With things getting back to a sense of normality and with films finally being released then I thought it was time to resurrect the movie thread. First new film of the year for me was (surprising nobody) Black Widow, which I rented from Disney+ rather than going to the cinema. Not sure if that impacted my enjoyment of the movie or not but I thought the film was generally pretty meh for an MCU property, especially being released in between the final two episodes of Loki which is a bonafide masterpiece. There were some really good bits of action in there, some great acting, but in the finest traditions of the MCU there is also a lot of quickly edited action scenes and dodgy accents. The humour isn't overdone in this which is a common complaint in most Marvel properties, but the stakes are meaningless because we've all seen Infinity War and Endgame by this point so there could have been a lot more levity. Things I liked - Scarlett Johansson and Florence Pugh sell their relationship from the start, David Harbour is amazing as Red Guardian, Rachel Weisz (my teenage crush) has aged like a fine wine, and it's always great to see Ray Winstone chewing the scenery. Good to see General Ross back as well, even if it is only for one scene. Post-credit scene is great as well, looking forward to what it sets up going forward. Finally Taskmaster is a standard Marvel villain, not a patch on the comics version mind, but the changes they've made work for the story. Things I didn't like - The the story is very similar in places to Winter Soldier with some of the same story beats. Granted I only picked up on that on the second watch but now I can't get over the similarities. Ray Winstone's accent is BAD and David Harbour's is very heavy to the point of stereotyping, Florence Pugh's is pretty damn good though. There's some very on the nose imagery in the flashback opening, the actual definition of heavy handed. And the Taskmaster reveal is telegraphed a mile off, a proper "Chekov's Gun" moment is provided very early on in the movie and you'd have to be deaf, dumb and blind not to pick up on it... (no offence to anyone who didn't notice! ) I'll give this movie a rather average 6/10 but I feel it really suffers by being released now, rather than say 4 years ago when it would have been relevant.
Oh yeah, another movie I tried to watch recently was Zak Snyder's Justice League but since I only managed forty five minutes of the four hour long saga then I don't think a review is actually justified or possible. I did enjoy what I saw far more than the original version though, but then that isn't saying a lot...
I doubt I'll watch Black Widow. I like the character okayish enough, and I like the actress in most things she does, but the trailer had looked pretty uninteresting and I watched the Pitch Meeting of it a few days ago and it didn't sound great. I did watch Monster Hunter earlier this year. It was good enough. Typical sort of monster-action movie. Apparently it was a bit of a travesty in relation to the actual video game it was based on, but as I had never heard of it before that didn't bother me in the slightest. Tony Jaa seemed wasted in his role.
I went to see The Suicide Squad earlier and was very impressed, in fact I downright enjoyed the film and had a damn good time! This might not surprise some of you, but those that know my taste in movies will know that it is exceptionally rare for me to praise a DC movie, and even rarer for me to watch one at the cinema... But here we are, 2020 was a hell of a year and the effects are still being felt well into 2021! This movie was infinitely better than the original from 2016 and it doesn't even hide the fact the last one was terrible. The humour is pretty good, there are emotional beats, a fantastic cast, tons of surprises, and Starro himself takes centre stage! I even thought Idris Elba was amazing as I forgot that he does have a great sense of comedic timing and had got bogged down with watching him in Luther... Star turn goes to King Shark though, fantastic Mo-cap and hilarious voice acting. Worth the admission alone! And a special mention to relative unknown Daniela Melchior who does a great job of humanising Ratcatcher 2. Her relationship with King Shark is probably the most heart-warming of the movie, the actual "make-you-care" story beat if you will. Genuinely a great comic book movie, and probably a good movie on its own merit. A solid 9/10 from me. The best DCEU movie so far in my opinion, and objectively far better than Black Widow. Probably the first DC property that I actually had a blast watching all the way through! Highly recommended, watch it as soon as you can.
You say that but it does have generally positive reviews, it was just a bit sh*t for a Marvel movie. Another big complaint is the same one I had, which is it was released far too late in the MCU timeline and should have been released in about 2017/2018 instead. It has caused the price of my Yelena Bolova Funko Pop to quadruple in value though so I can't complain!
Really? Honestly, all the reviews I have watched on Youtube have been resoundingly average. So I guess my sample size is flawed. I haven't seen it, which I know surprises you, but I've seen various clips and I really like the scenes I've seen with Yelena. She seems much more interesting and fun as a character than Natasha does. On the other hand, while I like Olga Kurylenko and Rachel Weisz, the clips I've seen with them make them seem extremely uninteresting.
Yeah, by generally positive I mean it hasn't come in for too much actual criticism, it's just a bit bland. A man of your thoroughness skipping an MCU movie? Nah, not surprised at all! That's a fair enough assessment, and if I wasn't massively into Marvel stuff then I also would probably have skipped it or waited until it was free on Disney+. Unfortunately I'm a sucker for a Marvel property with two gorgeous women in the lead roles...
This doesn't really have anything to do with movie reviews but I thought @Brum would appreciate it - because I did, and we are like brethren. Imagine her with a Russian accent if it helps. My favourite bit was where she said she likes Brussels Sprouts, because I also like Brussels sprouts so that would give me a fabulous talking point if I were to meet her. I also just found out, because the underliney-correcty thing was telling me I had spelled "Brussel" wrong and so I googled it, that they are actually called Brussels sprouts and not Brussel sprouts which is how I say it.
It is difficult to say as well, with the two separate S's in the middle and then ending with an S as well. Maybe that's the real reason people don't like them.
This film is certainly getting a mixed bag of reviews, its as actually comparable to brussel sprouts, in that many like them and many dislike them. There is a phrase in the UK saying 'Its like marmite' which means you either love it or hate it.
I'm certainly in your boat here, that stuff is literally rancid and I'll eat just about anything. However, some strange people love the stuff. As for films I watched a bit of a crazy one over the weekend - Guns Akimbo.
I just watched all three Lord of the Rings movies. One word: Overrated. They were mostly boring with a few bright spots. ROTK was the best, followed by The Two Towers, followed by Fellowship.
I've just been utterly horrified by the above statement. I know you're quite young @Ebirah766 and younger people do tend to have shorter attention spans and therefore often struggle with longer films. You also said the following about Jurassic World... ...when in fact exactly the opposite is true for both Jurassic World films (have you not seen Jurassic Park 1 & 2 yet?). In my opinion all three LOTR films are, in a word, masterpieces. They are so much more than just action films. It's not just me saying that either. The films consistently feature in any online list you'll find of the best films ever, they are the highest-grossing motion picture trilogy worldwide of all time, and despite being nearly 20 years old the CG still look incredible (better than the vast majority of CG in films since). In addition, the films also won a total of 17 Oscars between them - another record for a movie trilogy. Please watch them again when you're older. BTW I do not like the Hobbit films. All are let down by terrible CG (and an overreliance on it), poor character development, and not staying true to the book. P.S. I'd highly recommend listening to the audiobooks of The Hobbit/LOTR (but only the ones done by Phil Dragash).
