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Movie review rant 2020

Discussion in 'Zoo Cafe' started by TheMightyOrca, 7 Jan 2020.

  1. birdsandbats

    birdsandbats Well-Known Member 5+ year member

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    I'm not saying they aren't superhero movies, I'm saying their superhero comedy movies. I wouldn't call Infinity War a comedy, either, I'm simply saying that Infinity War felt more like a superhero comedy than Ant-Man and the Wasp did.
     
  2. birdsandbats

    birdsandbats Well-Known Member 5+ year member

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    I"m assuming everyone reading this will have seen the movie, but just in case this review is a bit more spoiler heavy than most of my others. You have been warned.

    Captain Marvel

    The first third or so of this movie is terrible. It is extremely unclear what is going on, it's all action and no explaining - which is very confusing considering it is a setting we haven't really seen before. Things begin to improve once Captain Marvel gets to Earth, though. I really like Nick Fury in this movie, and the movie really improves once the obvious plot twists. Speaking of obvious plot twists, it feels like every reveal in this movie is obvious. The Kree are evil?! Of course, anyone who saw Guardians of the Galaxy could see that coming, and even if they hadn't it would have been obvious. The cat is some sort of alien monster? Duh, the way it was acting made it seem pretty obvious. There are tons more examples.

    However, the second and third acts of this movie were really quite good, and overall I would say my thoughts on this movie are positive rather than negative.

    Next Review: Avengers: Endgame
     
    Last edited: 1 Sep 2020
  3. Chlidonias

    Chlidonias Moderator Staff Member 15+ year member

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    I haven't seen this movie (Surprise everyone!) but I think these twists were probably given away in the trailers, as movie companies do. I think the Kree being the bad guys was known by everybody before the movie came out, and even I knew that the cat was actually an alien.
     
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  4. birdsandbats

    birdsandbats Well-Known Member 5+ year member

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    Those aren't the only obvious twists, either.
     
  5. birdsandbats

    birdsandbats Well-Known Member 5+ year member

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    So, if everyone knew the Kree were the villains all along, than what was the point of having it be twist in the first place?!
     
  6. birdsandbats

    birdsandbats Well-Known Member 5+ year member

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    Avengers: Endgame
    This is one of the best movies. I don't think I would call it the best, but it's definitely top 5. The story is one of the best in the MCU and for once I was entertained by the fight scenes. My biggest issue is Captain Marvel - why is she here? Other than one scene of deus ex machina she has no reason to be in this movie. She is extremely overpowered and once she shows up the entire third act seems pointless - why do the Avengers have an army? They clearly don't need it if Captain Marvel is there, she could take all of Thanos' armies by herself. I won't get into the whole 'ladies fight scene' debate, but I do know one thing - it's pointless! Captain Marvel clearly doesn't need any help. It feels like the only reason she exists is so they can say the strongest superhero in the MCU is a woman.

    Oh.

    Next Review: Spiderman: Far From Home
     
  7. Matt G

    Matt G Well-Known Member

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    @birdsandbats Speaking of which, did you also hate Professor Hulk and Fat Thor in Endgame besides your opinion on Captain Marvel or were they just boring?
     
    Last edited: 5 Sep 2020
  8. Chlidonias

    Chlidonias Moderator Staff Member 15+ year member

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    I feel like there are probably more options than "hate them" or "boring".
     
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  9. Matt G

    Matt G Well-Known Member

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    @TheMightyOrca Was the Cats movie really that bad and outdated to you when it comes to seeing to movie on the day it was released in theaters plus the amount of annoying songs based on the original Broadway musical?
     
  10. Batto

    Batto Well-Known Member 10+ year member

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    You gave yourself a good answer to your question, which also partly answers your point regarding the "ladies fight scene" (*cough* virtue signalling *cough*). The Russo Brothers did the best they could by keeping her appearance to a necessary minimum.
     
  11. birdsandbats

    birdsandbats Well-Known Member 5+ year member

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    I didn't mind either.
     
  12. birdsandbats

    birdsandbats Well-Known Member 5+ year member

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    Spider-Man: Far From Home
    I really enjoyed this movie. It was very funny, the story was mostly good, and the fight scenes didn't fell boring. I liked watching Peter grapple with the emotions of having to be the new Iron Man. I didn't really see the twist of this movie coming, though in retrospective it seems pretty obvious. However, the villain is pretty underdeveloped. It isn't as good as Homecoming but it is one of the better MCU films.

    What is that post credits scene, though?



    And with that, the MCU Infinity Saga is complete. A ranking will be coming soon on the MCU thread, and after that I will post a review on the MCU Infinity Saga as a whole.
     
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  13. Brum

    Brum Well-Known Member 10+ year member

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    Bill & Ted Face The Music

    This afternoon I made my first trip to the cinema this year, and I sort of wish I hadn't bothered. This film isn't necessarily bad, but compared to its predecessors it is really bland and unmemorable. It doesn't help that the two leads aren't the lovable teens they were, and their daughters (who play a prominent role) are pretty damn annoying for the most part.
    There are good parts, without giving too much away the bits where Bill and Ted are talking to various future versions of themselves are hilarious. There are also a few good callbacks to the original films, and when Death returns they recapture a bit of the old magic.

    It's a shame that I didn't really enjoy this film as I was a huge fan of the originals, and I've been looking forward to this since it was announced. It's with a heavy heart that I give this a mediocre 5 out of 10 when it could/should have been so much better. Probably only worth a watch if you like the first two, as it does not break any new ground.
     
  14. Chlidonias

    Chlidonias Moderator Staff Member 15+ year member

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    I just watched this, and I agree. It was very good. I liked the parts where he killed the bad guys the best.

    I'm a bit worried about going to Mexico now, but I'm still younger than Rambo (just) so I should be able to get by.
     
  15. Matt G

    Matt G Well-Known Member

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    Does anybody of you guys knew or seen the movie Hocus Pocus (1993)?
     
  16. Chlidonias

    Chlidonias Moderator Staff Member 15+ year member

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    I saw Wonder Woman 1984 today. I've been waiting an age for this to come out. It kept getting postponed and postponed. I kept feeling like how little Batman must have felt while sitting waiting in the alleyway for the ambulance while his parents died beside him. Will it ever get here?

    But finally it has been released.

    It was okay.

    (I imagine that would have been little Batman's reaction too. The ambulance driver is all "We're finally here!" and little Batman says "It's okay ... they're dead now.")


    There aren't really any spoilers below (I'm trying to keep it to the experience and what is already known from the trailers etc) but stop reading if you don't want to know anything.



    Unlike certain people, let's just call them @Brum and @ThylacineAlive, I loved the first movie. I knew the second one wouldn't be as good, because sequels rarely are, but I thought it would at least be nearly as good. Same characters, same main actors, same director - it had to be, right? I hate to say it, but the sequel was kind of boring. For a Wonder Woman movie there was rather too little Wonder Woman in it. It's like if they made an Incredible Hulk movie and for most of the movie the main character just stayed as Bruce Banner doing normal Bruce Banner things. Diana Prince was all through the movie ... working at the museum, having dinner, going to a function, moping about Chris Pine, finding Chris Pine, being all happy with Chris Pine, walking around in 1984 with Chris Pine ... I didn't come to the movie to watch a regular lady do regular lady things! I came to see Wonder Woman doing Wonder Woman things!

    The plot is just too simple as well. There is a magic rock which grants wishes. Seriously, that's what they came up with for this movie. And it just draaaaaags on. The main bad guy is kind of boring - he's basically a con-man with the primary interest of obtaining oil - and there really seems to be no urgency about dealing with him. The more interesting bad guy ... um, bad girl, I guess ... is the dorky gem-specialist who later becomes Cheetah (think of her as a lesser version of Michelle Pfeiffer's Catwoman), but after they set her up through the whole first half as the main antagonist she more-or-less becomes relegated to being a sort of side-kick to the boring main bad guy. The whole thing was a bit confused (not confusing, just confused, like they weren't really sure which direction they wanted to go with the story).

    The CGI was often a bit too obvious which was distracting. When Kirsten Wiig was in full Cheetah form, the CGI looked just awful. Quite often I'd be taken right out of the movie by how much the actions or things looked totally fake.

    On the other hand, any time Wonder Woman actually did make an appearance the movie became fun. Her taking on the army truck convoy in the Middle East was brilliant; her golden armour looked so much better in the movie than it does in the trailer; and seeing her flying was Super.

    Overall, I'd rate it middle of the road. Disappointingly dull for most of it really, but the few scenes where Wonder Woman was actually present elevated it higher than it would have been otherwise. I'd probably say it wouldn't matter whether you watched it at the movies or on a tv screen.

    There's a mid-credit scene too, which really only matters if you grew up with the original Wonder Woman tv series.
     
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  17. Chlidonias

    Chlidonias Moderator Staff Member 15+ year member

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    There were some trailers at the theatre for upcoming movies too, one of which was called Monster Hunter - Milla Jovovich doesn't age at all does she?!

     
  18. Brum

    Brum Well-Known Member 10+ year member

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    WW:1984 sounds really dull from that review, but come on, when have Warner Bros ever released a decent follow up to a DC movie? You really should have set your sights accordingly! :p (Well except Batman Returns, but that eventually Batman & Robin, so massively diminishing returns there!)

    This really made me chuckle! :D

    I liked the first movie, particularly for a DC movie, but you are right, I didn't love it as such.
     
  19. Chlidonias

    Chlidonias Moderator Staff Member 15+ year member

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    It really was. It was like they made a boring movie and then suddenly remembered it was supposed to be about Wonder Woman so threw in a few scenes with her. I think there might have been only four Wonder Woman scenes in it, and it's over two hours long. Apart for the opening scene with her as a child which didn't have any follow up in the rest of the movie, there was "the next opening scene", I guess you could say, where she is foiling a bank robbery in a very family-tv-series sort of way; then the awesome army convoy battle; then a fight in the White House; and then the ugly final fight in the dark with a CGI Cheetah (which seems to be the only reason Cheetah was even in the movie, to provide the final big fight).

    One thing which I just remembered which perturbed me in the movie was the President. He was very vaguely like Ronald Reagan, who was the President in 1984, but also very much nothing like him. I don't know what they were going with there.

    While I was watching the movie, sitting there thinking "this is boring...", I was wondering if there was something wrong with me for thinking that. But after I wrote the above review I watched some Youtube reviews of it, and they have the exact same sentiments. So I think the consensus might be that this is a dull disjointed movie with a few really good Wonder Woman scenes scattered through it.
     
  20. Batto

    Batto Well-Known Member 10+ year member

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    I do think she looked much younger on her multipass as Leeloominaï Lekatariba Lamina-Tchaï Ekbat De Sebat...