Day: April 4, 2022

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Movie Review

Jurassic Island (2022) Movie Review

Jurassic Island is a nice low budget dinosaur flick, that lacks intensity.

Jurassic Island Poster

Director: Dominic Ellis

Writer: Dominic Ellis, Tom Jolliffe (Screenplay)

Starring: Nicola Wright, Sarah T Cohen, Ray Whelan, Howard J Davey, Kate Sandison, Jamila Wingett

Plot: A group of explorers find themselves on an unknown Island surrounded by “extinct animals”.

Runtime: 1 Hour 17 Minutes

There may be spoilers in the rest of the review

Story: Jurassic Island starts when Ava (Cohen) learns about the information about her father’s latest search for her grandfather. The island he vanished on decades before.

Ava will lead a search mission with Cassie (Wingett), Michael (Freitas), Luke (Stoneman) and Tommy (Whelan). Travelling to the island, where they will find themselves face up against extinct animals, in a battle to survive.

Thoughts on Jurassic Island

Characters & Performances

Ava has gone in search of her father, using her training in crisis situations to plan against any problems they would have. Deciding to lead a team in search of answers about what happened to her father in his search for her grandfather. She is the strongest member of the team. Stepping up through any situations the team finds themselves in, handle human and animal problems they will face.

When it comes to the supporting cast, we have Cassie the expert on the extinct. Tommy the concerned boyfriend of Ava wanting to make sure she is safe. Along others to make up for the body count required. The performances in the film are strong throughout without having to do anything near the levels of the actors in the bigger Jurassic franchise.

Story

The story here will follow a group of people who go in search of a mysterious island with extinct creatures. Where they will find themselves needing to battle to survive against once extinct enemies. The core side of the story is simple enough and will give the motivation required to go on the journey. It does fall with the simple wandering around the island without getting many answers.

Themes – Jurassic Island is an action sci-fi movie that will use the love of dinosaurs to bring to life the idea, the basic running from dinosaurs, is simple enough, though the location never feels like an unexplored island. The effects are not the best either, showing us the CGI dinosaurs and gore, along with what happens to the infected people we meet.

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Movie Review

ABC Film Challenge – Action – D – Deep Blue Sea 2 (2018) Movie Review

Director: Darin Scott

Writer: Hans Rodionoff, Erik Patterson, Jessica Scott (Screenplay)

Starring: Danielle Savre, Rob Mayes, Michael Beach, Nathan Lynn, Kim Syster, Jeremy Boado, Adrian Collins

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


Tagline – Return to the deep… if you dare

Runtime: 1 Hour 34 Minutes

There may be spoilers in the rest of the review

Story: Deep Blue Sea 2 starts when shark conservationist Misty Calhoun (Savre), Leslie Kim (Syster) and Daniel Kim (Boado) are recruited by ambitious billionaire Carl Durant (Beach) to oversea the research he has been conducting on bull sharks.

When the latest research project gets underway, the sharks look to get their revenge, trapping the humans in the sinking complex, looking to hunt them down, Misty and Trent (Mayes) must use their expertise to save as many as possible.

Thoughts on Deep Blue Sea 2

Characters & Performances – Misty Calhoun has been working with sharks her whole life, she has been teaching people that they are not the monsters of the sea, they are only a threat if you let them become one. She isn’t happy with what is being done in this facility, wanting to find out why she was selected to be part of the team looking into the action and she will need to use her own knowledge to find a way to survive. Danielle Savre does well in her leading role, while the character might not be as well written as the original film, the performance does the best she can with it. Trent Slater is the man that handles the sharks, he has become suspicious of how dangerous they have become needing to figure out how to get the message through to the people that matter. Much like the character played by Thomas Jane, this is the one that can have the most experience in the water with the sharks. Rob Mayes however does all her can with a character that seems like there is meant to be a lot more about, but never gets to be fully unleashed with the cool action scenes. Carl Durant is the billionaire with the ambition to increase human intelligence, using the sharks to experiment on, he sees himself as a visionary that could change the world, putting people in harms way for his own escape. Michael Beach does make this the role you will remember, just because of how much of an asshole he is in the film. The rest of the characters are the typical ones we would expect to see in this situations, with one always finding their way to safety no matter what, with the performances being fine, without making the impact.

Story – The story here follows a couple of scientists that are recruited to look over a project involving sharks, which will see a drug being developed to improve intelligence, not only in sharks, but for humans in the future and the sharks decide they will not wait for the truth. This story does end up feeling like a carbon copy of the original, with the main difference being the reason behind the experiment. It is the sharks fighting back, the base slowly sinking and the race to escape being what is going on. The characters are not written as strongly, the motivation isn’t as interesting, the only positive from the story comes from the baby sharks added, being potentially more dangerous.

Themes – Deep Blue Sea 2 is an action horror that will be filled with survival against shark and water in a base, in the middle of the ocean. Seems easy enough to get behind, it does have strong special effects when it comes to the injuries, but not the actual shark attacks, with a lot happening off camera.

 

Deep Blue Sea 2 is pretty much just a low-budget remake of the original that never seems to get an original idea.

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Movie Review

Prototype (2022) Movie Review

Director: Jack Peter Mundy

Writer: Sam Gurney (Screenplay)

Starring: Danielle Scott, Stephanie Lodge, Andrew Rolfe, Jamie Robertson, Tom Taplin, Zoe Purdy, Ben Reid

Plot: In the near future, life-like androids with artificial intelligence have been created to help people with menial household tasks. The prototype, One, created by Roger Marshall and tested by his family, proves to be popular but flawed. Roger has been working on a new model, Two, whose improved features show promise of its super-human abilities. As tensions rise between Roger and wife Shelley, the androids malfunction and the lives of the whole family are soon in danger of Two’s sinister plans.


Tagline – An automated help machine has been corrupted in a family home.

Runtime: 1 Hour 27 Minutes

There may be spoilers in the rest of the review

Story: Prototype starts when Roger Marshall (Robertson) brings one of the first prototype androids One (Robinson) into his family home, where he controls his wife Shelley (Scott) and children Michael (Taplin) and Andy have a different level of relationship with One.

When Roger brings home a second android, Two (Purdy) it is designed in a different way, a way that only listens to Roger and shows a much more dangerous side around the home.

Thoughts on Prototype

Characters & Performances – Roger is the abusive father, who controls his wife, expects his son to have the best in his life and helps design the androids to help around the home, wanting them to be his personal servants. Shelley is the mother and wife that isn’t allowed to leave the home, doesn’t have anyone around in her life to help her or support her, living the nightmare, while trying to stay strong for the children. One is the first android welcomed into the family, it operates in a friendly manner listening to everyone in the household, following the basic laws of robotics. Two is the newer model, instructed to only follow Roger’s instructions, created to do his controlling when he isn’t around, filled with the evil natures programmed into it. The performances are strong in this film, with the emotionless ones behind the androids being the stand outs.

Story – The story here will follow a family with a controlling father who brings in androids into his home to make life easier, only for his attempts to have on in his model of controlling nature over the family, only for the android to turn deadly. This is an interesting story that will bring to life the idea that androids will be bought into homes to help out, but the dangers will always be around the intelligence levels could give them free will to go against humans. The story will end up playing out well, giving the family a chance to come together to overcome the problems they are facing in life, to bring them closer than before, while giving the warning about bringing artificial intelligence into your home.

Themes – Prototype is a sci-fi movie that will examine the idea of having androids in the home to help make life easier, using practical effects to create the android looks, which will have an uncomfortable look, as it is one of the first model created, being about the technical side over the visual look of the androids. The film mostly stays within one home showing how trapped someone can become by someone.

Final Thoughts – Prototype is an interesting look at the first androids in a home, going wrong.