Now that summer is in full-swing, it’s time to catch all the big-budget blockbusters making their way to the theatres, right? Well, I don’t know if every movie these days is worth its weight in ticket-sales. So, between movie-going, I’m going to take some time to catch up (in the comfort of my  living room) on those blockbusters that I let pass by. Over the summer, I hope to make a dent in my long backlog of recent (no more than a couple years old) sci-fi and genre flicks. In addition, I  picked up a set of blu-rays full of the magical movies of Studio Ghibli — the Japanese animation studio that makes the most wonderful and imaginative spectacles of family fantasy (Take that, Disney!). So I’m going to alternate recent films with Studio Ghibli’s best, and share some of my quick thoughts in this blog. I hope you enjoy the ride with me.

Justice League

With all the hype from Avengers: Infinity War, I thought the perfect starting point would be another super-team movie — maybe not. Don’t get me wrong, there’s cool stuff in Justice League: Gal Gadot is back as Wonder Woman, and she’s teaming up with even more heroes, including Aquaman (made newly-cool by Jason Momoa – f.k.a. Game of Thrones‘s Khal Drogo), Cyborg, Batman (again played by the miscast Ben Affleck), and a hilariously scene-stealing Ezra Miller as the Flash. Bring this many heroes together with a big effects budget and a bombastic director like Zack Snyder (who I love, by the way) and you’re bound to get cool scenes, like an undersea battle in Atlantis, Wonder Woman kicking much villainous butt, Amazons rushing in slo-mo to defend an ancient artifact (like a scene out of Snyder’s 300), and a clash between everyone and a slightly-amnesiac Superman (Oops! Did you think he was still dead? Sorry not sorry. #Lamest comeback that I don’t mind spoiling.) Despite all the pretty cool action scenes, the overall story makes no sense. Something about a baddie named Steppenwolf who wants to take over the world and turn it into a charred wasteland (that summary is probably more logical than the actual plot). Forget it. Anyway, the good guys band together and defeat the bad guy. Yawn. Come for the spectacle…. the end. (3 out of 5)

My Neighbour Totoro

Classic Studio Ghibli. In fact, the title character is kind of the studio mascot. Ostensibly, it’s the story of a couple of little girls who move with their father to a country house while their mother convalesces at a hospital nearby. The plot is pretty simple. When they get to the house, the girls explore on their own and soon discover magical creatures in the fields and forest nearby. The Totoros are adorable, like tubby upright rabbit-cats. The way they appear and bring joy to the kids nicely manifests a child’s imagination and sense of wonder. One day, the younger girl, Mei, disappears and the older sister Satsuki looks everywhere for her with the help of the Totoros. It’s a very normal situation (nothing too sinister happens) but the ordeal becomes something of an adventure and it’s a lovely picture of what childhood is like. The animation is top-notch, and even for a 30 year old movie, it looks wonderfully fresh and endearing. (4 out of 5)

Annihilation

Hailed as this year’s “smart sci-fi” movie, I wasn’t really sure what to expect from Annihilation. I knew that Natalie Portman led a team of women on some kind of sci-fi mission. It turns out she’s a doctor/biologist specializing in cancer who signs up to join a team venturing into a mysterious zone where natural order has gone amok. The movie is a bit of a slow-burn: though there are a few suspenseful and frightening scenes, it’s mostly a lot of conversation as the team of ladies make their way closer to the centre of the phenomenon. Many of the visuals are quite amazing, especially the creatures who have been transformed and mutated into bizarre versions of animals we are familiar with. Similar to Arrival, a lot of this movie is character-based and the characters have to deal with a lot of their own personal baggage against an extreme and otherworldly backdrop. Unfortunately, I was pretty confused by the ending of the movie. I was hoping that more would be made clear, but there are some disturbing scenes that bring up even more questions about what the story is actually about and what has really been happening. Nevertheless, even though not all the questions are tied up, I found this movie to be a good effort and intriguing in concept and execution. (4 out of 5)

Nausicaa and the Valley of the Wind

Another classic from Studio Ghibli, Nausicaa is much more sci-fi than Totoro. Made four years earlier, it tackles a much more complex story and deals with a bunch of themes, including environmentalism, messianic prophecy, and the politics of war. Set 1000 years from now, the world has been destroyed by pollution and now humanity lives in small city-states. All around them plant life has become toxic, and giant insects pose an ever-present threat (including gigantic beetle-worms). Title character Nausicaa is an intelligent, courageous princess of one village-nation, who explores the world on her super-cool glider vehicle. As she starts to discover some miraculous truths about the dangerous creatures and environment, a war between two nations breaks out and her village (including her father, the ruler) gets caught in between. It’s unfortunate that, for the time that Studio Ghibli movies were being distributed by Disney, they did not promote Nausicaa to the rank of Disney princess because she possesses the longing for adventure, sense of justice, and the spunk and determination that puts her up there with the others. Having been made in the early 80s, this movie does show a few signs of its age. The animation (though miles ahead of anything contemporary, including Disney movies of the day) looks a little less detailed than the later works, and the score music has enough synthesizers to really take me back. While the story gets pretty expansive (especially compared to Totoro) I felt that it ended a bit abruptly and kind of unsatisfactorily. Neverthless, this is a great foray into seriously legit sci-fi that would make kids think as well as enjoy. (4 out of 5)