Movie mini reviews

[TezzRexx]

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.

All of this ^

[buzzmong]

Ocean's Eight

The cast are all great and do a good job. Nice little twist near the end.
I felt it was lacking something during the 'setup' part of the film compared to Ocean's Eleven.

On the whole, it's okay to good and I enjoyed watching it, but it really doesn't do anything new.

Skyscraper

The Rock attemps Die Hard.
This isn't a good film. A lot of stupidity in it, there's does also happen to be a great "turn it on and off again" moment though.
It's quite well made and filmed though.

However, it does just cross over the boundry into so bad it's good, so actually really enjoyed watching it as we spent the entire time laughing at it.