Movie Review: Upgrade

A fun and brutal action flick with a cool gimmick. While this allows for some cool action sequences and some humorous moments, the film rarely reaches above mediocre. The fight scenes are unique, featuring effortless dodging, elbow-blocking incoming attacks and the hero not even looking at his opponent. It’s a bit like Neo at the end of the first “Matrix” film. Despite his computer-assisted reflexes, the car chase late in the movie is fairly bland. The acting by the lead, Logan Marshall-Green is solid, and his likability carries him through the insanity. The rest of the cast do a fine job, although there’s a quirkiness the many of their performances. The pacing is a bit off and the film lacks a smooth flow. It moves slowly and gives no indication where things are heading, and then it breezes through to the end a bit too quickly.

**1/2 out of *****

Movie Review: Solo: A Star Wars Story

An entertaining film that lacks substance and gets by with loads of fan service. For the most part, this is a fun heist film, which actually had multiple heists. Everything moves fairly briskly, but there’s enough time for the characters to breathe and get fleshed-out a bit. The first two major action sequences are a lot of fun, but the big heist at the end falls a bit flat. It all goes down too quick and in a mostly unsatisfying way. The characters are a bit underwhelming, and either you know some are in no real danger because they have to live on to be in “Star Wars,” the others you assume won’t survive long enough to care about them because they never appear again in any other films. Alden Ehrenreich is likable as the young Han Solo. He never quite feels like the “real” Solo. More like an alternate version, much like Chris Pine as the young James T. Kirk in the Star Trek reboot. Ehrenreich has great chemistry with Emilia Clarke’s Qi’ra, but when we see the more mysterious version of her character later in the film, she loses some of her charm. Paul Bettany and Jon Favreau both have memorable characters, but limited screen time, while Phoebe Walker-Bridge’s L3 tends to be too over the top for most of her appearance to really connect with. Overall, “Solo” doesn’t add particularly much to the Star Wars franchise, aside from a fun adventure with a lovable character. We get plenty of fun nods towards the man he will become in the classic films, plus an unexpected cameo that makes you want to see more to this story.

*** out of *****