The Creator, out Friday, marks the first feature from Gareth Edwards since Rogue One: A Star Wars Story from 2016. The sci-fi thriller with John David Washington is said to be a visual feast. Reviews themselves are mostly on the plus side with an 82% Rotten Tomatoes score.
When Dune: Part Two was pushed back to 2024, the easy frontrunner for Visual Effects went with it. Now the VE competition is far more open with hopefuls like Oppenheimer and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 (hoping to be the MCU’s first winner) in the mix.
It’s a strong possibility that The Creator is too. If so, it would mark the filmmaker’s second nod in a row for VE (Rogue lost to The Jungle Book seven years back). That’s likely to be the only race where this contends. My Oscar Prediction posts will continue…
20th Century Studios is banking on audiences wishing to acquaint themselves with The Creator when it debuts September 29th. The sci-fi action flick is original IP from Godzilla (the 2014 version) and Rogue One: A Star Wars Story maker Gareth Edwards (the director co-scripted with Chris Weitz). Tenet lead John David Washington headlines with a supporting cast including Madeleine Yuna Voyles, Gemma Chan, Ken Watanabe, Sturgill Simpson, and Allison Janney.
Made for a reported $80 million, this represents a gamble from the studio. Mr. Washington (unlike his dad Denzel) is not yet a bankable force whose presence can open a movie. As mentioned, it doesn’t have the franchise familiarity of Edwards’s previous two titles.
The Creator will hope for decent grosses stateside and an impressive haul abroad. I question whether this takes in $20 million for its start and I’ll put it a bit under that mark.
The Creator opening weekend prediction: $17.9 million
Looking back on my Godzilla review from 2014, I spoke of how it felt like a party where the main character (that would be the fire breathing title one) wasn’t invited until halfway through. You expected Godzilla to be there the whole time. That left a level of disappointment, but the Gareth Edwards reboot of the franchise was worth the wait in the end. The sequel Godzilla: King of the Monsters RSVP’s the main attraction early on and he brings some familiar friends to the shindig. That doesn’t make the party better.
Michael Dougherty takes over directorial duties in a follow-up that feels bigger with its sprawling cast and action sequences. It also feels more cluttered and more like a prelude to what’s coming next in the MonsterVerse (Godzilla vs. Kong). That’s not an issue shared by 2014’s predecessor. Monsters picks up five years after the events of Godzilla when the creature managed to save the world and leave some collateral damage. That includes the young son of biologist Dr. Emma Russell (Vera Farmiga) and animal behavioralist Mark (Kyle Chandler). The parents have reacted differently and separately from the tragedy. Dr. Emma still believes in Godzilla’s global saving abilities, but in a dangerous way that teams her with an ecoterrorist (Charles Dance). Mark’s grief is directed toward Godzilla. Daughter Madison (Millie Bobby Brown) is caught in the middle.
The family drama pits the estranged couple on opposites ends of the battle. More monsters are awoken from their slumber in various Monarch stations to wreak havoc. It results in the destruction of monuments in quite familiar Independence Day/Transformers style fashion. Toho stalwarts Rodan, Mothra, and King Ghidorah are the aforementioned party dwellers joining the fray. The big fights are shot in destinations where the forecast is either a downpour or so dark that it’s often frustratingly hard to tell what is happening.
In addition to the Russell family, lots of recognizable actors are left to mostly stand and gawk at the monstrous activity. The film does have the distinction of adding another performer to the trifecta of prominent N.W.A. members (speaking of monster verses!) from Straight Outta Compton. In Kong: Skull Island, we had Eazy-E (Jason Mitchell) and Dr. Dre (Corey Hawkins). Now we have O’Shea Jackson Jr. (who played his dad Ice Cube in Compton) as a soldier. David Strathairn, Sally Hawkins, and Ken Watanabe reprise their 2014 roles while Bradley Whitford, Thomas Middleditch, and Zhang Ziyi are fresh gawkers. There’s not really a human performance to highlight. Just as Bryan Cranston earned some rightful criticism for his wild overacting in Godzilla, here we have Kyle Chandler often speaking in an intense and earnest hoarse whisper that is perhaps more annoying.
There’s a brief middle section where Godzilla is given a unique wakeup call. It transpires underwater where we discover the iconic radioactive creature’s original habitat. I found this to be the most well-constructed and engaging sequence. It hints at ancient stories that would probably be cool to explore. This doesn’t last long and before we know it, we are back to the dimly lit and rain soaked above ground CG brawls. They’re occasionally fun, but they will fall straight outta mind in short order. Maybe King Kong getting in on this will brighten things up.
Continuing its own cinematic universe that will lead to two monstrous creatures facing off next spring, Godzilla: KingoftheMonsters stomps into multiplexes next weekend. The reported $200 million dollar film is a sequel to 2014’s Godzilla reboot from Gareth Edwards. Michael Dougherty takes over directorial duties with a cast including Kyle Chandler, Vera Farmiga, Millie Bobby Brown of “Stranger Things” fame, Bradley Whitford, Charles Dance, Thomas Middleditch, and O’Shea Jackson Jr. Returnees from part one are Sally Hawkins, David Strathairn, and Ken Watanabe.
As mentioned, Monsters is part of a larger Warner Bros scheme to get the giant green nuclear waste creation to grapple with the world’s best known giant ape. Godzillavs. Kong will hit screens in March of 2020. Five summers ago, Godzilla debuted to a cool $91 million on its way to $200 million domestically. In 2017, Kong: SkullIsland made $61 million out of the gate and $168 million total.
I would anticipate we’ll see Kong money and not Godzilla cash here and perhaps a bit less. Mid to high 50s seems probable with overseas earnings expected to be anything but toxic.
Godzilla: KingoftheMonsters opening weekend prediction: $58.7 million
Blogger’s Update (05/08): I am downgrading my estimate from $74.8 million to $64.8 million
Ryan Reynolds hangs up the Deadpool costume for a bit in order to lend his voice to another hoped for franchise when PokemonDetectivePikachu debuts next weekend. Based on a 2016 video game, the Pokémon series has been thriving for nearly a quarter century in various iterations on Nintendo and on the big screen. Rob Letterman, who was behind the camera on Gulliver’sTravels and Goosebumps, directs. A mix of live-action and animation, the supporting cast includes Justice Smith, Kathryn Newton, Suki Waterhouse, Ken Watanabe, and Bill Nighy.
Warner Bros is certainly hoping a slew of follow-up features are in the cards. A sequel has already been commissioned. With Reynolds in the lead and the popularity of the source material, the studio might find itself in luck. Estimates for the opening weekend gross are wide-ranging – everywhere from $50 million to over $100 million. If it falls on the lower end of that spectrum, it may not top the box office due to the third weekend of the record-breaking Avengers: Endgame.
In 1999, Pokemon: TheFirstMovie opened to $31 million and ended up with $85 million. Sequel Pokemon: TheMovie2000 couldn’t replicate that success with a $19 million start and $43 overall gross. By 2001, the series had run out of gas when Pokemon3: TheMovie opened to $8 million and petered out at $17 million.
Expectations are different this time around. I’ll say Pikachu (The Movie) has an opening in the middle of its huge range and that’s about $10-15 million under what the first movie accomplished overall 20 years ago.
PokemonDetectivePikachu opening weekend prediction: $64.8 million
It’s been four years since Wes Anderson’s TheGrandBudapestHotel garnered a host of Oscar nominations. His follow-up is the stop-motion animated comedic adventure IsleofDogs, which hits theaters stateside in March and has made its debut at the Berlin Film Festival. The pic (say its name out loud and pick up on its apparent affection for canines) features a whole bunch of familiar faces providing voice work including Bryan Cranston, Edward Norton, Bill Murray, Greta Gerwig, Scarlett Johansson, Jeff Goldblum, Frances McDormand, Ken Watanabe, Tilda Swinton, Bob Balaban, Courtney B. Vance, Harvey Keitel, Liev Schrieber, and F. Murray Abraham.
Reaction overseas to Anderson’s latest is that he’s delivered another winner. That likely means Dogs will follow in the steps of the director’s FantasticMr. Fox, which was nominated for Best Animated Feature by the Academy. It ultimately lost to Pixar’s Up and that powerhouse studio has TheIncredibles2 on deck this year. Additionally, it could be a factor for Mr. Anderson in Original Screenplay.
Yes, it’s early but it could already be a safe assumption that the Dogs will be on display come nomination time next year.
Let’s say you got invited to a party and were told that Godzilla, the king of movie monsters, was going to be in attendance. You get there and for a while, you hear quite a bit of backstory about him. There’s even a celebrated TV actor who you’re so happy is appearing, even though he overacts almost laughably from time to time. Also, other monsters show up who you’re not as familiar with and feel a little ambivalent towards. Godzilla doesn’t even bother showing up until halfway through the event. Yet when he does it’s pretty cool. You decide that it was worth it.
And so it is with Godzilla and that’s the kind of party director Gareth Edwards chose to throw bringing back the iconic character to the screen. The last time an American studio featured the jolly green giant, it was with Roland Emmerich behind the camera and Matthew Broderick starring in the summer of 1998. That flick was a “disaster movie” in more ways than one and despite its $379 million worldwide total, it was considered a huge critical and commercial disappointment.
The glass is more half full sixteen years later. That celebrated TV actor is Walter Freaking White himself, Bryan Cranston! And, yes, his performance is a touch over the top. Contrary to what its TV spots might lead you to believe, he doesn’t even stick around the party as long as you’d think either. Cranston plays an engineer at a Japanese nuclear power plant who’s been monitoring troubling seismic activity. One of his coworkers is his wife (Juliette Binoche) and she tragically perishes when the seismic activity turns into a full-on disaster at the plant.
Flash forward to fifteen years later when Cranston’s son (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) is now a military bomb technician with a family of his own, while overacting Daddy is still in Japan trying to track what killed his wife. Circumstances bring them together and in contact with other scientists, led by Ken Watanabe and Sally Hawkins. And after about an hour – not only is Godzilla checked in at the party, but so are two MUTOs (Massive Unidentified Terrestrial Organisms). And as scientist Watanabe waxes philosophical about, our title character might be around to stop those other monsters from wreaking even more havoc. The military, led by David Strathairn, naturally disagree.
Godzilla does take its time to get going, but when it does we’re rewarded with some ultra cool action sequences. A MUTO in Las Vegas is a fun sight to see, as is Godzilla’s initial appearance in Hawaii where vacationers are treated to far more than they paid for.
Tayl0r-Johnson (of Kick-Ass fame) is the human star of these proceedings and we get some familiar scenes of him keeping in touch with his wife at home (Elizabeth Olsen) and young son. Home is San Francisco and that means an action set piece located at the Golden Gate Bridge, which brings me to an important point. Can we get a moratorium on the Golden Gate Bridge for big action spectacles??? After X-Men: The Last Stand and Rise of the Planet of the Apes – enough already. There are other bridges in this country.
Nevertheless, director Edwards brings to the table what Roland Emmerich didn’t – a genuine respect and understanding of the monster genre he’s playing in. And the second half of this party in particular has lots of solid moments that make it worthwhile. For the first time in a long time, we have a Godzilla done mostly right.
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