Category: Fantasy

AVENGERS: Infinity War (2018) movie review

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All of the souped up super heroes from ten years of Marvel magic unite to share 2.5 hours of slightly tedious exposition and some hard kicking to defeat Thanos.That formidable enemy with a righteous thirst for universal domination has only to injure the one closest to each stone keeper for them to give it up.Kudos to Marvel writers for balancing so many plot lines and sticking to the story Bibles from a decade of character re-creating. Inventing action with matching one-liners for comic relief is no small task. Every character gets one-line comic glory. Here are a few of my favorites:
“That was gross.”
“An hour.”
“That’s what killing is.” Despite the gaggle of famous faces, they somehow leave room for a few surprise guests: Voldemort as dementor, Tyrion as oxymoronic giant dwarf, purple Hellboy, Loki’s CG twin sister, an Iron Hulk, and the Demogorgon.Don’t worry. Thor is still the thunder god, Cap the hot moralist, Scarlett’s Black Widow kicks the crew into action, and Tony Stark boasts ever newer and better tech. Wakandans, Bruce Banner, and all of the Guardians of the Galaxy run madly toward battle fronts covered in Orc-like goblin goons and the godlike children of Thanos.It’s a little like those charity performances that combine all of the chart-topping vocalists to help heal the world. Rod Stewart and Sting get their stand-out moments next to Aretha. All maintain personal style, but you hope that together they won’t make a cacophony. Infinity War meets the challenge in vignettes with unique groupings  combining efforts and quirks. 

Back in NYC, over African countrysides, and across the universe, backstory runs a long legato strain under moments of humor and triumph. All Avenge, though not all are present. Ant Man, Hawkeye, and others wait in the wings for the next star-studded film experience.Thematically sparing one life at a time, they sacrifice all in the process to show Marvel’s minion fans that they too can suffer long. After an Empire Strikes Back-esque cliffhanger, part 2 with Brie Larson as Captain Marvel won’t appear for yet another year. Just remember that this is a comic series and that the Gauntlet, covered in stones, now controls space, mind, time, reality, power, and soul. All is not lost.

Marvel Studios’ AVENGERS: INFINITY WAR..L to R: Doctor Strange/Stephen Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch), Iron Man/Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.), Bruce Banner/Hulk (Mark Ruffalo) and Wong (Benedict Wong)..Photo: Chuck Zlotnick..©Marvel Studios 2018

 

READY PLAYER ONE (2018) movie review

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Strap in for a throwback bonanza via VR gateway.

It’s an 80’s lovers paradise from Atari and Iron Giant to Rubix cube (called fondly a Zemeckis cube) and the Delorean.

RPO is fast-paced but classic Spielberg. Fight glowing dinos, air dance through The Shining hotel, take a van ride ala inception, but don’t forget your crew.The message isn’t to log off, but to appreciate reality, at least in moderation.

ISLE OF DOGS (2018) movie review

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Wes Anderson rides again in his purest puppy parade to date.
While he famously kills a dog in each of his symmetrical dollhouse menagerie films, here in Isle of Dogs he attempts a mass rescue of dog-kind. Only one little hero pilot willingly risks his life to save his best pal Spot.Wes puts his diorama-prone filmmaking to the test in this puppeted art film including every ounce of classic Andersonism fans have come to expect, though the tone is perhaps even more dry and stoic and the narrative arc less pronounced than his usual fare. Immersing in Japanese culture, Anderson allows for half or more than half of this film’s dialogue to be in Japanese without subtitles. It’s an adjustment at first, but we’ve come to expect nothing less from Wes.And though he worked remotely on this project, he still filmed himself acting out the dog roles, controlled each element of visual story, and offered what can only be called his style to the production. He in his classic tweed suit lends even the mangey dogs living on “Trash Island” a level of posh austerity, a demure grace.

At times watching this felt like watching a Miyazaki film. Perhaps it’s the slower, continuous flow-through pacing or the neutral-toned setting. As it turns out, Miyazaki is just one of the artist influences that Anderson nods to. Also in the list are renowned filmmaker Akira Kurosawa and Charles Schultz of Peanuts cartoon fame.Edward Norton, Scarlett Johansson, Jeff Goldblume, Greta Gerwig, Bryan Cranston, Tilda Swinton, and of course Bill Murray are only a few of the voice talents behind the hand-painted hand-designed stop-motion characters.Each one took around 16 weeks to make, with around a thousand interchangeable faces to pinpoint specific expressions within each of the 12 frames per second. It took 670 artists years to create this hour & 41 minute long film. An excellent interview with some of the Isle of Dogs animators can be read here.Two scenes still stand out days later as potential for pop genius and eccentricity unmatched: the sushi scene in which audiences gain point of view from the eyes of a sushi chef as he slices and creates a box lunch, and the kidney transplant scene with a realistic overhead view within an operating room as a surgeon slices, removes, stiches up, and replaces a kidney. It’s surprising and yet fitting in the world as presented by Anderson.

A WRINKLE IN TIME (2018) movie review

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I respect that Chris Pine brings his good game to a children’s film with as much resolve and intentionality as he does his more serious adult roles. There were moments of his Hell or High Water type performance even in Wrinkle. Pine’s face graces the screen enough to almost erase Mindy Kaling’s awkward line deliveries and boxy gowned running scenes over CG grassy knolls to meet Oprah and Reese Witherspoon, who both basically play themselves.The tone is playful, childlike. It’s like a Spy Kids mission to save the father who got lost in another dimension. 

The costumes are stunning, bold, and bright like a Project Runway finale.Storm Reid is the young actress who plays Meg. She is believable, vulnerable, lovely.This was my favorite novel growing up. I delighted over every one of Madeleine L’Engle’s paragraphs detailing the adventure with Meg the dreamer, meg the feeler, Meg the insecure but capable girl. School days felt odd and long then, and I longed for the stargazing rock where she would go to contemplate the universe and fixing its problems. Charles Wallace, precocious and kind, too often caught up in his own world, always supported his misfit sister. And Calvin the sad boy with a lion’s heart and more patience than most somehow joined in on the journey. In the book there is a flying horse – a pegasus, a stuttering witch woman or three (much like the Fates of Greek myth), a dog who understands, and a feverish fight against the It of darkness.Somehow sitting in the theater through this hour + music video with a plot felt like a counseling session as each character took a turn cupping Meg’s face to remind her, with tears in their eyes, to believe the truths about herself and to run from lies. You are special. You are valuable. You are wanted. You are smart. You are enough. You are loved.  That feels like time well spent.  

BLACK PANTHER (2018) movie review

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Forget your fear that Marvel will take over movies as we know them. Never mind those haunting urges that attending might mean you’re supporting the “man” of the movie industry. That cash cow should not keep you from enjoying a night at the movies.Give Marvel’s new James Bond that sweet Panther suit, a sassy brainy sister with access to more tech-power than Iron Man can boast, an army of spear-wielding women, and a backstory littered with the weight of royalty, alien metal, and starlit Lion King nods, and you’ve got the action-packed two plus hours of Black Panther.The perfect cast pounces into action while Andy Serkis gives chase. You may have to overlook the piece-meal religious appropriations and some overly charged CGI, but this movie is everything you’ve come to expect: lively and exhilarating action in a stand-alone story that introduces a slew of new likable characters who jump battle-ready from scene to scene.The tribal traditions offer depth of culture to the every-hero-an-Island usual Marvel landscape. Here heroes are born, made, and continue to fight for place earning the respect of a nation with a secret that could change the world if shared.

THE SHAPE OF WATER (2017) movie review

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I’m honestly more torn about this film than any I’ve seen in years. It’s Amelie-gorgeous with deep sea-green color saturation and beautiful acting.The score perfectly pursues the main character through immaculate set pieces – in ancient red velvet theaters and gorgeous 1950’s attic apartments, on city buses trekking rain-soaked city streets, and inside symmetrical science labs.It’s also gruesome, torturous, cruelty thrust upon weak and helpless “others” by power-wielding men. These characters take aim at the broken, the lonely, the unloved, the underdogs.This kind of cruelty, the stuff of pure evil, usually plays out more subtly in movies. The bad guys usually retain glimmers of hope – a redemption factor that causes us to pause, consider the potential for evil we all carry but that we must choose not to act on. In this, Del Toro’s most beautiful monster film yet, he offers the bad guys no redemption, no character arcs, no potential for good. They are all bad, hated from moment one.This is a film about loneliness, a universally understood theme.All characters long for connection. They paint it, discuss it, force it, sacrifice to find it, lie to obtain it, and wait endlessly for it. One lone woman, a petite, wordless girl of routine and whimsy, played bravely by Sally Hawkins, finally acts on her longings and woos the most tortured of all – a creature of the sea. Okay, yes, this is where it gets really odd. Shape of Water is indeed a love story between girl and fishman. The director supposedly saw the old Creature from the Black Lagoon movie years ago and always wanted to give him a love story.  This film is surprisingly explicit at times.  Scenes that give it the R rating include sexuality, nudity, and gore.Communist sub-plots in the space-race era provide secondary plot structure under-lacing the romance between unseen beauty and aquatic wonder man. The secondary characters prove lovable and crucial to the plot as they too work to overcome their own unappreciated uniquenesses.In the 50’s, having a different skin color or lifestyle choice meant exclusion from society. The painter, played by Richard Jenkins, is the friend who lives next door who remains reclusive, hiding in his own pain until challenged to act heroically.Octavia Spencer is the verbose but trusted confidant. It wasn’t until her character was threatened that I started looking for exits in the theater. I had forgotten my visceral response to the scenes of sudden shocking gore in Pan’s Labyrinth, del Toro’s best known work until now.Guillermo del Toro is a designer, an artist, who sculpts empathy and terror, interweaving both. In this film, he somehow succeeds yet again, proving his adept directorial skills as he offers both horror and romance. The question he poses: Who truly is the monster? Then the classic message resounds when true love conquers all.


STAR WARS Episode 8 The Last Jedi (2017) movie review

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From one life-long Star Wars fan to another, it may be time to retire the badge. Beware, rants & spoilers ahead.

 Call it too many cooks in the kitchen. Blame an inexperienced writer/ director. But nothing can redeem the plot holes, the lack of character development, the incessant punny one-liner attempts at comic relief that skewed the tone of this film meant for the Star Wars Universe but playing out like a poor spin-off.No one can debate the absolute tragedy that was Princess Leia’s resurrection. No one should support love triangle vibes or the chemistry-less friend-game from the positively pointless side narrative that took Finn and friend to little Vegas to find the stuttering codebreaker who betrays them and disappears. Pointless.The ridiculous certainly outweighed the powerful, the silly over the strong. Laura Dern’s character keeps the plan from her one best ally, Poe Dameron. She plays a stubborn, hateful leader dressed for the governor’s ball who sacrifices herself to save some.The screen should be at least somewhat sacred – screentime under a trusted name should be valuable. Your time and money is worth more than this poorly produced film. Certainly, stunning shots made a few moments worthwhile, but the details betrayed the beauty breaking what faith I had left after a torturous Rogue One. I had a bad feeling about this, but I still had hope for the franchise.
The little “porg” birds and crystal foxes may have added cutsie touches, but  they played no role in the plot. Nice pitch for new Disney dolls, but why not go ahead and make the alien cow that Luke milks. That’ll be a coveted toy beneath the Christmas tree. And why were frog people living on the island with Luke selling elephant tusks out of  wheelbarrows. These are questions I’d like to know the answers to. Here are a few more odd details I’d love to know more about.

The ancient unread Jedi texts look like $12 journals from Barnes and Noble. Finn and his flibbertigibbet new gal pal are the only 2 standing when the doc is hit. Lucky.Poe is locked up on a transport waiting for Leia to wake up only to slap him – an out of character move. Kylo Ren, however, is still a pent-up child throwing tantrums. BB8 saves the day multiple times. Bot’s got more gumption and wherewithal than any of the fighters. Rey, still unfortunately flawless and therefore unrelatable, somehow trains herself after a few short days on JJ’s next big LOST island. Then, Luke ditches and dismisses the one promised moment that had carried us all into this film. For two years, Rey has been holding his lightsaber out to him waiting for the hero to emerge. And, in two seconds, our hopes were dashed and Han died for no reason.This film was disappointing on every level that matters. Sure, you can blindly watch and appreciate the Star Wars fan-isms. You can call it beautiful in scenes. You can say that you believe in the rebellion and it’s potential to take back the galaxy by pushing the Empire out and bringing balance to the force. But, sorry fans, you cannot say that this was a good film just because it’s Star Wars.

 

JUSTICE LEAGUE (2017) movie review

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Suffering from grief after the death of Superman, Wonder Woman and Batman continue to fight crime in the shadows until Steppenwolf, the Lord of evil, returns from the land of doom to unite the three power cubes and destroy the world.Of course he does. What else would he do? So what must they do? They must form a team of superhumans and gods to save the world. Batman has the money, experience, and a new Alfred played by Jeremy Irons. Wonder Woman has her lasso of truth, her feminum wristbands, and her looks. They recruit The Flash, a fast kid with daddy issues, Aquaman, independent sassy king of the seas, and the Cyborg infused with alien technology and metal.

CG characters over saturated color spectrums, Zack Snyder maintains his classic 300 look.

The evil Steppenwolf seems a hybrid of stolen storylines from Sauron of Mordor trying to reclaim the one ring to Thanos hunting down infinity stones. Calling these “power boxes” doesn’t fix blatant plagiarism or disengage aware audiences of stereotypical evil master tropes.As far as seconds go, you often want to go back to the fridge hoping a dry slice of turkey will be better on the leftover plating. But it isn’t. Affleck’s tired Batman claims he’s getting too old for this. Gadot’s gorgeous Wonder Woman gets tighter leather and shorter skirts like she’s losing at poker with each film release.If only Batman didn’t constantly wince with exhaustion and chagrin. If only Superman wasn’t a CGI nightmare. If only Aquaman was given a likable presence instead of Wolverine’s aggression and an ocean of snarky one-liners. If only Cyborg was allowed a bit more humanity. The newbies were almost too strong, too wise, too capable. Cyborg can super hack any human or alien system. The Flash can essentially raise the dead with his super speed. Flash was surprisingly the bright spot and comic relief, but sadly not funny enough to counterbalance the darkness of a hero film left wanting.

THOR: RAGNAROK (2017) movie review

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Ragnarok is quirk and pizzazz in primary colors. It’s one-liners on trash planets run by Jeff Goldblum. It’s humor and clash and straight rock and roll. It’s meant to be fun.The beauty of current Marvel films, still solid in story, is that they don’t take themselves too seriously. The pure cadence of Goldblum’s speech sets the tone for Thor’s third in the Marvel regime. Perhaps the Pratt playful dialogue of Guardians is contagious and they knew they’d need to bridge that gap before Infinity War.In Norse myth, Ragnarok is the famous end game as prophesied in dreams. It is the end of Asgard, and it specifies the deaths of each member of Odin’s household, including Thor. Novelist Neil Gaiman recently released his book “Norse Mythology” which offers short stories detailing the lore of Thor, the hijinks of Loki, the double-sided nature of the All-father Odin, the true evil nature of Hela the goddess of death, the wisdom of Heimdall, the details of Ragnorok, and more.  It’s brilliant.Thor operates with different tools, as a god. His super strength, second only to his chiseled abs, helps him to defeat evil forces like frost giants that threaten his community. With the loss of his hammer, poor Thor is displaced and forced into the gladiatorial ring. He must escape, form a new team, and rescue Asgard before his long-lost sister destroys everything he spent his life protecting.

Marvel Studios’ THOR: RAGNAROK..Valkyrie (Tessa Thompson)..Ph: Film Frame..©Marvel Studios 2017

Unlike the deities of Greek mythology who fear nothing as they play dice with mortal humanity, Norse gods know that their days are numbered. Life is therefore more precious, purposed; it’s a battle worth fighting. And if you’ve been riding the Marvel train all along, you’ll probably agree that this is a film worth seeing.

KING ARTHUR: Legend of the Sword (2017) movie review

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Guy Ritchie’s new foray into old lore leaves one wanting more… wanting more clarity, consistency, and likable characters with trackable plotlines.Through experimental filming and storytelling, the age-old Arthurian legend gets blurred on screen as angry teen magicians create dream sequences that collide in ultra HD street-running and slo-mo fights. Only more herky-jerky than the filming is the dialogue that forces stuttered inside jokes, mistakable relationships, and forgettable caricatures that not even a Beckham cameo could save.Though Charlie Hunnam’s rippling abs and Viking jawline are the stuff of dreams, they are not enough to carry the whole legend and hopeful film series. And, even pert Jude Law’s portrayal of the murderous, evil-possessed uncle is baleful at best as he visits his nasty CG three-headed Ursula muse to gain yellow contacts.Tragically, the great potential in casting and directing cred perhaps became the hubris leading to defeat, for this Excalibur should have remained in the stone until editing could find the glue to bring all of the disparate pieces of this film together.