INTERSTELLAR

One of the most hush-hush sci-fi movies kept under wraps for so long, this recently released movie built up too much hype and I don't always think that is a good move. Directed by Christopher Nolan of "The Dark Knight" series of movies fame, I had high expectations when I caught it at the movies.

Starring Matthew McConaughey, Anne Hathaway, Jessica Chastain, Michael Caine, John Lithgow, Wes Bentley with a cameo by Matt Damon and Topher Grace, the movie almost put me to sleep at times. Set in the future on a dying Earth, the space travel did not happen until at least an hour into the 2 hrs 50 mins long movie. The movie makers took their time to explore the special relationship between Cooper, Matthew's character who was a former NASA test pilot turned farmer, and his 10 years old daughter Murphy, played by MacKenzie Foy, before they whisked him off on a spacecraft Endurance with Dr Amelia Brand, played by Anne Hathaway, daughter of Professor Brand, Michael Caine's character, and some others into outer space through a wormhole to explore the livability of 3 potentially habitable planets Miller, Edmunds and Mann named after the astronauts who went on the initial mission to seek out these planets, in another galaxy in a bid to relocate mankind. The young Murphy was so heartbroken that although she pined for her father and unlike her elder brother, she refused to record messages for her dad, for the many years to come, which were sent to those on the mission.

Of course, the space travel wasn't as simple or straightforward and was fraught with lots of potential dangers and challenges. Planet Miller was too close to a black hole Gargantua which exerted a strong gravitational pull on the planet that it resulted in time dilation and one hour spent on the planet was the equivalent of seven earth years. Naturally, disaster happened to the team who explored this planet first. By the time the survivors returned to the Endurance, 23 earth years passed. That was also when Murphy, who was now a NASA scientist, sent her first recorded message to her dad on her birthday to remind him of his promise that he would be back before she reached the same age as him when he left her behind. This was the part that Matthew McConaughey broke down with grief when he finally saw his daughter after two decades apart.

They next went to Planet Mann, where Dr Mann was awakened from his space slumber, which showed a lot of potential for humans to inhabit. However, it turned out that Dr Mann falsified all the data for his own selfish reasons because he couldn't stand the loneliness in outer space and plotted to get a spacecraft to get there to rescue him from his plight. Another astronaut was killed as Dr Mann tried to take control of the spacecraft but didn't succeed, leaving behind Cooper and Amelias as the two remaining survivors of the voyage. This commotion caused significant damage to the spacecraft and barely left behind enough resources to sustain both of them for the final mission to the third planet.

Cooper sacrificed himself and instead of being destroyed upon entry into the atmosphere of the third planet, he was thrust into a 5th dimension across a time continuum behind a series of bookshelves where Murphy's bedroom was. He had to find the one that the adult Murphy was in at the specific moment to communicate with her the data that would enable her to solve the mystery of sending mankind to outer space. He eventually lapsed into unconsciousness before waking up at a hospital, which he later learnt was part of a larger life sustaining facility on another planet and the place was founded and named after Murphy. By then, Murphy was already in her 80s and surrounded by her children and grandchildren and she sent him away looking for Amelia, who was still somewhere stranded in outer space.

The ending was very typical of Christopher Nolan's movies where there was a lot of narration to provide a closing chapter to the movie. Strangely, this is one movie that I caught of outer space where aliens were not involved.

Cooper broke down on watching Murphy's first recorded message.

Prof Amelia Brand

Cooper and his children Tom and Murphy

the adult Murphy

I, FRANKENSTEIN

First, I must say this movie didn't receive rave reviews from the critics but I think it is not bad at all. I am not a movie critic but I do like the storyline, acting and special effects.

With a cast including Aaron Eckhart as the lead character or monster without a soul created by Frankenstein, Bill Nighy, Yvonne Strahovski, Miranda Otto, Socratis Otto, Jai Courtney etc, the movie was reminiscent of the "Underworld" movies from the same producer where war between two opposing legions i.e. vampires and werewolves in Underworld, angels and demons in this movie. All these beings and creatures lived amongst the humans and threatened the existence of mankind but their battles took place for centuries right under our noses unbeknownst to all humans, except the lucky or unlucky few who were drawn into the battles.

Before I comment any further, I must say I enjoyed a number of Aaron Eckhart's past movies where he wasn't the lead protagonist and played good guys. I started to sit up and noticed the change in him when he appeared as Two-Face in the "The Dark Knight". With this movie, I didn't actually see it coming for him to be the lead and took up the challenge of playing such a dark character. Not that he wasn't capable of doing it. It was more of seeing the friendly guy-next-door suddenly becoming a totally different person kind of strange feeling. For one, I think Aaron made the right move in coming out of his comfort zone playing good guys and took on more and more interesting roles to challenge himself. At least in this movie, he was the lead and his acting was good, I must add. Who knew he had such a good bod too? Hollywood must certainly pay notice to a new leading man if this movie performs well at the box office.

It is also interesting that Bill Nighy, who played an evil elder vampire in the "Underworld" movies, took on the role of Prince Nebarius, the leader of demons in this movie. Be careful Bill, before you are typecast forever to play characters from the dark side.

I shan't give the rest of the story away but we all know and believe that good will always triumph evil in the end in such movies.

G.I. JOE: RETALIATION

This week, I caught the above sequel starring Bruce Willis, Channing Tatum, Dwayne Johnson, Lee Byung-hun, Adrianne Palicki, D.J. Cotrona etc.

Channing had only a brief role as Duke, the leader of the elite G.I. Joes team, and was killed off early in the movie. Dwayne who played Roadblock, took over the leadership role as one of three Joes who survived a surprise attack on them. He enlisted the help of General Joseph Colton, acted by Bruce, with the two other Joes (Lady Jaye and Flint) and Snake Eyes etc to investigate the matter to avenge the deaths of their teammates.

Lee Byung-hun had a meaty role again as the bad ninja Storm Shadow who initially with the bad guys Firefly, Cobra Commander and Zandar, joined forces with Roadblock and team to redeem himself from the accusation of assassinating his uncle the hard master. He did asians proud by reprising his role as a formidable opponent from the dark side.

I didn't like it as much as the original movie and the best part for me were the ninja fighting scenes on the cliff-faces. The opposing ninjas of two, Snake Eyes and Jinx, were dueling against many red suit ninjas and were swinging from cliff to cliff, much like spiderman.

On a side note, I noticed square-jawed D.J. Cotrona, who reminded me of a younger Tom Cruise, much like I noticed Tom Hardy in the 2010 movie "Inception" before he was cast as Bane in the 2012 "The Dark Knight Rises". If I am a talent scout, I would definitely say he has the potential to be a bigger star. Interestingly, I found out that he was cast as Superman in Warner Bros. movie "Justice League: Mortal" but due to the writers' strike in 2007-2008, the film was never made. What a pity! However, if he has it and his performance made producers and directors notice him, then we would surely see more of his films coming our way sometime.