For most of 2021, movies were being held back from cinema release; now the dam has burst.
Usually the weeks leading up to Christmas are fairly quiet, with just a few big films grabbing all the screens. Now every week sees the arrival of another long-awaited blockbuster, and with a lot more to come now’s the time to get caught up on some of the year’s biggest offerings – before they get pushed aside, because Boxing Day this year is going to be massive at the cinema.
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Spider-Man: No Way Home
When we last saw Peter Parker (Tom Holland), aka Spider-Man, his secret identity was now exposed to the world. If it wasn’t bad enough that he’s now the most famous person in the world (what, the media just forgot about Thor?), his attempt to cover things up via a spell cooked up by Doctor Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) goes wrong and now a whole lot of his old enemies from previous movies (and incarnations) are gunning for him.
You need to be pretty invested in Spider-Man for this film to really work – it’s more a collection of special guest appearances than an actual story, though many of those guest appearances do go out of their way to resolve character issues their original films left dangling. But as a celebration of Spider-Man (which means putting him through the wringer, as Spider-Man work best when he’s on the ropes) this is a whole lot of fun from start to finish. Spider-Man’s been a (fairly) consistent character when it comes to entertainment since the Tobey Maguire days, and even the Andrew Garfield incarnation had its high points; this look back does all Peter Parker’s incarnations proud.
Resident Evil: Welcome to Racoon City
The long running franchise is heading back to where it all began – and back in time too, as this is firmly set in the late 90s (an old school Palm Pilot plays a big role in the plot). It’s a rainy night in Racoon City, which is not great as unbeknownst to the remaining residents (local employer Umbrella has all but closed down their local operations), there’s something in the water that turns people into mindless cannibal zombies.
What follows is a fairly straightforward zombie movie, but sometimes all you want from a film is dark corridors, creepy shadows, and unstoppable hordes of demented monsters looking to chew on the main cast. It’s not quite on par with the lunacy of the previous Resident Evil movies, but as a (relatively) low key zombie horror story its retro approach pays off.
Dune
In the far future the galaxy is on the brink of war, with one man holding the fate of billions – if he survives long enough to accept his destiny. This is a big film in every way: director Denis Villeneuve uses the massive scale of Frank Herbert’s classic science fiction novel to bombard audiences with a string of epic images as Paul Atreides (Timothée Chalamet) goes from being a coddled son of a nobleman to a refugee struggling to escape his family’s enemies on the desert planet Dune, where water is precious beyond measure and giant sandworms attack anything that moves.
It’s a brilliant spectacle, packed with powerful scenes and moments. As far as what lies beneath those big moments… well, hopefully the sequel (currently due in 2023) will bring a bit more of the novel’s extensive backstory into the frame. For now at least, this is a rare example of a true science fiction epic; you owe it to yourself to see it on the biggest screen you can.
No Time to Die
It’s taken a while for Daniel Craig’s final Bond film to make it to screens – there was a big gap between films even before covid – and while this doesn’t exactly break any new ground for Britain’s most public secret agent, it definitely stands up as both a big action spectacular and as a farewell to Craig.
The action scenes are bigger than ever (or at least, as big as usual), pretty much all the surviving major players from Craig’s run turn up for one last hurrah, and there’s even a touch more romance than usual as Bond starts to seriously think about life after 007. It’d be nice to think they might speed up the process of making these films so they could try something new rather than making each one feel like a greatest hits package, but here at least those greatest hits hit hard.
Venom: Let There Be Carnage
Eddie Brock (Tom Hardy), firmly average journalist, sub-par romantic partner, and host to super-powered alien symbiote Venom, seems to have it all. Well, he’s got a big screen TV; he can’t win back his ex (Michelle Williams), his journalism career needs a big scoop from a serial killer (Woody Harrelson) to get it back on track, and Venom won’t shut up about wanting to eat bad guy’s heads. Fighting bad guys? He’ll get around to that.
This sequel doubles down on what worked in the first film: the Brock-Venom bromance and some decent superhero fight scenes. Harrelson’s bad guy chews a lot of scenery, as does Venom himself, while Brock mostly just looks perplexed. It’s not trying to be epic, or even all that serious; this is the kind of comic book movie we used to see a lot more of a decade ago, and at 90 minutes it does everything you want it to and then gets out before it starts to get stale.
The French Dispatch
Wes Anderson’s comedies work not because of his unique visual style, mannered storytelling, or quirky performances from a big name cast – though those things certainly help – but because he’s not afraid to get a little serious when he needs to. Without a hint of darkness here and there, his confections would float away; instead, he’s one of the more insightful directors out there when it comes to how people actually live with themselves and others.
This anthology film presenting a series of stories from a fictional US magazine based in France is packed with scams, frauds, rioting students, gangs of rogue choir boys, kidnappings, car chases, and general criminal behaviour, all presented with Anderson’s trademark humour and visual flair. The all-star cast (including Bill Murray, Tilda Swinton, Timothée Chalamet, Benicio del Toro, Jeremy Wright and Adrian Brody) fit in perfectly whether they’re grabbing the limelight or taking on a minor role. The whole thing is a delight.
Book your tickets for Village Cinemas here, Reading Cinema here, and the Pivotonian here.
