This is gonna be another one of those films in which I can recognize it as a solid movie for the right audience, but I'm not altogether sure that I am that audience. I've never been a fan of the "political thriller" genre, and it's often because I have a hard time wrapping my head around politics and all of the complications that lie within. The other side of it is that I tend to find them incredibly dry, and just take them as not being "for me". However, I can say with all honesty that 'Civil War' is an interesting spin on the subject matter. One can view the film's overall execution in a few different ways, reading into some sort of deeper political meanings. It can be seen as a cautionary tale about what to expect in our future if America ends up on the wrong path. But a lot of people also seem to see it as a heavy-handed exercise in shock value, considering a lot of the brutal imagery depicted within the film. But if I'm honest, my takeaway had very little to do with anything political at all, and the true thrill of the movie is in following our leads; all battlefield reporters who end up on the front lines of a slew of danger in order to deliver hard-hitting true stories to the nation. The idea here is that America is in the midst of its second Civil War between a US government run on a dictatorship, and various regional factions who are fighting back. It all opens with the President (Nick Offerman), now in a third term, who paints an instant portrait of what America has turned into. Enter our lead, a famous war photographer named Lee Smith (Kirsten Dunst) who we see doing her job to a disturbing degree, but we can still sympathize with her when she rescues an aspiring photojournalist named Jessie Cullen (Cailee Spaeny) from certain death. Lee, along with her friend and associate, Joel (Wagner Moura) plan to go to Washington to try to get one last interview with the president in before the city is taken. They are joined by Lee's mentor, Sammy (Stephen McKinley Henderson) and, unbeknownst to Lee, Jessie, who wants to follow in Lee's footsteps and become a pro. The thing is, in order to do that, Jessie will have to make herself come face to face with all sorts of torment, death, destruction and people who would just as soon shoot you as look at you. And it's all for the best photos. Throughout their journey to Washington, the foursome find themselves caught in the middle of a lot of the aforementioned danger, but as Lee looks after Jessie and tries to keep her out of danger, she simultaneously hints that the danger is where the action is in photojournalism, and Jessie gets better and better at the whole thing as the film unfolds. My takeaway from the film is more about the imminent danger that photographers put themselves through for a paycheck, and it helps us get a bit of insight into their brutal personalities. We've all seen a video or know of a story in which a reporter asks the victim of a disaster how they feel, and we've all had that same reaction of wanting to knock the reporter out for being so insensitive. This is not a movie that will change anyone's mind on that perspective, but it will give deeper insight into what it takes to be one of these people. You learn that in order to do this it takes a cold heart, but also quite a bit of bravery, and a lot of it is to spread the word to the masses about how terrible things have gotten in a situation. The film also shows us that these photojournalists do help where they can. But it still doesn't do a hell of a lot to make me like them. I had a hard time knowing how to feel at the end of it all, because without spoiling anything, there's a bit of a surprise ending. It doesn't really paint these people as heroes or villains, which is something I usually like, but the depth of these characters didn't offer much, despite a few solid performances that I can't really deny. In the end, I take it to be a bit of a thinker, and something to talk about, but I also don't know what else to say about it. I really think everyone's takeaway will be different. 3/5
0 Comments
Hollywood has given us more than a fair share of crossover movies that include a "vs" in their title, including this particular franchise. But I have to give it up to the MonsterVerse here for not only having the big, epic wrestling match between two celebrity monsters, but also bringing them together as a tag team. I've said it before and I'll say it again; these movies just work better if you watch the monsters' story lines unfold as though it was something Vince McMahon dreamed up. As far as this series has gone, it has been a fun ride so far. But considering how this movie unfolds, and the films that preceded it, this franchise kinda blew its wad already. Godzilla has already fought a good chunk of his big monster enemies, including the main event that was 'Godzilla vs Kong'. So for as cool as it is to see these guys team up, the truth of the matter is, the "villain" they go up against left a lot to be desired, and it sort of feels like things have taken a monstrous step backwards. But don't worry, this title doesn't come bereft of any solid monster-on-monster action. Picking things up three years after the last film took place (bringing us up to circa 2027 here), the concept of Hollow Earth has been revealed as fact, and Kong has been spending his time down there in search of more of his kind; Hollow Earth being the old home to many "Titans" or "MUTOs" (Massive Unidentified Terrestrial Organisms). Meanwhile, Godzilla stays on Earth's surface, fending off other big baddies like a giant crab named Scylla, and maintaining order between monsters and humans. These fights probably kill thousands in the process, but more on that later. A Monarch outpost within Hollow Earth picks up on a mysterious signal, which seems to be affecting Jia (Kaylee Hottle) on the surface with creepy dreams and hallucinations. Just to recap, Jia is the sole survivor of Skull Island's Iwi tribe after a natural disaster wiped them out. She lives with her adopted mother, Monarch researcher, Dr. Ilene Andrews (Rebecca Hall) and is able to communicate with Kong, using sign language. Jia's visions begin to worry Ilene, so she begins to assemble a crew including Titan veterinarian, Trapper (Dan Stevens) and podcaster for the conspiracy-minded, Bernie Hayes (Brian Tyree Henry) to head to Hollow Earth to figure out what this signals all about. Godzilla soon begins to act almost irratic because of this signal, attempting to absorb all the radiation he can for whatever threat may be coming. Meanwhile, within Hollow Earth, Kong discovers a secret that suggest that he may have found the rest of his kind, with the help of a young ape who was probably put in the movie just for cutesiness, Suko. And yeah, Suko's cute and all, but he's also a bit of an asshole. Kong has to keep him in line quite a bit, and it's often pretty funny to see how it plays out. One paritcular fight scene had me laughing out loud, and it's something you'll know when you see it. What the signal ends up coming from, however, is fairly anticlimactic, and it leads us to the big baddie of the film, Skar King, another giant ape who uses a reptile-like Titan named Shimo as both a weapon and a mode of transportation. I have to admit that this irks me just a little bit, while other much cooler monsters are briefly glimpsed, but quickly tossed aside, like the aforementioned Scylla and another named Tiamat, who is essentially an underwater Chinese dragon and should have made for a much bigger adversary than it was presented as. Going back to what I mentioned about destruction probably killing thousands, I've said it before, but one should probably just treat it as the old game 'Rampage'. Destruction is just a part of it. Something like a superhero movie feels different in that they're "heroes" who come across as careless. Titans, on the other hand, are giant animals who act like giant animals, so to me, it's more forgiving here. This chapter was definitely not the best of the franchise, but I still had fun with it, and I have to appreciate that they kinda go all-out here with some of the silliness. It's no 'Godzilla vs. Kong' with a cool big reveal, but it's fine for what it is. 3/5 Like with many 'Ghostbusters' fans who were looking forward to this movie, I read and watched a few critic reviews for it before going in. It wasn't doing well, and my only reaction to it was as simple as "wait for the fans' reaction". Thankfully, almost across the board, fans came out of this thinking it was pretty great, but also really drilling into critics for having their opinions. And when it comes to such a divide as that, that's when I really enjoy writing my reviews, as I can easily see the argument from both sides. Now, I'm not gonna sit here at my desk ripping something to pieces, but if I'm brutally honest with myself, I left the theatre liking it more than I probably actually did overall, as my fandom was kind of cranked to eleven for this. But don't worry, I'll get into everything I liked about it just as much, and at the end of the day, I'm still a huge fan of all of this, and would love to see more. But I should say that when I want to see more, I want to see this new crew move on with their new missions after this because as far as I'm concerned, the torch has officially been passed. We hit the ground running with the new Ghostbuster crew/family, consisting of the Spenglers, Callie (Carrie Coon) and her kids, Phoebe (Mckenna Grace) and Trevor (Finn Wolfhard) and Callie's now intimate partner, Gary Grooberson (Paul Rudd) as they drive Ecto-1 through the streets of Manhattan, giving chase to a ghost, and showing us how their skills have evolved over the past few years. Presumably, the old firehouse was handed to them by Winston Zeddemore (Ernie Hudson) after the torch was sort of passed to this family at the end of the last film, and they are the new Ghostbusters. In the aftermath of this destructive mission, the Spenglers are brought in front of Mayor Walter Peck (William Atherton), who has been looking for an excuse to shut down the Ghostbusters for ages. As leverage, the now somewhat rebelious 15-year-old Phoebe is taken out of the field, and the story turns largely more about her being upset about things and needing to "grow up", show more responsibility, listen to her mother, etc. She evntually meets and befriends a ghost named Melody (Emily Alyn Lind) and everything between them feels very much inspired by 'Casper the Friendly Ghost' concepts. Meanwhile, our side characters Podcast (Logan Kim) and Lucky (Celeste O'Connor) work for Ray Stantz (Dan Aykroyd) and Winston, respectively, studying haunted and possessed objects and testing new equipment, some of which has the ability to extract a spirit from an object and trap it, indefinitely. One day, a guy named Nadeem Razmaadi (Kumail Nanjiani) brings Ray a mysterious orb that has been in his family for ages, and inside said orb lies the big baddie threat of this movie, a master of ice a snow, a demon-like creature named Garraka who, if freed, will wreak frozen havok on the world. Critically, we have the return of these mini marshmallow men who, despite how cute they are, are basically here to be 'Despicable Me'. They seem to still be attached to Podcast in some way from the last movie, where they're also not explained very well. The best I can do is that they are meant to be leftover spiritual residue from the first fight with Gozer, which is where the 100-foot Marshmallow Man came into play. Besides that, we also already had out big nostalgic hit with 'Afterlife', so I don't see a whole lot of reason to throw so much of it at us at this point. Although the old toy commercials were a pretty great flashback. But for as much as I understand where critics are coming from with this, I have to admit that I still had fun with this for the most part. But it's a bit more about developing Phoebe and pretty much only Phoebe while giving us a bit of the old crew, namely Ray (who almost carries this movie) and Winston while Peter (Billy Murray), Janine (Annie Potts) and even Slimer are really only there for nostalgic purposes. Bottom line, If you're a long-time fan, check it out. If nothing else, it'll be a fun ride. If you're a critic, you're just doing your job, and even as a die hard fan of all this, I can't deny that it could have been much better than it was. 3/5 To this series credit, I can say with all honesty that I find it to be altogether pretty solid. And right off the bat, I'll tell you that this instalment may have been, altogether, my least favourite of the bunch. But it's still a lot of fun, and carries on Po's (Jack Black) story even further, just when we thought '3' might very well be about as far as Po could get, becoming a full-fledged "Dragon Warrior" and Grand Master of Kung Fu, becoming Master Oogway's successor. It's a "happily ever after" ending to things, and I didn't entirely expect much more from it. I won't go into very great detail on Po's development here, and the lessons and takeaways the three previous films give. For more on that, head over to my "Gearing Up" page for reviews on all three. Back to the point, however, it seems as though that "happily ever after" ending followed through, as we pick things up with Po being a hero to the Valley of Peace and bathing a little bit in his celebrty status which he also uses to help his adoptive goose Dad, Mr. Ping (James Hong), and his biological Dad, Li (Bryan Cranston) open a new and improved noodle restaurant. Soon, however, Po's sensei, Master Shifu (Dustin Hoffman) comes in, as usual, to drive the plot forward. Even though we may have thought Po's development couldn't go much further, it seems there's just one more thing he has to do, and that's to name a successor, as Oogway did, seemingly not to long ago with him. This will also mean passing down the mantle of "Dragon Warrior" to whoever it might be, and that's not something Po is entirely ready to do, illustrating quite plainly that for as much as Po has gone, he still has a bit of growing up to do. But this time, he will not have the Furious Five to help out, as they are each off on missions or just living their respective lives in different ways. Auditions are held, and the fighters are impressive, but Po's attention goes to a thief fox he catches in the act named Zhen (Awkwafina), instead. And with word of Tai Lung (Ian McShane) returning (the villain from the original film) demands Po to check it out, he uses the opportunity to bring Zhen along and teach her a thing or two along the way, generally having to do with attitude as opposed to fighting skills, which she shows she has. We soon find out that the actual culprit is a Chameleon named... the Chameleon (Viola Davis) who has the ability to shapeshift and use the abilities of Kung Fu masters she has bested. The Chameleon's motivation in all of this is to get her hands on Po's staff (which he received from Ooogway in the Spirit Realm in the previous film) which will giver her the ability to open the Spirit Realm and steal even more Chi (again, refer to 'Kung Fu Panda 3') from the deceased masters. Now it's up to Po to stop her with the help of his unlikely apprentice. In the meantime, there's a sidequest involving Mr. Ping and Li going after Po because they worry he might not be able to pull his mission off, and to that degree, it's a little more of the same. Ping has always been a it of an annoyand with that, and now Li's doing the same thing. I have a few other little nitpicks here and there, but they are nitpicks. For example, this is another animated movie that does the thing where we see a group of adorable, puppydog-eyed kids who ultimately become little terrors, which is something I tend to find fairly cliche at this point. But at the same time, it is one of those cliches I can put up with for a chuckle. I also missed the Furious Five in this, but of course, I do understand their absense. They weren't necessarily needed, and to be fair, it is quite a cast, just between those five characters. Again, these are minor nitpicks. I think the biggest takeaway from this is that at this point, 'Kung Fu Panda' should probably finally come to an end with this. It may be my least favourite of the bunch, but it's still surprisingly enjoyable if maybe a little, tiny bit stale after a 16-year run. Thankfully, the films have been spread far enough apart, however, which adds to the enjoyablity of it all. Don't flood us with things, make us want things. All in all, this is a super solid series of animated movies that provide themes on growth, acceptence, being an all-around good person, and even finding one's path in life. I can highly recommend it for anyone with some growing to do, and that includes some adults! 3/5 I should probably make things abundantly clear again about how I feel about 'Dune' in general. It's not really my cup of tea when it comes to things as a whole. I can't really explain why, it just never truly struck a chord for me as much as other things like 'Star Wars' did. Still, it has my respect as a great story (at least what I've seen from these two movies, as I've never read these books), one that established itself well before so many like it, and above all else, I still think of it as a breath of fresh air between overexposure to things like superheroes. 'Dune' feels much more as though it's meant to be the next big epic three-parter adapted from classic writings since 'Lord of the Rings'/'The Hobbit', and so far, it's succeeding very well. About 99% of anyone I talk to even remotely about these movies seem to be pretty blown away by what writer/director Denis Villeneuve has accomplished, changes from the book notwithstanding, as per usual with things like this. For yours truly, I've really been enjoying them for what they are, but I don't truly see myself coming back to them until the next chapter is about to release. Before getting into things here, however, it should probably be noted that some pretty heavy spoilers lie ahead for the first movie, so I wouldn't highly recommend reading on unless you've either seen the first film, or simply don't care one way or another. But without further adieu, let's get into it. In the first film, the honourable House Atreides are essentially given planet Arrakis by the Emperor of the Universe, Shaddam VI (Now played by Christopher Walken), taking it away from the House Harkonnen who, in turn, launch an attack to wipe Atreides out, all for control of a substance called "spice" which is the only means for interstellar travel. Following these events, Paul Atreides (Timothée Chalamet) and his Mother, Lady Jessica (Rebecca Ferguson) survive these attacks, and head for the Fremen (the native race of Arrakis) sanctuary of Sietch Tabr. While there, a bit more light is shed on Paul's role in this story, as a Fremen named Stilgar (Javier Bardem) and several others see that Paul and Jessica could be there to fulfill a prophecy that will bring order to Arrakis. Still, however, some Fremen aren't swayed so easily, believing they could be spies, and Chani (Zendaya) and her friend, Shishakli (Souheila Yacoub) believe the prophecy to be an all-out lie. Said prophecy includes a lot of stuff that comes "as written", as Stilgar mentions almost too many times in this, and slowly but surely both Paul and Jessica begin to fulfil the propechy on both of their ends. Chani eventually gives respect to Paul when he promises that he wishes to fight alongside them as opposed to rule over them as the prophecy seems to foretell. Meanwhile, a pregnant Jessica earns the ability to communicate with her unborn child, Alia, through injesting "The Water of Life" as a whole part of her end of prophecy fulfillment. I'm sure I'm missing a lot of important information here, so forgive me. On the Harkonnen end of things, after a series of spice raids on them from the Fremen, Chani and Paul, included, Baron Harkonnen (Stellan Skarsgård) replaces his nephew, Rabban (Dave Bautista) as the new Arrakis ruler with his other nephew, the totally badass but psychotic Feyd-Rautha (Austin Butler) who sort of becomes the big baddie in this chapter, complete with a beautifully shot arena scene in black and white to artistically reflect the "black and white", primitive and brutal Harkonnen way of life, so a definite kudos to them for letting the audience feel the Harkonnen as oppsed to just seeing and hearing them. I know I've still glazed over a few things in explanation, but just to speak of the quality of the movie, it's one that should definitely be seen on the big screen if one is genuinely interested in seeing what happens after 'Dune' ('21). Any sort of effects, CG or practical manage to jump off the screen with their epic quality, and it's pretty plain to see that this is the "next big thing" (as far as box office epics go). While it may not necessarily be in my wheelhouse as something I'll return to again and again, these movies are nevertheless solid and do a good job of reminding us that some things non-superhero can still demand a big-screen viewing. 5/5 Here's an opportunity to talk a bit about how I feel about Sony and their "Spider-Verse". When it came to 'Venom' and 'Let There Be Carnage', they weren't great, but I enjoyed the execution of the titular characters. As for 'Morbius', it was just kinda "there" and ultimately forgettable. Nothing, however actually got completely under my skin until this, and even though none of the aforementioned titles were that good, this one takes the cake. All comic book/superhero universes combined, this is one of the worst modern titles I've seen yet. Even upon hearing it was gonna be Sony's next project in their "Not-Spider-Man" line of 'Spider-Man' related films, I had to wonder who the hell was asking for it. The ONLY excuse I can think of is that they felt like they needed a hero to come in and battle all these villains Sony has been working on getting together. I'm no expert when it comes to the complete universe of 'Spider-Man', but I'm relatively sure that Madame Web is not nor has ever been a "main character" so much as a side character who's only ever popped up here and there. I seem to remember her being more of an old lady, as well, but I guess that's Hollywood for ya. We open in Peru, 1973, where explorers Ezekiel Sims (Tahar Rahim) and his pregant partner, Constance Webb (Kerry Bishé) are in search of a rare spider that is said to have healing properties in its venom. Legend has it that the spider has given rise to a tribe in the area who have superior climbing and jumping abilities and... they're basically a tribe of "Spider-Men" who don't have web-shooters. Anyway, the spider is found, Ezekial betrays their exploration team and, in the process, leaves a dying Constance behind. The "Spider-Tribe" manages to save the baby, Cassandra, but (spoiler alert) Constance doesn't make it. Fast-forward to 2003, where Cassandra (Dakota Johnson) works as a paramedic, accompanied by work partners *sigh* Ben Parker (Adam Scott), who's actually married to a Mary Parker (Emma Roberts), and O'Neil (Mike Epps). During one particularly dangerous call, "Cassie" has a near-death experience, and to make a long story short, she discovers that she can see into the future, giving her the ability to hopefully prevent future tragedy. Meanwhile, Ezekiel has developed limited precognition (among other Spider-Man related abilities including the ability to make his own Spider-suit that may get butts into theatre seast with a trailer). Ezekiel's precogntion leads him to believe that three teenage girls, Julia Cornwall (Sydney Sweeney), Anya Corazon (Isabela Merced), and Mattie Franklin (Celeste O'Connor). would one day kill him, and his motivation through the film is as simple as "get to them before they get to him." The rest of it is essentally an escort mission movie involving Cassie protecting the teenagers from Ezekiel's constant attacks dressed as a dark Spider-Man. Alhough, I will be somewhat fair in that Ezekiel Sims' character does have similar abilities to Spidey in the comics, and each of the teenagers are representing different "Spider-Women" from the comics. So, I think I see what they were going for. Usually, if I do a little bit of homework on these characters, I can find things the movie did that were "right", so to speak, but I have to say right off the bat that if you came to see these "Spider-Women" do their thing, you get a grand total of maybe about 30 seconds of action and most of the movie is just a guy who looks like a dark Spider-Man chasing the group around while Madame Web uses her abilities to protect them. At the end of the day, it's too many characters with nothing much happening, a bunch of easy-to-call cliches, and really bad dialogue including the line "If you accept the responsibility, the power will come" and if you know anything about 'Spider-Man', you know what line that is trying to be. I'm genuinely curious to see where Sony goes from here, but it's not like with other properties that might have me excited for their futures. This is almost more like watching a very slow trainwreck happen, and it's baffling to me that Sony's animated 'Spider-Verse' movies with Miles Morales are so good while these live action flicks just keep failing harder and harder every time. If that's not enough, this comes from the writers of the hard fail that was 'Morbius', and directed by S.J. Clarkson, who was at the helm of 'Jessica Jones' and 'The Defenders', so this is about the level of quality we're looking at here. 1/5 NOTE: The following review will eventually be moved to a special 'DC Films' page. Let me start by saying I won't be getting into anything involving Amber Heard and her recent activity. Even having said that, while she remains a part of the movie, she is not at all any sort of main focus, so protesters need not think too much about it. The thing is, there are a few characters that get a bit of a back seat in the 'Aquaman' sequel, as most of the focus seems to be on Arthur Curry/Aquaman (Jason Momoa), his brother, King Orm/Ocean Master (Patrick Wilson) and the return of David Kane/Black Manta (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II). For those who need a bit of a refresher course on what happened in the last film, once King of the city of Atlantis, Orm had plans to conquer not only the oceanic people but also the surface world, and he uses the help of Black Manta in his attempt. He is, however, thwarted by Arthur, who eventually takes the Trident of Atlan for himself and his rightful place on the throne, afterwards imprisoning Orm for his power-hungry crimes. In the meantime, Black Manta is thought to be killed in a final battle, but we see that he manages to survive and swear revenge on Aquaman. Four years have passed since the events of the first film. Arthur's living the good life, married to Mera (Heard), supporting his baby boy, Arthur Jr. (played by a variety of babies), and living his balanced life between land, where he stays with his Dad, Tom (Temuera Morrison) and sea, where he rules as King of Atlantis and can visit his Mom, Atlanna (Nicole Kidman). Things are relatively boring for Arthur for the time being, but it's all about to change when Black Manta continues his revenge plot with the help of a marine biologist named Stephen Shin (Randall Park). While searching for Atlantean artifacts, Manta and Shin find a black trident which promises its possessor (Manta) the power he needs to destroy Arthur and, as the trailer suggests, "everything he holds dear." Hellbent on power, Manta goes for Atlantis' stores of orichalcum, and this is where we realize that we end up getting a pretty heavy-handed message about the dangers of global warming and how easy it is to speed up: orichalcum being a source of greenhouse gasses. To stop Manta with his black trident, Arthur breaks Orm out of his prison to help him in his mission to save the planet and protect his family. Ultimately, the film ends up being DC's answer to Marvel's brotherly buddy comedy, ' Thor: Ragnarok,' as the two must put aside their differences to face a bigger threat. I have to admit that while I did enjoy their chemistry here, it almost felt like too much of a copy, right down to the fact that at one point, the villainous brother was once a main villain and is slowly coming around to fight for the side of good. But it is fun to watch Arthur mess with Orm on the surface world with things he's unfamiliar with. To some degree, it's entertaining. But it's also full of superhero cliches and doesn't necessarily leave the DCEU going out with a bang. This is another one in which the villain is out for the simplicity of revenge and power, and there's no real fleshing out of his character, even after he's already been in a film before this. Really, he's just kinda angry at things and is willing to destroy the world, all while being possessed by whatever's going on in a mysterious dark object (in this case, a trident). It plays as more of a superhero Saturday morning cartoon three or four-parter than an in-depth film, and it feels like the DCEU dropped the ball on their final flick. I can't honestly say that I hated it or even really disliked it. But it's a film for those looking for something typical in their superhero movie instead of something unique. It's about how I felt about its predecessor. If you wanna just come in for a fun ride, you might enjoy it, but it's not the best ride at the DCEU fair either. But, being that it is the cloer of the DCEU, I am hoping to see DC come out with more promising superhero sidequests like they've done with 'The Batman' and 'Joker', because I feel like DC has the potential to shine if they just keep their projects uniquely theirs as opposed to trying to conquer the MCU. 3/5 |