Now that title usually applies to music, songs and the like. However, I feel it can work in many contexts. Movies are the best example. And studios and the people who run them don’t seem to know which is which. The prevailing theory is that CEOs running the movie industry are from the Silicon Valley set, tech bros who only see the world through algorithmic optimization. When, in fact, the public don’t want to be pigeonholed into carefully curated boxes. That isn’t to say all tech companies are that way, shoutout to Letterboxd and MUBI. It has been a problem for a while, especially this summer.
The box office seems to have spoken about franchise films. Unless you are Spider-Man or Christopher Nolan, you are toast. Not the least of which was Amazon’s Masters of the Universe. Less than two months after it premiered in theaters, it landed on Prime Video with a thud. And from frame one, it was apparent why. First of all: who wrote this script? After I heard the line about big armies being more targets, I knew we were in trouble. Having that come out of Idris Alba’s mouth like he was Carl Weathers Jr doesn’t scream nostalgia, it sounds dated even before he finishes. Twenty minutes into the movie (all back story), we finally meet He-Man himself Adam (Nicolas Galitzine) now older and forced to live on Earth with the knowledge of where he came from. This segment of the film starts with his job in HR in whatever business he works for while he searches for his fabled sword so he can go back to his home planet and be a hero. Writer Chris Butler (along with director Travis Knight) don’t seem at fault. Their stop motion films are some of the best and they come off as hired guns here. But the Née brothers (Aaron and Adam) who developed the story I don’t let off the hook. With the product placement (even an Amazon delivery van saving the day in one scene, I am sure Bezos had some input as well. Even Knight’s usual eye for visuals has gone, making these sets (digital or otherwise) look like a Heavy Metal magazine cover left out in the rain. I am not going to talk about all the cheesy cameos and references and poor jokes. Guardians of the Galaxy has poisoned all superhero/action blockbusters. Sincerity isn’t the problem. Last summer’s Superman proved that. It’s the facade of which that’s alienating.
One element of this film that irked me was the corporate angle, akin to Fight Club but at our expense. None of that can be found in Good Luck Have Fun Don’t Die over on Hulu. Released and buried back in February, Gore Verbinski (yes, Disney’s Pirates guy) directs a dystopian sci-fi comedy about an AI program and the man from the future tasked to save us all. He lands in a diner, looking for recruits among the patrons. The trick is, which combination will work? He has come back multiple times to do this. With great use of flashback, Verbinski and writer Matthew Robinson constructs a fantastic group of motley potential heroes who we engage with as the story progresses. Juno Temple, Haley Lu Richardson, Michael Peña, Zazie Beetz and Sam Rockwell (as the man) all get ample time to flex and grow their characters. Noticed how I mentioned them and only Nicolas and Alba from Masters? That’s because we were made to care about them here. Allusions to other films like Twelve Monkeys, They Live, and Night of the Living Dead abound; however, they are employed and expanded on. This film is not kind to government or corporate interests in realm of technology either, shocking in this day and age. Each sequence gets more dystopian about modern issues like cell phone addiction and school shootings, the second dark comedy to use the latter this year. That said, the film has a lot of heart to it with whip-smart commentary. Unexpectedly, it’s an ode to human existence. To rephrase Timothy Leary’s quote to surmise the filmmaker’s vision; Turn Off, Drop In, Go Out.
