AKA 'Birds of Prey and the Fantabulous Immancipation of One Harley Quinn', or, by the time I'm writing this, is now on IMDb as 'Harley Quinn: Birds of Prey', which is probably the most accurate title for the film, since it's far more a Harley Quinn film than a story about the Birds of Prey. But I digress. To be perfectly honest, I didn't have very high hopes for this. But I'm happy to say that I was mostly pleasantly surprised... mostly. This one takes place after Harley (Margot Robbie) and the Joker (Sir not-appearing-in-this-film) break up, no doubt an extra effort on DC's part to ditch the God awful Jared Leto Joker (and to make it clear, Jared Leto is a fine actor, but his Joker is among one of the most screwed up characters in superhero movie history). In a fit of rage, and wanting closure on the subject, Harley does anything from adopt a Hyena from a black market pet shop (and name it Bruce) to blow up the Ace Chemicals factory, where the Joker "made her". So they keep the continuity from 'Suicide Squad'. Word spreads fast that the breakup has happened, and Harley no longer has the Clown Prince of Crime protecting her. A lot of the fun through the movie is being introduced to a variety of characters that she's wronged in the past who are now hunting her down. Meanwhile, Harley is looking for a girl named Cassandra Cane (Ella Jay Basco) who apparently has a diamond that can access the bank accounts of the Bertinelli crime family. After meeting the girl, Harley soon finds herself reluctantly protecting her (more as in protecting the diamond) from the twisted criminal, Roman Sionis (Ewan McGregor - who is having a great time with his role) and his right hand man, Victor Zsaz (Chris Messina), who definitely lends himself to the film's R-rating. These two are also keeping track of a mob killer who is only referred to as "The Crossbow Killer", but we all know her better as Huntress (Mary Elizabeth Winstead), and she's out for revenge after Sionis killed her whole family - The Bertinellis. The other Birds of Prey come into it as Officer Renee Montoya (Rosie Perez) who is investigating the mob killings, and Black Canary (Jurnee Smollett-Bell) who works for Sionis, but betrays him after she sees how far things can go in his club. I could deal with details all day, but yes, they eventually all cross paths and the title of the film does have some meaning - but it's definitely a Harley Quinn movie as opposed to a real team-up movie. The whole thing is told from the perspective of Harley, and as you may have heard by this point, there is a bit of back and forth jumping. But I don't think it's enough to really confuse anyone. Speaking for myself, I was able to follow along pretty well. It's kinda fun having Harley tell the story, because it somewhat reflects her personality in all of its style. If I was to compare it to anything, I'd have to say that this is DC's answer to 'Deadpool'. It's R rated, can be brutally violent, but it's still more of a comedy than a superhero movie. In fact, I'd say this owes a lot to 'Deadpool' for paving the way. With the success of this and 'Joker', I daresay, DC might just be able to get something off the ground with R-rated films. Anyway, for what this is, it's pretty cool. But I'm still not entirely loving it like so many others. I meet it halfway, enjoying the execution of the story and the film's overall style. But at the same time, there are some nitpicks that tend to irk me. The fight coreography was sometimes cool, but often strangely off. Pay attention to the fight scenes and watch how many people either wait their turn (prison scene) or just do nothing at all (car chase scene). It's not a first, but it's just something that makes no sense for what this is. Beyond that, I hate to say it, but Harley's narration can be a little bit grinding at times. But again, these are nitpicks. For the most part, the film is enjoyable. Just remember that it's not totally a Birds of Prey movie when you go check it out. 3/5
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I've said it before, and I'll say it again - nowadays, there's at least one hidden gem that can be found within the deep, dark pit that is the January/February dumping zone. They tend balance it out with the high ranking Oscar stuff, saving big releases for the Summer and Holiday seasons. Here we have a title that probably should have sucked, just based on what it is - a third title that no one was really asking for, cranked out 15+ years too late. Plenty have failed before, so why should this have been any different? But I'll be damned if they didn't grasp at our nostalgia and fully succeed. Mike Lowrey (Will Smith) and Marcus Burnett (Martin Lawrence) come speeding back into our lives, and we welcome them with open arms, not realizing how much we actually missed them - Mike ever confident in his driving skills, while Marcus reluctantly goes along for the ride, on the edge of vomiting all over that sleek interior. The perfect scene to snatch us back up after 17 years. After a bit of fun chaos, we find out Marcus has a newborn grandchild, and during a celebration, Marcus mentions retirement. This pretty much goes against Mike's thoughts of being partners forever, representing their mantra - "we ride together, we die together, bad boys for life". Before they know it, their friendship is tested, when a case very personal to Mike pops up, and Marcus refuses to get back into things, and become the family man he wants to be. There's actually quite a bit that happens in between all that, I'm not gonna lie, but this is one of those movies that's full of interesting surprises along the way. In its own way, even for a 'Bad Boys' movie, things get pretty deep here. It was actually a great film for developing both Mike and Marcus, as it peels back some never before seen layers to them. In case you might be wondering about it being too Michael Bayish, not to worry. This one is directed by the fairly green team of Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah (here credited as Adil and Bilall). They must have been good fans, 'cause they did a bang up job here. There's just enough Bayishness, maintaining the fun, popcorn action movie that it should be. But it also tells a good story that moves things along with these two characters, as they start to deal with things like retirement, and family a little more than usual. What more can I say? If you were a fan of the first two movies, you'll probably get something out of this. I might recommend rewatching them before going in, as well, just because of how things unfold here. I found it referring back to them more than I expected, and I hadn't watched either of them in years. I also think you'll get more out of Mike and Marcus' character development here, 'cause they do still play their respective characters very well. All in all, this was a pleasant surprise that I certainly did not see coming. 4/5 It was as if one day, a group of people got together and said "we all love James Cameron so much, we need to take 'Aliens', 'The Abyss' and the whole idea of the Mariana Trench, throw them in a blender and see what happens. It takes from more than just those films, but Cameron kept coming to mind throughout my viewing of this, pretty much blatant 'Aliens' ripoff. Of course, we know this isn't a first, but some things here are just plain lifted from the first and second 'Alien' films. The story takes place, incredibly deep, with plans for a big industrial company called Tian to drill seven miles deep for resources. However, a big quake damages the underwater drilling station, where a mechanical engineer named Norah Price (Kristen Stewart) and her colleague, Rodriguo (Mamoudou Athie), manage a narrow escape. As the story progresses, they eventually run into crew members Paul (T.J. Miller), Captain Lucien (Vincent Cassel), biologist, Emily Haversham (Jessica Henwick), and engineer, Liam Smith (John Gallagher Jr.). The group finds themselves on the ocean floor, racing to survive the harsh, pressurized, underwater elements. However, before they know it, they realize that their drilling has unleashed some old and forgotten deep sea, very alien-like monsters, and soon they are up against more than just the crushing depths of the ocean, as one by one, the supporting cast falls victim to them. Now, right away, this movie loses a bunch of point from me for borrowing from too much. The 'Alien' movies, and 'The Abyss' are obvious, but I've also seen comparisons to 'Godilla', 'The Rift', 'Sphere', the list just keeps going. It is your typical bottle movie where a monster is taking out a crew, and the survivor girl ends up running around in her underwear. Come to think of it, this is much more of a 'Alien' ripoff than an 'Aliens' ripoff, right down to specific scenes like that. Hell, there's even a scene with the crew sitting around a glowing table, strategizing - those who have seen both know what I'm talking about. This wasn't, however, bad enough to earn a terribly low rating on my scale. If you can go into this, a little blind (having not seen so many sci-fi, adventure, action, horror films), or go in expecting the worst, it can still be a good time. I did manage to appreciate the creature effects in this, and the overall claustrophobia of the deep, dark bottom of the ocean. It manages to be just uncomfortable enough in its execution (in a good way) to win me over, at least a little. And hey, Kristen Stewart wasn't bad in it either, even though she's never really been a go-to for me. But she comes through in this, not blowing me away, but I could appreciate her all-around heroic role here for what it was. I'd say that this is one that you could easily skip in theaters, as you're not gonna miss a whole lot. But if you want the full effect of all that underwater mystery discomfort, head to an afternoon matinee and enjoy. My only real warning is that you need to know how much that this borrows from. You have, in some way, shape or form, seen this one before. It pretty much is just 'Alien' underwater. I get the feeling that It'll be forgotten about by the end of the year. Oh, I forgot to mention, this was announced in February of 2017, damn near four years ago. It does feel a bit slapped together and rushed out just to put a stop to people talking about it... but who was talking about it? Anyway, it's watchable, just not that good. 2/5 Right off the bat, one might watch the trailer for this and wonder, after seeing how the previous film ended, how in the blue hell the game is back. But can I just say that we can't act like the game didn't already make an inexplicable return in 'Welcome to the Jungle'? Not only that, but it somehow turned itself into a video game. I think it's safe to say that Jumanji, the game, is just kinda unstoppable. If it wants to exist, it just will. It's fiction, but it's still kinda lazy from my perspective. With that little nitpick out of the way, the more important aspect of this are between two things - the characters and how well they do impressions, and what the characters take away from their experience in the game. I'm impressed that in this chapter they didn't just repeat the same characters with the same problems, or even introduce new similar characters, spinning its wheels. This plays with the concept of old, out of their league guys attempting to play a game. Let's face it, my generation, as kids, thought the idea of grandparents picking up a video game was kinda laughable (turns out it's not. My Grandpa LOVED 'Duck Hunt'!) At the same time, the main plot centers on them instead of the previous characters, but still gives the previous characters some good screen time. One year after the events of the previous film, Spencer (Alex Wolff) and Martha (Morgan Turner) are taking a break, with things not feeling quite the same between them. Their other friends Fridge (Ser'Darius Blain) and Bethany (Madison Iseman) have also gone their separate ways, but the group gets together for a reunion, missing Spencer. They soon discover that he doesn't show up, because he had gone back into Jumanji in hopes to feel that unstoppable feeling of being Smolder Bravestone (Dwayne Johnson) again. Reluctantly, the trio heads back into the game to rescue Spencer, but a glitch pulls in Spencer's Grandfather, Eddie (Danny DeVito) and his old business partner, Milo (Danny Glover), who are feuding over their past. Martha and Fridge also get pulled back in, but Bethany is left behind and has to somehow find her own way in. While Martha reprises her role as Ruby Roundhouse (Karen Gillan), Fridge gets (suggestively) stuck as Sheldon Oberon (Jack Black), and to some, that might be a bit uncomfortable. Meanwhile, the role of Bravestone is taken by Eddie, and Milo ends up as Franklin 'Mouse' Finbar (Kevin Hart). The stakes are raised on the mission to find Spencer, as Eddie and Milo are completely inexperienced gamers who can't seem to take the hint that they've somehow been sucked into a game. I'm not gonna lie, it's a running gag that gets kinda old kinda quick, mostly based on Eddie's cluelessness. The game itself has also evolved, giving the characters new strengths and weaknesses, and bringing things to "the next level". Now, let's talk about one thing that make 'Welcome to the Jungle' so surprisingly fun - the impressions. I thought everyone did a respectively good job with their given personalities, but Kevin Hart didn't reach too far for his character. This time around, things felt a bit opposite. I didn't think The Rock did so great as DeVito, but I felt like Kevin Hart did very well as Danny Glover. Karen Gillan reprises the same role, but gave so much more in the first film. And then there's Jack Black impersonating Ser'Darius Blain. As I mentioned before, it's suggestive. I didn't personally feel like he went way over the top with it, but I can't speak for those who it may affect more, either. The best performance in this movie, though, goes to Awkwafina as Ming Fleetfoot, who has to heavily impersonate both Alex Wolf and Danny DeVito, and she does a great job with both of them. This performance alone shows how flexible she can be, and it puts her on a list of up and comers I wanna keep an eye on. Some may remember her from 'Oceans 8' or 'Crazy Rich Asians', but I get the impression this performance is gonna put her name out there a bit more than it already is. Putting it all together, it works pretty well as a fun sequel, where you can see all of your favorite characters again. But the first of them is just far superior. It's in the same realm as 'Ghostbusters 2' or 'Turtles 2: Secret of the Ooze'. There's enough fun to be had here, but it's got nothing on its predecessor. It's really more like an obvious cash-grab, but they do just enough to make it entertaining. 3/5 First, let's just lay down some timeline stuff real quick, because things are starting to get confusing considering all of the time travel and sequels of the 'Terminator' franchise. To put it simply, we're going 'Terminator', 'Judgment Day' and now this. 'Rise of the Machines', 'Salvation' and 'Genisys' now all exist in an alternate timeline, and this is sort of pulling a 'Halloween, 2018' on us. With that said however, I couldn't compare this movie to much more than I could compare it to 'Star Wars: The Force Awakens'. By this, I mean that what we have here is essentially a soft reboot. Plot-wise, it's pretty much a collaboration of the first two films, leaning heavily on 'Judgment Day'. The Sarah Conner of this is now Dani Ramos (Natalia Reyes), the Terminator sent to hunt her is now a "REV-9" (Gabriel Luna), and the protector is now an enhanced human woman named Grace (Mackenzie Davis). And really, no kidding, it is pretty much the same thing all over again. For a bit of fan service, however, we also know that the T-800 (Arnold Schwarzenegger) and classic Sarah Conner (Linda Hamilton) make a return. While Hamilton does a great job as a casual bad ass here, though, Schwarzenegger is officially playing a "retired" Terminator, living life out in the wilderness, and the whole thing honestly never sat well with me right from the trailer. But the good news is, he's not brought into it so much so that we get annoyed with him representing a sort of goofy fan service. I hate to admit it, but some of it is kinda cringe-inducing. I also have to admit that I'm not at all a fan of Dani's character, only because she's so incredibly rushed into things. The film never stops to take a moment to get to know her as a person, she's pretty much simply the next target. Hamilton and Davis both completely overshadow her with their performances, and it's enough to make you wonder why you care about Dani at all. In just about any horror movie, one would expect her not to make it because there's no time invested in her. However, for all the bad, there's still quite a bit of good here. Once again, we have a reverse aging CG process going on here in the beginning of the film (which reaches a decision paralleling 'Alien 3' plot), and it's getting to a point where I might have to say that aging CG is kind of at a plateau now. This year has shown us so much of it, brought up namely in my 'Endgame' and 'Gemini Man' reviews. It's hard to imagine it getting much better. But digressing from that, the overall point here is that the CG is massively impressive, and they aren't stingy on the practical side of things either. For the action buffs who appreciate these movies more for that than anything else, there's plenty here for you, and a lot of it is perfectly edge-of-your-seat. There's plenty here to be entertained by. But speaking for myself, I can't help but recognize that the franchise is kinda just spinning its wheels now, and at the end of the day, it mostly just feels like familiar territory that is meant to get butts in seats, using the title, and two franchise-heavy actors. Aside from a few things here and there, again this is to 'Terminator 2' as 'Force Awakens' was to 'A New Hope'. It's enjoyable, it's fun and "safe" for the hardcore fans, but it's all just too familiar, and even adds a bit of silliness to the whole thing. While it's one of the more solid sequels, 'Terminator' and 'Judgment Day', i'm fairly certain, will just never be dethroned at this point. 3/5 Ang Lee has got to be one of the most interesting directors out there. It seems that for every 'Life of Pi' there's a 'Hulk '03' while movies like 'Taking Woodstock' kinda hover in that "I dunno what I thought" zone. Unfortunately, this was one of the weak titles. But you have to appreciate that when you see Lee's name attached to something, it's like looking inside the mystery box of quality. Henry Brogan (Will Smith) is sent on a mission at the beginning of the film, to assassinate a terrorist on board a bullet train. When he realizes that he very well could have shot a little girl by accident, he finally decides to hang it up, providing us with the classic "I'm retiring" cliche. Before he knows it, Brogan becomes the target of a very slick operative who can seem to predict his every move. He soon finds out that his hunter is a younger cloned version of himself, and he's launched back into action as, with the help of Danny Zakarweski (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) he attempts to find out who made the clone, and why. At least, that's pretty much what I took from the film. We all know who the big baddie is here right away, too, so there's really no mystery, and I found a lot of the rest of the film kinda confusing. It would seem that again, this is an example of a film made to show off how good we can do CGI nowadays, with a younger Will Smith in play. If they get things nailed down enough, aged action heroes like Schwarzenegger could make some pretty radical comebacks, and witht he way nostaglia flows these days, I would not be surprised if we saw that in the next couple of years. We can consider this the starting point, as young Willie Style here is in most of the movie, being the action star Will Smith could have been. All in all though, the movie is just downright stupid. I mentioned confusing, I know, but some of the things they do here, namely in the action sequences, are way too overboard. Like 'Mission: Impossible 2' overboard. There's suspension of reality, but then there's getting right back up after getting your face slapped by the back of a motorcycle, and not much of a scar to show for it. A lot of it was kinda painful to watch. But I will say this. The film could be passable as a check-your-brain-at-the-door action flick, but there's an ending to this movie that takes you out of it so abruptly that it's totally jarring. I shit you not, the film goes from an action thriller to an episode of 'Fresh Prince' in atmosphere, and it just feels rushed and silly. If it wasn't for that, I might have let this movie pass. But then again, I let too much pass, don't I? If you wanna see Will Smith in his prime action career, watch a real "check-your-brain" movie called 'Independence Day'. It's not for everyone, but most would agree that one can just have fun with it. This is just kinda weird and unoriginal, and it could have been so much better if it wasn't so focused on the CG Will Smith and how impressive he is. Granted, he is impressive (save that last scene), but that's only part of the reason anyone would see this. I simply wasn't a fan, and I hope Ang Lee can provide us with something from his Oscar-worthy mind next time around. 2/5 If there's one thing the 'Fast & Furious' movies have taught me, it's that they are the next big name in a long, proud line of action franchises that we watch because we wanna see things break, explode, get beaten up, and have a few laughs along the way. 'Hobbs & Shaw' provides us with a somewhat sci-fi spinoff from the franchise, combining those two characters we love to see fighting, Luke Hobbs (Dwayne Johnson) and Deckard Shaw (Jason Stathom). The pair form an unlikely duo here in order to track down a programmable supervirus called "Snowflake". The stakes are raised when an Eteon (the terrorist organization holding the virus) operative named Brixton (Idris Elba) comes into play, as a protector of the virus. He's cybernetically enhanced to be almost superhuman, thus adding that sci-fi element I was talking about before. However, also caught in the middle of things is Shaw's sister, Hattie (Vanessa Kirby), an MI6 operative whose mission to retrieve the virus only got her framed for the death of her team. It's about as basic a plot as any action movie gets, and to me is somewhat remeniscent of 'Bad Boys II' (when bringing in family members who one of them might have a thing for). As mentioned before, this is kinda the go-to this summer for a mindless, fun action movie to lose yourself in. It's not at all dull, it's funny to watch these two play off of each other, and there's absolutely no lack of action to be had. One thing I particularly enjoyed about this one was bringing in Hobbs whole family, and that whole oldschool fight they have (which is seen in the trailer). It was a neat contrast to the sci-fi elements in this, and at the risk of reading too much into it, it may very well represent a statement that perhaps old fashioned can be better. In other words, maybe technology can just be a bit too much sometimes. Or, if you like, it's just a fun action movie with no real hidden meaning, and some names they knew would put butts in seats. I'd say it's open to interpretation, like with a lot of movies, but I'd like to think that a bit of a message sunk in for myself. That's just me, though. As I said before, I might be reading too much into it. Any theories pushed aside, this is still a lot of fun, and an overall good time at the theater if you get the chance to big-screen it. 4/5 We're gonna be going against the grain a little bit, today. I always enjoy that, as it's general proof that I'm not just running with the masses. All in all, this one is getting pretty generous reviews, and here I sit wondering exactly why. I mean, I guess I get it, but I also don't all at once. What's that mean? Stick around to the end. Here we have Haley (Kaya Scodelario), a competitive swimmer, who decides she wants to drive into the heart of a major hurricane, which is already wreaking a bit of havoc on her hometown. Her reasoning, to try to find her estranged father, Dave (Barry Pepper). Upon entering the house and beginning the search, we learn that Dave is still there, somewhere in the basement, trying to keep the house together, as flooding is slowly taking it apart. But while the rescue is already looking grim, a couple of alligators enter the scene, giving the pair one hell of a vicious obstacle to get past. The alligators and the flooding house make for some good suspense, as it's a sort of "die one way, or die the other" situation. This brings to to what I can praise about the film; it knows exactly what it is, and it's not trying to be anything more. This is a throwback to that era of the late 90s when scary movies (if they weren't teen horror) relied heavily on things like disaster and nasty creatures. There was this short-lived phase of what I like to call "realisim" horror, where things we knew existed in real life could get you (which that teen horror was also a part of). I also had to admire some of the creature effects going on here, considering the CG - I thought it looked pretty solid, myself, and I'm starting to feel like CG is REALLY hitting a positive stride, now that things are looking more realistic. And I don't mean the way we used to say things looked realistic back when 'Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within' came out. I mean... well, just watch 'Endgame'. I kinda mark it as a peak of CG technology (for now), and it seems to be carrying over to other films nicely. Beyond that, they were effective here in making these alligators pretty genuinely scary - just about anything goes with these things here. All in all, this really wasn't bad, but I do have my gripes. The number one being the character of Haley in general. To me, she's stuck between this role of strong, independent woman and damsel in distress. There are certain things she's unsure of here, and she comes close to giving up, but manages to push forward to survive, grunting and moaning every step of the way, and while it's a total nitpick on my part, my God was it annoying. It seemed that every move Haley made was punctuated with an "URG!" or an "AGH!". But again, nitpick. You could still manage to empathize enough, and there is a nice scene where they take time to have a positive exchange between the two characters. So I guess when I say that I get it, but don't get it all at once, it's like Raimi wanted to do a throwback to those late 90s films as his probable take on our nostalgic desires over the past decade plus. It's neat that he's considering this whole sort of untapped resource (unless your name is Roland Emerich), to try to bring it back and improve it a bit. But I can't help but be left with the question of "why", dangling above my head. That was widely regarded as a pretty weak era for film altogether. A few goodies popped up here and there, but all in all, it seemed like film was kind of in limbo. Our box office smashes were disaster movies, but they were mostly panned for being too silly, over the top, or whatever. I actually liked a few of them, but that doesn't stop what critics and even general audiences had to say about them. So, for me, this film goes against all logic from a money-making standpoint. But, to be fair, it's hanging in there pretty good - so really, what do I know? Maybe these kinds of movies were missed more than I thought. So, I guess, if you just wanna go have a fun and violent suspenseful time at the theater, it could be worth checking out. As a Raimi fan, I think he's done better, but he's also done worse. In the end, this is gonna be one of those titles that may gather its cult following, but for the most part, it's just kinda there - not a must-see, but decent enough to sit through once, and get that bout of late 90s nostalgia. I definitely didn't love it, but it had enough things in it for me to appreciate. 3/5 'Men in Black' has been a sort of steadily sequelled franchise over the years, and altogether interesting. Every time there's a sequel, you don't really find anyone pumped to see it, yet it's still a strong enough name to still put butts in seats. The downside is that this particular sequel was obviously made to rake in some easy dough. It's generally more of the same, but with some new big names, two of whom exist in the MCU, and it's a pretty much by-the-numbers execution. It's almost like seeing a reboot of the first film. In 1996 Brooklyn, a young girl named Molly (Mandeiya Flory) witnesses her parents (Inny Clemons and Marcy Harriell) get neuralized by the MIB after the father comes face to face with a strange creature. The MIB decide to not do their job and skip over Molly completely, after told she was "upstairs sleeping", but hey, we wouldn't have a movie otherwise. Molly, Already interested in the unknown, then dedicates her life to locating and joining the MIB. She kinda represents all the sci-fi buff kids from the mid-90s era (or the 'X-Files' age, if you will). She manages pretty much from the beginning of the film through Agent O (Emma Thompson), upon impressing her by locating the NYC branch. Transferred to London, Molly becomes Agent M (Tessa Thompson) and ends up teaming up with the now legendary Agent H (Chris Hemsworth). H was made famous for stopping an alien race called "The Hive", along with Agent High T (Liam Neeson). This world-saving event is commemorated with artwork, along with Agents J and K from the first film, saving it from the bug - admittedly, a nice touch. The case H and M are working, however ends up being much bigger than it initially seems. This time around, the big bad guy looks to be a mole within the MIB, itself, and it looks like the Hive might be coming back for more. But yeah, as a standard 'MIB' movie goes, it's about saving the world again, but with different characters. This time around, however, the new recruit is the straight act, and the veteran is the comedy relief. Joining them is also a little green chess piece alien thing known only as "Pawny" (Kumail Nanjiani). His civilization (on a chess board) is slaughtered, and he ends up dedicating his services to M, who he believes is a queen of some sort. He's generally there to be that extra nudge of comic relief. Sometimes the jokes hit, sometimes they miss, and all in all the comedy is just kinda "meh" with a few decent laughs. I find this one to be some sort of blend of the first and second films. As I mentioned before, it's practically a reboot of the first film. But its overall quality is a bit closer to the second, in that it's just more of the same with nothing much new to offer. The third at least had time travel, and Thanos as young Agent K. I'll give it some of its imaginative creature creations, and a few laughs, and a mindless, fun time. I just feel like after so long, this could have been better. 3/5 I'll start this one off by openly admitting that I have not yet seen any 'Shaft' films, so my homework wasn't exactly at its peak going into this. But at the same time, I'm talkin' 'bout Shaft. If you're familiar with the title, even slightly, you pretty much understand what you're walking into. Shaft is kinda like the James Bond of a little subgenre of movies known as "Blaxploitation"; the exploitation of black people, especially with regard to stereotyped roles in movies (here's a Wiki article on the subject). Anyway, long story short, much like with 'Godzilla' where I paid to see monsters beat the crap out of each other, with 'Shaft', I know I'm paying to watch Samuel L. Jackson at his Samuel L. Jacksonest (which is still 'Pulp Fiction', by the way, don't be fooled). I wasn't exactly disappointed, but I have to admit that the film left a little to be desired. With that said, again, I hadn't seen anything 'Shaft' related before this, so I only very slightly knew the character. Top be perfectly fair, I went into this with my own expectations, didn't get them, and it's an "oh well, maybe next time" situation... not a "please rewrite this whole thing" situation - I'm looking at you, 'Game of Thrones' fans. Anyway, getting back on track, this chapter starts in the late 80's where we see John Shaft (Samuel L. Jackson) and Maya Babanikos (Regina Hall), one can only assume one of his many flings, get caught in the middle of a shootout. The catch, they have a kid together in the back seat, so John takes off in order to keep them protected. Fast-forward to present day, where we meet J.J. Shaft (Jessie T. Usher), the kid from the back seat. He's now a data analyst, working for the FBI, and was, shall we say, brought up very far away from the mean streets? Anyway, after his friend dies by what looks like a heroin overdose, J.J. discovers that the overdose quantity would have been impossible to self-inflict. He then calls on the help of his Dad, the legendary John Shaft, to help him get to the bottom of things. I ended up finding the film enjoyable, overall, but it wasn't exactly anything new or different. It was pretty much your standard buddy cop film, featuring non-cops John and J.J. Shaft - the reckless one and the straight and narrow one. We also get a cameo here from Richard Roundtree as John Shaft Sr., and that's surely a treat for people who are more familiar with the material, as he was the original Shaft from '71. But I guess he also showed up in the 2000 film, so again, not entirely new or special. It seems perfectly clear that you'd be going into this to be entertained, only if you know what to expect. The film wasn't without its charm, and I can't deny that I pretty much did get what I paid for. But really, one could wait for this to come along on home video or even TV, and you'd be fine. It's not a big-screen-must-see or anything. Just a fun, mindless action movie, maybe for a Sunday afternoon/evening. It's passable, but nothing special. 3/5 I find it kind of remarkable that people are calling this, in so many words, pretty much the worst of the franchise. At the same time, however, I also find it kind of remarkable that given this day and age, 'Deadpool' and the MCU paving a clear path, studio influence is STILL too much, especially when they don't entirely know what the hell they're talking about. Unless you're in the MCU area of things, your stories are generally rushed, have some big names slapped on them, and advertise a title that will put butts in seats. Some of the now most notorious cases of not getting superheroes right go to Fox (so thank you, Disney); 'The Fantastic Four', and about half of the 'X-Men' franchise are prime examples. 'Origins: Wolverine' should have been so much better, since they had the right idea, Gambit has just been completely blown over, and then of course we have 'Dark Phoenix', now failing miserably for a second time. But is it so bad that it's the worst of all X-Men films? One's perfectly entitled to opinion, but personally speaking, I wouldn't say so. In all honesty, I think I disliked both 'Apocalypse' and 'Origins: Wolverine' more - but it does end up just about on par with 'X-3' for me in that it covers the same story, fails again making stupid decisions, and rushes through everything. One might also compare Phoenix to Venom, as a prime story with a massive fan base that they just can't seem to get right. Which is a crying shame because this movie SHOULD have been the make-up for X-3. The film hits the ground running when the lead, adult X-Men, go on a space mission to rescue some astronauts. The team is now comprised of Mystique (Jennifer Lawrence), Cyclops (Tye Sheridan), Beast (Nicholas Hoult), Storm (Alexandra Shipp), Quicksilver (Evan Peters), Nightcrawler (Kodi Smit-McPhee), and of course, Jean Grey (Sophie Turner), all led by Xavier (James McAvoy), back home. During the mission, Jean undergoes this crazy death-to-life instantaneous, unsuspenseful transition, which of course resurrects her as Phoenix, as most of us understand the basic story at this point. Upon their return home, Jean starts to lose control of her powers, explained by an ancient force which destroys everything in it's path until it came into contact with her. She essentially absorbed this power, and now it's growing unstable, and she releases it through fits of rage. Now the rest of the X-Men have to face the hard truth that if Jean gets too out of hand, something crucial may have to be done. While the preference would be to help Jean through her problems, the X-Men also have to face off against an alien race who is looking for Jean and her newfound remarkable powers. I might make it sound interesting, but trust me, it's not what it should be. The trailer managed to do the same thing to me. I thought things were gonna go back to solid storytelling, and the eye candy was gonna take a back seat. But nope. That's where I'd actually compare this to 'Apocalypse' - the best reason for being there are the visual effects. But would you believe that unlike 'Apocalypse', I did find a few moments I enjoyed here - and they pretty much all involved Magneto ( Michael Fassbender). Erik Lehnsherr/Magneto makes a good appearance here, and I find it interesting what they did with his character. He's now trying to live a life of peace out of the way of things, since nowadays the President and the X-Men are living in peace. Erik has been given his own spot of land with which he can come and go as he pleases, as long as he keeps his mutant powers at a bare minimum. I won't spoil his role in this completely, but he's hands down the most interesting character in this one - and actually I'd say all of the new ones, but most easily this one. Some of the mutants were thrown in for easy convenience though. For example, Nightcrawler, as they needed to be able to teleport the astronauts from ship to ship in space. Storm was interesting enough, and I appreciated the casting choice, but she underused her abilities far too much. Most of the time, it's sparks of lightning from her fingers. It's most definitely one of the weakest of the franchise, and it's sure to live in infamy along with the other bad 'X-Men' titles. But I still think I've seen worse. Not MUCH worse, mind you, but still worse. This one at least had some interesting moments here and there; for me, a scene where Beast is talking to Xavier in the kitchen, the whole train scene from the trailer, and anything with Magneto were all perfectly good scenes. But sadly, not enough to save it from still being bad. 2/5 2014's 'Godzilla' had people kinda split right down the middle. Despite it's title, there actually wasn't a hell of a lot of Godzilla in it, save for the end, which featured an epic fight scene between him and some MUTO (Massive Unidentified Terrestrial Organism), playing largely on the Kaiju idea left over from 2013's 'Pacific Rim'. The fight pretty much made the movie, giving us what we wanted to see - monsters fighting. Going on personal opinion, that is what 'Godzilla' films are all about. No one watches these for what the humans are doing, and if you are, you're just plain doing it wrong. These movies represent fantasy titan wrestling matches, and not a whole lot more. Just look at some of the titles. Bearing that in mind, let's move on with my thoughts on 'King of the Monsters' As the film opens up we learn that the Titans are just a thing now, and there are a known seventeen of them scattered across the globe. The main story line follows a family that lost their son, Andrew, after Godzilla's big fight from the previous film. The family splits over this. The father, Mark Russell (Kyle Chandler) sort of never moves on, and develops a hatred fro the Titans, especially Godzilla. Meanwhile, the mother, Emma (Vera Farmiga) works for the MONARCH organization with daughter Madison (Millie Bobby Brown) at her side. MONARCH researches these Titans, and Emma is working hard on developing a sort of communication device for them called ORCA When Emma and Madison are kidnapped by eco-terrorists, Mark is called in to try to rescue them. However, with a certain film twist that's really pretty dumb altogether, we manage to get to four major monsters from the 'Godzilla' collection going, and the fight scenes are absolutely epic. The main movie takes a back seat and you stop caring because of the sheer spectacle of it all. As I said in the beginning, the Titan fights are what we're here for. It doesn't necessarily excuse the bad writing, but it does deliver what I came for when it comes right down to it, putting it somewhere in the middle for yours truly. This one seems to have listened to the audience from the 2014 film, including myself, who said something along the lines of "it was okay, but the monster fight was the only thing that made it good". Well, same idea here. Personally speaking, I still find 'Kong: Skull Island' the front runner of this new Titan universe. We're only three movies in, but it's about to pick up next year with the release of 'Godzilla vs Kong'. It makes me wonder if now that the 'Infinity Saga' is done, this will be the new big thing. Superheroes aren't going away anytime soon, but I get the impression this will at the very least parallel things in popularity as an eventuality. So not necessarily now, but a few years down the line. Time will tell. Anyway, to simplify everything, if you're like me and came to see monsters just beating the hell out of each other with some pretty damn admirably gorgeous CG, you'll get it. But if you came to see a good story, you're not entirely in luck. It's funny, you love the monsters, but you hate how they get to the monsters. Still though, it's well worth the big screen experience to see these four biggies go at it. I'm giving this one a low 4, because it looks just awesome enough to warrant it. 4/5 It's interesting to reminisce on this whole 'John Wick' thing getting started, when people so often suggested that Keanu Reeves was the action hero that the world needed. This was largely due to his "gun-fu" skills (that's a combination of exactly what you think), and we had already seen him as a good action hero in the 'Matrix' films. 'John Wick' kinda resurrected him in a way, and it's nice to see that he isn't just that go-to action guy because of it. He's kinda just John Wick now, and that's more than enough. Excluding things like Marvel films, I'd say these films probably are the biggest action titles from the past decade... Yeah, I know it started in 2014, but show me a better mainstream non-fantasy action series between 2009 and now. These are kinda the new 'Die Hard' films, in my opinion. 'Chapter 3' has John Wick (Keanu Reeves) on the run after the events of the previous film sent him over the edge. Now, he has a massive amount of hit men and hit women after him, with a $14 million bounty on his head. This turns the tables for John, making this a survival action film as opposed to the revenge action films we're more familiar with. For as much as I love these movies, the second one really is just an extension on the first (I know, duh, but hear me out), offering more of the same, but with deeper dips into the whole International Assassins Guild. It's still ultimately a revenge film though, just like the first. Offering up a survival story here helps make John feel more vulnerable and fallible... I almost said that with a straight face... anyway, it's a nice change. You can still find everything you want in a 'Wick' movie here though. In fact, I highly compliment the action sequences in this one. I loved how John used his environment to his advantage. My favourite was probably the use of a horse's back legs. I know that sounds weird, but just check it out. I actually laughed out loud when I saw it. Beyond that though, we also get into some really neat fight sequences that don't just stop at a shoot-off. There's also a great knife fight in this, a fight involving dogs and Halle Berry (as Sofia - someone who helps John out once he's declared excommunicado) in her best role in a very long time, and a fight where we get to see just how durable John Wick actually is. You'll know the scene when you see it. That's just to name some of the action through this though. What you want from John Wick movie, you'll get here, and probably even more. For my money, this is the most solid action trilogy I've seen in quite a while. 5/5 Let's face it, the DC universe hasn't exactly been my favourite place to be when Marvel is too busy keeping me in their glorious clutches. I've still given every DC film a fair shake, but for my money, 'Wonder Woman' was the only time I was thoroughly impressed. I gave 'Aquaman' a decent review as well, if only because it made me like a character I otherwise had no use for. So when the hell is DC's next big hit? Well, I think we pretty much have it here with 'Shazam!' We meet a foster kid named Billy Batson (Asher Angel), who gets placed in a group home after some trouble with the law while searching for his birth mother. It's here that we meet Freddy Freeman (Jack Dylan Grazer) who eventually becomes Billy's close friend. One day after helping Freddy out with a bully problem, Billy gets chased into a subway where he is randomly summoned by an ancient wizard named Shazam, who has been on the search for someone who is pure of heart for centuries to pass his powers to. Billy is chosen, and in a hurry, as a man named Sivana, who feels that Shazam has wronged him in the past, becomes a bigger problem than Shazam can handle. As we probably know by the trailer, by now, by saying the name "Shazam", Billy turns into a full grown superhero (Zachary Levi) and vice-versa. He and Freddy go around town testing out his superpowers as 14-year-old kids probably would, and soon we learn that with great power comes great responsibility. It's all very well executed. Meanwhile, this Sivana character has joined forces with the 7 deadly sins, and is terrorizing anyone who may have wronged him in his past. Soon enough, Billy and Sivana discover each other, a rivalry is born, and the rest of it plays out as more of a superhero movie than a comedy. I'd equate this one to something more along the lines of 'Kick-Ass', where really, it's more of a comedy than anything, but it's not without moments of good action and drama. I hae to admit that it's pretty awesome to see one of the two big mainstream comic companies give a movie like that a shot. It's a giant step forward for DC, to be sure, and hopefully this helps nudge the gate open for more good DC material. Sure, at times the film gets really silly, but it eventually gets surprisingly dramatic towards the end. It kinda throws you for a loop, and before you know it, you're kinda sitting back, routing for Billy. It's a refreshing blend of totally silly and respectably thoughtful, and I have to agree with most that it's probably one of the better titles DC has cranked out. Here's hoping those guys are on the right track. 4/5 This is gonna be a bit off, as I have no reviews up for either of the previous two films. So I'll have to give away a bit of the whole story between the first two, but I'll try to keep it relatively spoiler-free (for those who care). To make a very long story very short, Hiccup (Jay Baruchel) befriends a "Night Fury" dragon, despite frequent dragon attacks on his Viking home town of Burk. He names him Toothless, and discovers that dragons aren't to be as feared as they are. Soon, Hiccup dedicates himself, along with a team of teenage misfits consisting of Astrid (America Ferrera), Snotlout (Jonah Hill), Fishlegs (Christopher Mintz-Plasse), Ruffnut (Kristen Wiig) and Tuffnut (Justin Ripple) to rescuing and housing captured and misunderstood dragons, giving them a home and protecting them from the various dangers of the human world. On this particular outing, we discover that Toothless isn't the only Night Fury out there, after the previous films have pretty much suggested it. Upon discovering this new dragon, legends come up of a "Hidden World" where dragons of all sorts live in harmony. This could potentially provide a better home for Berkians and their now overpopulated town of dragons. In the meantime, a dragon hunter named Grimmel (F. Murray Abraham) is discovered to be trying to capture this new Night Fury, and he and Hiccup find themselves at odds - Hiccup now being pretty much a leader-type since his first appearance when he was deemed a bit of a wuss. So much of the film is trying to get the dragons to the Hidden World with Grimmel hot on their heels the whole time. Granted, it's a bit of a rushed explanation for everything, but what you really need to take away from it is that it rounds the trilogy off really nicely. If you liked the first two, this one is really no exception as far as quality goes. The flying scenes look incredible, especially in in 3D, and it's our usual combination of comedy, drama and all out adventure. On top of that, I greatly appreciate the overall development of Hiccup's character through this trilogy. The film ends on a nice note where it genuinely seems to wrap things up. However, I said the same thing about 'Toy Story 3' which makes me almost dread a 4th movie just because of the fans and easy money. I'm not opposed to 'Toy Story 4' per se, but that really was a solid trilogy that ought to have just ended, saving whatever's left over for TV specials and the like. I'm kinda hoping this just sticks to what it is and doesn't feel the need to keep on going. Hopefully the same filmmakers can get another project off the ground instead. Anyway, this is a trilogy that I could recommend to just about anyone. It's great storytelling combined with likable characters and solid development that takes place over several years. We really do get to watch Hiccup grow up through this. Add to that the comedic aspect as well as a lot of it tugging at heartstrings, and we've got one of the more solid overall trilogies of the past decade. At least, that's my humble opinion. I know it's only the end of February, but this will get its Oscar nom for next year, I'm sure. 4/5 To kick things off with this review, I have to mention that I am reviewing this from the viewpoint of a non-reader of the original material. All I know about 'Alita' is this movie. So as far as what the film cuts out, what the film changes, how well the story is adapted as a whole, I have no idea. That said, on with the review. The setting is a post-apocalyptic wasteland of a city, set after the events of a devastating war known as "The Fall", in 2563. Dr. Dyson Ido (Christoph Waltz) finds the head of a deactivated cyborg girl in a junkyard, and brings her home to bring her back to life. He names her Alita, after his recently deceased daughter. Meanwhile, Alita (Rosa Salazar) befriends a young man named Hugo (Keean Johnson) who introduces her to the sport of Motorball, and has dreams of moving to the sky city of Zalem. While Alita becomes rather smitten with him, she also struggles to remember her past, and who she was before Ido found her. Meanwhile still, a group of cyborgs lead by a big guy named Grewishka (Jackie Earle Haley) is out to assassinate Ido, while Alita discovers that she can not only fight, but kick some serious ass. Slowly but surely, her past is unveiled, and, without spoiling anything, it all leads to a cliffhanger ending that suggests a sequel probably is well on its way. In trying to be the new action/adventure series, setting up for a sequel can be a common mistake. It's important to remember that your new series might not take off as well as you imagine it will. It failed 'Percy Jackson', it failed 'Divergent', it can fail anything if it's just not interesting enough, or strays too far away from what the book was. Again, I'm not entirely sure how well-adapted this is, but certain things about it lead me to hope it hangs in there. This is one of those titles that bears a modest 60% rating on Rotten Tomatoes for the critics, but its general audience seems to love it with a 94%, which leads me to believe that a lot of the readers of the source material are on-board for this to be successful. And hell, I'm on board too, but as a non-reader, I have my own reasons why. To keep it basic, I liked the world that was created here, there was a lot of imagination put into the creation of the characters, and despite the love story aspect of this, I didn't feel like a love story was being crammed down my throat. It's far more about Alita's journey, and Alita herself is just plain bad ass. And if you know me well enough, you know that I enjoy a strong female lead. But let's talk about the elephant in the room and, for whatever reason, the thing people seem to be avoiding - Alita's anime eyes. Now strap in, 'cause I'm about to get a little deep. Her eyes do not bother me in the slightest. In fact, I quite like them. The way I see it, she's an android, so really why the hell not? It can't really fall under a racial thing, in my opinion, because she's the only one who has them. And honestly, I get the feeling she was given big eyes for a reason, and it's not JUST to look like a manga character. A lesson I learned in illustration is that the eyes are the window to a person's soul. Alita's eyes kinda say a lot about her character, depending on her expression. Curiosity, love, appreciation, anger, rage, sadness. It's all kinda magnified in a way with her, making the viewer perhaps empathize with her a bit more. But hell, maybe it's just me. Personally though, I found her eyes to really add to her character as opposed to being the distraction that seems to be on everyone else's minds. Speaking for myself, so far, this is my front-runner film for "favourite" of 2019. With that said, a lot can change between now and 10 months from now, so we'll see what the rest of the year has in store. But with how unique this film is, I get the feeling it's gonna remain a stand-out for yours truly. 5/5 Much as the title suggests, 'The Second Part' actually picks up where the original 'LEGO Movie' left off. So, for those of you who haven't seen 'The LEGO Movie', spoiler alert ahead. When we last left the fictional town of Bricksburg, it was revealed that things were pretty much all taking place in the imagination of a young boy. Bricksburg was essentially a massive Lego model, owned by his father (Will Farrell). The kid made a bunch of stuff out of the model town, using his own imagination, and the underlying message (at least what I got) was basically, don't be an uptight father, and let your kids use their imaginations when it comes to play. When it was all said and done, the boy's sister was allowed to play with all of it as well. This introduces aliens from the planet Duplo who come to destroy Bricksburg, and the credits role. This opens up as though it's perfectly connected with he first film (Lego pun). The aliens create a post-apocalyptic Bricksburg, and our story picks up five years later (appropriately enough, as the first film was February, 2014). We reconnect (Lego pun) with Emmet Brickowski (Chris Pratt) and Wylstyle, now known as Lucy (Elizabeth Banks), who have since made a connection (okay, I promise that's the last one), and are pretty much a couple now. All of our favourite side characters make a return as well, including Batman (Will Arnett), Unikitty (Alison Brie), Metalbeard (Nick Offerman) and Benny the Spaceman (Charlie Day). However, fair warning, they all kinda take a back seat here - and I mean further back than they had it in the first film. Although, I will say, Unikitty makes a pretty bad ass transformation in this one. Anyway, long plot short, Duplo aliens take over, and our heroes are approached by General Mayhem (Stephanie Beatriz) who kidnaps everyone but Emmet, bringing them to the Sistar System where Queen Watevra Wa'Nabi (Tiffany Haddish) promises the group happiness, and plans to marry Batman in order to bring their worlds together in peace. Meanwhile Emmet heads out on his own to rescue Lucy and the others. He stumbles across Rex Dangerfest (Chris Pratt) who is a combination of some of Pratt's most famous characters, and the two of them work together on turning Emmet into a "manly man". If I'm honest, of the four Lego movies that exist, I'd probably put this in third place. It still has the comedic charm that the first one had, along with a few good pop culture jokes and gags. Some of the environments were kinda cool, like the idea of the "Stair Gate" that was kinda the portal to the sister's room. But on the other hand, things like the Sistar System altogether felt like a sort of rehashing of the first movie's Cloud Cuckoo Land - very upbeat, shiny, sparkly, happy, etc. I guess a lot of it just kinda felt altogether similar to the first one, as far as the real-world aspects of the story went. The only real difference is that this time the boy is trying to fix things with his sister instead of his father. We also have that in the first one, no one really expected that real-world twist. Now, it's not a twist anymore, so the impact just isn't what it was. Then when it comes to what's going on within the Lego universe, parts of it are great, but parts of it are just kinda lame. One thing that threw me off a little here were a few musical numbers. It's not to say musical numbers didn't exist in other Lego movies. Hell, 'Batman' had the best one, in my opinion. But something about these felt a wee bit forced. That said, much of this was taking place in the sister's imagination, and being a little girl of about probably 6 or 7, one might imagine her to be into the Disney singalong thing. So perhaps it was done for that reason. Anyway, most of my problems with the film are just nitpicks on some of the decisions made. It didn't give me the laughs that the first one did, or 'Batman' for that matter, but it's still fun. I mean, it's a Lego movie based around the imaginations of children. It can't be taken too seriously. 3/5 If I'm honest, when I first saw the trailer for this one, I was more or less expecting a Nickelodeon-type, damn near Disney Channel-like movie. Think something along the lines of a 'Diary of a Wimpy Kid' meets 'The Sword in the Stone' (the animated Disney version). But I'm actually happy to say that it ended up being more Disney's 'Sword in the Stone' combined with something like 'Moone Boy'. For those unfamiliar with 'Moone Boy', here's this. Anyway, upon realizing that this was written and directed by Joe Cornish (writer of titles like 'Attack the Block', 'The Adventures of Tin Tin' and 'Ant-Man'), it was a fairly easy sell. And I'll be damned if I didn't actually enjoy myself quite a bit upon seeing it. Here we meet two boys by the names of Alex (Louis Ashbourne Serkis [yes, Andy Serkis' son]) and Bedders (Dean Chaumoo). The two are your typical victims of bullying from Lance (Tom Tyler) and Kaye (Rhianna Dorris) - and yes, it's fairly easy to see where the names are going here. One day, while on the run, Alex stumbles into a construction sight, where he finds a sword and pulls it out of its stone. This of course will eventually turn him into the "chosen-one" character. A new, strange boy comes to the school, who we soon learn is Merlin (Angus Imrie/Patrick Stewart), who has traveled into the mortal world to help Alex with the upcoming war between mortals, and the forces of the evil sorceress, Morgana (Rebecca Ferguson). And oh yes, this means Alex has to rise to the occasion and fight off a whole bunch of demons and whatnot and... I mean, I'm not gonna lie, I thought this was the perfect new take on an epic kid's fantasy adventure. It's by no means perfect, but just for the fun and fantasy of it all, it's really quite enjoyable. The only thing that really got to me was how some of the magic was done' involving a lot of fairly annoying finger-snapping and clapping. But that's just a nitpick on my part. It otherwise hit me just like 'This is the End' did, in that I was expecting something much more low-budget, and it shows, not the least of which in its creature effects. It's a PG-rated movie that has the potential to scare little kids with how some of these demons and creatures look. On top of that, the action involved is actually quite fun. Unfortunately, it doesn't seem to be a very healthy box office draw, because as I said in the beginning, it really does strike you as a Nickelodeon/Disney Channel movie when you watch the trailer. It also doesn't help that it's sandwiched between the trilogy sequel of 'Glass' and surefire family success, 'The LEGO Movie 2', either. So, while parts of the story admittedly lack a bit, I still got pleasantly surprised by this movie. As I said, it's not perfect, but there was definitely something enjoyable about it, and I encourage people to give it a chance. At the end of the day, it's just a fun, feel-good movie that might take you back to what it was like watching movies like 'The Goonies'. 4/5 I will be the first to admit that when it comes to DC, there's a bit of a disconnect with me. I tend to lean more towards Marvel's collection, and tend to consider most of what DC cranks out to be fantastic eye candy, but with minimal story-telling and character development, being a huge rush to try to catch up with Marvel. While I can't say I've ever really and truly hated any of DC's stuff, most of it has been disappointing with the exception of 'Wonder Woman'. Call me a band-wagoner if you must, but keep in mind that films like 'Suicide Squad' and 'Justice League', I still managed to give a pass to, despite seeing their flaws. The real question since mid 2016 has been "will anything ever be better than 'Wonder Woman', or even as good?" While the short answer is "probably not" (let's face it, the strong female superhero is one thing DC managed to beat Marvel to), I have to admit that 'Aquaman' here actually does come out pretty well, all things considered. In fact, this pretty much makes second place for me as far as DC's collection is concerned. A frank surprise, considering that by all rights, Aquaman ought to be about the lamest superhero in the DC Universe. Arthur Curry (Jason Momoa) is born to a lighthouse keeper named Tom (Temuera Morrison) and an Atlantian woman named Atlanna (Nicole Kidman) who strongly believes that one day Arthur will unite the worlds of land and sea. However, Atlantian rules dictate that the love between Arthur's parents is forbidden, and Atlanna is pretty much hunted down into exile for her "crimes". Meanwhile, Arthur takes up the role of Aquaman, being stuck somewhere between his appreciation of land dwellers, along with his father, and being half Atlantian, but not necessarily able to show his face around Atlantis due to what he represents. Orm (Patrick Wilson), Arthur's half-brother (and full-blooded Atlantian) uses a pirate named David Kane (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II) as a link between worlds in order to wage a war on the surface dwellers, after decades of our pollution causing problems. His betroved, Mera (Amber Heard) wants no part of it, and calls Arthur to Atlantis in an attempt to stop the worst from happening. To me, this is sort of DC's answer to 'Thor' (the powerful being who is after a specific weapon [the Trident of Atlan, here] in order to make things work, and eventually take his rightful place on a throne, after proving himself worthy). However, plenty of challenge lies ahead for him. perhaps a little less so here, though, as Aquaman is already an established member of the Justice League, and has been for a year. So we do get the best of both worlds here. This is slight origin story blended with hitting the ground running, and the execution of it all flows quite nicely. Up until this point, a strong criticism of mine when it comes to DC has been that things feel rushed and kinda messy. This one isn't that bad. I suppose my only real criticisms here lie within the overall bland acting, as so much of it is taken so seriously by so many, save Momoa, who seems to fully recognize that the whole thing is kinda silly, and goes for the 'Thor: Ragnarok' execution. First coming out of this, I thought the opposite, but after sitting on things for a while, it's clear that Momoa had the right idea for his role, so kudos to him. More criticisms go with a lot of the CG animation here with the impression that at this point, things could look much better. But all in all, this one really isn't that bad at all. Maybe it's due to my overall unfamiliarity and disinterest I've always had with this character, or perhaps I've just lowered my expectations so far, but I was pleasantly surprised by this one overall. While it's no 'Wonder Woman', and still feels rushed in parts (which is odd considering its 2.5-hour running time), it manages to do its own thing without going so incredibly over the top. And while I'm not exactly standing and cheering when it's over, I can nod my head with approval and assume that DC is starting to get their shit together. Despite it being a 3, it's certainly a high 3. 3/5 Due to the lack of material within the second week of December, it made perfect sense for me to give my audience a double-feature for the 26th. This also represents my very last review for the year 2018, and I am pleased to say that this was an incredibly pleasant surprise when considering how I've viewed 'Transformers' films in the past. Basically, I thought the first one was awesome for its time, and it was just a downhill slope of repetitiveness and messy direction from there. However, here we are with a 'Transformers' film that Michael Bay didn't get to tinker with, and instead is helmed by Laika animator, Travis Knight. This is the guy who brought us the animation of 'Coraline', 'ParaNorman', 'The Box Trolls' and 'Kubo and the Two Strings', which he also directed. 'Bumblebee' is really the first time we've seen this guy break away from Laika, and dive right into the mainstream with the now 6th 'Transformers' movie. And oh yeah, for my money, this is the best one of the batch so far. We start things on Cybertron, where the Autobots and Decepticons are at war. Optimus Prime (Peter Cullen) sends B-127 (Dylan O'Brien) to Earth - a hidden planet on which Optimus hopes to establish a new base of operations for the Autobots. We then turn our attention to B-127, and the 'E.T.' like relationship he develops with a girl named Charlie Watson (Hailee Steinfeld) who gives him the name of "Bumblebee" due to what he sounds like after getting his voice box ripped out by a Decepticon named Blitzwing (David Sobolov). Along the way, the pair also befriend the awkward neighbour, Memo (Jorge Lendeborg Jr.), who has a bit of a crush on Charlie, but thank God the love interest doesn't take the front seat here. In the meantime, Colonel Jack Burns (John Cena) is interested in Bumblebee, after he crashes a training exercise upon landing on Earth. Burns sees him as a hostile pretty much immediately. He, and other soldiers of Sector 7, are visited by two Decepticons, Shatter (Angela Bassett) and Dropkick (Justin Theroux), who claim Bumblebee to be a wanted criminal on their home planet, and ask permission to use Earth's satellites to track him. So, while the movie loses a few points for being the 'E.T.' idea all over again (or any kid-plus-strange-pet scenario), it still manages to keep a high rating for me based on a few things the previous films don't have much of. Namely these are emotional investment in the characters, the ability to see how the robot fights play out without it looking like such a mess, and hell, I'm just gonna say it, these felt so much more genuinely like the Transformers I grew up with when we do get to see them. When Soundwave came on the scene, I could have cheered because dammit, they nailed it this time. All in all, this just has more structure, more heart, more character and more emotion to it than any of the previous films, and for that, I'm thankful. I'm hoping that this launches some newer, better 'Transformers' films as well. None of this has to be rebooted at this point, since this pretty much heads into the first film upon its ending. But hopefully we can get more like this. It's good for the old school fans, good for the newcomers, and I daresay, it even its the nostalgia mark really well. 4/5 |