Blu-Ray/Movie Review: Annihilation

 

Annihilation is a 2017 thriller directed by Alex Garland and starring Natalie Portman, Oscar Issac, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Tessa Thompson, and Gina Rodriguez. It is hard to say too much about the movie without giving too much away. I will say it will probably take a couple viewings to really get what is going on, and you cannot really just have it on in the background, half paying attention to it. If you do that, you will miss too much, and it will make no sense. It basically tells the story of a group of military scientists led by Natalie Portman's character who enter a quarantined zone called "the shimmer." Portman's character is the only one to return from the quarantined zone (which has been expanding since a method landed in Florida). Much of the movie is about her being interrogated, while the story of what happened inside the shimmer is being told through flashbacks.

The movie was originally only released on DVD and Blu-Ray but has since been released in 4k-UHD.  On the regular Blu-Ray, the only extras are an hour plus worth of behind-the-scenes and making-of featurettes. The featurettes are broken up into 15-20 minute segments. While the movie has some action and suspense, it falls more within the intellectual sci-fi genre. It relies heavily on visuals to tell the story and looks great in the HD format. It is definitely not a movie that will appeal to everyone. It is not a non-stop action thriller by any stretch. If, however, you enjoy the kind of sci-fi movies that are not all about non-stop action it is worth checking out.

Blu-Ray/Movie Review: Captain America: The Winter Soldier

 

Captain America: The Winter Soldier is one of the 2014 entries in the MCU collection of movies. It stars Chris Evans, Sebastian Stan, Anthony Mackie, Scarlett Johansson, Emily VanCamp, Samuel L. Jackson, and Robert Redford. It is both a follow-up to The original Avengers movie (the events of which are lightly touched on in this movie) and to the first Captain America movie, The First Avenger. It is, not surprisingly, more of a follow-up to the latter than the former. In the movie, Steve Rodgers (played by Evans) is still trying to adjust to living in this century after having "died" in the 1940s. It also continues the S.H.E.I.L.D/Hydra battle that started during the events of the first movie when it was assumed Hydra was defeated. To say much more would be to give away too much of the plot, but Hydra uses their own super soldier (The Winter Soldier) who ties back to the first movie as well. And, of course, for those who follow The Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D series, the fallout from the events of this movie is also continued there.

There are multiple physical media releases for the movie now. The single-disc blu-ray includes a few short featurettes, some deleted scenes, and a gag reel. There is also a commentary track for the film by directors Anthony and Joe Russo. It's not a ton of material, but it's fine for what there is. Of course, the movie looks and sounds great on blu-ray.

The movie is very well written and acted. Some of the familiar notables (Black Widow, Agent Hill, Nick Fury), all play roles in the movie. It also introduces the character of Falcon (Mackie) into the movie. Scarlett Johansson probably has the biggest supporting role in the movie as Black Widow, and she and Evans have pretty good chemistry playing the straight-laced Rodgers against the not-so-straight-laced Black Widow. There are 2 scenes after the movie, one mid-credits scene and one post-credits that will set up the inevitable Captain America 3. All in all, if you are a fan of the Marvel movies, this one is one of the better stand-alone movies and sets up some of the larger storylines. If you liked the first Captain America movie then you will probably like this one as well.

Blu-Ray/Movie Review: Jackie

 

Jackie is a 2016 movie starring Natalie Portman, playing Jaqueline Kennedy, and is based on an interview that she gave to Theodore H. White for Life Magazine shortly after the assassination of JFK. The movie jumps around in time to show events that occurred during her time as the first lady to the tumultuous time after the assassination as she was trying to put her life back together. Then, there are the scenes in which she is being interviewed for the magazine piece by Billy Crudup's character (just called "The Journalist") in the movie, where she tries to hold it together and basically direct the content of the interview. The movie shows a glimpse of how manufactured the real-life interview was with Jackie dictating content that could be included (for example claiming she does not smoke despite her chain-smoking throughout the entire interview). The movie recreates some of the iconic images from around that time, and Portman does a great job in her portrayal of the former first lady. The movie also has a strong supporting cast including John Hurt and Peter Sarsgaard (who plays Bobby Kennedy). 

The A/V quality of the blu-ray is very good, and the film makes good use of real archival footage that gets blended into what was shot for the movie, almost seamlessly. There are a couple of extras, including a 22-minute making-of featurette, a stills gallery, and the movie trailer. There is apparently a director commentary available on the digital download version of the movie, but that is not included on the blu-ray disc. 

Overall, the movie is very good. It is well-written and very well-acted with Portman doing most of the heavy lifting. It is a very good drama and is definitely worth checking out.

4k-UHD/Movie Review: Thor: The Dark World

 

Thor: The Dark World is a sequel to both the original Thor movie and The Avengers. It is set a couple of years after the events of the original Thor movie and sees Thor going through the nine realms cleaning up Loki's mess, which is also taking a lot longer because of the Bifrost having been destroyed in the first movie. Thor keeps track of Jane (mostly via Heimdall) but has not seen her in all that time, which makes for an awkward reunion, to say the least. Loki is imprisoned on Asgard, visited only by Frigga.

This movie sees the threat of Dark Elves, with the main antagonist being Makliketh (played by Christopher Eccleston), the leader of the Dark Elves who was defeated by Thor's grandfather. He is trying to capture a substance called The Ether, which can basically undo the Big Bang and bring the universe back into darkness. I will not spoil the movie for the handful of people reading this by now who have not seen the movie, but the plot requires Thor to return to Earth after Jane is put in danger and team up with Loki to take down the Dark Elves. It also sets up the concept of the Infinity Stones, which, of course, play a larger role in the following movies.

For those who get the 4k Disc set, the movie looks and sounds great in UHD. Not a huge jump from the blu-ray version of the movie, but noticeable enough that if you have a 4k TV and blu-ray player, it is worth the double-dip. The UHD disc just has the movie itself, and then the extras are included on the second disc which is a regular blu-ray. The extras include a commentary track on the movie by the director Alan Taylor, Marvel's head honcho, Kevin Feige, and Tom Hiddleston, who, of course, plays Loki. The commentary track provides some good insight into the process of making the film with some good behind-the-scenes details from Hiddleston. Then there is another Marvel's One Shot titled All Hail the King, which is a documentary about Trevor Slattery, the "bad guy" from Iron Man 3, showing what is life is like in prison and setting up the 10-rings storyline. Then there are deleted and extended scenes, a handful of making-of featurettes that can be viewed one at a time or all at once, and then a gag reel. So, a lot of material if you like to look at the bonus material.

Most of the supporting cast from the original movie, including Jamie Alexander, Renee Russo, Anthony Hopkins, Idris Elba, Stellan Skarsgård, Ray Stevenson, and Kat Dennings, appear. Zachary Levi replaced Joshua Dallas as Fandral, one of the Warrior's Three in Asgard, because of a scheduling conflict. The other notable addition to the cast is Jonathan Howard, who plays Ian, Darcy's intern, who is basically a lacky she "hires" to do the stuff she does not want to do as Jane's intern. The movie gets ragged on, but it is definitely not as bad as some make it out to be. It is definitely a filler story, but it does set up a lot of what is to come down the line, so it is essential to what is going to play out in the later movies. The acting is great from the entire cast. I would say that the supporting characters all kind of took a back seat in this movie and were not as involved as they were in the first one, but all of them made the most of their screen time. Kat Dennings stole pretty much every scene she was in, as did Stellan Skarsgård, who had to play Erik as stark-raving mad (with lucid intervals) because of Loki taking over his mind in The Avengers. There are some cameos, including the usual Stan Lee cameo, but also a pretty hilarious one by Chris Evans. The movie continues the mid-credits and post-credits scene tradition. The mid-credits scene set up the Guardians of the Galaxy, and the post-credits scene was a more humorous wrap-up of the movie. While it is not the best MCU movie, it is not as bad as some make it out to be, and is definitely worth watching.

Blu-Ray/Movie Review: Black Swan

 

Black Swan is a psychological thriller by Darren Aronofsky (who is pretty much known for weird, out-there movies), that is centered around the production of Swan Lake by the New York City Ballet. Natalie Portman plays Nina, a dancer in the New York City ballet. She auditions for and gets the lead role. In the process, she gets mentally unstable and slowly goes crazy. The audience really experiences the events from Nina's perspective and it is not really ever made clear what is real and what she was imagining, which makes the film work.

For those who get the Blu-Ray, the movie looks and sounds great in HD. The extras include several short featurettes that include character profiles, production design, costume design, as well as the theatrical trailer. There is also an almost hour-long making-of feature titled Black Swan Metamorphosis, which is split into three parts that have a ton of behind-the-scenes footage, interviews with the cast and crew, and more.

Overall, the movie is wonderful. The writing and acting are both top-notch. Along with Portman, the main cast includes Mila Kunis, Vincent Cassel, Wynona Ryder, and Barbara Hershey, who does a great job as Nina's mother who is overprotective and lives vicariously through her daughter. Portman and Kunis are definitely featured the most, and both do a great job in their roles. Portman is in nearly every scene, if not every scene, and has to play a wide range of emotions through her character. She had proven her acting chops well before this movie, but it really did cement her as being a great actress who can play damn near anything. It is a great movie that is definitely worth watching if you are in the mood for something that is a bit out there.