Movie mini reviews

[buzzmong]

Logan

It's good. It's a much more serious film than most Marvel affairs and

Spoiler:

is quite a good send off for Hugh Jackman's Wolverine and Sir Patrick Stewart's Xavier.

Don't watch the trailers if you haven't already seen them though, they give away quite a bit.

Oh, and unusually there's no post credits scene.

[TezzRexx]

Spoilers? :/

[buzzmong]

?

[Dog Pants]

?

[Roman Totale]

Logan was good, liked it a lot (spoilers?)

Latest Jack Reacher film was a let down - plodding and dull.

[Dog Pants]

Chappie

It's taken me a while to get round to seeing this, but it just appeared on Netflix and I remember liking the look of the trailers. I wasn't disappointed. It isn't quite what I expected - I thought it was going to be like Short Circuit, AI, etc. Robot comes to life, is misunderstood, makes some daring rescue and is accepted. Instead I got sentient robot is created, taught to be gangsta by Die Antwoord, swears a bit and develops a South African accent. Fucking awesome.

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pG8mCC1ZQ1g[/youtube]

[Mr. Johnson]

I wanted to like it but thought it was a pretty bad film after seeing it, in no small part due to Die antwoord. They should definitely stick to making music. The FX were really good though, especially chappie.

[buzzmong]

Power Rangers (2017)

It's not great, but it's not actually massively terrible. It doesn't fall into the "so bad it's good" territory because it's got some redeeming qualities.
It is basically a big screen version of the early 90's series, cheesiness and all, just tarted up and given the Hollywood SFX treatment. It doesn't take itself too seriously but does actually have a narrative for actions and consequences and teamwork trumping evil.

I probably wouldn't watch it again, but I did actually enjoy it.

Edit:
On further reflection:
First 2/3 is Holywood going gritier and doing new backstories.
Last 1/3 is full on 90's Power Rangers cheese fest and rather lolsy.

If they'd have stuck with either theme it would have probably made for a better film.

[buzzmong]

Ghost In The Shell (2017)

It's actually decent. Worth a watch and as visually it is spot on and does exactly what it needed to do, it is best seeing in IMAX form.

As a film it falls somewhere between a remake and a reimagining of the original.
Takes the characters, themes and (at a very abstract level) some but not all the key plot points and key scenes, and then weaves its own story between them.

I personally feel it's not as good as the original story wise, and that it could be longer to facilitate more time spent on the antagonists and the goings on due to their actions rather than the focus on The Major and her story, but still enjoyed it and would recommend.

I also for some reason really liked they have a mixed language thing with some characters speak English, others Japanese, it just blended quite well.

14.34 Peggles

[Dog Pants]

Hooray! I want to enjoy it because I quite liked the theme and any time spent with Scarlett Johansson in sight is good time.

[Roman Totale]

Guardians of the Galaxy vol 2

Amazing. These are still the best films in the Marvel Cinematic Universe by far. It has everything - comedy, pathos, drama. It doesn't have quite the same impact as the first film, but as other reviewers have noted that's possibly because that one, in a way, came out of left field. Lots of nice cameos in this one, both in terms of people and comic references. Lots of after credits scenes too (5 I think?).

[buzzmong]

Lots of after credits scenes too (5 I think?).

5 in total, but they're mixed with the credits which is a nice change.

I concur, it be good!

[Dog Pants]

I've been on a cowboy bender recently, and I don't mean Brokeback Mountain (although I have seen that).

Cowboys & Aliens
I was put off this for ages by its utterly shit name. It's actually perfectly fine. The plot is a bit cheese and jam - it shouldn't work, and to be honest it doesn't really, but it's surprisingly not awful. Harrison Ford's relationship with his spoilt asshole son is a nice touch though.

Magnificent 7
I watched the original about a year ago and thought it was decent enough without the benefit of nostalgia I imagine many have. So I went into the 2016 remake with only a vague notion that people didn't like it, and that it was probably because the original is sacrosanct to them. Which wasn't a bad guess really. They took the rough plot and shook it up a bit, then gave it a bit of Hollywood treatment. Which made it a bit anachronistic and had some unrealistic moments, like Chris Pratt thinking he was in a John Woo movie, the good guys taking ten times as many bullets to go down as the bad guys, and a gatling gun that lays down more effective covering fire than a whole section of modern support weapons. But despite all that the characters were all notably different and interesting, and the variation on the original plot was a decent enough transaction.

I also watched a non-cowboy movie.

Kingsman
I thought this was shit. I won't sugar coat it. I assume it was supposed to be a parody or tribute to Bond movies, but it just came off like a pound-shop Chinese knock-off. Despite that I still enjoyed it in parts, mostly the fight scenes. The church scene was particularly weird, since I regularly drive past the location it was filmed in - the church-facing shots were a view I know well, the reverse angles were some town in Tennessee. Surprised they were allowed to film there really. Some very un-Christian things get done in there.

EDIT: Oh yeah, I also watched Star Trek: Into Darkness
I still don't get Star Trek.

[Dog Pants]

Carrying on the cowboy theme:

Bone Tomahawk
Cowboys and cannibals. It has few redeeming features, a plot as shallow as a goldpan, and chronic inverse ninja. I finished it, but it was mostly out of morbid curiosity.

Moving on.

Total Recall (2012)
I seem to remember it got fairly panned, and that seems predictably unfair. On the other hand the premise isn't as interesting the second time around, the lift-through-the-Earth's-core idea is fucking stupid, and I can't actually remember watching most of it because I kept getting bored and wandering off. I can't say it's a bad film, just unremarkable. I might have felt worse about it if it hadn't followed Bone Tomahawk.

[buzzmong]

Been on a cinema spree again.

Alien: Covenant

I'm on the fence with this. Prometheus was interesting, if having a few stupid plot devices which impacted the film negatively, whereas this has a few good points but generally seems like not a lot of thought went into the plot. Quite a few things done by the characters leaves you going "why would you do that? These are supposed to be intelligent trained people".

Covenant does some more stupid things and everything happens very quickly. This was a bug bear of mine in the AvP films, but people getting facehugged and then aliens in abouth 30 mins/1 hour in film time flies in the face of the original films, Kane in Alien being out for over 48 hours being the notable example.

Daniels is Riply Mk 2. Simple as, but it was a good performance by Katherine Waterston. Michael Fassbender was really, really good too.

It does answer a couple of questions left by Prometheus, but throws up so many more and muddies the waters even more.

Spoiler:

The plot twist with David not being Walter near the end was incredibly obvious, but also somewhat daft as I'm not entirely sure how he changed clothes and cut his hand off in the 30 seconds from when the two surviving humans ran outside and left him and Walter fighting.

Also, the lack of facemasks. Prometheus showed the team going planet side and donning enviroment suits. Why the hell would this team decide going for a jaunt in normal hiking gear on an alien world is perfectly acceptable?

It's definitely worth a watch though, but I'd probably lower your expectations.

As an aside, there's stuff in the trailers that was not in the movie, I think a special edition/Directors Cut might be on the cards and it may make a difference.



King Arthur: Legend of the Sword

It's not that good. It's not terrible, just not very good. CGI is good though, it does look pretty.
Jude Law puts in a performance playing a King's Generic Evil Brother #3, with a dash of sorcery. As such, it's pretty generic and he's sadly wasted. There's an attempt to inject a bit of depth into the character, but it's wasted as his motivations were never explained.

It also has a kung-fu school in the middle of Londinium along with a CGI replica of the Colosseum of Rome, which should tell you enough.

It's a beer film.



Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales / Salazar's Revenge

It has an idiotic plot which completely flies in the face of Will Turner's (Orlando Bloom) character and what he did in previous films, specifically with why he's on the Dutchman. Not a spoiler as that's just a keystone of why things in the film happen. Jack's compass and information about it also contradicts previous films.
It's generally just stupid, but more stupid with things it can't hand wave away with "curses" or "magic", the lengthy scene when Jack first appears is the biggest culprit here.

Basically, it's a pretty forgettable mess and best avoided.

[buzzmong]

Baby Driver

It's very slick, a rather good film and one I very much enjoyed. Please go watch.

Easily a solid 8/10

[buzzmong]

Dunkirk

It's excellent, both on a technical level, and as a vehicle for the its subject matter and the stories around it.

Chris Nolan deserves and hopefully will earn an Oscar for this.

Watch in IMAX only.

[Roman Totale]

Star Wars: The Last Jedi

I'm going to stick spoilers on everything, including my opinion of it.

Spoiler:

I was hugely underwhelmed. Throughout the film I was sat there thinking "really, is this it?". A lot of stuff just didn't work for me. Main issues below in no particular order:

* Out of place humour. The opening scene contains a really poorly timed comedy "skit" that feels really awkward. I remember cringing at it thinking they're now trying to do the "Marvel thing" with light breezy quips undermining any moments of tension. I know I've complained before about other films (notably the DC lot) having no levity, but we now seem to have entered a time where it's impossible not crowbar a joke into every fifth scene.

* Massively contrived and ridiculous plot point i.e. the "chase" with the rebels fleeing the First Order. I mean, what the fuck was that all about? It's so incredibly weak I can't believe they couldn't think of anything better to do. I was going to make a separate point on the pacing of the film, but I think that all comes down to this part in particular. I think it's supposed to be tense, but it just comes across as pointless. And why wouldn't Holdo reveal the plan about using the transport ships to get to the planet? To what end was that kept secret? All it meant was that created a more or less pointless sub plot about going to find a master code breaker and going to a casino planet and hacking into FO flag ship and zzzzz. Just a mess.

* Leia 'flying' back to the ship after being shot out into space. I actually rolled my eyes hard at that point. At that stage it really wouldn't have surprised me if prequel Anakin had showed up as a ghost or something.

* Snoke. I actually thought Snoke was really good and interesting (even if he did remind me of Tywin Lannister from Game of Thrones every time he was on screen), which is why it's strange he just seemed to be completely wasted as a character.

* Lack of Finn and Rey interaction. For me the chemistry between the two was a highlight of episode VII, but as they're rarely together in this one it's a notable absence. Instead Rey spends most of her time with...

*Kylo Ren. I had high hopes for him at the beginning as it seemed like we were getting a properly conflicted and interesting character. Now some people might say "oh but he was conflicted, look at how he killed Snoke!". Nah, not buying it. His character barely changed.

* General Hux. Pantomime villain. He was just a joke every time he was on screen.


Any good stuff? Yep, some:

* Luke. I liked him, could've done with seeing more of him to be honest

* Snoke. As mentioned above, shame he was wasted

* Rey and Kylo taking on the praetorian guard

* The lightspeed ramming of Snoke's ship


Having read/watched other reviews of the film, I am apparently in a massive minority with this view.

[buzzmong]

Opinions below

Spoiler:

No, you're not in a minority. Saw it last night with a group and about half of us came out with mixed feelings on it.

• Re: Hux: I quite like him, narf the only pantomime bit I thought was OTT was with Poe on the radio when he was on the bridge. He loathes Kylo Ren, so I'm hoping something is done about that in 9.
• Re: Leia scene: It was bullshit. I'd have *maybe* given it a pass if it was a Jedi/Sith Master doing it, but as it was, it was crap. Would have been an excellent point to either kill her off, OR as he was flying around at that moment for Kylo Ren to have captured her. Also killing Admiral Ackbar like that was unforgivable.
• Re: Chase: I concur the chase as a plot was a bit rubbish. I understood the character development aspect with Poe wanting to do action right there but Leia and Laura Dern's character having a more strategic plan and it being a lesson for Poe, but still wasn't really enough to sustain the film.
• Killing Luke off felt like a cheap "shit, last film killed off Han, wonder if we can get away with killing another big one off?" type move especially as it didn't have the same gravitas or really actually do much for the plot. Also *very* surprised that bit wasn't cut during this year's post production considering Carrie Fisher's unfortunate death. It also shat on the plot a bit, as Yoda specifically told Luke to stop being an angsty teen, learn his lesson and to train Rey and not let her fall to the dark like Kylo Ren did. Very much suspect he'll have a large role as a horse Ghost in E.9 though.
• I felt the film tried to ape Empire too much. horse Awakens was a homage to all three films, but this stuck a bit too close to Empire. IE, Rebel base on a white world + ATAT and landspeeders + an evacuation and escape. Jedi Master being reluctant to train a new student but relenting. Said student going off early before training is complete. "Unrequited" "I Love You" scene.

That said, I did enjoy it, but I feel it's not deserving off some of the accolades, especially after the sublime Rogue One last year.

Edit: @ werdfilter

[Dog Pants]

Pretty much agreed with Roman and Buzz, although the bad points mentioned were easier to overlook for me.

Spoiler:

For the first half of the film I was most annoyed by the constant character switching. The Rebel officer who starts to brief them after Leia does her daft Superman routine, who then immediately hands over to Admiral Holdo, was the most obvious. The rest kind of panned out with Rose's story, but for a while it was a bit of a chore. It felt like they were trying to show off all the incidental detail they were putting in, which would work far better by staying in the background.

I liked the Kylo Ren switching thing, although it did make me wonder mid-film why anyone would trust any Jedi, light or dark. I also liked how there was no bloody Death Star. Finally they've worked out that those things are shite. I liked how the big Dreadnoughts scream as they come out of hyperspace. I like how there were subtle little signals, like Luke not leaving footprints, and the kid at the end making the broom come to his hand. Most of the silly jokes were misplaced, but I liked it when Yoda twatted Luke on the head with his stick.

I got vibes of both Empire and RotJ from it, and I think they were trying to wrap up the homages in that film so they can move into new territory with the next one. Sure, the battle scene looked like Hoth (complete with a single old-school AT-AT, oddly), but I don't think it breaks the fourth wall to have two ground battles in 30 years.

So overall, I liked it. I've said numerous times that all the Star Wars films are flawed, but this felt less so than horse Awakens.