Tom Holland

The Current Wars: Director's Cut

First Hit: Although informative about three great men Edison, Westinghouse, and Tesla, the story wasn’t very compelling about how we electrified the United States.

Growing up, I believed that Thomas Edison (Benedict Cumberbatch) took Benjamin Franklin’s discovery of electricity and put it to use for all of us. I made the assumption that he alone brought electrical power to the people. I must not have paid attention in school, or the textbooks were wrong, or I was misled by my teachers. My guess was I wasn’t paying attention.

If the information in this film is correct, Edison’s pure genius was in the plethora of products he dreamed up and made real. The electric light bulb was probably his legacy, but he also made products like the phonograph and ways to see motion pictures. Both the phonograph and motion picture machine started as hand-powered units that eventually became electrified.

Yes, he did electrify sections of cities using his DC (direct current) generators and underground copper wires.But it’s limitations, including economics and distance shortcomings, were the downfall of his company to electrify whole cities.

On the other hand, George Westinghouse (Michael Shannon) decided to be Edison’s competitor by using AC (alternating current), which allowed him to provide electrical power over long distances inexpensively. The AC system was an invention of Nikola Tesla (Nicholas Hoult), who sold it to Westinghouse. The perceived issue with AC current was that if improperly installed or used, it could harm or kill people.

Tesla first worked for Edison, but because Edison didn’t want to listen to the possibilities of AC power, Tesla left after a short period.

Tesla and Westinghouse worked together to bring inexpensive electrical power to all of the United States. And although each were inventors in their own right, it was Edison who invented many of the practical products we use today.

One of the sweetest parts of the film was when Edison tells Westinghouse about how he felt when one of his many experiments with the incandescent bulb worked. The power of trying and not succeeding. Then trying again and again was meaningful and enduring and beautifully shared.

The critical component of the film was the different personalities of these three men and how it affected their approached to work. When Edison breaks his much-touted promise to not bring harm to another human gets challenged, he’s heartbroken. Tesla was creative in how he documented his inventions. Westinghouse had an ability to look at the big picture and to methodically persevere.

Both Edison and Westinghouse had exciting and intense discussions with the dominant banker and financier J.P. Morgan (Matthew Macfadyen) about how to finance the electrification of cities and about the money they all could make on it through his support.

I thought many of the scenes were interestingly developed but faltered with less impressive follow-through. How did Edison really feel about his wife dying? Did the use of electricity to kill someone as corporal punishment advance this practice of putting people to death for crimes?

Cumberbatch was excellent in many scenes as Edison by bringing a single and driven focus to his work. But I didn’t have a sense of how he became this amazing inventor. Shannon felt a little miscast. He usually plays a darker character because of his looks and intensity; however, as Westinghouse he’s given to be more gentle in his words and actions and it seemed incongruent. Hoult was solid as Tesla, quietly working in the background pulling ideas out of thin air and creatively documenting them in his notebook. Macfadyen was terrific as the financier J.P. Morgan. His practicality and drive to support geniuses were well presented. Tom Holland, as Samuel Insull, Edison’s right hand man, was outstanding. His belief in Edison was well earned. Michael Mitnick wrote a thought-provoking screenplay that will have me do further research on how the US became electrified. Alfonso Gomez-Rejon did a good job of directing this film. I do think there were opportunities missed to delve deeper into the impact of these men and also their histories.

Overall: This was a solid film, but not great, and I think it could have been a great story to tell.

Avengers: Infinity War

First Hit: Poorly conceived film because someone thought that putting every conceivable character under the sun into a single film was a good idea for a story.

Action for action’s sake is a waste of time because after a few minutes there’s no story to engage with and all the audience is doing is watching visual tricks on a screen. And, although I enjoyed the quips shared and pointed towards particular characters, in the end, it isn’t enough to make me want to recommend anything about this film.

I couldn't get into the plot of this film because there were so many small subplots and sidebars that I the real story became distractingly meaningless. However, my guess at the plot is: Thanos (Josh Brolin) was seeing his world fall apart because there were too many people, therefore by killing half the population in the universe, things will be peaceful and life would be able to support itself. The Avengers don't want this to happen.

To have the power to make this desire come true, Thanos needs six stones that are being held somewhere in the universe, a few of them are in possession of superheroes. So he goes about finding the stones and doing anything to get them.

To stop his quest, all the Avenger superheroes loosely come together to fight the good fight to defeat Thanos. Iron Man/Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.), Thor (Chris Hemsworth), Hulk/Bruce Banner (Mark Ruffalo), Captain America/Steve Rogers (Chris Evans), Black Widow/Natasha Romanoff (Scarlett Johansson), War Machine/James Rhodes (Don Cheadle), Doctor Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch), Spider-Man/Peter Parker (Tom Holland), Black Panther/T’Challa (Chadwick Boseman), Gamora (Zoe Saldana), Nebula (Karen Gillan), and Loki (Tom Hiddleston) just to name some.

You can see from the above listing, along with another ten superheros, having this many characters makes for a confusing mess because each has to have their day in the story. This is exactly what we get - confusion.

Most all of the actors do their superhero thing and do it well enough. However, with everyone one splitting screen time and with minimal roles, it was difficult for anyone except Chris Pratt (As Star-Lord/Peter Quill), Downey, Hemsworth, and Cumberbatch to standout.  Ruffalo was also funny trying to turn into the Hulk. The rest was more like having them do cameos of their characters to show that everyone was onboard to fight Thanos. Brolin as Thanos was strong but it is hard to show the depth of character he was attempting give the audience through the heavy makeup. Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeeely wrote an over ambitious screenplay that melted under the number of characters they had to bring in. Anthony and Joe Russo co-directed this mess and it showed. The use of effects was good, but effects to no make a film, characters do and shortchanging so many of them was its downfall.

Overall: I only went to this film because of the strong audience attendance and I cannot believe that the millions walked away satisfied.

Captain America: Civil War

First Hit:  I was shocked that people applauded at the end of this film because the story was too fabricated and forced to make it interesting.

I like a good superhero film every once in a while. However, because they make money for the studios, storylines are created to put more of the heroes together.

It isn’t enough to have a group of Avengers focus on a single enemy, here the script writers and producers decided to have them pitted against one another. This, of course, will boost viewership, however I do not think it helps the brand in the long run. This action mirrors short term profits are more important than long term gain and integrity.

The best acting done in this film is by Robert Downey Jr. as Tony Stark and Iron Man. The rest of the superheroes have their moments and it is obvious that the film is set up this way. Each of them gets to display their “super powers”.

The one exception to all of this is the introduction of Spiderman/Peter Parker (Tom Holland). His character is funny due to his newness to his spidey powers and his youthful attitude. The film does try to explore the importance of friendship through the relationship and actions of Captain America/Steve Rogers (Chris Evans) and the Winter Soldier/Bucky Barnes (Sebastian Stan). Their lifelong friendship is tested here.

Also friendship is overtly tested between Iron Man and Captain America. Then there is the issue of government control of The Avengers and their response to issues in the world. This is brought up  because innocent people have been killed through their heroic involvement. Both of these subjects are feebly addressed by the story.

Downey Jr. was the best of the group of actors mostly because he had a fair amount of introspective and intelligent dialogue. Evans is only OK, but I cannot tell if it is only because of the role, script, or Evans own acting abilities. Holland is fun and is the most amusing character. Stan is good as the stoic semi-enemy of The Avengers and the general public. Daniel Bruhl (as the real enemy Zemo) is good enough to pull off being the real antagonist. Scarlett Johansson, Anthony Mackie, Don Cheadle, Jeremy Renner, Chadwick Boseman, Paul Bettany, Elizabeth Olsen, Paul Rudd, and Frank Grillo are only OK as the superheroes that are pitted against each other because their roles are minimized. Christopher Marcus and Stephen McFeely wrote this, let’s make money, script that doesn’t fully address the friendship and government control questions and minimizes the skills of this extensive cast. Anthony and Joe Russo’s co-direction is evident because of the scattered way this film interprets the screenplay and use of this fine cast.

Overall:  This was a film I didn’t need to see.

In the Heart of the Sea

First Hit:  Started interestingly, ended good, but the large middle was monotonous and slowly sank into the dark of the sea.

Films based in the ocean with underwater sequences have a higher likeliness of not being good. I’m not sure why except they become dark and slow.

Yet, films shot inside submarines and underwater tend to be better (Like: Hunt for Red October 1990 or Run Silent Run Deep 1958) as my dad would have attested to. He probably watched the latter more than 20 times and could recite the dialogue of every character. Why? Probably because submarine films are character based while ocean films must have ocean characters. Of course the film "Jaws" would be an exception.

This story is about a whale called Moby Dick and how Herman Melville wrote this famous story. The view of the story is from one of the survivors of a multi-year whaling adventure which included 90 days of being stranded on the ocean in a dinghy.

The survivor Tom Nickerson (Brendan Gleeson and the young Tom/Thomas portrayed by Tom Holland) is being interviewed by Herman Melville (Ben Whishaw) about the experience he had when the whale scuttled the Essex after almost 2 years hunting whales. Moby destroyed the ship and left the remaining crew to drift.

The other part of the story is about the disagreements and personality differences between Captain George Pollard (Benjamin Walker) and First Mate Owen Chase (Chris Hemsworth). This initial focus of the film was interesting as was Melville’s interview with Nickerson. However, the rest of the film tried to be interesting through visuals and very little on the strength or weaknesses of the individuals and when they tried it wasn’t very interesting.

Hemsworth was OK but there seemed to be little depth to his character. Walker was mediocre as the privileged captain. Holland was good as the young seaman learning how to me a man. Whishaw was very good in his small part as Melville. Gleeson was the spirit of this film and the best part of the film. Charles Leavitt wrote a so so script for most of the characters except Gleeson and Melville. Ron Howard didn’t come close to creating the masterpiece I think he wanted.

Overall:  The previews I saw telegraphed this uninteresting film.

The Impossible

First Hit:  Based on a true story, I sat in awe throughout the entire film.

What would it be like to experience a tsunami? Although the actors played this family as English, it didn't detract from the real Spanish family's experience.

In this story the family; wife Maria (Naomi Watts), husband Henry (Ewan McGregor), oldest son Lucas (Tom Holland), middle son Thomas (Samuel Joslin) and youngest son Simon (Oaklee Pendergast) are on a vacation in Thailand.

What happens was one of the greatest natural disasters to ever be recorded - 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami. The direct visuals of the water, what happens under the water, and how the human spirit pulls together to continue to live is amazing.

It felt almost like we were watching a documentary in that we were given the realism of the ensuing chaos after an event like this. Although Watts is the main character, Holland’s strong role as oldest son having to learn what family means and how the connection of the human spirit and the connection of family carry life onward.

The actual water sequences with the outstanding sound editing gives the audience the feeling what it could be like to be caught in a huge water wave.

This story about amazing survivability of humans when faced with death and calamity is amazing.

Watts gives an amazing performance. I fully believed her. Her characters strength and selfless compassion was beautiful and remarkable. McGregor was good but his role felt a bit pressed when compared to Watt’s performance. Holland is a true star in this film. His growth as a human being and as a boy becoming a man was nothing short of amazing. Josin and Pendergast were perfect as the youngest boys and the tender scenes of Simon’s head on Thomas’ lap was perfect. Sergio G. Sanchez wrote an amazing script which was expertly directed by Juan Antonio Bayona. He did a remarkable job in all aspects of this film, the effects, actors and managing the story.

Overall:  One of the best films I’ve seen all year.

googleaa391b326d7dfe4f.html