Yesterday I abandoned my coworkers, turned my back on the best weather day of the budding summer, and hid inside a dark cinema with a monster monarch and pop music king.
Spoiler level here will be mild, nothing you wouldn't know from trailers and clips.
First on my agenda, Godzilla: King of the Monsters.
With Earth threatened by Titans and eco-terrorists, it's the King of the Monsters himself to the rescue.What I expect from a Godzilla movie, first and foremost, is for the monsters to be huge and impressive. Godzilla: King of the Monsters delivers that in spades, and I didn't even see it on the biggest/best screen at my cinema. I can only imagine how spectacular it looks in IMAX! The CGI sleek and effective, and the light effects on various creatures add some punch to a movie that, overall, is rather dark and sometimes hard to see. The disaster and even weather effects are also a sight to behold. A cast that boasts names like Bradley Whitford, Sally Hawkins, Vera Farmiga, Kyle Chandler, and Ken Watanabe might ordinarily be relied upon to elevate a movie beyond "just a monster movie," but, unfortunately, this monster movie is the equivalent of cement shoes on its actors. I was a little embarrassed to watch such quality talent utter this poorly-crafted dialogue, and I groaned out loud more than once at putrid attempts at humor. That aside, Bear McCreary's score smacks of old-school Godzilla pictures, and solid wall-to-wall action makes for a fast-moving couple hours of summer escapism.
Godzilla: King of the Monsters runs 131 minutes and is rated PG13 for "sequences of monster action, violence, and destruction, and for some language."
It's not the best Godzilla movie ever, but King of the Monsters certainly isn't the worst. Of a possible nine Weasleys, Godzilla: King of the Monsters gets six.
Next on the docket, a movie for which it feels like I've been waiting forever: Rocketman, a musical fantasy based on the life of Elton John.
Dearest reader(s), I am utterly in love with Rocketman. I want to talk about this movie. I want to talk about this movie a LOT. If you don't care to dive right into the thousand words that will undoubtedly follow, just get off the couch, put away the laptop, and get out to the cinema now. Do it. If you *do* want to dive right into my thoughts on Rocketman, well, here ya go...
The first words I said to anyone about Rocketman were: "That's not just the best movie I've seen this year; that's the best movie I've seen in ten years." While it'd take a bit more careful consideration to see how close that statement is to actual fact (it's only been nine years since two new entries, The Social Network and How to Train Your Dragon, jumped into my all-time top ten), I'll stand by the enthusiasm. Rocketman is a truly extraordinary cinematic achievement.
Rocketman is staged like a Broadway musical, with John recounting his childhood, rise to fame, and difficulties with addictions and relationships through musical numbers. The film moves deftly from heartbreak to passion to euphoria without ever feeling disjointed or like it's lost its way. Though the real strength of the musical numbers lies in John's timeless tunes, the staging bursts with fantastic choreography and brilliant costumes. John's story is fascinating enough in its own right, but here it's brought to life with a theatrical flair reminiscent of Bob Fosse's brilliant biopic All That Jazz, another of my all-time top-ten movies, which I was disappointed to discover recently is not available for rental or streaming...if I want to watch it, I have to dig out my old DVD. How very 1998!
Rocketman features top-notch work from a delightful cast. Taron Egerton gives up every inch of himself to *become* Elton John, and if I had the whole of the Internet I couldn't say enough about his performance. Masterful, exceptional, and entirely expected of Egerton, who is unfailingly extraordinary. He does his own singing here, too, in case anyone was wondering. If Egerton perfectly captures the cacophony of Elton John, Jamie Bell's stalwart Bernie Taupin serves as the movie's quiet cornerstone. Bell has been turning in brilliant performances literally since he was a child, and this one moved me to tears more than once. The remainder of the cast, particularly Richard Madden as John's sexy, sleazy first love and manager John Reid, fantastically fleshes out the highs and lows and brights and darks of John's world, nary a weak link to be found among them; even the young kids are terrific.
Following so quickly on the heels of the Queen/Freddie Mercury biopic Bohemian Rhapsody, comparisons are inevitable, so, for whatever it's worth, here's how the two films stack up for me. Throwing no shade at Bohemian Rhapsody, which I loved, Rocketman is a much better film. The most objective and therefore critically relevant reason is simple: It's just more self-aware. Bohemian Rhapsody wanted so very badly to be taken seriously, and ultimately it succeeded, but for my money it skimmed too lightly over the dark times and hard questions to earn it. Rocketman was only ever billed as a fantasy, so, though it's based on some real-life people and happenings--and not all happy ones--it could always be whatever it wanted...and it is EVERYTHING. More subjectively, though I'm a big fan of Rami Malek, I've always believed Taron Egerton could do anything, and in each and every project he proves me right. Malek was terrific as Freddie Mercury, but Egerton inhabits Elton John in a way I've seldom seen, not even from the most experienced and decorated performers. Finally, Queen made some epic, legendary music and I love all of it, but it's never moved me in the way Elton John's music does, and that's allowing for the fact that my favorite Elton John songs--Madman Across the Water and Funeral for a Friend/Love lies Bleeding--are unrepresented in this picture. So...if you're going to make the comparison, for me it's not a hard call: Rocketman is a better movie than Bohemian Rhapsody by far and in every way.
Rocketman clocks in at 121 minutes and is rated R for "language throughout, some drug use, and sexual content."
Rocketman will break your heart and mend your soul. I haven't stopped smiling since I saw it, and I can't wait to see it again. There aren't nearly enough Weasleys to give this movie the rating it deserves, so I'm just going to beg you: GET OUT AND SEE ROCKETMAN NOW!
Until next time...
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