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My Top 10 Favorite Films of 2017

Good news everyone! No need for intros here, let’s end the year on a high note shall we! Here, we, go!

#10

Writer/Director Sofia Coppola further proves her mastery of filmmaking with The Beguiled. A drama set in Virginia during the Civil War when a wounded Union soldier makes his way to an all girls school in the summer, the Headmistress and students wonder what to do with him, and subsequently find out how he affects their lives.

The biggest standout for me was the lighting and cinematography. Each shot is perfectly well framed as well as only using light sources that would be available in that setting. Candles, lanterns, and the sun brought this ambiance of uneasiness. The location of schoolhouse and it’s surroundings was marvelous as well, transporting you to an almost ethereal bayou of sorts.

Colin Farrell continues to impress as he furthers his career. Bringing an edge of quiet fear, seduction, and anger all within a 95 minute runtime.

#9

I know this film was very divisive for comic book fans, and I can understand some of their qualms, but Justice League was just a heck of a lot of fun.

I loved the coming together of the team, as well exploring a bit into the newer character’s stories. Ezra Miller and Jason Momoa were the standout actors here.

I loved the humor, the interactions between the characters, and man did I love the scene when The Flash knew he was in trouble.

Despite it’s problems, the sometimes not great CGI, I still had fun, and would easily revisit this film again as it made me hopeful for what is to come from DC Films.

#8

The first time I saw this movie, I wasn’t super crazy on it. Did I think it was funny? Yes, but something didn’t quite hit the first time. So after a second viewing, I grew to love this film. While the first Guardians is a little more straight forward, plot wise, stop the bad guys from doing this, and save the day. Guardians 2 is a little less structured, there isn’t a necessary Point A-Point B plot because most of this film is exploring familial relationships. Whether its Peter and his dad, Gamora and Nebula, or Yondu and Rocket. It brings forward the idea that your family doesn’t always have to be blood. And by the time this movie ends, I was a mess.

#7

Blade Runner 2049 was a surprise for me this year. Mainly because I’ve never seen the original. I was curious, it looked cool, I’ve enjoyed director Denis Villeneuve’s work in the past, so I thought I’d give it a shot.

The way this film is shot is extraordinary. You could take any  shot out of this film and have it be a painting on your wall. The sound was so booming and explosive it transported you to this neo-noir Los Angeles. The acting is superb as well, especially the chemistry between Ryan Gosling and Ana de Armas. You felt from the first scene they have that this is a couple who’ve known each other for a while.

My only nitpick with this film is a pro and a con, which is it’s pacing. This film moves much slower than a normal film does these days. It has a very slow pace, which I enjoyed for most of it, because it allowed you to soak in this world with so much to see and hear. But towards the end, when things start coming together, you expect for things to speed up, which they don’t. In that, its very realistic to a world that is far removed from ours. I’d just hoped it would’ve wrapped up a little faster.

Despite that nitpick, I loved this film, its great, and it is genuinely a great mystery that keeps you guessing until the end.

#6

This past July, the web slinging, wall crawler returned to the MCU in a big way.

The biggest achievement of this movie is the cast that is multi-racial, extremely talented, and can make you laugh at a moments notice. Director Jon Watts was able to represent the population of New York with the characters they have, even changing the origins of some to fit the story.

Tom Holland is obviously the standout, being able to be funny, awkward, and charming all in one go. I just loved that we actually got a high school looking Spider-Man. Yes, I know Tom Holland is in his 20’s, but it’s all about what age you can play, not what age you are. Versus Maguire and Garfield, looking like they were both about start investing in 401k’s.

Michael Keaton as The Vulture does a great job, probably being the second best villain, behind Loki. He was able to make you understand where he was coming from and why he was doing what he was doing.

This is a big thumbs up for me that’ll have you laughing all the way through.

#5

All I can say is cool, cool, cool. I’ve been a fan of writer/director Edgar Wright for a bit, and his films always have this top, fun layer that you can appreciate, but then there’s this emotional layer underneath that just hits it home, and Baby Driver is no exception.

Ansel Elgort plays Baby, a get away driver with tinnitus, so to drown out the ringing in his ears, he constantly plays music on old iPods. What comes out of this film is a rollicking good time with all of the great witty dialogue Wright is known for, along some of the best edited action I’ve seen in a film. Since we watch the film through Baby’s perspective, we’re constantly hearing the music he’s listening to, either loud, or droned out. But when the action kicks up, you can’t help but say wow as gunshots and hits are timed perfectly to soundtrack in Baby’s ears. And I’m just a nerd for that kind of stuff.

Ansel Elgort has charm coming out of his ears in this film, and makes you wonder how he isn’t swarmed by women everywhere he goes. You also have a great supporting cast in Jon Hamm, Jon Bernthal, Jamie Foxx, and a small role from Flea of the Red Hot Chili Peppers.

If you’re looking for an action flick with a twist check this one out.

#4

With no surprise to myself, Marvel Studios gets another spot on this list with Thor: Ragnarok. I was immediately hooked into this new tone change from the first trailer. Marvel was finally going to let Chris Hemsworth do what he does best, and that’s be hysterical. I think the person to thank for that is New Zealand director, Taika Waititi, who’s known for wacky, off the cuff humor that works brilliantly.

I was hooked within the first minute when Thor is trapped in a cage, talking to someone about how he got there, and they flip the camera, and it’s a skeleton, which then proceeds to drop his jaw. That is the type of ridiculous humor I love. We then get a taste of the awesome action accompanied by Led Zeppelin’s Immigrant Song. And I was smiling ear to ear like a fool.

While the previous Thor movies have been done with a more serious, Shakespearean tone, this one goes for crazy, balls out, 80’s metal look with almost every frame look like something you’d want painted on the side of a van.

All of the actors were great. Tessa Thompson was great as Valkyrie, I loved the appearance by Benedict Cumberbatch as Doctor Strange, and of course you can’t forget Tom Hiddleston as Loki and his chemistry with Hemsworth. Other great additions were Jeff Goldblum as The Grandmaster and Taika Waititi voicing a rock alien named Korg.

To me this was the tightest made film that Marvel Studios put out, with a crisp runtime of a little more than two hours it’s just enough to make you want more, but not long enough to check your phone.

#3

Anyone who knows me knew this would be on my top 10 of the year. I’m a Star Wars nut! What can I say that I haven’t already? Porgs, porgs, porgs, porgs, and porgs.

If you haven’t seen this film yet, do yourself a favor and get your ass to theater.

#2

I’ll be completely honest here, I didn’t have high hopes for Wonder Woman. At the time, here’s a studio with three movies with mixed results critically, and this one being directed by someone who hadn't made a film since 2003. But I went opening day with some slight chance of hope. And I gladly ate my words.

Words can’t necessarily describe how great a film Wonder Woman is. Patty Jenkins made what some have called a masterpiece in superhero filmmaking. I agree with about 98% of that. My only qualm was that on the second viewing in the theater, I did feel its runtime a little more, which is why it isn’t in the number 1 spot.

Gal Gadot and Chris Pine have a romance that seems practical for the amount of time they spent together, it seemed genuine, and I loved how Diana would call people out on their shit if she thought they were wrong. The No Man’s Land sequence left me in tears of joy at how wonderful everything worked from the cinematography, the music, the acting, the action, just everything.

You can’t miss this one, even if you aren’t a fan of DC characters, this is just a damn good movie.

I wanted to put some honorable mentions that didn’t quite make the cut.

What would’ve been #12

Christopher Nolan’s war film, Dunkirk is a technical marvel. The cinematography is breath taking and the sound scared the shit out of me. I saw this in an IMAX theater and when bullets fired, you never knew where they were coming from until they made contact. This literally made me jump several times throughout. The reason that this didn’t make the top 10 is that none of the characters particularly stood out in any way. I could tell you the names of the actors, but not their character’s names.

What would’ve been #11

The reason It isn’t higher is because I’m not a fan of horror movies. But I was intrigued at all of the critical success this movie was gaining, so I saw it with a few friends.

The reason this movie works as well as it does is because of the writing and the great child actors they got. Aside from Finn Wolfhard, of Stranger Things fame, the rest of these kids were unknown. But damn it if they didn’t knock it out of the park with their acting chops and chemistry. But if it wasn’t for that reason, I probably would’ve left the theater within ten minutes because I don’t do scary well. And as much as I enjoyed this one, I probably won’t revisit it.

And my favorite film of 2017 is

Logan is the perfect combination of my two favorite types of films. Action blockbusters and deep, emotional character pieces. When I went into Logan, I didn’t know exactly what to expect. I’d heard it took some inspiration from some of the comics where Wolverine is an older man, but that was about it. What I got was something that seriously fucked me up.

Like a lot of people, I grew up with Hugh Jackman playing Wolverine since the first X-men film in 2000. And it seemed with each iteration Jackman tried to deepen the character to reveal Logan’s core, instead of just being a mindless killing machine. With this you get the best of both worlds. Jackman stripped Wolverine down to the point it seems like he’s given up and is ready to die. But at the same time we get to see what would actually be the effects of a guy with claws for hands mauling people like an animal, and you learn that in the first few minutes. It is gory, but damn is it awesome!

Patrick Stewart also has a phenomenal performance as a Charles Xavier that we’ve never seen the likes of in the films. His mind wandering, breaking down, plagued by what I assume is the mutant version of dementia or Alzheimer’s. Seeing Stewart’s and Jackman’s near 20 years of working together is heart warming, heart breaking, and brutal.

This film also breeds a new star in newcomer Dafne Keen as Laura. This is a girl who is wise beyond her years as an actress. For about the first half of the film she doesn’t say a word, but you see all the emotion in her face communicated brilliantly. She is definitely someone who will have a prosperous career.

What director James Mangold succeeds with Logan is that he’s able to make a superhero film, but not have it be about something super, per se, but makes it about something everyone can relate to, family. Whether it’s Logan’s relationship to Charles, Logan to Caliban, Logan to Laura, its about the relationships that you grow with and foster when you inevitably have to say goodbye. Mangold was able to make a western, a superhero film, a family piece, a deep character study, an action film. This literally has something for almost everyone. I think Logan is the perfect example of what the superhero genre could and should become.

I’ll be completely honest, like I said before, this movie fucked me up. And I was crying for almost the last five minutes. And for me to cry at a piece of media, whether it be a series or movie isn’t uncommon, but to the degree that I did was what stayed with me. It was a typical silent cry that I usually do with most films I see, but this was uncontrollable, hard breathing, loud noised, ugly face sobbing. When the word “Daddy” is said, I lose it every time.

I guess I didn’t expect to get as attached to this film as I did. But I guess with Jackman playing that character for as long as he did, he sort of became synonymous with that role. I guess it’s to the effect of Mark Hamill as Luke Skywalker or Daniel Radcliffe as Harry Potter. But the sendoff Jackman and Mangold give this character is one of pure mastery, sadness, and hope. With the Fox/Disney deal, there is some part of me that wishes Jackman will return as Wolverine for the MCU, but if he doesn’t, that’s fine as well. Because this film is all but perfect to me.

I hope this film gets nominations for Jackman, Stewart, Keen, and Mangold for the Oscars because I think it deserves it because it broke boundaries of what a superhero film could be. And that is why Logan is my favorite film of 2017.

I want to thank you guys for reading this and for the support. Here’s hoping that 2018 will be even better! In the vain of a dumb catchphrase I tried to start years ago, stay tuned for more blotter!

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My Top 10 Least Favorite Films of 2017

I hope everyone has had a good year cinematically and personally. Before I get into this, I just wanted to state something. For this list and my Top 10 Favorite list, this is just my opinion. I imagine some will disagree with me and thats fine. I’ll have a small bit explaining my overall feelings, but most of these movies I have reviews for on the blog, so if you’d like to, go and take a look at them.

There are still some films like The Disaster Artist and The Shape of Water that I haven’t seen yet, but merely due to the fact that the area where I live doesn’t always get the independent style-Oscar films immediately, I haven’t had a chance. But I am looking forward to seeing those.

Also, I may not have the worst of the worst on this particular list because I’m obviously not a professional critic, I don’t get screeners or early screenings of everything. I go to the movies on my own dime, and if I don’t feel like a film is worth seeing, then I don’t. All that being said, I hope you enjoy reading this. Let’s get into it.

#10

While Coco is beautifully designed and animated, I found the plot to be predictable. I could see where things were going just on the basis of seeing so many other animated films in my lifetime. It also didn’t help that my screening had nearly an hour of pre-show between commercials, trailers, and that ridiculously stupid Frozen “short.” So by the time the movie started, I was already annoyed.

#9

A disappointing sequel to what was an amazing surprise of a first entry. It felt in a way that it was parodying itself for some of the film. Not many of the jokes landed for me, Julianne Moore’s performance was so cartoonishly evil, all she needed was a mustache to twirl. Also the advertising was annoying as it threw Channing Tatum front and center, and he has all of about maybe five minutes of screen time. I just hate it when the trailers and TV spots do a whole bait and switch game.

#8

Now I don’t necessarily feel like Detroit was a bad movie, it’s just a hard movie to watch. What I thought would be the story of the city of Detroit during these events, turned out to be a 2 hour long racist police interrogation. The acting is all fine and good, but it’s just not a movie you watch to pick yourself up. Its similar to me like Schindler’s List, it’s important to have this particular story told, but I don’t think I need to watch it again because it just hits you in the gut with how unrelentingly painful it is. Also again with the advertising and promoting gave the impression that John Boyega was the main character, when in fact he’s a very minor character. Again, bait and switch.

#7

I don’t remember too much of this film, other than I know I didn’t finish it. I remember the trailers making it look like a typical “a kid and their pet blank” movie. When it started it seemed like an extremely black comedy of the likes of Dr. Strangelove. But then about the next 30 minutes, its this girl and her super pig wandering around. And with what seemed as such a jarring shift in tone bothers me and by the 45 minute mark I was so uninterested, I just turned it off.

#6

While I commend Kumail Nanjiani and Emily V. Gordon for putting their story out of how their relationship began, this film seemed a little too cut and paste with other R-Rated rom-coms. It was interesting to see a romance from another culture’s perspective, but it seemed to similar, structure-wise to many of Judd Apatow’s films like Knocked Up, This is 40, and 40 Year Old Virgin.

#5

This was such a disappointment for me as I was a fan of the previous two Apes films in this trilogy. The CGI was very impressive in this film, having it looked better than before, the pacing of this movie was so slow. The only positive of this movie was Steve Zahn’s character of Bad Ape. The majority of this movie is a mopey revenge trip with Andy Serkis’ Caesar, with an escape from a prison. And then a little shit goes down, but honestly there was more action in Rise than this. Just a big let down.

#4

Another show of character that Disney’s live action department has run out of ideas. What is almost a beat by beat remake of the original, this makes a bigger case that whoever started this idea of remaking their animated films to live action should be fired in my opinion. They try to put in some new songs, in my opinion, a ploy to attempt an Oscar nomination for Best Original Song. Shoddy CGI, and heavily auto-tuned Emma Watson and Dan Stevens make for ear grading musical numbers. The only thing that is worthwhile in here is Luke Evans’ Gaston. He embodies the character so well here, it makes it a little eerie throughout watching this movie.

#3

This hardly works as a movie. What I imagine is a summarization of an entire series is squished into a two hour run time, feels like it. It jumps from point to point, making no discernible sense as to what’s happening or why. Willem Dafoe is mildly enjoyable as the voice of Ryuk, but it isn’t enough to save what looks and sounds like a shitty version of a CW murder mystery show.

#2

A glossy shimmering musical wrapper of a movie that’s candy inside is about a man and his never ending obsession to climb the social and economic ladder no matter the costs. Clichés are abound with too many to count. Themes that are touched so vapidly, it barely scrapes the surface of what the side characters feel. The anachronistic music fits about as well as the original Shakespeare lines do with the modern setting of Baz Luhrman’s Romeo+Juliet. And such a complete waste of a phenomenal actress such as Michelle Williams.

#1

There aren’t many movies I hate, because sometimes in the cracks of a bad movie, you can see the hard work that went into a certain set piece, or the costumes. But I fucking hated Murder on the Orient Express. Whatever attempts at humor they try, fail. The plot is so goddamn ridiculous and non-sensical that I left the theater angry for wasting my time. The good cast they assemble is wasted, and the pacing is so slow I was getting bored, drifting off into a daydream. I hated this movie.

So there is my list of least favorite films of this year. Does anyone agree, or disagree? Let me know. Stay tuned for my best of list later.

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The Greatest Showman Review

So this will likely be my last review of the year, seeing as we only have three more days of 2017 at the time of writing. While I’ve had some high highs cinema-wise, I’ve had some low lows. Sadly the last film I see this year theatrically is a low.

The Greatest Showman is a musical film about the startup of P.T. Barnum’s Circus starring Hugh Jackman, Michelle Williams, and Zac Efron.

I don’t know if I can say I wholeheartedly hated this film, but I sure disliked it. While this film certainly wrangled in some talent, I think the film’s problems lay with the people behind the camera.

The film’s writing is the biggest compilation of film clichés I’ve seen in quite a while. They try to have the group of outcasts cliché, but you know that the outcasts are the good guys, the father who works too much that doesn’t see his family, the poor boy loves the rich girl and the father disapproves cliché, and the tiniest bit of a “sign of the times” racism cliché. As I was watching, I was thinking the events are going to play out like this, and then this will happen and so on. It was completely predictable with no depth to its characters or its story.

Now in my life, I’ve seen, listened, and performed in a fair amount of musicals and plays to understand what elements are used to make a successful show. In my opinion, with musicals, you have to have a delicate balance of songs, story progression, and character development.

The music of a musical should either have some internal monologue or purpose to the character, or have the story develop through it. Also just as a film in general, you need to have a goal in mind for your characters to get to. And make sure that you’re characters have some sort of arc, where their attitude towards something has changed, or making sure they aren’t in the same position that they were at the start of the story. Why I’m listing and explaining all of this is because this film does none of that whatsoever.

The songs, while being extremely catchy and well sung seem like someone’s back catalog of old songs that they’ve tried to push for pop singers to record, but were rejected so they threw it in this film. Some of them literally come out of nowhere, don’t add anything to the character, and don’t progress the plot through any fashion. I’m starting to get the feeling they almost made this film just to sell soundtracks.

The “progression” of the story makes little to no sense. In that I mean, one event leads to another, then another until you get to the end of the film. The editing would just plop from one set piece, or song piece to distract the audience from the fact they have very little story.

And the character development, oh the character development, there was almost none to this movie. Honestly, this is probably Hugh Jackman’s worst role in a while. And I’m not meaning to say that he did bad acting in this film, but that he is supposed to be the hero of the film, but he’s kind of the worst person. I’m going to spoil most of this film because frankly, I don’t care right now. So Jackman’s character lies to banks to get loans, essentially lies to people who have some disabilities or disfigurations to make money off of them, constantly is trying to seek out admiration from those that think less of him, dumps his troupe to work with someone “more legitimate,” lies to his wife about how he got the money to buy their house that they’re being evicted from, and then his building gets burnt down. And all of these problems get solved within a couple minute song sequence. It’s just infuriating at how little effort this movie gives.

You’d think that we’d get more character from the people who are the attraction of the show, but they’re given nothing more than one song that supposed to be the inspiring “I’m me and that’s okay” song.

Zac Efron does all right with what he’s given. Frankly I’ve never been a huge fan of his, but he wasn’t bad.

I’ll say the biggest waste of this film is Michelle Williams. She’s one of my favorite actresses and in this film, she’s delegated to the wife role who's only purpose is to pine after her husband when he’s away role. This woman has moved me to tears more times than I can count in multiple films, and here she gets a duet and one song and that’s pretty much all you see of her character.

As badly as I’m now realizing I don’t like this film, man does Zendaya try to do her best to save it. With the minuscule role she has, she acts her butt off and you can tell she’s trying to put the work into the song numbers. I’m genuinely interested in seeing where she goes past this movie.

Granted I didn’t have huge expectations for this film, but I didn’t think I’d be in this mindset after watching it. And I don't think I was alone. I couldn’t count how many times I saw people using their phones while in theater, and though that is absolutely one of my biggest pet peeves, it tells how much it grabbed other people.

Personally, I wouldn’t recommend this movie to folks. If you’re curious about the music, give it a listen on iTunes or wherever else you can, there isn’t much story in between that most movie lovers couldn’t figure out.

As I’ve taken my reviewing more seriously this year, I’ve noticed I’ve gained a couple of new followers. I want to thank you for reading my opinions. It’s nice to know that someone may feel the same you do about movies, which is a particularly special thing to me.

So for my next two posts, like many critic and reviewers do, I’ll be make a Best Of and a Worst Of the year lists. I’m not sure which will come first, but I hope you’ll look into it when it comes out.

[popcornblotter]

Rogue One Review

If there are some people who aren’t aware, Star Wars is back in a huge way. In 2013, Disney bought Lucasfilm from George Lucas for somewhere in the ballpark of 4.5 billion dollars. With this new acquisition, the plan was to make new films, books, video games, and comics to tell new stories in this galaxy. And with The Last Jedi coming out in a little more than a month, I figured I’d watch some of the previous films to get in the mood, and why not write about them.

2016’s Rogue One: A Star Wars Story is directed by Gareth Edwards and stars Felicity Jones, Diego Luna, Mads Mikkelsen, and Ben Mendelsohn. The film takes place in between Episodes 3 and 4, with the Empire at its full power.

The plot of the film focuses around Jones’ character Jyn Erso, a daughter of an Imperial scientist who gets mixed up in an operation to steal the plans to the first Death Star.

With this being the first non-saga film, I’m sure it was important to make this film as different as it could be from what the normal feel of the other films in the franchise. I think they achieved that, with the older films being very black and white about what side you were on, this film goes into the grey. The bad guys aren’t necessarily evil, some were just doing a job, and the good guys weren’t free of any mistakes either. Within the first few minutes of meeting Luna’s character, he shoots and kills his informant. It makes the characters, as well as the galaxy they live in, more complicated, and thus more realistic.

I did like most of the characters in this film, while Jones’ was lacking a bit in charisma at times, the stand outs were Alan Tudyk as K2-SO, Donny Yen as Chirrut Îmwe, and Wen Jiang as Baze Malbus. Tudyk brought a wonderful sense of dark sarcastic humor to an otherwise serious film, and the relationship between Îmwe and Malbus were that of bickering brothers.

While we see mostly new faces, we do get a few familiar ones, with Jimmy Smits reprising his role as Bail Organa and James Earl Jones to make appearances as Darth Vader. While I wasn’t a big fan of the prequels when I was younger, but I’ve come to appreciate them for what they are, and seeing Smits enter the film, I got a jolt of nostalgia and happiness from seeing Bail back on screen. And of course the scene that we can’t not talk about is the last scene Vader is in. Through many various forms of media, we hear that Darth Vader is one of the most dangerous people in this galaxy, and we don’t see too much of that in the original trilogy, but this scene gives you the scope of how scary Vader is and gives him a new sense of ferocity and danger about him.

While I do enjoy this film, the pacing is a bit of a problem. Many critics have pointed out that the first two acts lack while the third thrives, and I agree for the most part. While there are some moments in the first two acts that are great, it’s very slow paced. But the movie does make up for it in its final battle. A mix of high octane space dogfights and up close and personal shootouts on the ground. I’ll say that I was more of a fan of the space battle just for some of the fist pumping moments it has. One shot that Edwards uses a few times I’m a huge fan of in any film. It’s the type of shot where they bolt the camera down to the vehicle and we get a ride along feel, and they use that technique very well aside some of the Rebellion’s X-Wings.

Is this my favorite of the Star Wars films, no, but I do it enjoy it a lot more than the prequels. I’d most likely put it in the middle if I had to rank it. This isn’t a n essential viewing if you’re a casual fan of the franchise, but it gives you some good moments and some great ret-conning of some plot holes in the original trilogy. So if you’re up for an interesting side quest, check this film out.

[popcornblotter]

Amazing Spider-Man Review

With Spider-Man: Homecoming being released in July, I thought I’d review the films of the web-slinging crime fighter that I own. I know that the Amazing Spider-Man series is divisive amongst critics and fans. When I first caught this film for the first time several years after it released, I thoroughly enjoyed it, same as the sequel. I wanted to go back and look at these films with a critical eye and deduce if the film works on an analytical level.

One thing that is always explained from critics and online personalities is that Andrew Garfield brings the Spider-Man, not so much the Peter Parker, and I tend to agree. The nerdiness of Parker that is shown fairly well in Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man is no where to be found. Yes, Garfield’s Parker is smart when it comes to science, but he comes off as a rebellious kid with social anxiety and nervous tick. One thing that seems to bleed from the comic book to the screen is Parker’s sense of right and wrong, for a moment. Towards the beginning, as a character introduction Peter tries to stop a bully from messing with another kid. This leads to Parker getting beat up, and you think this guy is all right, but then you get to his home life and it seems he doesn’t think about anything other than himself, forgetting about errands or favors he needs to do for his relatives. Garfield’s character is extremely inconsistent.

The tone is a bit inconsistent as well. At the beginning, it makes you think that its some kind of mystery, then it has tones of horror once Peter gets bitten, and many other things that detract it from being a successful film. We don’t see Spider-Man, in costume until around the 50 minute mark, and mind you this is a 2 hour and 15 minute film including credits. So about half of this movie is just about a high school kid dealing with normal problems. And I’d understand that we need to get to know the character before he becomes the hero, but the problem is that Garfield’s Parker isn’t strong enough to carry that run time until he puts the suit on. The director spends way too much time making the science work, and explaining the origins of the character. That would be fine if we didn’t know this character, but its Spider-Man. As far as recognizable origin stories, it’s probably in the top three with Batman and Superman.

In the time waiting for Spider-Man to become Spider-Man, we get a lot of jokes that don’t land too well, awkward teenage conversations, and a random skateboard montage that would literally change nothing about the film.

Okay, that was a bit of rant. When I get on a tangent, its hard for me to stop sometimes, now on to the positives. Garfield’s Spider-Man is very close to the comic version, cracking jokes while in a fight, and using his intelligence along with his strength and agility. The first introductory scene we get of him in the suit subduing a car thief is probably the highlight of the film for me.

Martin Sheen as Uncle Ben was also a nice addition to the cast and stood out with the limited amount of screen time that he has. And also the “With great power comes great responsibility” speech is tweaked a bit, and it fits the situation fairly well.

A few of the web swinging sequences give you an adrenaline rush, making you feel like you’re right next to Spider-Man for a ride.

As a fan of comic book films, I can enjoy this in the simplest form I can. As a critic, this movie doesn’t hold up too well. The CGI is okay, the tone is all over the place, and it takes too long to get to the superhero in a superhero film. For a film that was released only five years ago, it already feels dated somehow. If you were to find this in a video store, or on Netflix, I may recommend it if you’ve got nothing going on or if you’re a Spider-Man fan who’s curious. Overall, its kind of a meh. It may be a while before I pop this one in again.

[popcornblotter]

At Home Mini Review Round-Up

Hey again, like my last post, I’m writing this just to catch up on the films I rewatched that is a part of my personal Blu-Ray collection, or something I may have found streaming. Let’s get into, there’s a lot.

#1: Star Wars: Episode 4: A New Hope

Before The Last Jedi came out, I decided to re-watch the original trilogy along with the Force Awakens. I got a little tied up with the holidays, which is why there weren’t any reviews then.

A New Hope has always been my personal favorite film of this franchise. I know a lot may disagree, going with the very popular vote that Empire is a better film. While I can agree that Empire is technically a better made film, New Hope will always be my gold star. I love the classic hero’s journey, the look and feel that this film had the job of producing was extremely well done. And honestly, if there had never been another Star Wars film, this would stand well on its own.

#2: Star Wars: Episode 5: The Empire Strikes Back

Like I said, I do agree that this is a better made film, quality wise. With expanding this galaxy, there was probably an even more immense task of comparing to the quality of the first.

I’ve always loved Yoda as a character, but not because he’s this wise master who could do great things, but because sort of a little asshole to Luke when they first meet. I love the very weird performance that Frank Oz gives to this character.

I know many people on the internet claim that Empire is the darkest of the films, I don’t know if I necessarily agree with that. Yes, it has its moments, but I think people honestly forget how funny this is due to the writing and great performances by Harrison Ford and Carrie Fisher. What I love about the humor is that it isn’t humor for the sake of humor, it’s all generated naturally and comes form the character.

#3: Star Wars: Episode 6: The Return of the Jedi

I like Return of the Jedi well enough but as a film, it lacks a bit in pace. I like the stuff in Jabba’s Palace, it gives off the vibes of the old school serials that Lucas was inspired by. I don’t even mind the Ewoks, it’s more to do with between Jabba’s Palace and the Battle of Endor, the film slogs a little. I personally think they could’ve cut the entire scene of C-3PO reenacting the previous two films to the Ewoks. I don’t think that would have changed anything other than ramping up to the next battle.

But when it does kick into the action, its good. I think the Throne Room scene on the second Death Star is well acted and executed. Ian McDiarmid’s performance is just the right levels of terrifying and mustache twirling. But I love the shot when Luke rages out on Vader where it goes profile, and all you see are their silhouettes with their lightsabers, and the music adds so much to the tension, making you believe that Luke may actually kill Vader.

Despite that great scene, this is probably my least favorite of the original trilogy. But it’s still a fun one to go back to.

#4: Star Wars: Episode 7: The Force Awakens

Personally, I loved Force Awakens the minute I left the theater. I think it brought some new life into Star Wars while harking back to some of the old elements we love about these stories. Do I think it was a re-hash of New Hope? Hell no. I think there was some purposeful mirroring to the original trilogy. This film had a hard job to do bringing fans back after the lackluster criticism of the prequels. It had to give some of what you wanted and some new that you didn’t know you wanted.

I love all of the new characters they introduced, Kylo Ren in particular. I’ve heard a lot of criticism towards this character and the performance given by Adam Driver that I think is a tad unjustified. “He’s not as cool as Vader or Maul, he’s not as scary or calculating as Palpatine, he’s just a whiny little emo kid.” I just think that Kylo Ren is a very different kind f villain that Star Wars and its fan base has never been introduced to. I love Vader and Palpatine, even Maul give the extension his character was given in the Clone Wars animated series, but they are fairly one note. Which I honestly think is fine given for the films that they were in at the time those films were made. Other than them being evil, there wasn’t much more to them, aside from Vader. Kylo is a complex villain, and at the point we see him in Force Awakens he is nowhere close to being at the level of evil as the previously mentioned. But I think that is purposeful. When we see him talking to Vader’s helmet, we understand that he still feels the light side of the force in him when he wants to be on the dark side. I may have already said this in my Last Jedi review, but the story of Kylo Ren is his ascension into the legendary evil status of the previous Sith lords. This isn’t just a mustache twirling bad guy, this is someone you can empathize with on a certain level and understand. I think what he does in the end of this film is comparative to Anakin murdering the children in Revenge of the Sith, and the events of the Last Jedi are his Battle on Mustafar, that was his last step to becoming the villain he wants to be, which is something very novel to see in films like this. I think by the time we get to Episode 9, he’ll be at that level of evil.

But there I go again on a tangent. I think the Force Awakens is a wonderful addition to the legacy that George Lucas created.

#5: Bright

This was one of those films I checked out because the marketing for it was everywhere. I’ve worked a fair amount of movie theaters in my life, and one lesson I took from the last one was something one of my managers said. “The more promotional material you see for a movie, the more likely it is to be shit.” I took that to heart, and in my 3 years of working at that theater, I agree with that statement. Bright is no exception.

Directed by David Ayer and written by Max Landis, Bright is a film that was produced specifically to air on Netflix. From what I’ve read and heard from various podcasts and articles, they threw a lot of money at this, I don’t what that number was, but to be able to afford Will Smith, you’ve got to throw some serious money.

I’ll say that David Ayer is a kind of a director that’s work either works well, or doesn’t at all for me. I really enjoyed Fury, his World War 2 film that took a very Vietnam War approach. But on the other hand, you have Suicide Squad, which I think is giant dumpster fire that’s trying really hard to be Guardians of the Galaxy.

And Max Landis is another one of those creatives that I have a hard time placing. I think his film Chronicle, was a very interesting take on the superhero genre. But from what I’ve seen lately, he’s been hard to find a hit since. Also, I’ve found his online persona, either on Twitter or YouTube to exasperatingly grading, like giving a four year old Mountain Dew spiked with Red Bull. So where does Bright fall, why don’t you ask it’s neighbor in the dumpster.

If you’re unaware of the story, Bright is a cop film that happens to have Orcs and Elves that are a heavy handed metaphor for racism and race relations in America. This film slogs with it's pacing, making its 2 hour runtime feel like 4. The characters are so thinly veiled you could literally define their character trait as good, bad, asshole, or any combo. The writing in this film is so atrocious I couldn’t believe this was written by a grown adult. It handles cursing like a 13 year old who just discovered curse words, so that’s all they say now.

There’s not much else I can say about it, but I’d recommend a YouTube video by a woman named Lindsay Ellis who goes deep into why this film is bad and lazily hatched. Also check out any of her other video essays, they’re super entertaining and educational.

#6: iBoy

Another Netflix original that is middling to say the least. The story is of a teenage boy living in a poor area of London, when he and friend who lives nearby are attacked. Afterwards, somehow the kid attains the ability to manipulate electronics with his mind. From there, he decides to go be a vigilante, trying to punish those who hurt his friend, played by Maisie Williams. Like Bright, iBoy suffers a bit from pacing issues, but the biggest problem is not understand where the more interesting story lay.

Intermittently throughout the film we keep checking in on Maisie Williams seeing how she’s coping with the attack, not coming outside for days or weeks, avoiding school, and just overall terrified. Towards the end she gets a big moment where Williams pulls a great performance of showing someone suffering from a traumatic event. It hit me then that this film should’ve been way more focused on the friend, but then we wouldn’t have all of the tropy vigilante crap that comes from lower end films like this.

#7: The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad

This is a very weird romp of a Disney cartoon. I remember as a child watching the Sleepy Hollow section, but never seeing the Mr. Toad part. I’d found this on Hulu one day, and figured I’d give it a go.

All things that I’ll say negative or positive, the animation is extremely well done considering it came out during the 40s.

The Mr. Toad section of the film is a bit annoying in my opinion. The story is essentially about a guy who’s an asshole who doesn’t care about anyone’s well being or feelings, or his friends for that matter, until he gets scammed out of the deed for his home. Somehow he convinces his friends to help steal the deed back with some wacky action and all is fine and good. This was 30 minutes and felt 20 minutes too long.

I was more hopeful about the Sleepy Hollow story here, having somewhat fond memories of it as a kid. But man, I definitely don’t remember how much nothing happens here.

Like Mr. Toad, Ichabod Crane, the central character here, is an asshole. This weird, goofy looking dude is somehow the new town hunk that exploits the townspeople into making him extravagant meals. And when he finds a girl he “likes” and wants to marry, it’s because her father is the richest guy in town and wants the inheritance. As a kid, I don’t remember 80% of this short. I thought the Headless Horseman chase was a lot longer, but it ends up being about the last 5-10 minutes of it. Now that section is what sells it, with the creepy backgrounds, the sound effects, the music, and that blood curdling laugh of the Horseman when he shows up. In my opinion, if you have any interest in revisiting it, skip to the last ten minutes and you’ll get what you came for.

#8: Sicario

Sicario was one of those films I meant to watch when it came out, but never did. But I came across it on Hulu and thought why not.

The tension that comes from this film is palpable. The action is realistic, nerve wracking, and doesn’t shy away from looking at the harshness of the situation.

This film is proof in my opinion that director Denis Villeneuve is a master filmmaker in the beginning of his career.

I know there is a sequel coming out later this year, but without Emily Blunt’s character, but since she was the audience personified, trying to figure out what the plan was and who these people were that she was working with, I’m not sure how it will work. I do think this is a film to check out.

#9: Me Before You

I won’t lie, I can enjoy a romantic film when done well. Me Before You is about a young woman who falls in love with a paraplegic man who she cares for.

The reason this film works is the chemistry between Emilia Clarke and Sam Claflin as the couple the film centers on. The relationship isn’t the immediate head over heels story, the love comes through time and work. The film is a little clunky in it's editing, with some oddly placed montages coming out of nowhere. But by the end of  it, I was balling, because I’m not afraid of crying at movies when they hit me in the feels.

#10: Philadelphia

A court trial film during the AIDS crisis, about AIDS, about homophobia, and about life. Tom Hanks and Denzel Washington deliver powerful performances directed by the same guy who made Silence of the Lambs. A genuine court movie that doesn’t treat it’s audience like they’re children that moved me to tears. One of the more interesting roles that I’ve seen Hanks in. Definitely check this out.

#11: Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation

An action film that I found incredibly dull and uninteresting. I personally think they should change the title of these films to Tom Cruise Wants to Die on Camera, because I honestly think Cruise tries to tempt fate each time. And it feels like he’s trying so hard to do these stunts just for the headlines.

As far as a film goes, it seemed like a rinse, wash, repeat cycle. A team of people talk about how a mission is impossible, then they do the impossible in succeeding and then they do it again. I was so bored by the 90 minute mark I didn’t even finish it. Skip this one in my opinion.

#12: Captain America: The First Avenger

And in honor of the impending war of infinity, I decided I wanted to go back and watch the historic effort done by Marvel Studios. I’ll say the only one I don’t own is The Incredible Hulk, so that review won’t be happening. Also, saw it on TV once, very meh for me. Side note, the order I’m watching these films back is in a supposed chronological order according to a couple of different sites. So here we go with the first.

Personally, I don’t think the first Captain America film gets the credit it deserves. I enjoyed it immediately out of seeing it in theaters, but what I come to understand is many see it as a middling film.

I think what this film achieves is much more than what it fails at. Chris Evans takes a character that would essentially be the “eat your vegetables” spokesman and all of its corniness, and turns Steve Rogers into a man that you can aspire to be. Even pre-Super Soldier Serum, his efforts to try and join the army and not back down from a fight are what make him a great character.

I also think this film is great for finding a gem like Hayley Atwell for playing Agent Peggy Carter. This character could’ve easily been put to the sidelines as the love interest, but the writers thought progressively and made her a woman of action. The humor, sternness, and kindness she plays Peggy is what made her so electric, hence them giving her a show to give us what happens post First Avenger, which got cancelled too early in my opinion.

What director Joe Johnston achieves at is making a story that could’ve easily been a yawn full of laughs at how dated this could’ve been, and made it a great character piece about a guy who doesn’t like bullies and will stand up to them if needed.

#13: Iron Man

Obviously, we have to give the commendations to Jon Favreau for bringing this film, otherwise the MCU wouldn’t be what it is today.

What can I say that many haven’t already said? Not much, I’m not that clever or have a thesaurus sized knowledge of words at my disposal.

But I think what this film encapsulates so well what is the backbone of most of the Marvel heroes. A person who’s seeing the injustices in the world, or universe, and can’t stand by the side while others do nothing. That’s what makes these characters rich, that most of the time they are just normal people who decide to do what they think is right.

But this film does in the end still hold up, with Robert Downey Jr. giving a great performance. Especially when you see him making that transition to hero.

#14: Iron Man 2

Iron Man 2 is a very so so film. It’s not awful, it’s just not very good. Sam Rockwell and Mickey Rourke are very disappointing villains, Gwenyth Paltrow becomes more annoying to me, but that’s sort of how I feel about her in general, and there are a lot of subplots that don’t add up to much.

The film does a good job in introducing Scarlett Johansson as Black Widow, Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury, and Don Cheadle as the new Col. James Rhodes.

Out of all of the efforts, this probably my least favorite film of the MCU.

#15: My Week with Marilyn

I decided to re-watch this film for Valentine’s Day. This film made me fall in love with Michelle Williams and persuaded me she needs to be in everything. She is utterly magnetic in every scene. Her and Eddie Redmayne have a wonderful chemistry that is completely believable. If you haven’t seen this film, I’d highly recommend it, if you’re like me, you may leave it with some tears.

[popcornblotter]

January Mini Review Round-Up

Hello all. I wanted to write this quick blurb about why I hadn’t posted any reviews in a bit. I took a little time to regroup and try to focus my efforts. I’m sorry that I haven’t been as diligent about writing, but I wanted to give you some small reviews on what I’d seen in the past month. This post will cover specifically theatrical releases, while I’ll make another covering ones I’ve watched at home. Thanks for being patient, now let’s jump into it.

While I’m not a huge fan of films that are about journalism, I decided that I’d give The Post a try given that I love a good portion of Steven Spielberg’s work.

For those who are unaware, The Post covers the team of journalists and heads of The Washington Post newspaper during the 1970s, when a series of studies from the Pentagon are leaked covering the failure and cover-up of the Vietnam War. The main conflict of the film is whether the head of the paper, played by Meryl Streep will decide to publish the information that is in these documents. While other papers are being targeted by The White House and The Supreme Court, the conflict lies in Streep’s character to risk everything she has so that the American people would know the truth.

Almost everything in this film is a tad lackluster, in my opinion. Just by the nature of the story, there aren’t a lot of big, exciting moments, outside of one towards the end. While this film takes place in the 70s, it is almost ironically very timely given how the current government views and treats the press. In that, there are many parallels you can draw to today’s climate, which is why I assume Spielberg wanted to make this film now. The way Spielberg communicates the thematic elements here are a tad heavy handed, but being hind sighted, I think that’s how Spielberg’s always been about his films. It may have just worked better in the era of the 70s-90s where that was more common. While I definitely agree with the message that he tries to put across, I do believe it could have been handled with a little more deftness.

Overall, this film is in the middle of the road for me, not terrible, but in no ways great either. If you want to compare it to other films like it, involving journalism, its better than Spotlight, but by far Zodiac is a superior film. Streep gives a passable performance, but I don’t necessarily agree with the Academy of giving her a nomination for this role. We get to see Tom Hanks in a bit of a different role than we’re used to, being a gruff boss who doesn’t take no for an answer, along with supporting roles by actors you typically see in comedies like David Cross, Zach Woods, and Alison Brie. As a narrative film, I don’t find this fully satisfying, but as history lesson, it’s very eye opening into what the world was at the time.

Lady Bird is a coming of age film where it doesn’t necessarily act like a film of this genre, or any, from my perspective. The film centers on a girl who calls herself Lady Bird, wanting to move to the East coast for college to get away from her mundane life in Sacramento California, and from there that’s about where the plot kind of throws itself out of the window, but not in a bad sense.

It doesn’t really have a plot structure to it, its more of a slice of life of this girl growing up and dealing with her difficult mother. In a way, it’s very different from other films of this genre, in where they act like normal films, just with young characters. And here, it’s something I’m still trying to understand coming from it about a month after seeing it. It’s a tad tricky to put your finger on it.

But if anything good comes out of this movie, it probably gets the mother to teenage daughter relationship quite accurately. One moment, everything’s fine, the next, its like balancing on a knife’s edge, always on the precipice of an argument. With that, I think the writer and director, Greta Gerwig  portrays very truthfully.

Do I think Lady Bird is a great film? From my perspective, no,but it is good. The acting is very well done, with some legitimate laugh out loud moments. Though the pacing could have been tightened up for me, shaving off a few minutes from the end.

Out of all of the award contender films, this was the one I was most excited about. Ever since I saw the first trailer for this film, I was utterly hooked. From the style to the music, to its wonderful jovial attitude, it stuck with me. And then I waited forever because I’ve mentioned before, I live in a part of US that doesn’t get the lower budget award contender films initially, so I was chomping at the bit to see this film when it finally released.

In doing so, I may have hyped myself up too much. While I liked the film, it wasn’t the extraordinary film that critics were claiming, and that was receiving all of these awards for me. But I also had to look back at how I’ve felt about Guillermo Del Toro’s previous work. Each one of his films I’ve seen, I’ve liked, but didn’t love. There’s usually something in particular that will make it not be a wonder in my eyes, and The Shape of Water isn’t necessarily the exception. There is a moment where it takes a left turn out of nowhere that feels strange.

But aside from that, I thought the film was very well executed. Sally Hawkins brings a tremendous performance as Eliza, the mute janitor who falls in love with the fish man. Richard Jenkins does great work as Eliza’s neighbor and cohort. I also think commendations need to be placed to Doug Jones as well, who played Amphibian Man as he is credited, to bring an empathetic, wholesome performance using just your body and a few animalistic sounds.

As far as Del Toro’s work, I think this is just right under Pan’s Labyrinth. But the set design is wonderful. Alexandre Desplat creates a classically melodic score that of which you’d expect to hear on a Parisian sidewalk, and in the end this film is a fairy tale. A very unorthodox, strange fairy tale, but you never doubt the feeling Hawkins’ character has for the Amphibian Man. So that probably makes it a success.

Thanks again for being patient with me, and as I stated up top, I’ll be posting another one of these for films I’ve watched at home. At the time of writing this, I have seen the glory that is Black Panther, so I’ll be working diligently to get my thoughts out about that film as soon as possible. Stay tuned!

[popcornblotter]

Amazing Spider-Man 2 Review

Following my review of Amazing Spider-Man, the next one is its sequel. In short, this movie tries to balance to many plates when it comes to subplots, the CGI doesn’t look great, and there was way too much slow mo for my liking.

Watching this film with the hindsight of knowing now what Sony was attempting to do with this film, it’s obvious to see why it failed critically and commercially. They were trying to set up a cinematic universe within this character’s world. They were planning a Sinister Six spinoff and an Aunt May spinoff. This was way too much to set up a film universe that would be viable for audiences, which is why I think this franchise ultimately failed and the studio had to rethink how they wanted this character to work. Now that we’re close to Spider-Man: Homecoming, more news is coming out that Sony has plans for spinoff films with Spider-Man characters, that may not be introduced in Homecoming, and that worries me. This movie is evidence that studios can meddle way too much into a film’s production. The main couple consisting of Andrew Garfield and Emma Stone were in an on again off again relationship, Garfield’s Peter Parker was trying to rekindle a friendship with Dane DeHaan’s Harry Osborn, Aunt May is trying to work as a nurse so that Peter can go to college, which we don’t see, Peter is trying to uncover a mystery as to why his parents disappeared, and then Harry is trying to find a cure to his family’s genetic disease that causes him to turn into a “Green Goblin” of sorts. Oh yeah, and then there’s Jamie Foxx being as big a cartoon character as you can imagine in real life.

The only points of the film that are fairly enjoyable are the moments of interactions in between the characters when they aren’t in costume. The conversations that Peter has with Stone’s Gwen Stacy are believable and can feel their chemistry come to life. Or when Aunt May is having a heart to heart conversation to Peter about his parents, you can feel the heartache she feels for him. While that is all and good, if the parts of the film while your main character is in costume are the least interesting part, that’s a problem given that this is a superhero film.

This film also wastes some good actors in either short or ridiculous parts. Chris Cooper as Norman Osborn is a blink and you miss it role, and is merely there as an exposition piece to shell out Harry’s backstory and that he’ll slowly die of this disease. And god, Paul Giamatti is a caricature of what we thought Russian mobsters were back in 2000, all the way down to the Soviet accent and Adidas track suit.

Another thing that was a bit of an annoyance was the score. It seemed that it was bipolar, one moment being cinematic, a mix of stings and brass, and then you’d get assaulted by what I can only call is a swath of the Inception BWAH sound, along with irritating dubstep. This comes from composer Hans Zimmer, and musicians Pharrell Williams, Junkie XL, and others.

In closing, I think my memories of this film are better than it actually is. With finishing these two reviews, I leave with the hope that we’ll get the best Spider-Man film yet with Tom Holland leading it.