Phase 1: Heathrow to Changi, Singapore. 20:45.
Getting on the plane I immediately checked out the inflight entertainment. Long haul was a new process to me so I was eager to test the quality and range of the movies available. The monitor had an 'awards winners' section which had films that to my knowledge were not award winners such as Batman Begins. Their 'classics section' had The Maltese Falcon and Gigi as the only pre 1960 movies and their wasn't a Western to be found anywhere. My seat was in the middle so I had two neighbours for the 13 hour flight. To my right was an elderly lady travelling to Melbourne. She surprised me when she started watching Hereditary. To my left was a young lady who spent an unbelievable amount of time choosing a filter and caption for an Instagram post. Once uploaded, she then flicked through all the films available and watched the one minute trailers of each one but could not choose or was unimpressed (I think she was unimpressed) so she snoozed. In the row in front I could see through the seat gaps and watched a dad enjoying Deadpool 2 and the mum and child enjoying The Greatest Showman. I selected The Dirty Dozen and relaxed to Lee Marvin bellowing orders. By 11pm I was barely staying awake but the finale, one of my favourite sequences in cinema, was beginning. I was oddly relieved when the film ended. I had grown impatient and wanted sleep. Next to me, the elderly lady had swapped to the more mellow Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone. I crashed out.
I awoke at 7:45am London time and breakfast was being handed out. I turned my monitor on and selected Incredibles 2 for some early morning ease. There were many films I hadn't seen that were available, but I liked the security of watching something again. I still love Incredibles 2; it lacks the timelessness and nostalgia of the original, as well as a strong villain and fresher story, but Brad Bird has such an eye for animation and action that the film still looks visually breathtaking on a small screen. Every action sequence is imaginative and kinetic fun. I did dislike that whilst Incredibles 2 was genre listed as 'adventure', the Toy Story trilogy and other Pixar hits were genre listed as 'animation'. Which gets my blood boiling. Animation is the medium not the story type! The film ended as we began our descent to Changi.
Phase 2: Changi to Melbourne, Australia. 19:50.
I felt pretty sick as we boarded the plane for Melbourne. Whilst we landed at 10:30am or so, the 8 hour time zone meant that despite having had breakfast two hours ago, it was now 6:30. I had zipped through 8 hours of my life like that. I was psychologically thrown. My companions for the flight this time round was a man from Singapore who lived in Melbourne and was returning home and on my left was a Singaporean boy maybe a year or two older than I. The elderly chap was very friendly. He was keen to know which football team I support and was therefore disappointed with my football-neutral stance. He was a Liverpool man through and through. He asked if I had seen the Singapore-set hit Crazy Rich Asians, which he was ecstatic about. Again, he was disappointed I hadn't. I got him onto watching M:I Fallout and was having a riot with it, pointing at whatever Tom Cruise was doing and showing his dismayed wife. Then roast beef was served for dinner, despite having had fruit and yoghurt a few hours earlier for brekkie. Meanwhile had 7 hours of flying so I figured that's one movie, sleep and another movie. At first my screen was non respondent but the hostess reset it and I was on my way, much to the upset of the old man who wanted me to be moved to First Class as compensation. I discovered Sicario 2 Day of the Soldado was there and this was a sequel I genuinely wanted was genuinely looking forward to seeing it. The first Sicario I have seen once but overtime my opinion of it has greatly elevated, having been more aware of the cinematography, direction and tension that didn't grip me the first time. I knew this one would not be as good: there was no Dennis Villieneuve directing, no Roger Deakins as DP, no Johan Johansson on the score and no Emily Blunt. But I took away a lot from this film: Josh Brolin and Benicio Del Toro chew up their scenes and spit them out with control and self assuredness; the thrumming score is still epic and the action beats are tense, unflinching and bold. Some narrative decisions in the third act weakened the overall film but I was thankful it didn't riff too much on Logan (what with the Mexico setting and a killer taking a young girl under his wing). But for some reason my eyes were sagging again. 24 hours ago I was flying over the English Channel but on this day I had only been awake for 6 hours or so because of the time jump. I fell asleep whilst next to me Tom Cruise was tearing up the skies in a helicopter.
I woke up at 4am. The plane was still dark and people were sleeping. It was silence. Gold film time. Because of Incredibles 2, superheroes and action were on my mind and I wanted to re-evaluate Captain America: The Winter Soldier. This is because only two Marvel movies have impressed me on second viewings: Thor Ragnarok and Avengers Infinity War. 16 year old me loved Captain America Civil War, four months later I didn't like it so much. But The Winter Soldier has endured in the Marvel fanbase and it was ripe to rewatch it now on the plane. 90 minutes passed and more people were awakening and turning their screens on. I was enjoying the practical approach to the action in this film. Unlike almost every other MCU movie, I wasn't watching computer animated suits or creatures brawling. No, the directors (Russo Brothers) went old school. These were people fighting. The boat raid, elevator scrap, Nick Fury's car chase and the highway chase and fistfight were all top stuff. It felt real and audacious and Nolan-ised. I liked the film's atmosphere and having watched Three Days of the Condor recently, spotted the allegories and homages easily. Where I was let down by was the narrative: the fake outs and twists did not always land (and I remembered they didn't in the cinema) and the bit where Fury uses a mini lightsaber to cut through a road and then to NOT be pursued stretched the movie's logic. And the jump from close quarters combat to full scale aerial assaults and CGI is jarring and formulaic. But this is my third highest rated MCU film. The plane was now beginning to land in Melbourne.
Phase 3: Melbourne to Christchurch, New Zealand. 11:50.
I passed five hours in Melbourne Airport, largely watching episodes of Outnumbered. The final leg was around three hours long, or, in my terms, a good movie. This wasn't a long haul flight so the plane was smaller and the movie choice was reduced to just 'premieres'. I had an aisle seat and next to me was a young couple who had been travelling in Barley and Aus. They were very likeable but tired, so they put their sleeping masks on, earphones in and crashed out. I was blessed that the latest premiere film was Drew Goddard's Bad Times at the El Royale, a film that bombed and didn't stick around long enough for me to catch it in cinemas. In front of me, a young lady had started watching it and was five minutes ahead. This would turn out to be very annoying as my curious brain kept looking between the seats to see which characters would still be alive in five minutes time. The first hour of Bad Times was sensational. The opening scene was masterful in its editing and its stationary camera. Intrigue was dialled up to 10 and the cast were terrific and diverse as characters. The second act was also solid as some mysteries are revealed but, as much as I loved Chris Hemsworth's performance in the third act, I was losing patience. It didn't seem to have a narrative objective and a character 'reveal' or backstory jolted me in a way an ex machina would. Whilst bearing resemblance to The Hateful Eight, Bad Times was original and lovingly mad (especially the production and set design). The film ended and New Zealand was now visible. The couple next to me were excited as we saw the snow capped peaks of Middle-earth. As the plane flew lower and lower, I whacked on Hans Zimmer's No Time for Caution on my earphones and made the landing that much more perfect. It took 6 years of saving and work, but I'm here.
