The joys of a great sci-fi movie can’t be matched by much. New, exciting, thought-provoking, dangerous, enlightening. It’s hard to do, both in writing and film production, but believe the hype, Ex Machina can be added to the greats.

Written by Alex Garland (who has penned some amazing stuff already), Ex Machina is about mankind and Artificial Intelligence. Caleb, a 26-year-old programmer for the company Blue Book (think Google), wins a contest to spend a week with the CEO/brilliant programmer Nathan at his secluded home. Once there, Nathan tells Caleb that he’s there to help him evaluate his latest project that he’s been working on in complete secrecy at his mountain compound. That project is Ava, a walking, talking robot with the must cutting edge AI. Nathan has worked long and hard on Ava but needs a fresh perspective on her. Is she really communicating and making decisions on her own? Could she actually be called alive?

So we have the fantastic Ghost in the Machine premise at work here and the action is highly compressed into Nathan’s compound. Very little happens outside of it with just Caleb, Nathan and Ava (and Nathan’s live-in help, Kyoko). And his compound is really cool. It’s future-modern (looks like the movie takes place in the not-to-distant future) with nature built in for accent (some room walls are the mountain rock itself). Super clean lines, flush, pop-out doors, a completely connected and voice operated household. Nathan’s living quarters (kitchen, exercise area, living room) are very open, but the bedrooms and lab (where Ava is kept) are subterranean. There might be cameras everywhere, but there are no windows. The set design is top notch and is basically a character. It’s very well thought out and conceptualized.

The real star is Ava (Alicia Vikander). Her design is fantastic and the special effects to make her look like a real robot interacting with actual humans is crazy. She has a human face “mask” that covers about half of the head. The rest is a silver mesh-like material and see through limbs. Most of her torso is clear, showing off her endoskeleton and other machinations that make her move. Her movements are mesmerizing too. Alicia is a classically trained dancer, so the command of her body lets her move and emote in the human frame we all know, but her motion looks very ethereal. And it’s all so beautiful, it’s something that Jonathan Ive would create and call his masterpiece.

Caleb is the innocent man brought into Nathan’s world. He’s your average guy who thinks he’s a good guy. Level headed, trustworthy. Nathan is different. He’s an alpha male. Intimidating, incredibly smart, which made him incredibly successful. He’s also isolated himself, which makes him rather uncomfortable to be around (to be fair, he was probably already really weird before he built his compound). Caleb is relatively easy to read, Nathan isn’t. He has an agenda, more than a few secrets and has no problem manipulating people to get what he wants. He sees the future farther than most and wants to be a part of it before anyone else. Nathan is one of my favorite antagonists in quite some time (thanks largely Oscar Isaac’s incredible acting).

With Ava looking so real, you forget that she’s mostly a special effect, making her a complete, living character. Caleb is brought into their space and stuck between Nathan and Ava, always questioning the motives of both. Ava isn’t a real person, but just like Caleb in the movie, that distinction of person vs non-person blurs completely and you become sympathetic to her. The movie works so well because what Caleb goes through, the conversations with a brilliant weirdo and a brilliant (?) robot, pull your sympathetic perspective to Nathan and Ava’s side with each scene. You walk a tightrope until the very end of the movie.

Alex Garland has written quite a bit, but this is his first time directing a movie and I am more than impressed. From writing this wild tale, he was very intimate with the characters and their intentions. He manages to conceptualize and frame everything so well, that you don’t realize it until the movie is over. The way Nathan’s compound is designed, how and where the characters interact with each other (I just realized that Nathan and Ava share very little screen time together) is extremely smart.

Such an interesting and well-made movie, I think Ex Machina is easily one of the best movies of 2015. Perfectly cast, fascinating to watch and absorb, even the soundtrack is amazing. Ex Machina has it all, can’t wait to see what Alex Garland does next.

Chalk up another successful globe-trotting adventure for Tom Cruise! I admire this series a lot as they take their time to head back into another installment and that’s paid off almost every time.  2011’s Ghost Protocol brought Mission: Impossible to new and fantastic heights, so Rogue Nation has a lot to live up to. While I think Ghost is the superior movie, Rogue Nation is no slouch.

Rogue Nation is the fifth movie in 19 years, but looking at Tom Cruise then and now, you’d never know it. 2011’s Ghost Protocol brought Mission Impossible to new and fantastic heights and much of Rogue Nation picks up on that. Right out of the gate we’re given a great opening action scene with Tom Cruise again planting his action movie stunt flag as Ethan Hunt hanging on to the side of an airplane. That brings us all back into this world of espionage, tech gadgets, and double crosses.

Ethan Hunt has had the sneaking suspicion that a rogue organization called The Syndicate has been manipulating events around the world for their own twisted gains. While he’s had no real concrete proof for some time, The Syndicate makes its presence known to Ethan in a brutal face to face in London.

From there, we’re scrambling around the globe with Hunt and the rest of the IMF team to stop The Syndicate from killing any more innocent people. There’s a lot to like in this two-hour adventure starting with the cast. Simon Pegg, Ving Rhames, and Jeremy Renner  return as Benji, Luther, and Will respectively. These guys are IMF with Tom Cruise and their chemistry has never been better. You can tell these movies are a blast to make just by watching them interact. Their conversations are great and the humor perfectly placed and executed. Alec Baldwin holds it down again as Alan Hunley, the authority figure to this group of good guys. I was completely blown away by Rebecca Ferguson, who plays Ilsa Faust, the female version of Ethan Hunt who works for the bad guys (or does she!?). She’s perfectly cast as the femme fatale. I loved every scene she’s in, a great actor and stands toe to toe in every action scene. Speaking of which….

Rogue Nation sports some serious action set pieces. The opening with the plane, a great interrogation scene, an opera battle for the ages, a heist, and one of the best vehicular chase scenes in quite some time.  All of which work so well thanks large in part to director Christopher McQuarrie (he wrote it too!). The guy has a real eye for action and everything is superbly laid out. The opera scene, in particular, has many moving pieces, but it’s staged, shot and edited so well, that it never gets confusing. With five people in motion (not including the target and a full-blown opera being performed) it’s a real achievement. I’m especially impressed with the BMW M3/Motorcycle chase in Morocco. How close and smartly placed you are to everything is really remarkable. There are shots where you are just hauling ass right next to the bikes, but it doesn’t look like it’s shot with a GoPro stuck to the side of the machine (which everyone does now). It’s like you are flying right next to them, it’s incredibly visceral, a remarkable thing to witness on the big screen.

The whole movie is beautiful from start to finish. Sumptuous locations, gorgeous cinematography (look up Robert Elswit, his resume is insane), excellent CG integration. Props to the costume designer  too, Isla’s yellow dress for the opera is a show stopper. A ton of  high quality behind the camera talent worked on this movie.

With all that good, I’ll get to the weak parts. The main antagonist, Solomon Lane, is first. Sean Harris plays the part and he does well with what he’s given, it’s just that his motivations are too half-baked. He’s an expert manipulator, we get to see that quite a bit. But everything else about him is rather nebulous. There’s I think two scenes devoted to exposition for his character and motivations. We’re really just told about it and not shown. A “Six Months Later” card near the beginning leap frogs a lot, Hunt has figured out most of The Syndicate. We never get to see the detective work, how he puts these things together, it’s all just done and presented with nice a nice computer presentation (if Powerpoint could do something that pretty, people would be psyched to go to meetings). A twisted sense of revenge is laid out for Solomon and you just have to take it at that. He comes off as a very two-dimensional villain, a problem a lot of movies have now.

It also feels like there’s no actual danger for IMF no matter what happens. What’s the point of using screen time to cut the team of its support and resources from the US government when it literally doesn’t affect them at all (a plot point made even more redundant since it was used in the last movie)? Hunt gets one scene of throwing his CIA pursuers off his trail and that’s the last of them. IMF freely travels the globe and still has access to top of the line gear that would make James Bond envious.

Sure, they’re put in crazy and dangerous situations but where is the risk when everyone comes through with barely a scratch? For example, Benji and Hunt get into a car wreck that would have snapped their necks like a wishbone in a car crash. Hunt then continues the chase on a motorcycle only to somehow manage not to get his flesh flayed off like Polly-O string cheese when he dumps his bike doing 90mph. He lays on the ground for a but with some dirt on him, but I don’t think they even bothered to rip his clothes! Sure these are movie tropes, but I’d like to see at least some common sense put into things (no one working at the power plant saw Isla and Hunt parachuting into the complex?).

Rogue Nation does a lot more right than wrong and is ultimately a good way to spend two hours of your time. They need to mix things up again for the next one (no more threats to shut down IMF, beef up the antagonist, maybe kill a major character…), but Mission: Impossible is one of the best action franchises going, so the potential for another winner is well at hand. I just hope to see Isla Faust again.

Watching The Muppets is like watching one huge special effect. The Henson Company does such a good job bringing their characters to life that you forget they aren’t real. Most Wanted starts immediately after 2011’s The Muppets. The gang just finished their comeback and that leaves them…with nothing to do. While considering their options, they are approached by Dominic Badguy (Ricky Gervais) about doing a world tour.

Being a trusty lot, the gang agrees to Dominic booking their tour. What they don’t know is that he works for Constantine, the worlds most dangerous frog, who looks a whole lot like Kermit! In an epic scheme of kidnapping and mistaken identity, the Muppets are put on the hook for stealing the Queen of England’s jewels.

Most Wanted is a great follow up for the Muppets. Runs with what works so well, uses a large cast with some newcomers (Miss Piggy having a pet dog cracked me up for some reason) and the human cast is packed with big names. It looks like it was a blast to make and it shows.

Often very funny, Most Wanted is a great movie for everyone. Well made, well paced, and it’s got some more great numbers by Bret  McKenzie! Check it out!

I’ll Get You What You Want (Cockatoo in Malibu)

The Book of Life– The further this movie went, the more I liked it. Visually striking and unique, The Book of Life is the tale of Manolo, a young man who is stuck between fulfilling his family’s expectations and following his own path in life. When a bet between La Muerte  and Xibalba unknowingly involves Manolo and his friends Maria and Joaquin, he goes far beyond his craziest dreams. His journey starts in the mortal world and extends into the otherworldly plains of vibrant Land of The Remembered and the grey and dusty Land of the Forgotten. A terrific story through the beautiful Hispanic Day of the Dead celebration, this movie took me by surprise. It’s really well written, teaches a great life lesson and thanks to the art of animation, explores an amazing tradition with great characters and respect. I think this one came and went in theatres pretty quick and is worth checking out.

[REC] 3: Genesis– If you haven’t seen [REC] before, you really should. Came out in 2007 and took the horror “found footage” angle to great heights, It was remade as Quarantine in the US a year later, but it’s a direct copy so stick with the original. Genesis takes place at the same time as the first, showing what happened to the other person who came in contact with the first infected. He goes to his nephew’s wedding without knowing he’s sick and you can pretty much guess what happens. They stick with the found footage for the beginning of the movie, but abandon it once the mayhem starts. It took me by surprise, but considering the logistics of filming the whole movie like, I think it’s a smart move. While Genesis tries its best to live up to its predecessors, it isn’t scary in the least. It’s well made and thought out, but a bit too sterile, generic and open. Since the outbreak starts at a large wedding reception, the claustrophobia angle is completely missing which was onen of the biggest and most effective points of 1 and 2. The cast does good work and they ratchet up the gore effects (I haven’t seen such liberal chainsaw use in awhile) as the live body count dwindles. A lot of practical gore, which is greatly appreciated. While not a terrific horror movie, I’m impressed with what they manged to do.

[REC] 4: Apocalypse– After watching 3, I went right for the finale (so far). Considerably better than 3, Apocalypse is a direct sequel to the events of 2 (and thus, 1). Angela returns, having survived the initial outbreak. She’s brought to an oil tanker for quarantine where the government, with the hired guns of some military personnel and scientists are trying to figure out how stop the demonic virus.  Some smart choices for the 4th movie of this series. It completely ditches the found footage presentation, brings the action to a new isolated and cramped location, has a nice little tie in to Genesis and a good misdirection (which is always a good trait for a horror movie). It was fun to see Angela again, the gore gags are good (this series always has quality infected make-up work) and it tries a couple times to be scary, but it’s more of an action movie all things considered (the tension of the first movie is never met in any of the sequels). The movie ends with a tease, but I think they’ll be wise enough to call it quits here.  Maybe.

Lucy– Luc Besson. 60 writing credits, 119 producer credits and 22 movies directed since 1981. The guy basically gets every idea he comes up with into production. Lucy is his latest average movie held together by an idea better set as a short story. With the draw of Scarlett Johansson in the lead role, this action flick goes through the motions for about an hour and twenty minutes. Lucy gets caught up in a shady deal, forced to mule drugs across international waters. When the bag of the new synthetic drug stitched into her gut starts leaking, she gets access to higher brain capacity (the movie makes sure you know that humans only “use” about 10% of their mind). So that means she gets superhuman powers, which get crazier and dumber as the movie skips to the goofy ending. Apparently higher intellect means you get stronger and immediately know how to fight. Then you can hack into electronics with your mind and see cell phone signals in the air, which you can then grab and manipulate. As far as action goes, there’s nothing new or interesting, Scarlett does her job well enough to cash a pay check, nothing worth going out of your way to check out. By all means skip this one, you won’t be missing anything. You’re better off using your time to watch John Wick or Taken (one of Besson’s much better efforts).

Na na na na na, Na na na na na. Na na na na na naaaaaaaaaaaaaa. Back to the island we go for the fourth time! No wait, Lost World and 3 never happened. That’s probably for the best.

Jurassic World picks up in the present day, 22 years after the first movie. In a move that makes sense to human nature (both in the real world and Hollywood), greed refuels the plans for Jurassic Park. New investors (and some of the same scientists) bring John Hammond’s dream to fruition: a fully functioning theme park with living, breathing dinosaurs. Jurassic World, built on the same land as the original, has been up and functioning well for many years. With any theme park, the need to build the newest and greatest attraction to bring guests in is always a problem for management. For Jurassic World, the solution is to genetically engineer a brand new, pants wetting, new dinosaur. “Will it scare the kids? It’ll give the adults nightmares!”

Even if you go into this movie knowing nothing, in just a few minutes you know exactly what’s going to happen. They set this dinosaur up as the new Big Bad right away and pump it up with each and every scene. Then the tricky little minx gets out of her room and goes buck wild on anything standing in front of her with a pulse. It’s the dino rampage that will put butts in theatre seats!

I must say that the movie starts strong but never does anything new or really exciting. It’s a competent paint by the numbers summer movie that’s perfectly happy towing the line for about 2 hours. The cast is great, they all deliver their lines, are sometimes genuinely funny and can run and scream at the same time. I like Chris Pratt a lot and Bryce Dallas Howard is a great foil for him. I’ve heard some hate on the two kids, but I didn’t find them offensive. They both do their jobs well.

Production wise, it’s got a lot of care put into it. The whole park is realized from hotels, rides/attractions, labs, park amenities and upkeep facilities. There’s a ton of great detail and design work (they should have really thought about their wireless connections as apparently the signals for both walkie-talkies and cell phones are crap at the most perfectly inconvenient of times). There are quite a few dinosaurs on display and they are all…blue. It’s a really unnatural and jarring tint that makes a lot of the CGI creatures look poorly composited in daytime shots. I’m not sure why they look like that, but they at least look way better in the night portion of the movie. Animation is very good at least and the sound design is fantastic.

As the movie goes on, you notice a lot of nods to the original film. Mr. DNA, a few props like the night vision goggles and Jeeps, the torn banner. The two kids are also jammed in there with a weak family backstory (Alan not wanting kids in the original, these two with the potential divorce of their parents gets a quick mention and them never seeing Claire). Then there are the homages that are more or less rip offs. The attack in the bubble car is way too similar to the original T-Rex attacking the kids in the tram car scene. Claire waving a flare to get attention is just like the original, it didn’t need to be done again (can’t lie though, it looked really cool).

My biggest problem is the bone headed wrap it up ending. I’m going to go full on spoiler the last 20 minutes, so skip down to the last paragraph if you don’t want to know it. Everything just works out perfectly in a series of unbelievable events, it’s eye rolling dumb.  There’s a lot of secrecy about what the Indominus Rex was made from and the realization that it’s part raptor is a major twist. It talks to Owen’s pack of raptors and makes them turn. A great idea, a great reveal and the following action scene is probably the best in the movie. After a long chase that leads to the “Main Street” of the park, the turned raptors are suddenly down with fighting the Big Bad again (after one conveniently eats the one Big Bad human in a room of 5 delicious choices). All Owen had to do was act like a cool dude and take off a GoPro strapped to this 8-foot tall murder machine. When things go south again after the raptors get tossed around like punks, Claire gets the idea to go get the T-Rex to stop the I-Rex (ugh). Apparently this monster is not only held right in front but when her cage opens (thanks only control room guy to stay behind!), she’s standing right there, ready to go. The only thing she was missing was a stars and stripes robe and the PA system pushing out Kid Rock’s “American Badass.” They tussle (can’t lie again, it looked awesome) and the fourth raptor that’s been MIA shows up out of nowhere and decides to help out the T-Rex.  There’s that tweaked homage to the first movie we’ve all been waiting for. Finally, the I-Rex is obviously a tough cookie as it’s demolished everything at this point. How will our two dino heroes win? By pushing it close enough to the edge of the giant swimming dinosaur’s pool to get munched. Can we officially brand that Dino Ex Machina? I understand the “More Teeth” line, but it’s not exactly the classic that “We’re going to need another boat!” is. Sure, 8 year old me would be over the moon about this streak of pandering (rolling 5 deep on a motorcycle with your raptor buddies is the stuff of dreams after all) but come on. The deadline for this script must have been a razor sharp one.

While mostly an inoffensive sequel, I was hoping for more. Jurassic World digs into an old well searching for more riches, but comes up with the same soggy dirt that is better off left alone. I was 12 when Jurassic Park came out and it completely blew my mind (it still holds up) so I’m really biased on this one. But I don’t think any can argue that World devolves into nothing more than a pale blue imitation.

P.S.- Holywood. You might want to give up on Terminator while we’re having this discussion.