Film Review of the Week


Action

Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire (12A)




Review: Godzilla vs Kong director Adam Wingard returns to helm the fifth chapter of the MonsterVerse franchise, which began a decade ago with the special effects-laden revival of Godzilla. This latest box office behemoth begins with Godzilla ruling the waves while Kong reigns supreme over the Hollow Earth. A devastating new threat emerges, hidden within our world, which jeopardises not only humanity’s existence but also the survival of the mighty titans.

Two gigantic rivals unite in an epic battle of strength and tenacity to combat a terrifying force rooted in the mysterious history of Skull Island. Anthropologist Dr Ilene Andrews (Rebecca Hall), who works for secret scientific organisation Monarch, her deaf ward Jia (Kaylee Hottle) and conspiracy theorist podcaster (Brian Tyree Henry) are drawn into the eye of the storm when hulking creatures collide.

Reviews of Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire are embargoed until Thursday afternoon. Check back later in the week for our full review.



Find Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire in the cinemas


Animation

Kung Fu Panda 4 (PG)




Review: Sixteen years after Jack Black growled his first “Skadoosh!” while demonstrating a perfect Wuxi Finger Hold in the original Kung Fu Panda, dumpling-obsessed hero Po is showing his age. Fur and feathers fly with pleasing regularity in a high-kicking fourth instalment of the computer-animated franchise but the jokes in Jonathan Aibel, Glenn Berger and Darren Lemke’s script punch disappointingly low and light and a power-hungry villain has to absorb the kung fu moves of previous antagonists to become a palpable threat. Black’s seemingly inexhaustible exuberance from previous instalments is dialled down from 11 to a sensible 7, offering less distraction from a simplistic quest-driven plot that preaches the positivity of change.

“If things stay the same forever, sooner or later they will lose their flavour,” counsels a wise master of noodle broth. Sadly, Kung Fu Panda 4 proves its own point. Mike Mitchell’s picture, co-directed by Stephanie Ma Stine, throws together the same ingredients – frenetic fight sequences, wisecracks, cross-species co-operation – and serves up the blandest dish of the series to date. There is almost nothing in Po’s latest jaunt to excitedly slurp and savour. Black’s cover of Britney Spears’…Baby One More Time over the end credits feels like an acknowledgement that filmmakers are going through the motions to boost the franchise’s box office, not because of any dramatic necessity.

“Destiny calls for you to take the next step on your journey,” Master Shifu (Dustin Hoffman) counsels his panda protege, who must ascend to Spiritual Leader of the Valley of Peace just as Grand Master Oogway intended. Po (Black) is resistant to change and the current Dragon Warrior focuses on the re-emergent threat of villainous snow leopard Tai Lung (Ian McShane), who has seemingly escaped from the Spirit Realm.

Fox thief Zhen (Awkwafina) warns Po that appearances are deceptive and the bullying big cat is a disguise of powerful shape-shifting sorceress The Chameleon (Viola Davis). Bidding farewell to his protective fathers Mr Ping (James Hong) and Li (Bryan Cranston), Po ventures to The Chameleon’s fortress in Juniper City via the Happy Bunny Tavern run with an iron trotter by Granny Boar (Lori Tan Chinn). En route, the benevolent bear mentors Zhen in the art of self-sacrifice and makes merry in a den of thieves controlled by pangolin Han (Ke Huy Quan).

Kung Fu Panda exhausts affection for Po and his anthropomorphic chums despite solid vocal work from Black and Awkwafina, who polish lacklustre one-liners as they riff off each other. Davis deserves sharper writing to swathe her megalomaniacal magician in menace and a running visual gag with a cliffside drinking den is over-extended. Colourful animated visuals are richly detailed, packing a punch that is otherwise lacking in Mitchell and Stine’s pedestrian and fitfully entertaining smackdown. A case of grin and panda bear it.



Find Kung Fu Panda 4 in the cinemas


Thriller

Mothers' Instinct (15)




Review: A mother’s love is a delicate rose with razor-sharp thorns in a handsomely cultivated English-language remake of Olivier Masset-Depasse’s 2018 psychological thriller Duelles. Transplanted from 1960s bourgeois Brussels to American suburbia, Mothers’ Instinct pits Oscar winners Jessica Chastain and Anne Hathaway against each other in a Hitchcockian plot that tightens the screws on best friends as they wrestle with grief and guilt in the aftermath of a tragic accident. Award-winning cinematographer Benoit Delhomme is well versed in conjuring striking period-specific imagery for filmmakers such as David Mamet (The Winslow Boy), Mike Figgis (Miss Julie), John Hillcoat (The Proposition), James Marsh (The Theory Of Everything) and Julian Schnabel (At Eternity’s Gate).

For his directorial debut, Delhomme uses Masset-Depasse’s picture as a template to heighten discomfort and suspense, beginning with an unsettling opening sequence that suggests malevolent intent behind twitching net curtains. The artfully staged bluff allows Delhomme to revisit the scenario later in his film, this time without merciful concessions to gnawed nails and whitened knuckles. Sarah Conradt-Kroehler’s script shifts the balance of power between female protagonists, discharging the pent-up tension in a satisfyingly twisted final flourish guaranteed to drop a few jaws.

Alice (Chastain) and Celine (Hathaway) are next door neighbours, devoted to the upkeep of their impeccably furnished homes while their respective husbands Simon (Anders Danielsen Lie) and Damian (Josh Charles) go out to work and trap the wives in gilded cages of the era. While traditionalist Damian works in the pharmaceutical industry and is sole breadwinner, Simon is more progressive, supporting Alice’s professional dreams so long as she continues her measured recovery from a mental health crisis. The women’s parenting styles couldn’t be more different. Alice is overly protective of her young son Theo (Eamon O’Connell), who has a peanut allergy, while Celine is relaxed and poised with her boy Max (Baylen D Bielitz).

A tragic fall from an upstairs balcony robs Celine of her only child and Alice is a guilt-riddled witness to the accident. Alice senses her best friend blames her for the devastating loss and paranoia poisons the relationship. Celine requests to spend time with Theo as a coping mechanism, since she is unable to have more children. The boy’s grandmother Jean (Caroline Lagerfelt) urges quietly worded caution and an increasingly unhinged Alice becomes convinced that Celine intends to seek revenge by killing her precious Theo.

Mothers’ Instinct coolly bides its time, walking a tightrope strung between gnarly suspicion and incontrovertible fact. Our distress matches the characters’ and Chastain and Hathaway deliver compelling performances that beg uncomfortable questions about their homemakers’ mental wellbeing and rationality. Delhomme maintains a firm grip on pacing and tone to prevent Alice and Celine’s frosty rivalry from descending entirely into sweeping melodrama.



Find Mothers' Instinct in the cinemas