Agreed on almost all counts. I saw it last night, and if you found this movie hard to follow or convoluted you are either: A) a moron B) off your ADHD meds C) should try watching a movie for once without ingesting mind altering substances before going in.
Meh. I just watched it and it was at best okay. My main complaint is the dialogue was in "Ye Olde English" with forced accents so that at times I could understand every 5th word. It was highly annoying. I'm sure there are worse ways to spend an hour and a half of your time. It wasn't horrible, but it sure wasn't don't miss.
Captain America: Civil War Probably the best movie in the MCU. Maybe Ironman 1 or Avengers 1 is better, but not by much. It has a lot more depth than previous films and the humor wasn't as goofy as some of the recent ones have been. The way they set up the conflict is well-done and the main battle scene was awesome. Spoilered the rest: Spoiler Some Pros: -Antman and Spider-Man, by far the best film-version of Spiderman -Great character development and performances from Robert Downey Jr and Chris Evans -I liked that the ending wasn't tied up with everyone being best friends again Some Cons: -Act 2 was a little too long and drawn out -The villain. Very boring and completely forgettable. I'm guessing it's a set up for a future movie, but man this was the worst MCU villain yet. 8.5/10 Took points off because this is the 13th movie in the MCU and they still cant get a good villain together thats not Loki. I dont think anyone is expecting iconic villains like the Joker, but at least something memorable.
Thanos (Josh Brolin) will be the villain for Infinity War 1 & 2, he's the ultimate villain and it's the ultimate Marvel story.
I thought that was the whole point of that guy. He wasn't some supervillain with a grand scheme to destroy the Avengers. He was just a guy who felt hurt by the seeming irresponsibility of these so called heroes. Hell, the old lady at the elevator had just as much to do with swaying Tony towards signing the Sokovia initiative, the other guy just happened to get his hands on Spoiler the footage of Bucky killing Howard and Mrs. Stark. I thought it was great. Best since Winter Soldier. 72/79
Agree. It's great. I thought it did a great job of using impressive CGI, without the CGI being an overwhelming character all its own. Snappy and witty dialogue, along with the character development / conflict was a welcome surprise. I thought it was just going to be a bunch of cool explosions. I actually liked having the weak villain, because it seemed to emphasize the point of the civil war. The way they were artfully able to have so many characters, and introduce new ones, so much better than the ridiculous Batman V Superman, was impressive. Watching it made me dislike BvS even more. One question: Spoiler How did there happen to be a camera right where Bucky crashed Mr. Stark's car?
Spoiler Especially when the orders were to leave no witnesses. Shoot the camera first? Pick a better spot to kill them? That part seemed pretty convenient. Who else loved the part where Falcon and Bucky are in the VW Bug?
The Nice Guys This one was written and directed by Shane Black, the same guy who wrote and directed Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang which I loved. He also wrote Lethal Weapon. It follows some of the same basic ground work of 2 mismatched detective types trying to solve a case they have a mutual interest in and getting into various hi-jinks and hilarious situations along the way while at the same time forming a friendship. If Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang is an 8/10, I'd give this a 7/10. Not quite as good, but still pretty good. Gosling and Crowe don't quite have the chemistry that RDJ and Kilmer had, and the dialogue isn't quite as snappy and funny but I still enjoyed the hell out of it and think it was well done. They could have done without the little girl for sure but Gosling was hilarious so it made up for it.
X-Men Apocolypse Here is the backstory on 45 mutants (first hour and a half). The last 45 minutes is a CGI fight scene. They are basically fighting the God of the Old Testament. Spoiler magneto goes good to bad to good again. Seems to be a constant theme. 6/10 it was a fun way to kill an afternoon. It was nowhere as good as the first two movies where everyone was younger.
Not really a review, but this seems like a good place to put this . . . Anybody else joined in a Fantasy Movie League? http://fantasymovieleague.com/ Matthew Berry (The Talented Mr. Roto) that does ESPN's fantasy league advice started this thing. Movies playing the upcoming weekend are given a value, you have $1000 to spend, and you choose which 8 movies to show at your Cineplex. Actual box office numbers from the weekend determine your score. It's broken into 4 seasons, and Summer started last week. A buddy got me to join a league, and I'm currently in last place, but it seems like it'll be fun. I do a football and baseball league, so why not movies?
X-Men Apocolypse For how slow the first 1h30m to 1h45m doesn't make up for the rest of the movie. And like the rest of the movie wasn't even that good. Save your self the 2.5 hours or so and don't watch it.
Independence Day: Resurgence 6/10 It's not as good as the first one. I thought it had a pretty meandering story line and some underdeveloped plot points. It sets up the story and then fumbles along until the conclusion with no development in between. Basically, this movie felt like It was the set up for at least one additional film. The special effects were good, and most of the acting was decent. I felt Bill Pullman and Brent Spiner both had a strong performance once again. Problems I had with the movie: Spoiler The world has all of the alien technology from the first attack and a forward base on Saturn, yet a larger alien ship gets very close to the Earth undetected. They make a point of saying that the world is united after the first attack, yet the Earth's defense is largely a U.S. endeavor with a couple of Chinese characters. There is a council of world leaders, but it seems the President has tactical authority, especially later in the movie. The Earth defense decides to fire unprovoked on an alien ship that ultimately contained a different alien being that they find later came to help against the hostile aliens. It also appears that in 20 years that no one in science has tried to decipher the alien language, yet some random warlord in Africa did.
Finding Dory Not as effective of an improvement as each of the Toy Story sequels, but far better than the unfunny crap of Monsters University, here you have a good sequel to the best Pixar movie of all. Finding Nemo created a world of wonder than this film can't compete with, but it avoids recycling tonnes of jokes from the first and introduces some great characters. Marlin and Nemo are supporting cast, the main focus is on Dory and a wonderful octopus character voiced by the incomparable Ed O'Neill. Also there's a trio of harbour seals with a pair of hilarious scenes. Well worth the view, just not as magical as the first. 8/10
Star Trek Beyond Ive always been a huge fan of the series. Not really happy with the direction Abrams took it. This is really not as bad as the trailer had made it out to be. The plot is simple whichk is always disapointing for a Star Trek fan. Not much character depth. I actually liked the fact that it didnt rely on throw backs like Into Darkness and The Force Awakens did. I was hugely distracted by the fact that the villain species looks like DS9s JemHadar. Also think Idris Elba was criminally under utilized. After the Borg and The Dominion Star Trek has really struggled to come up with decent villains. Still fun and Id say better than both of the previous outings by JJ. 6/10
Jason Bourne Caught it last night at a late showing. Overall, its the weakest of the Bourne movies aside from Legacy, but certainly of the Damon ones. Logically, the movie didnt make a whole lot of sense. Was it entertaining? Some parts were, but I think the other movies are just tighter and more exciting. Plus the ultra-retarded hacker lingo is ridiculous. This isnt 1994 and with shows like Mr. Robot, there isnt much excuse for that level of laziness. Its not a huge deal, but it takes me out of the action instantly. I didnt hate it, but I didnt love it. I cant decide if its worth a theater viewing or not. If I knew what it was going to be, I would have waited. It was the okayest movie Ive seen in a long time. 5/10
So we went with 5 friends (after some (lots) of prefunking ahem) and saw Sausage Party. It started slow but oh boy was it worth it. The orgie scene...holy shit. I saw things I did not think possible, with food. Oh and Meatloaf! Sure, it's not for everybody but if you fit who it's aimed at go see it. Judging it by what it is: 8/10 We stopped at the store on our way home and were talking about it in line. The clerk who we know from being a frequent customer/s asked, "Oh. That's that Disney movie right?" NO! Holy God no. Bumping it to rated R was a good move. Not to mention the load of money they'll make off of it since the cost to make it was next to nothing.
Hell or High Water is good. Very few cast members, and certainly can't be categorized as an "action" movie, but there were several tense, edge-of-the seat moments nonetheless. The combination of the way the scenes were shot, the frugality of the right dialogue, and the screen presence of the terrific actors gave a weight to each scene that sucks you in to each conversations. They were able to pull off rare moments where it's just two dudes on a porch for five minutes, but it seems like you just read a whole novel of their life.