Spy (2015)

Review:

“The name’s Cooper, Susan Cooper.” Move over James Bond, there’s a new superstar special agent in town.

Before watching Spy, I must admit that I didn’t really have any expectations either way. I think this is probably because the film wasn’t particularly pushed prior to release, but I have learnt that having tons of adverts adorning buses and billboards is not necessarily an indication of the whether a film is going to rock our world (Spider-Man 3 still being the best example of this… yikes!). However, write/director Paul Feig (Bridesmaids [2011] and The Heat [2013]), reunited with comedy queen Melissa McCarthy, provided me with 120 minutes of top-notch silliness that luckily had plenty of heart and soul to go along with it. Plus, as I’m sure has become apparent to you all, I love me a strong female character, and Melissa McCarthy as Susan ‘Coop’ Cooper does not let me down. Hooray!

  

Assumedly bashful and sweet-natured CIA agent Susan Cooper is initially deskbound and behind-the-scenes, but after her fellow agents’ identities are compromised, she steps up and takes her place in the field proclaiming in an attitude, “anything you can do, I can do better”. With everyone’s assumption being that Coop’s main strength for this super dangerous mission is that she’s “invisible”, she ends up becoming the brilliance of this film. Not only does Spy take delight in ridiculing the whole machismo of the popular Spy thrillers, Feig is unafraid to take Hollywood conventions (and his male characters) down a peg or two. Any societal expectations or jokes aimed at or about a woman like Coop end up being thrown back into the faces of those idiotic enough to make them. Susan Cooper is certainly an agent with agency, showing up the incompetency of those around her. She is able to easily and wittily undermine gruff, tough Agent Rick Ford (Jason Statham) during a clichéd monologue of the formidable situations he’s endured, which is delivered, of course, in a very manly and red-blooded manner. Our other lead male secret agent is Bradley Fine (Jude Law) – who is Fine by name, fine by nature. Clearly a parody of our home-grown 007, he is suave, handsome, and quite frankly, a bit of an arse. As someone who has never been a fan of the James Bond character (sorry to offend you Bondaholics, but at least you have Spectre to look forward to later this year), this portrayal was pretty satisfying for me.

Instead of the usual storylines of women needing to have some sort of physical transformation in order to display how they have positively evolved throughout the film, McCarthy’s character has the freedom to simply grow into the “badass” agent she deserves to be. A playful two fingers up the at these kind of norms was most definitely with the secret weapons given to Coop – items that could be seen as essentials in any stereotypical spinster’s handbag, they doubled as fierce tools fit for any brutal undercover agent. My personal favourite was the rape whistle that was actually a blow-dart - I wonder when those’ll be available on Amazon?!

Whilst Spy remains a parody of the many, many Spy thrillers out in the Moviesphere, it is still full to the brim of extremely well choreographed action sequences alongside the laughs. Many may feel that that Feig has thrown in certain violent and foul-mouthed scenes so as to appease those purely looking for action and a chuckle, rather than to observe the strong females showing up the incompetency of their male counterparts (à la me), but luckily as someone with a rather sweary vernacular, this just became part of the fun. Spy, like Bridesmaids and The Heat, was an unexpected and pleasant surprise, making me to look forward to the new Ghostbusters reboot. It may not go down in the Almanac of Film History as the most progressive and forward-thinking film, but for Hollywood, at least it’s a motherf**king step forwards.

Jurassic World (2015)

Review: 

A film less about Jurassic creatures and more about Jurassic viewpoints.

*May contain a few small spoilers*

I entered the cinema expecting to be thrown back in time to that thrilling experience I had 22 years ago with Jurassic Park. Not only did trailers and press articles promise this, but my peers also proclaimed on Twitter and Facebook the joy they felt being taken back to their childhood days by the latest offering in the Steven Spielberg franchise, Jurassic World. Instead, I found myself leaving the cinema asking why I had just been invited to enter a world where the technology is light-years ahead, and yet I’m being presented with such old-fashioned representations of female characters?

Jurassic World, directed by Colin Trevorrow and starring Bryce Dallas Howard and Hollywood’s latest golden-boy Chris Pratt, offers the audience a film about a slick and high-tech dinosaur theme park that has become a fully functioning tourist attraction, but one that still feels compelled to resort to the flash-and-bang of genetically modified dinosaurs to peak further interest from growingly desensitized audiences and investors. However, the conscientious owner and the enthusiastic staff of Jurassic World soon realise that they, unlike their new designer dinosaur ‘Indominus Rex’, have most definitely bitten off more than they can chew when things go desperately awry. Dun Dun Duuuuuuun.

Let’s begin with the good stuff. I cannot deny that Jurassic World gives us the action we all crave in abundance, which will undoubtedly be fulfilling enough for many viewers. The fact that the film has scored the biggest opening weekend in history will attest to this. The visual effects also impress, and they remain at a high standard throughout - I found that the CGI dinosaurs still had the ability to provide me with the nightmare-inducing terror they once did to a mini-me. Throughout the first part of the film, I also rather enjoyed what appeared to be a humble view of the dangers of using animals/creatures as tools for amusement, and felt the comments on the lengths some would go so as to spark interest and acquire cash pertinent. In the case of Jurassic World, this means creating a new species of dinosaur whose sole aim is to horrify parents and children alike in order to satisfy the needs of a culture that is growing to consume and become bored by the spectacular at a remarkably quick rate. This is particularly poignant with the current controversies surrounding the likes of SeaWorld.

Nevertheless, as the film powered on, a confused feeling spread over me. I started to wonder what kind of ride the writers wanted to take us on through this brand new theme park: is it a story of romance… a family in crisis… boys becoming men… nurturing staff members and conservation… rogue staff members with big bucks on their minds… corrupt scientists fulfilling their own career agendas… oh and of course, man’s place in the world (hello, man-eating-dinosaurs)?

Whilst I can sit through the attempts at building a detailed, whilst strained, story, what I cannot forgive about Jurassic World is the head in hands ridiculousness of the portrayal of the female characters. You may think I am speaking metaphorically, but, as my partner who was sat next to me can attest, I genuinely had a face/palm moment at a certain scene in particular, which I will come back to later.

Not only was there a quite a shameful lack of female characters in the film, they were just SCREAMING, CRYING or DYING. The film was also craving a younger female character, such as, the feisty and intelligent computer hacker that was Lex Murphy, played by Ariana Richards in the 1993 Jurassic Park. Whilst I feel Simpkins was strong as the younger brother Gray, Robinson’s broody older brother who turns protective and sincere was less believable, meaning the sibling relationship missed out of the dynamic of the sister/brother duo in Jurassic Park. When considering the differences between the first blockbuster and this latest instalment, I cannot help but compare Laura Dern’s Dr. Ellie Sattler with Howard’s Claire. Whilst Dern’s character was able to display several personality traits at once: good at her job, caring and daring, and all whilst being uncompromising of what she wants out of life and her relationship with Dr Grant, Howard’s character seems quite the opposite, and it is left to Chris Pratt’s Owen Grady to have it all this time around: smart, talented, caring, good at his job, brave…your archetypal Hollywood male hero! Howard’s Claire, who is clearly very successful and works hard in her job, is made out to be stuffy, cold and even frigid because of this. We are constantly reminded that this is due to the fact she has no children and therefore must not be able to possess a semblance of empathy. I thought we were past the stereotypical image of the barren power-grabbing woman now? Come on Jurassic World! Why can’t Howard’s character have it all like Grady, or her predecessor Dr. Sattler?

 

Never fear, though, as Howard’s character was allowed to have some heroic moments…hooray! These moments, however, were unbelievably fleeting as they were in all instances undermined. As an example, there is a pretty badass moment when Claire saves Owen’s life from a stabbing and grabbing pterodactyl, only for Owen to then grab her, kiss her and make her go weak at the knees - just to remind the audience that her role should be as the male protagonist’s love interest (and for those paying attention to this blog – this was the face/palm moment I was talking about earlier). I was also deeply frustrated that Claire’s key moment in the third act of the film ended up with her running in slow motion with an awful lot of skin on show – hello, male gaze! This is textbook sexism. This also begs the question: why have her clothes become tattered rags as if she’s actually wrestled one of the dinosaurs, whilst Pratt’s costume remains completely intact? Sigh.

Ultimately, these aspects of the film led to its downfall for me. The most delightful and witty parts of Jurassic World were the iconic soundtrack ringing around the cinema and the nostalgic scenes harking back to the preceding films that make you excitedly nudge the person next to you to check that they noticed it too – the moment with the jeeps and eye-lense-helmet-things was a really nice touch. If, however, these elements were the main strength of the film, maybe it would be best to dust off the originals and have a night in?