ALIEN: COVENANT

So, who wants their homicidal, adaptive alien served up with a side of philosophy?  If you do, then you'll like Alien: Covenant a whole lot more than I did.   This entry in the Alien franchise tries for greater depth but proves boring.

After a discussion of creations and creators, we see the starship Covenant on its way to colonize a distant planet.  The trip is scheduled for seven years, with both passengers and crew in suspended animation, with synthetic Walter (Michael Fassbender) minding the systems.  But a cosmic event damages the ship, killing the captain and dozens of the passengers.  While conducting repairs, the crew picks up an automated message (actually a John Denver song), which leads them to a much closer, potentially inhabitable planet.

The new planet seems both perfect and mysterious: The environment is fine, but why is their Earth wheat growing there?  It turns out that this is where the ship from the movie Prometheus landed, and the only survivor is the synthetic David (also played by Michael Fassbender).  And worse, the members of the Covenant can get infected by the xenomorphs by spores, eggs, and other methods.  Who will survive?

The bigger question: Who cares?  All of the characters in Alien: Covenant have virtually no personality or characteristics, making them disposable and forgettable.  The xenomorphs are almost included as an afterthought, the killer ticking clock for the crew on the planet.  As for the issues of who creates life and what its purpose is, this movie spends a lot of time discussing this but won't be remembered for it.  This movie is a very weak entry in a generally strong franchise.

Overall grade: D
Reviewed by James Lynch

X-MEN: APOCALYPSE

The X-Men have often used their mutants for an allegory for racism or sexism -- but in X-Men: Apocalypse this is mostly cast aside for introducing large numbers of characters and having the good guys and bad guys fight.

It's 1983, and the characters from X-Men: Days of Future Past have been busy.  Charles Xavier/Professor X (James McAvoy) has his School for Gifted Youngsters, teaching mutants and humans alike along with Hank McCoy/Beast (Nicholas Hoult); two of their new teenage students are Scott Summers/Cyclops (Tye Sheridan) and Jean Grey (Sophie Turner).  Raven/Mystique (Jennifer Lawrence) has become a hero to mutants, and while she resists that title she helps other imutants -- most recently Kurt Wagner/Nightcrawler (Kodi Smit-McPhee).  Erik Lehnsherr/Magneto (Michael Fassbender) has created a family life for himself, until tragedy takes it away.  And Moira Mactaggert (Rose Byrne) has been investigating a group that seem to worship an ancient, almost all-powerful mutant,

The latter is Apocalypse (Oscar Isaac), a mutant who was imprisoned in a pyramid in ancient Egypt but has returned to the modern world.  He has numerous powers, including the ability to transfer his mind to another body (and gain that being's powers) and enhance the powers of other mutants.  He uses these to make his "four horsemen": Storm (Alexandra Shipp), who can control the weather; Psylocke (Olivia Munn), who wields an energy beam; Angel (Ben Hardy), whose metallic wings let him both fly and shoot metal spikes; and Magneto, whose grief turns to the need for revenge.  Apocalypse plans to use his four followers to almost destroy the world, with any survivors following Aoocalypse in his new world.

There are also numerous other characters introduced, whether it's Quicksilver (Evan Peters), Magneto's son and a super-speedster, not one but two nigh-obligatory cameos, or Jubilee (Lana Condor), who seems to be there solely to show off her '80s fashion.

Unfortunately, there's nothing really different in X-Men: Apocalypse that we haven't seen in other movies: Professor X wants everyone to get along and for the strong to protect the weak, Magneto's suffering makes him believe humans and mutants, and the villains wants to conquer the world.  Most of the far too numerous characters have powers instead of personalities (even the usually terrific Jenifer Lawrence feels flat here), and the movie is far too long (especially with a tangential trip to a military base that seems to be solely for a character cameo).  This movie may be setting up future films with teenage versions of the X-Men, but on its own X-Men: Apocalypse is mediocre.

Overall grade: C
Reviewed by James Lynch

STEVE JOBS

The legacy of Steve Jobs is hard to calculate, given all he accomplished and his very human flaws.  Movies have taken a second stab at with Steve Jobs.  Unlike Jobs, however, this recent take on the man's life focuses on him, and the people around him, before three of his biggest presentations.

First, it's 1984 and Steve Jobs (Michael Fassbender) is about to unveil the Macintosh to the public.  His two biggest concerns are starting on time, and that the Macintosh's voice interface won't say "hello."  Steve Wozniak (Seth Rogen, doing very well in non-comic role) wants Steve to thank the people behind the Apple 2, which Steve doesn't want to do because he wants to focus on the future, not the past.  Andy Hertzfeld (Michael Stuhlbarg) is the tech Steve threatens to fix the voice issue in time for the presentation.  Christine Brennan (Katherine Waterson) wants more money for her and her child Lisa, while Steve insists he's not her father.  John Sculley (Jeff Daniels), the CEO of Apple, is there to give Steve support.  And Joanna Hoffman (Kate Winslet) is Steve's employee and friend who's trying to give him good publicity while figuring out what he's doing.

Next we jump ahead to 1988.  Steve has been forced out of Apple by John Scully, and Steve is about to launch his new computer, the NeXT Box.   Steve and Steve Wozniak fight about comments the latter made in the press, and Steve continues to fight with Christina about money and Lisa.  And while there are concerns about whether the NeXT Box will even work or sell, Steve seems most concerned with making sure its box is a near-perfect cube.

Finally we jump to 1994, when Steve is back at Apple and about to unveil the iMac.  Joanna is still struggling to help and understand Steve.  Wozniak, Hertzfeld, and Scully all show up.  And Lisa (Perla Haney-Jardine) is a now a teenager having a big fight with her father.

Steve Jobs could easily be a play, divided into three acts.  What distinguishes this movie from the previous one is the writing by Aaron Sorkin.  The dialogue flies by quickly and furiously, bouncing from business to personal with lightning speed.  Michael Fassbender is excellent in the title role (even if they don't make him to look like Steve Jobs until the final third of the movie), showing his genius, volatile nature, and indifference to some things and anger at others.  The movie shows how he grows from stage to stage of his life -- and, sometimes worse, how he stays the same.  The supporting cast is also excellent, though it's up to Fassbender to finally carry the movie.

Steve Jobs isn't a standard biopic, but it's an entertaining and engrossing trip through some of the biggest parts of one of the twentieth century's most important people.

Overall grade: A
Reviewed by James Lynch

X-MEN: DAYS OF FUTURE PAST

Back in 1981, the X-Men two-issue storyline Days of Future Past gave comic book readers a bleak future where everything was bleak, their favorite characters could die, and it could all be fixed with time travel.  This story gets expanded on, and ties the previous X-Men films together, with X-Men: Days of Future Past.

Days of Future Past opens in a bleak year 2023 (in which apparently black and gray are the standard colors for, well everything).  Sentinels -- giant robots that can adapt to almost anything -- have killed or enslaved both humans and mutants.  A bunch of mutants -- including Charles Xavier/Professor X (Patrick Stewart), Erik Lehnsherr (Ian McKellen), and Kitty Pryde (Ellen Page) -- have been surviving by having Kitty Pryde send a mutant's mind back to before any Sentinel attack, allowing that mutant to warn the others and avoid the attack before it happens.  This gives the others an idea to stop the war.

According to the survivors, things went downhill in 1973 when Raven/Mystique (Jennifer Lawrence, whose critical and popular success guarantee Rebecca Rominj won't be taking over the role she originated) killed Bolivar Trask (Peter Dinklage), creator of the Sentinels.  Trask's death led the public to support the Sentinel program; and somehow Raven/Mystique's blood led to their adaptive abilities that made them so dangerous.  They decide to send the mind of Logan/Wolverine (Hugh Jackman) back to 1973, to stop Mystique -- and to unite the younger Charles and Erik to help him do it.  But the future mutants have to do this before the Sentinels catch up to them -- and Logan has to stay calm to maintain the link.

Unfortunately, when Logan gets to 1973 things are pretty bad.  The younger Charles (James McAvoy) is a broken man.  He's lost all faith in his mission since losing a lot of mutant teachers and students to the Vietman war (plus the ones Trask tortured and killed in developing the Sentinels); he's also been drinking heavily and using a drug that lets him walk but suppresses his powers.  His student Hank McCoy/Beast (Nicholas Hoult) also uses the drug to keep from transforming into a blue, furry creature.  Erik (Michael Fassbender) has been imprisoned for having a role in the Kennedy assassination, while Raven/Mystique seems more focused on killing Trask for what he's done to her fellow mutants.  And while the Sentinels provide a ticking clock in the future, the past has twists and betrayals of its own...

Days of Future Past is both a solid and flawed movie.  While the story in 1973 works well by focusing just on Charles, Erik, Logan and Mystique (plus a nice role by Evan Peters as Pietro/Quicksilver, the speedster who helps free Erik -- and whose character will be in The Avengers: Age of Ultron), the future has a large number of mutants who are defined by their powers and in the movie to make fans of the comics happy ("There's Colossus!  There's Blink!  There's Bishop!") and provide some action.  The conflict between young Charles and Erik is good (Charles blames Erik for killing to advance his cause; Erik blames Charles for hiding while Trask destroyed mutants), there are some nice bits of humor (a young Logan surprised he doesn't set off a metal detector, Quicksilver's super-speed scene set to the song "Time in a Bottle"), and most of the acting is quite good.  The future scenes often felt excessively violent -- including some deaths that could have been Fatalities out of Mortal Kombat -- and plenty of cameos were done to tie the movies together instead of adding to the story.  The acting is good, and the resolution revolves around ideas and hope more than using powers to attack each other.

X-Men: Days of Future Past ends with a potential reboot of the X-Men movie franchise.  While this movie had as many problems as strengths, I am curious to see what happens next.

Overall grade: B-
Reviewed by James Lynch

THE COUNSELOR

"Be careful about getting in over your head" is a simple message that's common in life, in movies, and certainly in The Counselor.  This drama has a terrific cast in a very formulaic story.

The Counselor (Michael Fassbender) seems to have it all: rich friends, extravagant lifestyle, and a beautiful girlfriend named Laura (Penelope Cruz), for whom he buys a very expensive diamond engagement ring.  But he's also getting involved with his friends -- the carefree Reiner (Javier Bardem) and the far more cautious Westray (Brad Pitt) -- with a huge deal involving a Mexican drug cartel and a cocaine shipment worth millions.  Despite Reiner and Westray trying to scare the Counselor with tales of how ruthless the cartel is, the Counselor is all in.  And Malkina (Cameron Diaz), Reiner's girlfriend from Barbados, is a sexual, amoral, greedy being who Reiner rightly fears is smarter than him.

Of course, the drug deal quickly goes south, as the shipment (hidden in an old sewage truck) keeps switching hands.  The Counselor panicks, as his confidence and friends quickly abandon him.  And those horror stories about the cartel weren't exaggerated...

The Counselor is a fairly ordinary movie.  With a screenplay from Cormac McCarthy (whose No Country for Old Men was far superior), we wind up with a protagonist who spends the whole movie running around not knowing what to do.  There are plenty of contrasts -- the innocent Laura and the scheming Malkina, the seemingly expensive world of the main characters and the dirty poverty of those handling the truck with its dangerous, expensive cargo -- but in the end it's watching someone dabbling in a dangerous world he's unprepared to handle.  The cast is very good, yet their roles are pretty one-dimensional.  And the movie's frequent departures into theories and philosophy (including a discussion with a cartel leader that's all about creating worlds) often feels quite artificial.  The Counselor has some interesting elements, such as the contrasts and often telling instead of showing what could happen, but it's still pretty routine.

Overall grade: C
Reviewed by James Lynch