2020-2029, Film Review

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 (2023)

Posted on May 5, 2023April 30, 2025 by Martin: Through the Silver Screen

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 – Film Review

Cast: Chris Pratt, Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldaña, Dave Bautista, Karen Gillan, Pom Klementieff, Vin Diesel, Bradley Cooper, Sean Gunn, Chukwudi Iwuji, Will Poulter, Elizabeth Debicki, Maria Bakalova, Sylvester Stallone

Director: James Gunn

Synopsis: The Guardians of the Galaxy are put in a perilous predicament when their base, and one of their own, comes under attack…

Review: It seemed unthinkable back in 2014 that a film based on a very obscure comic, which featured a sentient raccoon and a talking tree, could have been such a runaway success and brought a new dimension to the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Aided by a banging soundtrack, perfectly well-drawn characters who developed a strong sense of camaraderie, along with humour and heart, this is precisely what James Gunn brought to the table when the first Guardians of the Galaxy film blasted its way into cinemas. A sequel was inevitable, which had its moments but fell short of reaching the lofty heights set by its predecessor. Following on from their team-up with Earth’s mightiest heroes, a holiday special, and amid a rocky road to the big screen following the initial firing and subsequent rehiring of Gunn, everyone’s favourite team of rag-tag, lovable outlaws-turned-heroes is back for one last emotional adventure.

The Guardians, Star-Lord (Pratt), Drax (Bautista), Nebula (Gillan), Mantis (Klementieff), Rocket (Cooper) and Groot (Diesel), have established their base on Knowhere and are enjoying a rare moment of peace after their years of saving the galaxy from an assortment of creatures, from a living planet to the Mad Titan Thanos. Star-Lord (Pratt), in particular, is still reeling from the loss of his lover Gamora after Thanos sacrificed her and is spending a lot of his time drowning his sorrows. Their brief respite from galaxy-saving is halted when their base comes under attack from a terrifying new threat, putting the lives of specific members in immediate peril. Forced to regroup and assess the new threat they face, the Guardians set out on a deeply personal quest (which sees them cross paths with alternate-timeline Gamora) to find out who is targeting them and neutralise them before they bring about the end of the team as we know it.

Right from the moment we first met them as an out-of-sorts bunch of criminals who became the galaxy’s defenders, there has been an ever-present strong sense of camaraderie between this unlikely team of eccentric beings from all over the galaxy, a togetherness arguably stronger than any other team-up in the MCU to date. They were united by a common bond of being looked down on by the galaxy for one reason or another, which drew them closer together and made them a family, just not one related by blood. Having gone off to work with DC to give their equivalent to the Guardians some CPR, while his situation with Marvel was up in the air, Gunn’s screenplay continues to build on the strength of the togetherness and bonds that this team have built over the years, especially for a mission where the stakes are just as high when compared to the previous two films, but for a very different reason this time around. No spoilers to be found here, but while Vol. 2 explored Star Lord’s origins at length, this time around, as Gunn himself admitted, the key motivation for coming back to conclude the trilogy was to finish telling Rocket’s story.

The examination of this origin story, and the deeply personal nature of the ensuing mission make it the most personal film for the team, and by extension for Gunn himself. A recurring theme which has been recurring throughout the franchise is the idea that everyone deserves a second chance, and Gunn emphatically drives this point home here. There’s lots of emotion at stake here, not just for the Guardians who are fighting to save one of their own but are coming up against by far their most compelling antagonist yet in the High Evolutionary, portrayed terrifyingly by Chukwudi Iwuji. To say this guy has an ego (no, not that one) would be an extreme understatement. He is obsessed with creating essentially a utopia, to the extent that he will stop at nothing with experimentation, and Rocket is the key to all of his plans. The film goes into detail with the backstory of how Rocket came to be the lovable and awesome badass that he is, which isn’t afraid to explore some thought-provoking and heavy themes, and also really packs an emotional punch. Every character gets their moment to shine, but make no mistake, this movie belongs to Rocket.

The film is a little rough around the edges in places and could have benefited from a little bit of fine-tuning to trim down its two-and-a-half-hour runtime. However, given the status of this concluding chapter was up in the air for so long and there were real question marks as to whether Gunn would get to close out this chapter, those can be forgiven, especially when the characters have established this deep bond, not only as a team but with the audience themselves. Gunn’s attention now turns to DC to oversee the revamp of its own cinematic universe, but this franchise has always been his baby. Therefore, after nine years since we first (fooled around) and fell in love with these characters, the impact they have had on the MCU is immeasurable, and it is immensely satisfying to see Gunn close this chapter of the galaxy’s favourite bunch of a-holes in mighty fine style.

Easily the most personal story in the trilogy, Vol. 3 combines the humour, action and establishes a deeply felt unity and togetherness like no other Marvel team-up. A fittingly awesome and emotional send-off for the galaxy’s favourite collection of misfits-turned-heroes.

2020-2029, Film Review

Tenet (2020)

Posted on August 29, 2020August 29, 2020 by Martin: Through the Silver Screen

**Image is property of Warner Bros and Syncopy**

Tenet – Film Review

Cast: John David Washington, Robert Pattinson, Elizabeth Debicki, Kenneth Branagh, Michael Caine, Aaron Taylor-Johnson,

Director: Christopher Nolan

Synopsis: A CIA Agent is recruited into a top secret program of international espionage on the trail of the possession of technology that can invert time…

Review: 2020 will certainly go down as one of the most unprecedented years in recent memory, as cinemas and many other businesses lay empty for many months. However, in those long months that the projectors were switched off and the screens remained dark, there was one film that was continuously being talked about as the film that would trigger a revival for the cinema industry. The new film, from a director who is a firm champion of the big screen, was being pitched as the film to goad audiences back to the cinema. While its taken its time to arrive, with a few shuffled release dates en route, in a world that will remain uncertain for the foreseeable future, one thing remains abundantly clear. Christopher Nolan hasn’t lost his ability to create a completely unique piece of cinema.

In a world of international espionage, the Protagonist (Washington), armed with only the use of a single word “Tenet”, must venture into this dangerous and complex world, with the goal of preventing a global catastrophe from occurring. While this sounds like your typical spy/espionage thriller, but in Nolan’s hands this is anything but. The key twist is that in this world, it’s one where cutting edge technology to invert objects through time has been invented, threatening the world with as one character says “something worse” than a nuclear Armageddon.

With Nolan’s previous filmography, he has shown a liking for dabbling with the concept of time and all of the mind-bending possibilities that these offer. Memento was his original head-scratching masterpiece, and amid further exploration of time with the ambitious Interstellar, and the ingenious inter-weaving of three inter-connected events of Dunkirk. Though with Tenet, this is perhaps is most ambitious exploration of time to date, if this was somehow even possible. Packing a lot into its running time, the plot keeps things moving at a fairly brisk pace. However, there are times when so much happening at once that the audience barely has time to stop for breath. Hence, keeping up with the film’s super complex time-bending narrative will almost certainly be a challenge.

Yet, for all the complexities that Nolan’s script throws at the audience, it is a challenge, but it is a rewarding one. The director’s previous films have certainly gone ambitious with many of its action set pieces, and Nolan does his best to outdo himself with a number of extremely ambitious, and well-directed set pieces that’s certainly going to get the pulses racing, and make the audiences’ brains go haywire. In terms of his cast, Nolan has once again delivered an exquisite collection of characters. Following his star turn in BlacKkKlansman, John David Washington delivers another excellent leading performance as the film’s Protagonist. Possessing his father’s charisma in abundance, he brings his own suave almost 007-esque charm to this leading role in a tentpole blockbuster, that will only further his reputation as a leading man. Alongside him, Robert Pattinson continues to forge his own exciting career path. Much like Washington’s Protagonist, he carries a likeable presence, whilst boasting charisma and charm to boot.

While the protagonists certainly carry likeable auras, Kenneth Branagh’s turn as the intimidating Russian oligarch who’s seeking the time-twisting technology, is anything but likeable. His performance is fittingly ominous and menacing, there’s a dark and scary history to this man, which is substantially explored in his abusive relationship with his wife Kat (Elizabeth Debicki). On paper, This is a role that could have been extremely problematic, as it runs the risk of making her into a tired and cliched damsel-in-distress. However, with an actor of Debicki’s immense talent, she gives an excellent performance. There’s no shortage of substance to her character and she’s thankfully given enough material so that she has doesn’t fall into that damsel-in-distress cliche.

With long time collaborator Hans Zimmer unavailable, Ludwig Goransson steps in to fill that void, and he does so in spectacular style with a score that fits the fast paced nature of the film. Though impressive as it maybe, it can at times be almost too overpowering, making the dialogue difficult to understand in places. While its plot is undeniably complex, with a lot to digest, there’s no denying that Christopher Nolan remains one of the most unique and visionary directors working today. When the day comes that we’re all freely able to go back to the cinema without any risk, the work of these visionaries must be supported and championed. We’ll just need to make sure we don’t run into any time inverted traps along the way.

It wouldn’t be a Christopher Nolan film if it wasn’t mind-bendingly complex. Yet through it all, the visionary director has once again crafted something extremely unique and compelling. The film industry is certainly a much more interesting place with directors like Nolan in the business.

2010-2019, Film Review

Widows (2018)

Posted on November 16, 2018September 29, 2025 by Martin: Through the Silver Screen

Image is property of 20th Century Fox, Film4 Productions and Regency

Widows – Film Review

Cast: Viola Davis, Michelle Rodriguez, Elizabeth Debicki, Cynthia Erivo, Colin Farrell, Brian Tyree Henry, Daniel Kaluuya, Jacki Weaver, Carrie Coon, Robert Duvall, Jon Bernthal, Liam Neeson

Director: Steve McQueen

Synopsis: After a bank heist goes horribly wrong, leading to the deaths of all the crew, their widows step up to finish what their husbands started…

Review: As a director, you make one of the most heart-wrenching but extremely impactful pieces of cinema to come out in this decade. A film that landed you the Best Picture Oscar, no less, how do you follow that up? For Steve McQueen, following on from his success with the aforementioned 12 Years A Slave, the answer is simple. You team up with another recent Oscar winner and make another exhilarating, heart-pounding piece of cinema. Namely, a heist film quite unlike anything the genre has concocted before.

After a team of criminals is caught up in a heist that gets all of them killed, their widows are left in a very desperate situation. Veronica Rawlings (Davis) is the widow of the leader of the crew, Harry (Neeson). Not long after her husband’s death, she receives a rather uncomfortable visit from crime boss Jamal Manning (Brian Tyree Henry), the target of the botched heist. Demanding repayment of the stolen money, and given a rather tight window in order to do so, Veronica has the plans for what would have been her husband’s next job. Needing her own crew to pull it off, recruits the other widows who also lost their husbands in the same heist, for a new mission to score the money that their husbands stole. Conceptually, though this may sound like your average heist film, in execution, it is a very different beast.

The screenplay, co-written by McQueen and Gone Girl author Gillian Flynn adds deep political subtext to this story that really gives the film a unique feel to it. Furthermore, with such powerful women at the centre of this gripping story, in the era of the Me Too movement, it feels all the more powerful and relevant in modern times. What McQueen and Flynn’s script does so excellently is give each woman involved in this daring heist a significant amount of development. Though they come from different backgrounds, each woman absolutely stands on her own two feet, and all give excellent performances.

Leading the pack and fresh from her Oscar success, Viola Davis is once again superb in the role of Veronica. She is a woman who has been to hell and back again, both with events in her past and in the immediate aftermath of her husband’s demise. Yet her fiery spirit keeps her going through this turbulent time. Likewise for Alice (Debicki) and (Rodriguez), both of whom are also dealt with a torrid set of consequences in the wake of the heist that robbed them of their spouses. But with the resolute Veronica at the helm, there is no time to mope, they have some work to do.

Though the women have the spotlight absolutely deservedly on them, Daniel Kaluyya’s portrayal of Jamal’s brother, Jatamme is magnificent and absolutely terrifying in equal measure. A VERY different kind of role, especially in comparison to his Oscar-nominated performance in Get Out, but with every moment he has on screen, his cold demeanour and brutality are enough to send shivers down the spines of the audience. This is a man whose path you do not want to cross under any circumstances.

With the theme of powerful women front and centre, McQueen also brilliantly weaves political drama into the story. There is one moment in particular that really stands out in terms of how the scene is filmed. And by doing it this way, it really sends a startling message about modern day America and in particular modern American politics. It is another film released this year that feels very timely in terms of its themes, whilst also being not afraid to pull any punches, or to let the bullets fly.