It’s pretty apparent to most of us, that the pandemic changed the movie-going experience with tent poles (surefire blockbusters that carry a studio’s financial risks) having to navigate to premium streaming in an effort to recoup their costs.
As a result, there’s even less money to be made at the box office now unless the film appeals to a broad audience. In other words, a film has to either have action/explosions, appeal to kids, based on a familiar source (known as intellectual property), or some combination of the three. This has been going on for some time as even epics shot for the big screen by Martin Scorsese, Fernando Meirelles and Alfonso Cuaron were relegated to Netflix.
Mid-range films (comedies, courtroom dramas, espionage thrillers, romantic dramas, etc) have even less chance of playing at a movie theater and a larger share than ever before is being dominated by the superhero film which I’m extremely bored of. In light of this, I’m pleased to have made my way to four films so far in 2021 that are not superhero films: Cruella, Free Guy, Jungle Cruise, and Space Jam 2.
Yes, they were clinging to their IP sources as if they were broadcasting to audiences “don’t worry, we’re not going for too much independent thought here. This is still cozy familiarity.” At this point in the degradation of movie going, I’m prepared to accept that Faustian bargain that film makers must strike with their studios and broader audiences so that a decent movie going experience can exist at all.
Furthermore, I think that all these films offer more originals stories than anything that can exist within the confines of a superhero film. Since Robert Downey Jr. bought a snarky take to Iron Man and the more absurd heroes like Ant Man and Aqua Man got their own films, the genre has tried to give enough winks at the audience to create a sub-genre of “superhero film that doesn’t take itself too seriously.”
However, the straight-up parody already exists (Sky High, Mystery Men, the Incredibles) that when I recently saw the superhero parody “Thunder Force” earlier this year, I felt I had seen these comic angles so often—whether in explicit parodies or goofier superhero films –that there was just nothing new to say.
Cruella takes a Disney villain and attempts a sympathetic backstory. In the canonical timeline, she’s crossed what’s known as a moral event horizon by slaughtering dogs and making a coat out of them. The film’s attitude about this seems to be, “um, let’s push that to the back of your mind” focusing more on the mannerisms of Cruella as played by Emma Stone who relishes being handed the villain card. It also helps that Cruella is society’s punching bag before ascending to the top.
The film essentially reveals itself to be a heist film in a game of one-upmanship between two strong-willed players (Stone and Emma Thompson) with Joel Frye and Paul Cole Hauser as stereotypically cockney henchmen. It’s sleek and stylish with some pathos, and for a popcorn film, that’s not bad.
The film’s big problem is not knowing when to end. There were at least 3 or 4 times when I got up as if to leave the theater only to realize the end credits weren’t rolling.
Some might call Space Jam 2 an obligatory sequel, but I like to think that the film’s strength isn’t that it wasn’t so inevitable. The film needed the right star and modern take on the material to justify its existence and those ingredients are essentially met here. Additionally, I’m a sucker for the Looney Tunes and it’s been 18 years since their last film. If Harry Potter or Lord of the Rings characters had to wait that long, there’d be riots.
Rather than a random hole in the ground that leads to a basketball in the center of the Earth, the film (in a not-so-subtle meta-commentary on IPs) takes place across the confines of a server-verse. A handful of scenes intermingles the Looney Tunes characters with Superman and Harry Potter among others, and while they are inevitable, they’re pretty fun.
While some might disagree, Don Cheadle makes a good kid’s villain: The personification of a psychotic algorithm. His motive is simple to understand but encoded (forgive the pun) with an extra layer of depth (he wants attention, isn’t that how algorithms work?).
Granted, LeBron James was a little weaker of an actor than expected, but it is a relatively smart script that gives its actors some latitude.
Jungle Cruise has been criticized as extremely derivative of the Pirates franchise and that’s true, but again, we have to come from the angle of “hey, at least it’s not a superhero film and it’s wide release in a movie theater.”
The film has a lot going for it: Luscious scenery porn from the Amazon basin that doesn’t overuse CGI, the rarely disappointing Emily Blunt, well-choreographed set pieces, a brisk pace, and a fairly deep love story that works. To the latter point, others have commented on the lack of chemistry between Dwayne Johnson and his leading ladies. On paper, however, the character movements between the two protagonists are set up well enough to where their choices eventually reach into “aww, I need a kleenex” territory.
Free Guy is set in the universe of gaming which some might consider low-brow. If the frames weren’t so cluttered with graphics, I surmise it might favorably compared with good sci-fi or even fiction deconstruction classics like The Truman Show and Pleasantville.
While that might be high praise, the story--an NPC in a Grand Theft Auto style video game who gets triggered by the programmer’s love interest into sentience and is called upon to save his fellow secretly sentient NPCs from extinction—is ambitious and, more importantly, air tight in its world-building. If people get into the experience, this could be one of the most discussion-worthy films of the year.
Jodie Comer does impressive double-duty as a frumpy computer developer and a stealthy action heroine and it’s all the more impressive that the film juggles two love stories with her character that both work.
On the commercialization side, I was pleased that the film worked as an air-tight story that doesn’t necessitate a sequel. Whether they milk one out of it is a different story.
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