Double Feature: Deep Blue Sea 2 (2018) & Godzilla: King of the Monsters (2019)

Call this a creature feature sequel double feature, if you’d like. I had a monster film desire and it just happened to be the day that Netflix got Deep Blue Sea 2 and then I had a rental of Godzilla: King of the Monsters lined up so everything worked out well.

Let’s check it out!

Deep Blue Sea 2 (2018)

Director: Darin Scott

Cast: Danielle Savre, Rob Mayes, Michael Beach, Nathan Lynn, Kim Syster, Jeremy Boado, Adrian Collins, Cameron Robertson, Darron Meyer, Marc Hyland, Tamer Burjaq

A brilliant billionaire creates five genetically altered bull sharks, which proceed to wreak havoc for a group of scientists on an isolated research facility. – IMDB

Following the trend of unnecessary sequels, Deep Blue Sea 2 shows up 19 years after the release of the first one, which really only has a cult following after all these years. Its quite the odd film to choose for a sequel especially as it has nothing to truly expand from. However, this sequel decides to be something of a reboot as it takes pretty much the same type of story as the first film, even a lot of the things that happen feels very parallel to the first one. The only difference is who plays in this and what they are trying to genetically engineer as well as the crew, which is miles away from as fun as the people from the first film.

Its hard to not compare the film when the sequel is almost the same as the first one except done a lot worse and visibly lower budget than the first. One of the elements that seem to think that its being clever is making these flooded hallways turn on these different color hallways. In some ways, it does help navigate where the split up crew is but at the same time, it does also feel like its using different lights to make it feel like there are more hallways than there really are. Things is, move aside from these things, the bull sharks and the scenes attacking all feel like a few scenes.

Deep Blue Sea 2 is very unnecessary and everything it does here just solidifies the fact. It feels like it hasn’t aged in the film making technology as well. Through and through a bad shark film but if b-horror shark films are your thing, this might be one to watch.

Godzilla: King of the Monsters (2019)

Director (and co-writer): Michael Dougherty

Cast: Kyle Chandler, Vera Farmiga, Millie Bobby Brown, Ken Watanabe, Ziyi Zhang, Bradley Whitford, Sally Hawkins, Charles Dance, Thomas Middleditch, Aisha Hinds

The crypto-zoological agency Monarch faces off against a battery of god-sized monsters, including the mighty Godzilla, who collides with Mothra, Rodan, and his ultimate nemesis, the three-headed King Ghidorah. – IMDB

Godzilla: King of the Monsters plays as a sequel to the 2014 movie with a new cast of characters and a much more intriguing approach to Godzilla and the other monsters. Take it as something of a Godzilla 101 course as the different monsters show up and as the Monarch team tries to trace down how to stop the big nemesis as well as the technology that was stolen, they realize the world falling to pieces and Godzilla reappearing to try and stop it. As this goes on, the Monarch also talks about each of these monsters to have a general knowledge of their abilities.

While I am fairly new to the whole kaiju film genre, Godzilla: King of the Monsters is much more enjoyable than the previous film. One of the main elements is its focus on giving much more screentime to the monsters and giving enough time on the human end to give it enough backstory. They bring in a family drama and the human element of connecting with the monsters and believing that they can have them under their control through technology and it all backfires, as expected. Giving the film so much more action and conspiracy also makes it well-paced and intriguing to watch.

Looking past the story, the cast is pretty great as well and rather international. We have Vera Farmiga and Millie Bobby Brown. Vera Farmiga is a fantastic actress who I find is rather underrated and then Millie Bobby Brown plays some moments a little like Eleven in Stranger Things but is also fun to watch. We also see Sally Hawkins here as well as on a more international level, Ziyi Zhang and Ken Watanabe.

Godzilla:King of the Monsters in the end is a giant monster movie. Its not meant to be too complex or too deep but there is a lot of knowledge here to introduce this kaiju world and for myself, its much appreciated. The storyline is familiar as humans thunk they have things in control and the world ends up being in danger of destruction and Godzilla needs to step up and fix their mistakes and its about working together to achieve it. It also makes the effort to bring together the events from 2014’s Godzilla and 2017’s Kong:Skull Island (review) all together which will all come together for this year’s release of Godzilla vs. Kong.

That’s it for this double feature!
I rather monstrous creature feature, right? These are always the most fun pairings!
But that’s me!
Have you seen these movies? Thoughts?

Double Feature: Colossal (2016) & Flatliners (2017)

Time for a little non-Valentine’s Day double feature. Its been a little bit of an overloaded day. But I’m falling behind and really want to catch up. We can all take a little break from the marathon and on lovey-dovey films for a while. Plus, Colossal and Flatliners have been sitting for a week or two in my queue and I really wanted to get it out of the way. I am slowly also catching up with 2017 movies whenever they are available. Colossal is on Netflix so let’s check these two out!

Colossal (2016)

Director (and writer): Nacho Vigalondo

Cast: Anne Hathaway, Jason Sudeikis, Dan Stevens, Austin Stowell, Tim Blake Nelson

Gloria is an out-of-work party girl forced to leave her life in New York City and move back home. When reports surface that a giant creature is destroying Seoul, she gradually comes to the realization that she is somehow connected to this phenomenon. – IMDB

I heard so many great things about Colossal before I sat down to watch it and still didn’t really know what it was all about. However, I’m a fan of Anne Hathaway and it looked pretty fun so here we are. Nacho Vigalondo is an odd director to say the least. He writes these scripts that go in one direction and then take a sudden change in direction, particularly in tone, super fast. I felt that way about Open Windows (review) and I feel that way about Colossal. However, Colossal is an pretty incredible movie. As I think about it more, the more I feel that this movie was done so well. In the beginning, Anne Hathaway’s Gloria is somewhat of a wreck and she meets Oscar, played by Jason Sudeikis back in her hometown and they become friends along with a few of his buddies. Everything is fine and dandy as they get her settled in as she tries to rekindle her romance with Tim (Dan Stevens) to prove that she’s taking control of her own life. At the same time, they soon realize that there is a monster terrorizing Seoul and its one that has returned after many years before which she soon learns is linked to her.

Colossal relies a lot on surprising its audience with the unknown factors and taking it those twists it shows. As crazy as the ideas here are, it works really well together. The tone shift works to the advantage of the film. The main cast is truly focused on Anne Hathaway and Jason Sudeikis and boy, do they deliver in spades. That is probably the best part of the film as we watch these two characters develop as the story unfolds. Its truly quite awesome! The uniqueness of the story and the elements it puts together is just pure fun.

Flatliners (2017)

Director: Niels Arden Oplev

Cast: Ellen Page, Diego Luna, Nina Dobrev, James Norton, Kiersey Clemons, Kiefer Sutherland

Five medical students, obsessed by what lies beyond the confines of life, embark on a daring experiment: by stopping their hearts for short periods, each triggers a near-death experience – giving them a firsthand account of the afterlife. – IMDB

Before I start, I guess its good to note that I haven’t seen the original yet therefore I have no comparison to how this remake or reboot or whatever you call it, is. With that said, Flatliners is one of those movies that makes you feel a little let down. On one hand, I’m pretty happy with the cast themselves. Ellen Page and Diego Luna should be a seller already. Add in some TV stardom from Nina Dobrev who is slowly moving into more films in 2017 with XXX: The Return of Xander Cage early in the year and some other films here and there before that, she just seems to need the right movie to show off that she’s more than Elena from The Vampire Diaries. The idea and concept behind Flatliners is a really neat idea. The idea of encountering death and facing something that shouldn’t be crossed as they treaded darker and darker into some kind of limbo as they tested the boundaries. It was all very clever in the beginning. And that is exactly the problem here, the plot dies out so fast. It just starts going downhill because the movie loses its objective and its momentum and seems to fall flat as the cycle of them reviving each other was pushing further to the boundaries but the cycle was always the same over and over again.

Flatliners seems to forget which genre it wants to embrace. On one hand, it has moments of thriller/horror elements but those never last long enough other than jump scares to make it feel very effective. The dark limbo world they go to worked for a while until it was very predictable to see what was going to happen next. The characters also didn’t have much development. Sure, there was a slight understanding of their personal dark secrets but its all very on the surface because the rest of the time when they were dying or reviving each other, they were drowning in their liberated mind drinking and partying with less and less clothes on. If thats what an added knowledge means, then maybe this experimental revelation might be a little wasted on this group of medical students.

I really wanted to like Flatliners and it started out pretty strong. I only wished it had managed to keep that momentum and develop their characters more. In general , it all dials down to their execution. This was quite the disappointing movie unfortunately.

Kong: Skull Island (2017)

Lets just get this out of the way before we start, I have watched about 20 minutes total of any King Kong movie and I only have this image of him climbing the Empire State Building or Chrysler Building or something or another. But I love creature features and giant monsters interest me so this felt like it was right up my alley.

With that said, let’s check it out!

Kong: Skull Island (2017)

Director: Jordan Vogt-Roberts

Cast: Tom Hiddleston, Brie Larson, Samuel L. Jackson, John C. Reilly, John Goodman, Corey Hawkins, John Ortiz, Tian Jing, Toby Kebbell, Thomas Mann

A team of scientists explore an uncharted island in the Pacific, venturing into the domain of the mighty Kong, and must fight to escape a primal Eden. – IMDB

Kong: Skull Island is pretty much my first visit into the King Kong universe and let me tell you, it was a thrilling as ever ride. Visually, King Kong and the Skull Crawlers and the other giant creatures here are amazing to look at. The location is also very beautiful which further emphasizes that the more beautiful the place is, the deadlier the creatures in it are. There are exceptions to the equation obviously but Kong: Skull Island is just beautiful to look at with its lush forests and mountains and waterways. Its really very pretty especially the first moment the team breaks through the layer of storm and enters into this paradise. Of course, the next moment turns into hell as their seismic things cause the king of the place to come and attack them and we soon learn, Kong is not the enemy.

Kong: Skull Island is quite the action adventure. There’s a lot of suspense as they learn about the truth on Skull Island and what makes its inhabitants fearful. Kong is really just the king and the protector of his land. However, just like any kingdom, other creatures want to take him down. Skull Crawlers are very competent as a villain in their serpent ways. In fact, if we were to talk about villains, humans are probably the darker ones here. Everything starts with John Goodman’s character Bill Randa and his assistant that asks to somewhat tag along to check this island before another country heads out there and discovers it before they do. Of course, they soon realize he has his suspicions that he’s kept hidden to himself and soon, they are caught up on this island and trying to make it to the retrieval spot before they are abandoned here. The teams are separated and each seem to have their own agenda. The mystery and suspense works very well to keep the movie well-paced especially since the unknown territory and villain contribute a huge part to wondering what the true danger is and how to protect themselves and escape.

The cast here is also pretty impressive. Of course, its hard to deny any of their talent here. Tom Hiddleston, Brie Larson, John Goodman, Samuel L. Jackson and John C. Reilly all have outstanding performances in their filmography to back them up and they all delivered great performances in Kong: Skull Island. I honestly would love to see Tom Hiddleston as his character James Conrad here in more films. He’s pretty bad-ass and very smart. It feels like this character has more to be discovered. It feels like Brie Larson hasn’t had any action films to date, or at least I haven’t seen any of them if there are and somehow she fits very well in this story as a daring photo journalist who can carry her own. John C. Reilly brings a slight comedic value to the otherwise serious and tense situation as well as Thomas Mann’s character who jokes around quite a bit. If you talk about human villain, Samuel L. Jackson’s character, Preston Packard hits the extreme notes in Kong: Skull Island as a man who lets wanting to stand up for the men he lost hide his reason and judgement. In many ways, I can’t say that his character didn’t at some point remind me of the nostalgic moments with Deep Blue Sea. Its probably just me though.

There’s a lot to love about Kong: Skull Island. The characters are great, the setting is beautiful, the creature designs are done so impressively and the story is pretty decent as well, filled with suspense and adventure. There were quite a few mixed or lukewarm reviews throughout the year and it made me not too sure about where to place this especially since I have no previous visit into the King Kong universe so it turned out to be an awesome surprise.

Have you seen Kong: Skull Island? What did you think of it?