DVD: Divine Viewing Diversions
Here are three highly entertaining thrillers that opened theatrically earlier this year.
The first is a fantasy for the family, the second a sequel for science-fiction fans, and the third a shark chiller for brave viewers.
WONDER WOMAN (PG-13)
It’s no wonder women have been wondering about “Wonder Woman” for years.
With all the male superheroes and role models tumbling out of the comic-book universe and filling out movie screens with testosterone and Spandex, well, it’s about time this wondrous woman emerged in the middle ring.
“Wonder Woman,” long since a DC comic book and television icon, could have landed safely and impactfully just by being decent.
But this film is better than just decent: It’s actually something, if not masterful, at least special and satisfying.
For the makers, this appears to be a labor of love, one that audiences have embraced the heck out of.
Israeli actress Gal Gadot stars as the title character, a universal female hero and trained warrior, princess of the Amazons, and her alter ego, Diana Prince.
She lives on the all-female island of Themyscira, where she disobeys her mother, Hippolyta, played by Connie Nielsen, breaks into a heavily guarded armory, and steals the mythical sword, the “god killer.”
When a plane crashes and the downed pilot, Steve Trevor, played by Chris Pine, tells her of the major conflict in the outside world, she heads to London to come to the aid of war-plagued humanity.
Whereas the comic books were set during World War II, the film is set during World War I.
The script by Allan Heinberg, from a story by Heinberg, Zack Snyder and Jason Fuchs, is an origin story that explains Wonder Woman’s familiar defining props – the lasso of truth, the indestructible bracelets, the invisible jet, the forehead tiara.
The script draws heavily from the original 1940s comic book by William Moulton Marston, and Gadot and Jenkins team up to make her multidimensional, both strong and vulnerable, fierce but compassionate.
And the narrative not only flows from early frames to late but offers humor, charm and heart to go along with the considerable and able action.
Gadot and Pine have a sparkling, unforced chemistry. And although it shouldn’t be a distracting novelty to find ourselves watching all-female fights and action scenes, it is. And they and their choreography are, by the way, top-drawer.
Director Patty Jenkins, who got an Oscar-winning performance out of Charlize Theron in “Monster” in 2003, was obviously inspired by director Richard Donner’s “Superman” with Christopher Reeve.
Working on an epic scale for the first time, she hereby becomes the first female director of a studio superhero flick and the first director of a superhero film with a female protagonist.
And what she has accomplished is a vigorous, entertaining thriller that also has emotional impact and takes an immediate it’s-about-time place on the timeline of film history.
In short, “Wonder Woman” flirts with being wonderful. Will wonders never cease?
ALIEN: COVENANT (R)
“In space, no one can hear you scream.”
That was the tagline that got our attention in 1979, when director Ridley Scott scared us to death with “Alien,” one of the most gripping and terrifying movies ever made.
And now he’s done it again in the sixth installment in the Alien franchise, “Alien: Covenant,” which follows three sequels (“Aliens,” “Alien 3,” “Alien Resurrection”) and one prequel (“Prometheus”) in the “Alien” franchise.
And if this post-“Prometheus,” pre-“Alien” thriller doesn’t have quite the elegance or isn’t quite the claustrophobic nightmare that was the classic that started it all, it’s still a vividly intense experience – and not for the faint-hearted.
A horror/science-fiction thriller, “Alien: Covenant” is set a decade after “Prometheus” and two decades before “Alien.”
The Covenant is a colony spacecraft carrying 2,000 passengers – they and the crew are all couples – and 1,000 embryos.
They’re in cryosleep and hoping that they’re traveling to a remote but hospitable planet on the far side of the galaxy where they will wake up and can then live their new lives.
But the planet they discover is instead a murderously dangerous place, patrolled by monstrous creatures that relentlessly attack humans as a matter of course.
Michael Fassbender returns as an android – actually, in a double role: enough said – and his colleagues on the crew include Billy Crudup, Katherine Waterston, Danny McBride, Carmen Ejogo, and Demian Bichir.
Their investigation of this discovered planet quickly turns into a bloody, uphill battle for survival.
Scott, a four-time Oscar nominee (“The Martian,” “Gladiator,” “Thelma & Louise,” “Black Hawk Down,” “Blade Runner”), works from an action-oriented script by John Logan and Dante Harper based on a story by Jack Paglen and Michael Green that still manages to embed a light exploration of such themes as creation and playing God.
As for Scott, he conjures up striking visuals, seamless special effects, rich suspense, effective performances, and truly startling jump-scares with his usual deftness.
So does this sixth excursion essentially boil down to more of the same? Well, to a degree, yes. But Scott is a master craftsman and gifted artist who makes the same feel freshly observed.
Oh, it’s still true that in space, no one can hear you scream. But in an “Alien: Covenant” audience – even an audience of one – they just might.
47 METERS DOWN (PG-13)
Try swimming in the ocean after sitting through this.
In a tradition begun by “Jaws” and extended by “Open Water” and “The Shallows” comes “47 Meters Down,” a nifty little thriller about thrill seekers in shark-infested waters that delivers quite the scare package in the name of summer escapism.
Mandy Moore and Claire Holt play Lisa and Kate, respectively, American sisters on vacation in Mexico who meet Benjamin (Santiago Segura) and Louis (Yani Gellman), who convince them that diving with sharks makes for an entertaining outing.
Kate is up for anything and Lisa would like to demonstrate that she’s not as boring as the ex who broke up with her seemed to think.
So they sign up with skipper Matthew Modine without realizing that if there is a mechanical malfunction while they are being lowered into the ocean in the rickety-looking dive cage, in scuba gear with oxygen tanks, they could end up trapped underwater in the dark 47 meters down (that’s about 154 feet) and out of radio range and – let’s not forget this – surrounded by enormous circling sharks.
Which they do.
Yikes.
British horror director Johannes Roberts (“The Other Side of the Door,” “Hellbreeder,” “Darkhunters”), working from a script he co-wrote with Ernest Riera, achieves an impressive level of grip-the-armrest tension without a lot of fuss. He pretty much traps his nervous, appreciative audience in that cage on the ocean floor with the protagonists, staying with their point of view as they desperately struggle to survive.
As for those computer-generated great white sharks swimming up close and personal through that cloudy water while the sisters’ oxygen runs out, well, they sure look real.
Double yikes.
“47 Meters Down” is lean and focused and taut, a claustrophobic, mostly underwater shocker with effective jump scares and an impressively intense level of dread.
This is a movie that knows exactly what it is and delivers handily on its promise.
Think of it as a full-length version of the spine-tinglingly frightening scene in “Jaws” in which Richard Dreyfuss climbs into the shark cage and is lowered into the water as a potential great white snack.
Triple yikes.
“47 Meters Down” is a terrifying, resourceful, literally breathless thriller that just might keep you out of the water and on the beach at vacation time.
