Surprisingly good! Much better than Apocalypse, better than Last Stand, not as good as the others. It had a story that tied in with the X-Men, and with mutants' place in society, some great action scenes, and new places for the characters to go. Downsides were that, like Apocalypse, felt less standalone and more serialised, and though there were lots of differences it was still going over old ground with the Dark Phoenix storyline. It also left a lot of stuff open despite likely being the last X-Men movie in this version, which is a shame when DOFP looped stuff around so nicely.
Rating: Good
Tuesday, 11 June 2019
Monday, 10 June 2019
Good Omens (2019)
Sheen and Tennant are great, but in general this can be characterised best as irritating.
In general, it's just so meandering and fumbles a lot of scenes by going on too long, and it's really unclear about story rules and character motivations. But it's full of little things like:
The narration has a H2G2 feel to it, but where that show stopped the story for little asides, this one crams the narration in at the edges and also uses it to tell us stuff they're showing us anyway.
Those setting cards really bug me - why are they like that? Little signs that flap up with condensation on the camera?
All the stunt casting is incredibly distracting, and a lot of the general casting is just wrong. It all feels very 'school play'.
There are near-constant cheap jokes revolving around a character saying "oh God" or "I'll be damned" or (in bad weather) "it's hell out there".
IRRITATING.
Rating: Bad
In general, it's just so meandering and fumbles a lot of scenes by going on too long, and it's really unclear about story rules and character motivations. But it's full of little things like:
The narration has a H2G2 feel to it, but where that show stopped the story for little asides, this one crams the narration in at the edges and also uses it to tell us stuff they're showing us anyway.
Those setting cards really bug me - why are they like that? Little signs that flap up with condensation on the camera?
All the stunt casting is incredibly distracting, and a lot of the general casting is just wrong. It all feels very 'school play'.
There are near-constant cheap jokes revolving around a character saying "oh God" or "I'll be damned" or (in bad weather) "it's hell out there".
IRRITATING.
Rating: Bad
Sunday, 28 April 2019
Avengers: Endgame (2019)
Not great.
It didn't have the usual 'overstuffed/too much arc plot' issues - it actually felt quite streamlined and propulsive, and the arc plot is the point here so it's fine.
But the action is still terrible, and that's even harder to ignore on one of these big team-up movies. (There's a scene early on where it's hard to tell what's going on with all the shaky-cam, whip-pans and fast edits, and all that's happening is two characters sitting down playing shove ha'penny, it's ridiculous.)
The main problem was the time-travel rules: they pick like three different rule-sets and break all of them. It's hugely confusing and distracting, it really muddies all the stakes, character arcs and narrative up. But also, there are a lot of character arcs fizzling out or repeating themselves, character powers being wildly inconsistent; the kind of thing that a film franchise so praised for creating a huge ongoing, sprawling and interweaving story should really not be dropping the ball on.
Not as good as Ragnarok, or Avengers 1, or Iron Man 1, or a lot of Game Of Thrones, or Back To The Future 2.
Rating: Fine
It didn't have the usual 'overstuffed/too much arc plot' issues - it actually felt quite streamlined and propulsive, and the arc plot is the point here so it's fine.
But the action is still terrible, and that's even harder to ignore on one of these big team-up movies. (There's a scene early on where it's hard to tell what's going on with all the shaky-cam, whip-pans and fast edits, and all that's happening is two characters sitting down playing shove ha'penny, it's ridiculous.)
The main problem was the time-travel rules: they pick like three different rule-sets and break all of them. It's hugely confusing and distracting, it really muddies all the stakes, character arcs and narrative up. But also, there are a lot of character arcs fizzling out or repeating themselves, character powers being wildly inconsistent; the kind of thing that a film franchise so praised for creating a huge ongoing, sprawling and interweaving story should really not be dropping the ball on.
Not as good as Ragnarok, or Avengers 1, or Iron Man 1, or a lot of Game Of Thrones, or Back To The Future 2.
Rating: Fine
Sunday, 3 March 2019
Can You Ever Forgive Me? (2018)
Okay. Solid performances, nicely shot. Just felt very flat - barely anything happens, no character progression, no risk or consequence.
Rating: Good
Rating: Good
Friday, 15 February 2019
Alita: Battle Angel (2019)
Terrible. I didn't know anything about the story going in, and for me it was just two solid hours of clunky exposition. There's no narrative throughline at all. The visuals don't feel fresh (I liked the glimpses of future Mexico, wish Rodriguez had done more with that setting) or awe-inspiring, and look quite cheap in parts. None of the actors get anything to do. The action-scenes are more Transformers than Desperado (the bar fight worked quite well, though). I wish Cameron had directed this, frankly, because whatever Avatar's failings, the direction was never overwhelmed by the VFX.
The film was shot in real 3D and it's noticeable in about 3 shots. 90s Rodriguez would have had a lot more fun with the 3D.
Rating: Bad
The film was shot in real 3D and it's noticeable in about 3 shots. 90s Rodriguez would have had a lot more fun with the 3D.
Rating: Bad
Monday, 24 December 2018
Aquaman (2018)
It's visually gorgeous, Momoa is charming and that Sicily action sequence is great, but overall this is a mess. Scuppered by the lead character being introduced in a previous film and yet still having a ton of origin stories, lore and Atlantean politics to get through, the narrative is all over the place. It's filled with tropey beats (in the wrong order) and characters and most of the action is either rote post-Kingsman punching or rote CG battles. Even the music can't decide what it wants to be, flitting between wailing guitar, orchestral and 80s electro.
Amusing sidenote: Nicole Kidman is digitally de-aged at the start of the movie. When she reappears in present day, she is no longer de-aged but because of all the work she's had done she still looks so uncannily smooth that they had to put a grey wig on her to age her up a bit!
Rating: Bad
Amusing sidenote: Nicole Kidman is digitally de-aged at the start of the movie. When she reappears in present day, she is no longer de-aged but because of all the work she's had done she still looks so uncannily smooth that they had to put a grey wig on her to age her up a bit!
Rating: Bad
Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (2018)
Hands down the best Spider-Man film ever. Effortlessly blends a variety of visual styles and riffs on the audience familiarity with Spidey's backstory while using all of the character's (characters') iconography to full effect. Funny, exciting, touching and intricate without being over-worked.
Rating: Great
Rating: Great
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