Tag: John David Washington

The Creator

2023   20th Century Studios

Rated:  PG-13

Length:  2 hr  13min

Action ~ Adventure ~ Drama ~ Epic ~ Sci-Fi

Directed by:  Gareth Edwards

Starring:  John David Washington, Madeline Yuna Voyles, Gemma Chan, Ken Watanabe, Sturgill Simpson, and Allison Janney.

NIRMATA:

¹ (Nepalese for The Creator) The mysterious unknown architect of                                              advanced A.I.

² A Being worshipped by Artificial Intelligence as their creator; savior; God

SYNOPSIS:

The evolution and integration of Robots and A.I. has permeated and changed every aspect of life in the near future. In 2055 as Robot driven A.I. has surpassed man, A.I. accidently detonates an Atomic Bomb in Los Angeles. This starts a war between A.I. and Humanity. The West vows to drive A.I. into extinction, while A. I. vows to drive humanity into extinction. The West drives A.I. into the New Asia region consisting of east and south Asia. The USS NOMAD Space Station has been developed to hunt and destroy A.I. bases. Word has spread that A.I. has developed a weapon that could destroy the once thought indestructible NOMAD.

A covert military operation is planned to enter New Asia, find and destroy the new A.I. weapon. John David Washington stars as US Army Sergeant Joshua Taylor who has gone undercover in New Asia as part of the mission. As he tracks and finds “The Weapon” he discovers it is a child-size “Simulant” with growing powers to control technology with supernatural ability. He names the child “Alfie”, short for Alpha after the name of the operation. Alfie is played by newcomer 7 year old Madeline Yuna Voyles. And the race is on to protect Alfie from getting back into the hands of the A.I. and protecting her from his own forces who seek to destroy a child.

Visual Effects, CGI, and Filming:

Absolutely stunning scenery for a sci-fi movie. The effects and visuals were literally out of this world. A dash of Star Wars, a pinch of Blade Runner, a bit of I-Robot, a little Terminator, and an essence of Edge Of Tomorrow. I thought the Visual effects, CGI and the filming were all incredible.

John  David Washington:

Absolutely a great performance. I remember him in BlacKkKlansman and just saw him in The Piano Lesson. Denzel has got to be proud, I think he is absolutely carrying on in his Father’s footsteps and completely doing a great job at it. Watching this I could hear Denzel in his voice and demeanor, even though he has his own style and character. This is a guy to watch as one of the next big Hollywood Stars. Great job in this one.

Madeline Yuna Voyles:

Madeleine is the star of this movie without question. The young Actress from San Diego, California was 7 years old when she acted in this movie. Her first role and in my opinion she absolutely nailed it. Obviously a completely natural talent with an incredible depth of emotion at her disposal. She has already garnered nominations for Best Young Actress and Best Actress in a Science Fiction Movie. I loved every minute of her screen time performance. Keep your eyes out for this one….again, one to watch as one of the next big Hollywood Stars.

Script/Writing/Storyline/Directing:

Somebody somewhere mentioned swiss cheese…. I think the line was this script has more holes than a slice of swiss cheese. I couldn’t agree more. It was as if each scene was absolutely perfect on it’s own merit, but from different scenarios. Like a patchwork of independent stories. Sure the central theme was there but there was so much that just felt stitched together from different fabric entirely. I felt like everybody did the best they could do given the limitation of the direction they were led in by the director.

Final Thoughts:

I am a huge Sci-Fi fan. Blade Runner is one of my all time favorite movies. The premise of the movie is so time relevant given the current advancement of A.I. and Robotics. I just saw where robots are becoming lifelike very quickly and Elon Musk just said that A.I. has already surpassed all human knowledge….and that was last year. It won’t be long before A.I. draws it’s own conclusion about the human species being absolutely useless for the future of this planet.

John David Washington and Madeline Yuna Voyles gave absolutely outstanding performances. This was a joy to watch and visually stunning to see BUT…….. it should have been much more. This should have been a Blockbuster of a movie, a touchdown. The ball got dropped somewhere and my suspicion is in the script/Directing Department. That being said I liked it, I loved John and Madeline’s performance and chemistry, but something was off that kept this from being the tremendous award winning Sci-Fi Epic Blockbuster it should be.

Regardless of what I think, you owe it to yourself to give it a watch and experience The World of The Creator.

The Piano Lesson

2024   Netflix

Rated:  PG-13

Length:  2 hr  7min

Drama

Directed by:  Malcolm Washington

Starring:  Samuel L. Jackson, John David Washington, Ray Fisher, Michael Potts, Erykah Badu, Skylar Aleece Smith, Danielle Deadwyler, and Corey Hawkins.

“Ain’t nothin’ like a family heirloom to remind you where you come from and what you stand for.”

In 1936, just after the great depression, Boy Willie Charles (John David Washington) and Lymon Jackson (Ray Fisher) drive to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania from Marlin County Mississippi. They make the trip in Lymon’s truck full of watermelons they plan to sell in the city. They arrive at The Hill District where Boy Willie’s sister Berniece (Danielle Deadwyler) lives with his Uncle Doaker (Samuel L. Jackson) and her young Daughter Maretha. Boy Willie explains to his uncle how he is going to sell the load of watermelons and then sell the piano sitting in the living room. Uncle Doaker quickly responds by informing him, “Berniece ain’t gonna sell that Piano.”

The Piano is a family heirloom that used to belong to their Slave-owner Sutter. Sutter had traded a mother/wife and child slave for the piano for his wife. He kept the husband, who was Berniece and Boy Willie’s Great Grandfather Willie Boy, because he was an excellent “Worker of Wood” and could make anything out of wood. Sutter made a lot of money off of everything Willie Boy made, so he was too valuable to trade off, and broke up Willie Boy’s family to get the piano for his wife. Over time Sutter’s wife comes to miss the slave woman and her daughter, Willie Boy’s wife and daughter, more than she likes the piano. Sutter attempts to trade backwards to get them back to no avail.

So instead he has Willie Boy carve their likeness into the piano to appease his wife. Willie Boy does that, but missing his wife and daughter, goes above and beyond and carves his entire family history into the piano. Years later Berniece and Boy Willie’s father Boy Charles stole the piano on July 4,1911 during the fireworks. And that’s how it ended up in Pittsburgh in Uncle Doaker’s living room. And now Boy Willie wants to lay claim to his half of the piano, so he can use the money to buy land that used to belong to the now deceased Sutter. Boy Willie wants to be a sharecropper that owns his own land, be his own man.

What follows is the struggle between Berniece and Boy Willie over selling the piano. Berniece refusing to let it go because of the history and blood that’s in that piano. Boy Willie seeing it as an opportunity to became the wealthy landowner instead of the slave that worked the land. There is a lot to this movie. It is a great story centered on a family heirloom piano, but it is much deeper than that. It is also the story of slavery and the struggles of keeping a family together as slaves under the ownership of a Plantation Owner. It is the story of Pittsburgh and The Hill District where many of the slaves that escaped from Mississippi came to and made their home.

Pittsburgh and the Hill District had a burgeoning Jazz scene from the 1920’s through the 1960’s. It was also referred to as “Little Harlem” back in it’s heyday. There were a lot of influential and famous Jazz Musicians to come out of Pittsburgh’s Jazz scene. Earl Hines, Art Blakely, Mary Lou Williams, James Blood Ulmer, Lena Horne and George Benson to name a few. There is a scene in the movie where Boy Willie and Lymon go out on the town to explore Pittsburgh’s Nightlife and enter a Jazz club. The jazz scene of that time is accurately depicted with Erykah Badu portraying a jazz singer and her band doing their thing.

The Piano Lesson is based on a play written by August Wilson, the fourth play in his 10 play collection The Pittsburgh Cycle. A work based on the history and influence of the many slaves that came there from the south and made it their home. It is directed by Malcolm Washington, the son of Denzel Washington, and makes his Directorial debut in this movie. Good job I say. It also stars Denzel Washington’s other son, John David Washington, who is a former St. Louis Rams Football Player turned Actor. He also starred in The Black Klansman, I thought he looked familiar and I really like him in that movie.

Samuel L. Jackson is great as always, I am a big fan and love all his work. His role in this movie is no exception, another great job. Danielle Deadwyler, Ray Fisher, Michael Potts and Skyler Aleece Smith were all excellent in this. It is a little slow at first but picks up steam as the argument over selling the piano heats up, and the ghosts of the past enter the story. Finally, a really good movie I enjoyed and can say absolutely worth a watch.

Highly Recommended!

Two Thumbs Up!