Because Disney is doing a horrible job. Visually The Last Jedi is amazing but story-wise it's a complete mess that contradicts both itself and the previous film(s). Behind the scenes there is no real leadership. There was no goal or vision for the new trilogy, they literally hired three separate directors and told them to make whatever movie they wanted but it had to have X characters. There were no notes from the studio going into TLJ from TFA, only some from J.J. which Rian Johnson threw away. Rian didn't like Abrams' direction so he changed everything, and now Abrams has been brought back and doesn't like what Rian did so he's changing everything again. The studio has given Abrams no notes for this movie now either. All the characters are inconsistent between films, there's been zero worldbuilding in the movies, there is no big bad, and there is no actually purpose to this trilogy. What is the endgame here? What are the stakes? Who's actually in control? According to TFA, even with the senate destroyed the First Order can't gain control of the galaxy, but in TLJ they have complete control of the entire galaxy even though it hasn't even been 24 hours since TFA ended. Not to mention they've been systematically throwing out the original characters. R2 is barely in these movies and when he is he just sits around and does nothing. Chewie also sits around and does nothing except fly the Falcon every once in a while. Ackbar was killed off-screen. These movies sole purpose is to just make money. Every single movie has new ships, stormtrooper designs, characters, costumes, and alien creatures just so Disney can sell more toys. Even if the story takes place in the past they still have tons of new stuff so they can sell the toys for it. This new movie will have a totally new organization (because that's something you introduce in your final film right? Along with a brand new big bad guy) that exist because they're going to be featured heavily in StarWars land. Then these films bank on people's childhood nostalgia. 90% of the positive comments I saw on the trailer were people excited solely because of Lando, the Emperor, and the Death Star. No one cares about the new characters. Kylo is the only one with a shred of a story arc. Rey is a stale block of wood but is also instantly perfect at every task presented to her. Even Mark Hamill himself has complained about how she's like Luke prime despite never going through the things Luke had to to master his skills. And then there's the behind the scenes stuff. Aside from no vision or direction from the studio apart from what characters and marketing to include, Lucasfilm has been a revolving door of quitting/fired directors. Abrams is already the second director for RoS, Rogue One was mostly filmed before they swapped directors and refilmed most of the movie, and Solo was more or less completed before they fired both directors and refilmed the entire movie. Kathleen Kennedy (head of Lucasfilm) hires directors, tells them to make whatever they want, never bothered to check in while the movie is filming, then after the fact decides she doesn't like what they've done, fires them, and brings someone else in to waste hundreds of millions more to save the project. I loved Rogue One, and even liked Solo, but this is a horrible way to run your studio. And Solo lost Disney hundreds of millions of dollars. Go back to 2016 and everyone would tell you you're crazy if you believed that a brand new StarWars movie would not only not crack a billion dollars, but lose money. Marvel knows almost exactly what story they want to tell 5 years before they tell it, but they still give each director freedom within that story. Compare that to the current trilogy and there's no real consistent story arc here. Episode 9 is being treated as a standalone film because Episode 8 messed things up so badly that there's no story to tell from where Rian left us. This is the conclusion to a trilogy yet the main bad guy is already dead, the main questions have already been answered, Luke is back, Kylo's mask is back, the Resistance is rebuilt again, a new villain is being introduced, and a completely new story is being introduced with the main points of the last one being completely dropped (after that movie dropped the main points of the one before it, too). Yeah, I'm not looking forward to this. ~Thylo
This might be old news to others, but the guy that does Pitch Meetings also does a whole bunch of other funny videos about "the first guy to [do something]" and time traveller reports. Here is an example:
So I got round to watching Venom and, surprisingly, I didn't hate it. I thought it was quite well done considering the lack of Spider-Man, but it wasn't perfect. The bit quoted above is definitely where the film stands out but I didn't find the CGI lacking and quite enjoyed the story. It reminded me of an old school action romp rather than a standard superhero movie, and it had a few really good scenes where Tom Hardy got to be an actual actor. When taken as a whole, forgetting the "turd in the wind" scene or the jumpy plot points it's a decent (but not amazing) film and worth a watch. I think it did benefit from my low expectations, when it was good it did surprise me. I'd personally give it a 6 out of 10, but you could probably argue it up or down to 5 or 7, definitely not worth all the hate and probably more enjoyable than Black Panther.
I was house-sitting over Easter weekend, so all I did was watch movies on Netflix and plan trips. Some of the movies I had seen before but wanted to watch again, and others were brand new for me. The scores I give them mean nothing... Mad Max: Fury Road (2015) (10/10) I've seen this several times but it never gets old. What a great movie. I wrote a review of it here four years ago: Movie review rant 2015 Wonder Woman (2017) (10/10) The theme tune for this has to be the most rousing of any superhero movie. I don't know why @ThylacineAlive hates this film with an absolute vengeance. It's probably because he's a Marvel fan. I still think it is brilliant. On rewatch it is so obvious who Ares is - I mean, it was probably pretty obvious the first time around but knowing it for a fact makes the writing seem really transparent. I wrote a mini-review last year here: Movie review rant 2018 Monty Python's Life of Brian (1979) (5/10) I can't even remember last time I saw this it was so long ago. Probably it was the 80s. It's quite funny, not in the league of something like The Holy Grail or the tv show, but still has funny bits in it. I don't think today's youth would get it though. I hadn't seen any of the following movies before. Once Upon A Time In Mexico (2003) (6/10) A sequel to El Mariachi and Desperado - in other words an Antonio Banderas and Salma Hayek movie (although the latter only appears as flashbacks). There's not a lot of substance to it, with most of the movie being style over content, and the script isn't making a lot of sense. Johnny Depp kind of ruins it, and I like Johnny Depp so that's sad. Jack Reacher: Never Go Back (2016) (6/10) I had seen the first Jack Reacher movie already and thought it was predictable and stale (I did like it, I just mean it was a movie built on cliches). This sequel is more of the same, with Tom Cruise playing an all-seeing and never-failing super-spy, like Jason Bourne if Jason Bourne was way older and didn't have amnesia and was also an actual superhero. Hmm, maybe the Jack Reacher movies are actually Jason Bourne sequels?! That'd be a twist. The Adjustment Bureau (2011) (5/10) Matt Damon and Emily Blunt in a fairly straight-forward sci-fi movie. It's okay, nothing special. Worth a watch if you come across it but I wouldn't go out of my way for it. The Great Wall (2016) (6/10) That last Matt Damon movie flowed on to this Matt Damon movie. I think this came in for a lot of flack from critics and viewers but I liked it. It is absolute nonsense with poor CGI, but it is a lot of fun. Especially fun was Matt Damon's hilarious (and intermittent) accent - I'm not sure what he was going for there but it did not work. There is some gorgeous scenery as well. Don't concern yourself with historical accuracy and you'll be fine. Kong: Skull Island (2017) (7/10) I watched The Great Wall because I had just watched Matt Damon in The Adjustment Bureau, and I watched Skull Island because I had just watched Tian Jing in The Great Wall. Unfortunately she turned out to be pretty much just background scenery to get the Chinese box office tickets. Oh well. I enjoyed Skull Island a lot more than I thought I would. It is a world better than Peter Jackson's King Kong. There were awesome visuals and really cool monsters without much story to clutter it up. Sometimes you need a story and sometimes you need to just keep it simple. I did have a few issues, such as how Kong's size clearly keeps changing throughout the movie; and how the ecosystem is plainly not a viable one - in particular you have to wonder how on earth even one ape the size of Kong could find enough food there without depleting the resources within a week or two, let alone when there had been a family group of them. The thing that intensely irritated me, however, was Brie Larson. I find her really off-putting. There's something smug and obnoxious about her face in every scene she's in. I just hope they never let her have a lead role in any big movie. More funny than irritating was how at the end of the movie everyone still had spotlessly clean clothes. Even Brie's pale grey top was pristine, as was her hair. Little things like that kind of take me out of a movie. Revenger (2018) (2/10) A South Korean action movie about an Asian prison island in the future where the inmates are left to run feral. The main character (Bruce Khan) is hunting down the man who killed his family. That is all. This is one of those tiresome action movies where the hero is utterly emotionless and rarely says a word, instead just walking dead-eyed through the action like he's playing an unstoppable Terminator instead of a human. There are excellent fight scenes which is about the best one can say about the movie. Wolf Warrior 2 (2017) (1/10) I can't decide if this Chinese action movie was boring, hilarious, or stupid. It is the sort of movie where when rescuing people being held hostage in a hospital the hero smashes a truck through the wall of that hospital right where all the hostages are sitting; or there's the bit where he comes crashing through a window, snatches a flying shard of glass out of the air while still in mid-air, and slices open a guys neck with it; plus all the usual action-movie tropes such as even though they have guns they will revert to hand-to-hand combat if the main characters are involved. The lead actress looked disturbingly like Olivia Munn, so much so that I had to check IMDB afterwards (she was actually Celina Jade). I honestly wouldn't recommend this movie at all.
I love this film, but agree that it's not a patch on Holy Grail though. Life Of Brian is a much more appropriate film to watch at Easter though, almost like going to church but not as boring...
That's one way to write 'thinks it's just ok at best' I suppose I enjoyed parts of it, and I do really like the theme. ~Thylo
Endgame No review to avoid spoilers, but a solid 11 out of 10. And for Chlidonias there's lots and lots of Blue Cyborg Lady! I recommend any MCU fan goes and watches this asap. And I know @ThylacineAlive agrees with me...
This is, I believe, the highest ever grossing domestic film on the Chinese mainland. My favourite scene is when the African rebels decide not to hurt any of the Chinese, because China has a seat on the UN security council
So, spoilers in this video so nobody watch it if you haven't seen the movie yet, but ... it sounds dumb.
Yeah that was all through the movie - "nobody hurt the Chinese", "We're Chinese, you have to leave us alone", etc. I am really surprised it was "the highest ever grossing domestic film on the Chinese mainland"! It was a really stupid movie.
Too late, I've already decided to write a really bad review of the movie. Blue Cyborg Lady gets a 12 out of 10, but the movie itself only gets a 0.5 out of 10.
I think one reason is that patriotism plays very differently over here, what a Western audience might view as totally cheesy and over-the-top proves to be very popular. There's also the fact that major Chinese movies are notoriously 'not good', so the bar is quite low.
