Godzilla – People Talking

Classic Movie Review – ‘Destroy All Monsters’ – A Battle Royal

Original Release Dates:
August 1, 1968 (Japan)
May 23, 1969 (USA)

Suffice it to say, I’m something of a Godzilla fan.

I haven’t seen every movie yet (I’m working on it), but I’ve seen well more than half (certainly all from the Shōwa-Era, thanks to Criterion), which is pretty good for an American; and I made certain to see Shin Godzilla when I had the chance.

In my opinion, no Godzilla movie is truly great. Some are very good (the 1954 original unquestionably belongs in the worldwide film canon), but most are okay at best. Destroy All Monsters falls somewhere in the muddled middle (about on par with Godzilla vs. Megalon; perhaps a slight tick better).

I imagine some people may be internally screaming right now, wondering how this movie isn’t one of the best, because up until 2004 it was the Godzilla movie with the most monsters in it, but, here’s the thing: for one, not unlike the the James Bond series, people’s rankings will inevitably vary based on personal tastes; but also, if I may draw such a comparison, if Godzilla films are like professional wrestling, then Destroy All Monsters is like a Royal Rumble. It sounds cool, and seeing all the entrants introduced is fun, but, in reality, once you have more than a certain number of wrestlers in the ring, it never quite lives up to what you imagined in your mind.

Me personally, I prefer the movies with a smaller, more focused scale (e.g. the two previous films in the series: Ebirah, Horror of the Deep and Son of Godzilla), and I may even go as far to say that I prefer Jun Fukuda to Ishirō Honda in the director’s chair (now I know that’s blasphemous to some), but honestly, the human story does matter somewhat in these movies, and while Destroy All Monsters does have some fun espionage-type stuff, it just doesn’t hook me as much as other ones in the franchise.

All-in-all, Destroy All Monsters isn’t a bad movie, I can’t fault it for not delivering on its poster, I just expected a little something more. A little more…je ne sais quoi, if you will.

Rating: ★★★☆☆

P.S.
It’s worth noting that the version I saw at the Mahoning Drive-in was the English-dubbed version released by American International in 1969, as opposed to the original Japanese version that I have at home. As far as I can tell, there isn’t an appreciable difference, other than some minor gore and swearing cut from the American one.

P.P.S.
This closes out August as Sci-fi Month.
September will be a potpourri of stuff, and October will be very heavy on the horror.

Movie Review – ‘Shin Godzilla’ – You Know My Name

Written and Directed by Hideaki Anno
Co-directed by Shinji Higuchi
Cast: Hiroki Hasegawa, Yutaka Takenouchi, Satomi Ishihara, Ren Ohsugi, Akira Emoto, Kengo Kôra, Mikako Ichikawa, Jun Kunimura, Pierre Taki, Mansai Nomura (Godzilla motion capture)
Soundtrack: Shiro Sagisu

Other than James Bond, it’s difficult to think of another film franchise that’s both as iconic and long-running as Godzilla (or Gojira, as the Japanese say).

The original 1954 classic, while an exciting monster (or Kaiju) movie, was also a solemn metaphor for the nuclear devastation suffered in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Somehow, over the next two decades, Godzilla went from villain to hero, and the films became campier and more outlandish (and, at times, literally children’s entertainment), until Toho put a pin in Big G after the failure of Terror of Mechagodzilla in 1975.

In 1984, to celebrate the franchise’s 30th anniversary, the studio brought him back with a bang with The Return of Godzilla (originally released in Japan as simply Godzilla, but known more colloquially by its American release name Godzilla 1985), which is perhaps the first example of what we call a “soft reboot” these days. Over the course of another decade, Godzilla would run the gamut from villain to hero again, until he was [rather emotionally] killed off in 1995’s Godzilla vs. Destroyah. But, of course, sleeping kaijus don’t lie long,

The dawn of the new millennium brought about another half dozen films (I mean, you didn’t think Toho was going to take that Roland Emmerich abomination lying down, did you?), beginning with Godzilla 2000 (another soft reboot) and ending with 2004’s Godzilla: Final Wars, which was intended to be a 50th anniversary curtain call for the franchise, but is, in fact, more embarrassing than Die Another Day (despite featuring one particularly notable scene).

So, between the disappointment of Final Wars, and the many missteps of the 2014 American film, we need a good Godzilla movie. We deserve it. And it seems like Toho hired the right guys to do it. Writer/Director Hideaki Anno is the creative mind behind popular anime property Neon Genesis Evangelion (colloquially known as Eva), for which a proper explanation would require a dissertation, but in a nutshell it’s giant robots fighting giant monsters (also, never, ever, ever watch the last four episodes of Eva at 2:00am. It was the trippiest night of my life; I didn’t know whether I was dead or alive or awake or asleep). And, Co-director Shinji Higuchi also did some work on Eva, in addition to directing the recent Attack on Titan (more giant monsters) live-action films. Between these two guys, it’s a shoe-in that Shin Godzilla wouldn’t be a let down, right?

Right.

It pleases me greatly to say that not only is Shin Godzilla among the better films of 2016, it’s also one of the best Godzilla films ever made.

All I’ve ever wanted out of a Godzilla movie in my lifetime is a serious imagining of what it would look like if Godzilla appeared in the real world, and Shin Godzilla delivers this with aplomb. As much as I enjoy the ’84 reboot, it goes a little too far in the direction of fantastical science fiction with the “Super X” flying vehicle, but Shin Godzilla plays it about as straight as can be, even going as far as to show all of the layers of bureaucracy that need to be penetrated in order to effectively deal with the threat (pretty much Contagion with a giant monster instead of an epidemic, which is absolutely a compliment). All in all, it’s a rather fascinating look at Japan, what it means to be Japanese, their government, and their place in the geopolitical landscape; and, of course, all of this is coming in the light of a post-Tōhoku/Fukushima world (I’m sure there was a ton more of political/cultural/social commentary that went over my head as an American, but it was interesting nonetheless, even when they took not-so-subtle jabs at the U.S.).

As good as Shin Godzilla is, however (and it is good), I do have some criticisms; the primary one being that the subtitles get too intense at times, especially in the first fifteen minutes or so. I don’t have a problem with subtitles in general (obviously), and you do settle into something of a rhythm after a while, but there are multiple moments where a character’s name and position/title will appear at the top of the screen while dialogue simultaneously appears at the bottom, which is hard on the eyes (and the brain). I realize that this is more likely a distributor issue rather than an actual filmmaking problem, but I hope someone at Funmation (or whoever) figures out a more elegant solution in time for the eventual home format release.

In addition to some problematic subtitling, the movie itself has one or two strands that may or may not ever connect, a few of the characterizations seem a bit stilted, and, some of the effects don’t look as good as you’d like or expect them to (especially given that Japan is the world leader in cutting edge technology, at least as far as I know). And, let’s just be real here, for a franchise that built itself on guys in rubber suits stomping around while miniatures and models get “blowed-up real good,” it’s a little weird seeing a Godzilla movie (at least a Japanese one) that lacks the subtle charms of a guy in a rubber suit stomping around while miniatures and models get “blowed-up real good.”

However, as is so often the case, an engrossing story and a tight script, along with some brisk pacing (but not overly so), is strong enough to [mostly] make up for any deficiencies (I’d also be remiss if I didn’t give it credit for not getting caught up in needless melodrama).

Overall, Shin Godzilla is a definitively worthwhile theatrical experience, and there’s little question it makes up for the past twelve years of Godzilla-related disappointment. Unfortunately, it’s only getting a week’s release in the U.S., and it may be hard to come by, but if you can get to it, please, please hurry and get in there (I’m sure anything else you’d want to see this weekend will still be playing next weekend anyway, if you’ve got a case of FOMO).

It’s not often that fans get the movie they deserve (and also the one they need right now), but Shin Godzilla is an exceptional exception.

Rating: ★★★★☆

P.S.
Naturally, and as usual, the crew at Alamo Drafthouse Yonkers gets into the spirit of things.

UPDATE June 2017: Amazon is taking pre-orders for a Region 1 home release of the movie here.

Quick Thoughts – September Round-Up, Part 4 – Exhumed Films: Guilty Pleasures Marathon, Part III

Oh, yes! It was that time again.

Saturday, September 17th, 2016, 1:00pm. Time to forgo the beautiful late summer weather and pack into a crowded theater for an all-day 35mm schlock marathon, thanks to the folks at Exhumed Films and Alamo Drafthouse Yonkers.

What could be better than that? I don’t know!

Well, actually, last year’s edition was better, at least in my opinion, but I knew at the time it’d be tough to beat, what with the sublime revelations of ‘Blood Rage‘ and especially ‘Ninja Busters‘, but, mind you, I’m not saying this year’s Guilty Pleasures Marathon was bad by any stretch.

If anything, I greatly appreciated the execution of a particular theme, in this case horror movies with gimmicks, which I’ll explain along the way.

Let’s get into it.

Movie #1: ‘Mad Doctor of Blood Island’ (1968)

I don’t know that I’ve ever taken a blood oath in my life, but I was in the room for the Green Blood Oath that kicks off ‘Mad Doctor of Blood Island’ (because exposure to Green Blood can have ill consequences if you don’t take the oath before drinking it…yeah…). It may not have been the most clever gimmick of the day, but it was certainly the most participatory.

Anyway, ‘Mad Doctor of Blood Island’ is a Filipino exploitation film, the kind with a few white actors (John Ashley and Angelique Pettyjohn, along with her…vessels) thrown in to make it marketable to American audiences (not unlike ‘Blood Debts‘). As you may imagine, there’s a mad doctor on an island, and green-blooded zombies who stalk the night (and day).

It’s not a terrible film. At times it’s quite fun, especially when the dialogue vacillates between rote screenwriting and near-Shakespearean prose (for some reason), and Ronald Remy gives a very effective performance as the doctor, but the movie definitely drags in stretches, and I think just about every time something horrific happens, the camera starts constantly zooming in and out, which didn’t affect my stomach (I found it more generally annoying), but others had trouble just looking at it.

Also unfortunate, relative to the presentation, was that the print we viewed was in pretty rough shape, which definitely affected my experience. I’d be willing to watch it again on a cleaner medium, but, even still, the movie isn’t exactly a masterpiece.

Rating: ★★½

NOTE: The screening of ‘Mad Doctor of Blood Island’ was bookended by an introduction and a Q&A from former long time Independent-International Pictures producer (and all-around B-movie mogul) Sam Sherman.

Movie #2: ‘When the Screaming Stops’ aka ‘The Loreley’s Grasp’ (1974)

Speaking of alerting the audience to horrific events, ‘When the Screaming Stops’ is an American distribution version of ‘The Loreley’s Grasp’ (literally, ‘Las garras de Lorelei’), a Spanish production based on a German legend involving a witch on the River Rhine (basically, a Siren). The version we were treated to, which American audiences saw back in the day, not only added English dubbing, but also on-screen red flashes whenever something gory was about to happen, so that the audience would know to break out their vomit bags (which we all received). You’d think this would reduce the scare factor, and it does to a degree, but some of the gore is still pretty shocking, even by today’s standards.

The general plot of ‘When the Screaming Stops’ is that something is killing people in a small riverside village, so, the local girls’ boarding school (naturally, replete with a gaggle of rare beauties), fearing for their safety, hires a hunter to protect them. But, of course, it turns out not to be an animal who is doing the killings, but a centuries-old (and stunningly beautiful) witch, who turns into a horrible monster under the light of the full moon.

If you’re into strawberry blondes, ‘When the Screaming Stops’ is definitely for you, as you get a fine selection between Helga Liné (Loreley) and Silvia Tortosa (the schoolmarm). But, seriously, the movie is a fine piece of fantasy horror with some fun moments mixed in (which may or may include the fact that the monster may be less than convincing). Not a “must-see”, but worth checking out once, especially for horror fans.

Rating: ★★★☆☆

Vomit bag:

Movie #3: ‘Night of the Demons’ (1988)

Ten teens gather in an abandoned funeral home for a party and decide to perform a seance. What could go wrong?

Well, just about everything. For one, releasing a demon that plans on possessing everyone in the house.

‘Night of the Demons’ has no gimmicks. It takes proper time to get set up, but once it’s ready, it’s straight-ahead, in-your-face terror for the rest of the runtime. And it does so on a relatively small budget, which in some ways is noticeable (namely the music, which isn’t bad, but it’s cheap), but I think the movie largely overcomes this factor. Having a small cast in essentially one location (a horror movie staple) certainly helps, but it’s also good that director Kevin Tenney has a sense of style, and isn’t afraid to add some flair (having competently done makeup effects doesn’t hurt either).

This is a pretty good horror flick. The ensemble cast has a fair amount of chemistry, the movie never gets bogged down too much, and, for a concept that could easily be tired, it mostly keeps things fresh. Definitely worthy of a spot in Halloween-time rotation.

Also, I don’t want to spoil too much (Lipstick), but in one particular way, this movie is actually important, because it turns a certain trope completely on its head.

Rating: ★★★½

NOTE: The screening of ‘Night of the Demons’ was bookended by an introduction and a Q&A from actor Alvin Alexis.

Movie #4: ‘The Horror of Party Beach’ (1964)

I don’t think it’s a secret that I love movies that punch above their weight class, and this film is absolutely better than it has any right to be. Sure, the monster is a joke, the science is questionable, and sometimes it’s just downright hard to see, but what can you honestly expect for $120,000? It’s entertaining, and that’s all that really matters.

‘The Horror of Party Beach’ is obviously a mash-up of monster movies and the then-burgeoning “Beach Party” sub-genre (complete with New Jersey’s own “The Del-Aires“, who are great), shot almost entirely in and around Stamford, CT (with just a touch of Manhattan, which is great to see). As it goes, there’s dumping of radioactive waste in the bay, and, of course, one of the containers springs a leak, which, when mixed with the skeletal remains from a shipwreck, forms horrible monsters that KILL.

Perhaps the biggest strength of ‘Party Beach’, and I mean this in all sincerity, is its length. At only 78 minutes, it moves along well enough and doesn’t overstay its welcome (anyone familiar with 1950s B sci-fi knows 90 minutes is about the breaking point anyway). But, really, it’s just a fun watch from beginning to end (what with all the music, beach partying, and motorcycle gangs), and it doesn’t unnecessarily tease you. Compared to a much later movie like ‘Blood Beach‘ (which is painfully boring), it’s a treat.

Oh, and the gimmick for this one was a “Fright Release”, absolving the theater from any liability should someone literally be scared to death.

Rating: ★★★☆☆

Fright Release:

Movie #5: ‘Monsters Crash the Pajama Party’ (1965)

‘Monsters Crash the Pajama Party’ isn’t a movie, but rather a fun half hour short, blending comedic and light horror elements. Not unlike ‘Night of the Demons’ (but also very different), a group of sorority initiates are brought by their boyfriends to a “haunted” old mansion, where they have to spend the night in order to be accepted. Naturally, the boys come back with the intention of scaring them, but unbeknownst to everyone is the fact that a mad scientist and his creature henchmen are working in the basement. They try to capture the girls for experiments, the boys try to rescue the girls, and the police try to rescue everyone, but the real point is to just enjoy the ride, as there is much fourth wall breaking (quite literally at the end, as the gimmick involves the creatures coming “out of the screen” and into the audience).

It’s quite charming, as the film seems to be merely a friendly low-budget effort, and the performance of the mad scientist is quite savory (lots of great visual gags in the laboratory as well), but a home viewing seems rather pointless given the ending. However, if you happen to notice anyone doing a theater screening, it’s worth checking out.

Rating: ★★★☆☆

Movie #6: ‘Godzilla vs. Megalon’ (1973)

At last, we’ve finally made it to the end.

By the point in the evening, my compatriots and I were rather punchy, and given that the final film of the day was a surprise, we didn’t know what we were in for. But, the event had been dubbed “Mad Monster Marathon”, so we probably should have suspected some sort of Kaiju action.

How Godzilla ever evolved from a somber metaphor for nuclear destruction in the mid-1950s to literally children’s entertainment by the 1970s, I surely don’t know, but ‘Godzilla vs. Megalon’ is firmly in the latter camp.

The movie kicks off with a nuclear test, which is the final straw for Seatopia, an underground civilization we’ve never seen or heard of before, but they’re pissed about it and they intend to declare war, despite us surface dwellers not having a clue. Meanwhile, a scientist is putting the finishing touches on a robot man named Jet Jaguar (who is totally and utterly distinct from Ultraman), who the Seatopians want to take control of so he can guide Megalon on the Earth’s surface and I guess destroy us all. Blah, blah-blah, blah-blah.

Point is, we get a tag team match between Godzilla and Jet Jaguar on our side, and Megalon and Gigan on the Seatopian side, and that’s all that really matters.

Not to get overly nitpicky, because it’s not really my style, but frankly, the movie is cheap, and I don’t mean in a good way. Many shots and scenes are recycled from previous films, and at one point when Megalon is firing his mouth cannon in rapid succession, the shot is clearly just looped over and over again.

Overall, the movie is a bit of campy fun, and, in spite of its frugality, some of the model shots do look pretty good, but I’m not outright recommending this one by any stretch.

Rating: ★★½

Well, there it is. Another year, another Guilty Pleasures Marathon, and a whole lot of monsters. Thanks again to Alamo Drafthouse Yonkers and Exhumed Films for putting it on. It was a fun time as usual, and I look forward to next years edition.

Twofer Movie Review: ‘X-Men: Days of Future Past’ and ‘Godzilla’ (2014) – Why So Boring?

I never anticipated that I’d be formally reviewing these two movies, as I’m trying to stick to ground less traveled here, but I had the…experience…of seeing both this past week, and they coaxed almost the exact same reaction out of me: disappointment.

X-Men: Days of Future Past and the new Godzilla are the latest members of a growing and increasingly wearisome club of “big” summer movies whose trailers make them look fantastic, but the movies themselves leave much to be desired (perhaps the most notable example of this from 2013 is Man of Steel, though at least the first half is worth watching). I understand movies are a business, but at this point I’m just tired of all the lies.

So, here I am, reviewing these films that many, many people have seen already, but I want to warn others while they’re still at risk of wasting their time and money.

Directed by Bryan Singer
Written by Simon Kinberg (Screenplay and Story), Jane Goldman and Matthew Vaughn (Story)
Cast: Hugh Jackman, James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, Jennifer Lawrence, Halle Berry, Nicholas Hoult, Ellen Page, Peter Dinklage, Shawn Ashmore, Omar Sy, Evan Peters, Josh Helman, Ian McKellen, Patrick Stewart, Famke Janssen, James Marsden, Lucas Till, Daniel Cudmore, Booboo Stewart, Michael Lerner
Soundtrack: John Ottman

I had such high hopes…

Before I get too ahead of myself here, I will point out two scenes in this movie that are quite well done, without spoiling too much (not that it really matters):
1. An action scene that takes place in a famous government building where our heroes have to break someone out. It is the best scene in the film (though not worth the price of admission), and makes great use of Quicksilver (Marvel’s version of The Flash, if you don’t know).
2. A more poignant scene where the two Xaviers (past and future) are talking to one another. It’s the only scene that really connects on an emotional level to any significant degree.

That’s about it. Two scenes.

The basic premise of this movie (we need to fix the past in order to save the future) is interesting enough to keep you going for the lengthy running time; I was never so bored that I just wanted to go to sleep, but there’s a substantial gap between being passively interested and actively invested, and this movie consistently fails to fill it. If I was so inclined, I could complain about lots of things like plot holes, anachronisms, and various other X-Men problems that I know nothing about, but even before all of that, this movie constantly fails to be compelling. I was expecting Days of Future Past to be big and emotional; it is neither of those.

Whatever needs to happen to advance the story happens in short order, leaving very little room for dramatic tension. We need to find the professor? We find the professor. We need to find Eric? We find Eric. We need them to reconcile? They reconcile in two minutes (even though “they’ve never been further apart”). And so on and so forth. Not only that, but they couldn’t seem to figure out an interesting way of delivering mass exposition, which leads to more tedium as a viewer.

Now, again, I know very little about X-Men, and I’ve certainly never read the Days of Future Past storyline in the comics, so I can’t tell you how good of an adaptation the movie is, but, you know what? I know very little about Captain America and S.H.I.E.L.D., and I really enjoyed The Winter Soldier. I know very little about Iron Man, and all three of those movies are fantastic (Iron Man 2 is actually my favorite of the trilogy). All four of the movies I just mentioned work as movies first and worry about the other comic book stuff later, therefore I recommend all of them, but I cannot recommend this new X-Men film (outside of a Netflix/Redbox sort of viewing if you’re that curious). X-Men: First Class had its problems, and I did not recommend seeing it in a theater when it came out, but there are at least some compelling storylines and interesting cinematic goings-on to get you moderately invested; it’s not a total flop. I can’t say the same for Days of Future Past. Ordinarily I’d offer up some sort of suggestion on how to improve the film, but I honestly don’t know about this one outside of having a completely different creative team leading the charge.

Frankly, and this will sound harsh, I think Bryan Singer himself might be the biggest problem here. Now, he did write and direct the first two X-Men films, and they’re solid, I guess (it’s been a while since I’ve watched them), but on the whole I think his career path is much closer to M. Night Shyamalan than his hero, Richard Donner. I suppose based on his original X-Men work he was able to wrangle a lot of creative control for Superman Returns, and that movie suffers many of the same problems as Days of Future Past. Granted, I really enjoyed it when I first saw it in theaters, but I was a younger man, and highly nostalgic for Superman I and II; watching it again though, that movie’s a mess (Lex Luthor wants real estate again, really?), and a good chunk of the running time simply isn’t compelling. I can understand the studio’s desire to return to the guy that put X-Men on the cinematic map, but, at this point, it seems that Bryan Singer is damaged goods, at least for superhero movies.

★★☆☆☆

Directed by Gareth Edwards
Written by Max Borenstein (Screenplay), Dave Callaham (Story)
Cast: Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Ken Watanabe, Elizabeth Olsen, Bryan Cranston, Juliette Binoche, CJ Adams, Sally Hawkins, David Strathairn, Richard T. Jones, Victor Rasuk, Jared Keeso
Soundtrack: Alexandre Desplat

The most common comment (and I uttered it myself many a time) I heard in anticipation of Godzilla was, “Bryan Cranston’s in it,” and that is a true statement; Bryan Cranston is in the new Godzilla, and he’s really good in it when he’s in it, but he’s not in it nearly enough to save it.

This movie started off with a lot of promise. In the first 15 minutes or so, we see that Bryan Cranston plays an engineer at a nuclear power plant in Japan who’s concerned about a repeating pattern of seismic tremors (whose origins we as the audience already know something about) that might cause his plant some trouble. Sure enough, he’s right, and the plant suffers a terrible accident as a result of a mysterious earthquake, and, of course, this comes at a great personal cost to our beloved engineer.

BOOM. That’s a great intro, and a great way to get your audience invested into your movie. BUT, they then proceed to almost immediately scrap that for a shift in perspective to a different character. Bryan Cranston’s engineer comes back for a little bit, and you find out what he’s been doing for the past 15 years and it leads to the next plot point, but after that he’s done. See ya never.

This is my first big problem with this film. They get you emotionally invested, but then throw it away and give you characters that you just don’t care about; you can’t care about them, at least not in the same way. The engineer’s character’s arc coulda/shoulda/woulda made up the whole movie, or at least the first half of it. But jettisoning it so quickly into the run time (no matter who was playing him, really) was a huge mistake in the writing; and replacing him with such boring other characters compounds the problem further. Let him hang around a lot longer, and you’ve instantly got a better movie; hands down.

My second big issue is creature design; not so much for Godzilla, he looks alright, I guess, but the other creatures (this is not a spoiler; they’re in the trailer if you look close). They just look so generic, like they got focus-grouped to death or something. I don’t know, they just don’t look interesting or very creative. This is where maybe a little more liaising with Toho would have reaped huge benefits. I mean I know this is a ‘murican Godzilla movie, and I appreciate that they moved the story along more so than a standard reboot, but when your film features giant monsters, those monsters need to be engaging, and they almost completely failed in that respect.

My third and final problematic issue with Godzilla is too much tease and not enough payoff. Say what you want about Pacific Rim (I’m not that high on it myself, but it’s okay), but you can’t deny that they went all out when it came to showing you the monsters. Now I’m not saying Godzilla has to be that explicit, but the title of the movie is GODZILLA. A Godzilla movie should have the payoff of seeing Godzilla doing Godzilla things, and he does, eventually, but even when it’s an all-out brawl, they still cut away and tease you in the midst of it. It doesn’t come as a fully-satisfying payoff; it’s just more frustration at the end of an already frustrating movie.

What’s also frustrating is that they gave this movie to a promising young director, Gareth Edwards (not to be confused with Gareth Evans, who’s making the fantastic Raid series), whose first feature was also a monster movie called Monsters that appears to be much more worthwhile than Godzilla.

Now, is Godzilla a better movie than X-Men: Days of Future Past? Yes. It at least gives you an initial emotional connection, and though you’re largely waiting for something to happen, it does draw you back in a couple of times with legitimate suspense (something X-Men particularly fails to do); not to mention the visuals are much better on the whole. But it’s not good enough to warrant a better rating, unfortunately.

★★☆☆☆