne / Batman
  2. Henry Cavill as Clark Kent / Superman
  3. Gal Gadot as Diana Prince / Wonder Woman
  4. Jesse Eisenberg as Lex Luthor
  5. Amy Adams as Lois Lane
  6. Jeremy Irons as Alfred Pennyworth
  7. Lawrence Fisherburne as Perry White
  8. Holly Hunter as June Finch
  9. Diane Lane as Martha Kent
  10. Scoot McNairy as Wallace Keefe
  11. Callan Mulvey as Anatoli Knyazev / KGB Beast
  12. Tao Okamoto as Mercy Graves

 

+ Plot

During the events of alien invasion by Gen. Zod and his army, Bruce Wayne and many people lose their loved ones as causalities. Ever since then, Batman grows hatred for Superman and sees him as the main threat to human race. On the other hand, Lex Luthor enjoys their hatred for each other so much that he even disturbs the corpse of Zod and releases the ultimate weapon of destruction upon this world.

 

+ High Points

i – The first and second acts of the film are very interesting and of high quality in the comic book film standards.

ii – Jeremy Irons did a good job as Alfred Pennyworth. Ben Affleck also plays a good aged Batman. He and Gal Gadot’s performances were much appreciated.

iii – There was one particular scene where Batman is at a deserted site with ruined city background. Later on, we see Flash who is trying to warn Bruce / Batman of a distant future and trying to give a message in a very short time. This is a vision in the film that is intentionally shown as dark & gritty which is in fact taken from a story of popular DC video game is based on ‘Injustice: Gods among us’. It seems the director has very interesting story to connect later in the film series or in upcoming JLA film in 2017.

iv – The Ultimate Edition provides proper introduction between Lois Lane and the photographer who he accompanies with but for only short moment. The comic book fans would instantly recognize his name as one of the most beloved supporting characters of Superman story line that is ‘Jimmy Olsen’. Unfortunately, he has a very small limited role in one of the first scenes of the film.

v – The sound track and visual effects are executed well in the film.

 

+ Low Points

i – I believe that one of the main reasons why the critics did not like this film is due to the fact that the Act III was weaker out of the other two Acts of the film. In the Act III, we have major scenes of Batman vs Superman fight, Wonder Woman intro and Doomsday fight. When the final showdown comes of Batman and Superman fighting each other. The fight scene between the two is not as cool as shown in the graphic novel ‘The Dark Knight Returns’ or in its animated film.

ii – Due to a lame reason, Batman stops the fight and his huge grudge on Superman suddenly diminishes.

iii – The Lex Luthor is ‘wonderfully’ (NOT!) portrayed by Shahrukh Khan (Jesse Eisenberg). The audience would be able to see his true real appearance just like in comics comes in the end scenes of the film.

iv – The antagonist, ‘Doomsday’ appears on screen for the first time… it seemed as though a ‘Giant Ninja Turtle’ without his weapons or colored mask came to fight Superman and Batman. After a short while Wonder Woman joins the fight and so does the Doomsday get better by mutating itself he is nowhere near as terrified and frightening as it shown in the comics, video games and cartoons. Not only he doesn’t look like as it is shown in comics but even he never able to fire beams from his eyes. Superman’s one of the main villains ‘Darkseid’ is one who can fire Omega Beams from his eyes and not Doomsday. Whereas the fighting scenes of Wonder Woman with Doomsday, they tried to show no matter how much punches she takes from him, she treats it as if it’s a causal fight for her which does not stop her on her track but welcomes it. However, the facial expressions of Wonder Woman were as if she was getting sexually aroused by fighting him. Even after firing atomic bomb on Doomsday in very start of the fight between him & Superman, it doesn’t stop him… the US army very quickly (literally) gives up on fighting the monster villain. Then, Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman battle with Doomsday, we see no army, air force or police whatsoever for miles away from the fight. As if, people have abandoned them to keep themselves safe and hidden whereas at least half of Metropolis city is burned away very rapidly.

v – The fight scenes of this Batman are lesser in quality than of ‘The Dark Knight Trilogy’ series.

vi – The cameo appearances by the other JLA characters i.e. Aqua Man, Flash and Cyborg in Act III of the film seemed as though were forced to show.

 

+ Overall

Too much hype was created before the release of Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice. Although its ‘Ultimate Edition’ is far superior than the theatrical cut, yet it still can not fix major issues of the film which are connected with the main plot.

 

Rating: 2.75 out of 5.0 stars (Theatrical Edition)

Rating: 3.25 out of 5.0 stars (Ultimate Edition)

 

Feature Length Films

Mr. Khan’s Review on the film ‘Captain America: Civil War’ (2016)

Mr. Khan's Reviews

A review on Marvel Comics feature length film, ‘Captain America: Civil War’ (2016). The Production House is Marvel Studios while its Distributor is Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures.

+ Crew

  • Directed by Anthony Russo and Joe Russo
  • Cinematography by Trent Opaloch
  • Written by Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely
  • Edited by Jeffrey Ford and Matthew Schmidt
  • Music by Henry Jackman
  • Produced by Kevin Feige

+Note

Captain America: Civil War is taken from its 2006 comic book story line “Civil War”, while also focusing on story and character elements from the previous Captain America films to conclude the trilogy. It is the highest-grossing film of 2016 and the twelfth-highest-grossing film of all time. This Marvel film is not just great or wonderful but in least praiseworthy I would say is “W-O-W”! Yes, the Marvel studios managed to pull this off by high packed of action, lots of humor, drama, including more super heroes than Avenger’s films and multiple interesting scenes to watch.

Only two super heroes are not included in the film which is BTW not a spoiler since this was already mentioned well before the film was in the production level.

+ Main Cast

  1. Chris Evans as Steve Rogers / Captain America
  2. Robert Downey Jr. as Tony Stark / Iron Man
  3. Scarlett Johansson as Natasha Romanoff / Black Widow
  4. Sebastian Stan as Bucky Barnes / Winter Soldier
  5. Anthony Mackie as Sam Wilson / Falcon
  6. Don Cheadle as James ‘Rhodey’ Rhodes / War Machine
  7. Jeremy Renner as Clint Barton / Hawkeye
  8. Chadwick Boseman as T’Challa / Black Panther

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+ Supportive Cast

  1. Paul Bettany as Vision
  2. Elizabeth Olsen as Wanda Maximoff / Scarlet Witch
  3. Paul Rudd as Scott Lang / Ant-Man
  4. Emily VanCamp as Sharon Carter / Agent-13
  5. Tom Holland as Peter Parker / Spider-Man
  6. William Hurt as Secretary Thaddeus Thunderbolt Ross (Retd. Gen.)
  7. Frank Grillo as Brock Rumlow / Crossbones
  8. Daniel Bruhl as Helmut Zemo

+ Plot

After the events of the ‘Avengers: Age of Ultron’, Helmet Zemo comes up with a scheme to bring the mighty heroes to have conflict with each other.

+ High Points

i – I have literally fallen in love with this film. Whenever we watch a film based on Marvel comics, we say “It’s hard for Marvel to be able to make a better film than this”. But to what it seems, they able to surprise us with another awesome film… One after the another. We think after watching the previous Marvel film, it’s a challenge for them to make a better film than this but almost every time they execute it. After watching ‘Captain America: Civil War’, you would notice that the team behind the making of the film did justice with every main & supporting character they showed on-screen. The introduction of new super heroes was properly done, not in hasty behavior.

ii – The new “Peter Parker” aka “Spider-man” character was not only amazingly handled but the actor Tom Holland did a great job in portraying the character. Audience at the cinema hall gave a HUGE cheer and a round of applause when new Spider-man makes his first appearance in the film.

iii – No matter how much you loved having new Spidey in the film who is most closely related from the comics, “Ant-man” I believe did the best job in making audience laugh every time he was shown during the fight sequence of ‘Great civil war of super heroes’. And like always, our lovable Archer “Hawkeye” fight moves are way too cunning for any super heroes to take him lightly in the first place.

iv – The actor who played the super hero character of “Black Panther” showed the viewers that he is tough cookie which is not be taken lightly. “General Thunderbolt Ross” character from the film ‘The Incredible Hulk’ played by actor William Hurt is cleverly handled. He is the only character made an appearance in Marvel cinematic universe from that film.

v – “Helmut Zemo” character is introduced as main villain, is not an average villain you would see on-screen. His character development is slowly revealed as the film progress. “Cross Bones” character is secondary villain to appear in the film who actually fights his 2nd round with “Captain America” in the film as his other hidden alias but his 1st round as “Cross Bones”. All fight sequences are wonderfully executed through out film.

vi – The character development shown of “Agent 13: Sharon Carter”, recurring character from previous sequel of Captain America. In this film, although there was no as such need for villains to be included since most of film run time is based on super heroes’ conflict with each other. But like I said before, everything and everyone were given utter importance and effectively done. So, I don’t feel anyone would think of complaining.

vii – “Black Widow” character played by actress Scarlet Johnson was no surprise as she played her part in one of the most impressive manner.

viii – We able to see brief details of Tony Stark parent’s death, a great screen time shared by actor Robert Downey Jr. who has played vital role of “Iron Man” and his on / off going conflict with “Captain America” throughout film till the end is has been handled excellently.

ix – The story & screenplay was very engaging enough to pull the audience towards the film to watch with keen interest.

x – I believe this film ‘Captain America: Civil War’ (2016) is better than ‘The Avengers’ film.

xi – Some of the iconic scenes from its comics was shared on big screen. If you read this limited series story ‘Captain America: Civil War’, you would be able to identify it immediately.

+ Low Points

i – Unlike in comics, the producer already made it clear that the film will not be dark.

+ Overall

Captain America: Civil War turns out to be one of the best superhero films Marvel has ever produced.

Rate: 5.0 out of 5 stars