Tag: Mini Movie Review

Movie Review: Godzilla vs. Kong

Godzilla and King Kong do battle on the deck of a giant aircraft carrier at sea against a cloudy sky with explosions all around.
Image Source: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5034838/

Over the Labor Day Holiday Weekend, my family and I watched a movie: Godzilla vs. Kong. We’ve seen all the other Godzilla movies and this is the only one left on the list. While we wanted to watch Black Widow, it was still on “Premiere Access” (along with Premiere Access prices on the Apple Store), so we decided to save it until Thanksgiving. While I thought it was pretty good, I don’t think that it was the best movie in the series. I think that the idea of pitting these two monsters against one another got the executives excited, and I’m not sure they thought about it except for the awesome fight scenes that could be shown on the screen. The script really was a tale of “two scripts”–one fairly good one and one really bad one.

The Good

I feel that this is a pretty good movie–it’s just that it could be much better. I liked the “A” plot story with the young girl, her guardian and Kong and the way they use the girl character to communicate with Kong. I thought that was a pretty good story and felt that’s probably what the movie should have been–getting Kong to see that fighting didn’t have to be the only way of existing. Conflict can be expressed in many different ways and based on Kong Skull Island we see that Kong is the “alpha” of his island–but why not express “alpha” traits differently than fighting?

Also, the visual effects were also good, although I didn’t think they were as amazing as the were in Godzilla King of Monsters. I still liked them, however, and the “hovercar” sequence was still pretty amazing. It ultimately wasn’t as relevant to the plot as the sequences were for GKoM, but they were still fairly inventive.

I also liked some of the humor–and I do say some. I don’t think I’m becoming an “old fogey,” but some of the humor seemed appropriate and some seemed like humor just for humor’s sake (this is a movie and we need people to laugh so what jokes can we add in). I guess I didn’t see the humor as organic in this one.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=odM92ap8_c0

The Bad

There’s quite a bit–again, not to beat a dead horse, but some of the humor didn’t work for me. I found that I was rolling my eyes at some of the jokes/setups in the movie.

Also, the “B” and “C” plot lines (Godzilla as “bad guy”) and father-daughter “tension” brought back from GKoM didn’t really work for me. First off, having watched all the Godzilla movies (some old ones and all the newer ones), I know that Godzilla’s not a “bad guy” monster and, as such, one or two throwaway lines trying to address how Godzilla has “gone rogue” and is now a threat to humanity doesn’t really address/rationalize Godzilla’s new “evil” status. Screenplays always want to seem to throwaway entire movies worth of characterization with a few lines of dialogue and/or a couple of weak set-ups because they want to throwaway the old and try something new, and then writers/producers/directors seem to get upset when audiences don’t support their movies. In my mind, GKoM did the “little things” right where this movie, Kong vs Godzilla doesn’t.

Another thing that irked me was the unnecessary integration of songs into the storyline. I’ve seen two movies now, this one (GvK) and Army of the Dead that had songs peppered throughout the narrative that didn’t need them to be there. These movies aren’t Guardians of the Galaxy and they don’t need the songs to tell their stories–these just seem like songs that the director liked and put them in without any regards to the story, characters, or situation. Music is subjective, but for me, there were one or two songs that actually worked against the narrative and pulled me out of the story, whereas in a movie like, Transformers, the music choice when Bumblebee has to escape from the police interceptor is perfect because it heightens the emotion and tension of the scene. I’ll be glad when this particular fad has run its course.

Music choice starts at 2:21 in video

The Ugly

Finally, GvK commits two sins: 1) it has its protagonists mixed up. The movie is even entitled Godzilla versus Kong, but Kong is clearly the protagonist of the movie. We’ve seen one Kong movie from the studio and several Godzilla movies–you would have thought that Godzilla would be the protagonist, but that’s not the case. While I don’t mind it, it would have been nice to have presented a “balance” of the two perspectives. An increased focus on Godzilla–something is driving him crazy (along with Kong) and both sets of “humans” (each who like their respective monster) have to figure out what is going on and how to prevent the “alphas” from destroying each other. That would have made a far more compelling plot in the movie than what is actually presented.

2) The second sin that it makes is that the first 30-45 mins is a lot of that “character building” that modern movies seem to do now (again, Army of Darkness also falls into this category), where they try to establish character and make you identify with the characters before getting into the action/story proper. While this is a way of doing things, it’s not the only way–a Raiders of the Lost Ark where you have both Godzilla and Kong tearing things up and acting wildly out of character might have been a stronger start to the movie and then (again) you could introduce each of the groups of human characters as they try to figure out what’s wrong with their respective monster.

Overall Rating: B-

Rating: 4 out of 5.

This one had so much potential, but the script and some of the choices really let it down in my opinion. There were so many ways in which this one could have been a stand-out movie, but because of the script and the choices that were made for this movie, I felt that, while good, it was definitely a step down from Godzilla King of the Monsters, which is currently my “high water mark” for the series of movies (and surprisingly, Kong Skull Island) would be second on that list, so this really should have been topnotch for me.

I can’t give half stars on here, so since a B = 4 stars that’s what it gets, but it really is only 3.5 star movie as the special effects and some of the plot and characterization push it out of the average category and into the (just barely) good category.

I really think that the producers should have thought more about the set-up and what the humans were going to be doing in the movie and not just about the awesome fights that they could have with characters like Godzilla and Kong. Those fights, while epic, are only the cherries on top of a cake that is, unfortunately, fairly bland and a little soggy overall.

Sidney

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It Chapter One: Mini-Movie Review

Pennywise the Clown staring malevolently out at the viewer with a sinister smile on his face.
Image Source: https://www.denofgeek.com/movies/stephen-kings-it-chapter-1-dvd-blu-ray-release-date-details/

Sorry that I wasn’t able to write this up and get it posted yesterday, but school stuff came up and I’m on a tight deadline. I need to have certain documents finished by the end of this week. Hopefully, since next week is a long weekend for me due to the Independence Holiday, I’ll be able to catch up on my writing, but for now, the school docs are my highest priority.

So, saying that, I’m going to do a mini-review for It that I watched over the weekend. I bought both Chapters One and Two on sale on iTunes earlier this year, but I’m just now getting around to watching them. So here’s my impression of the movie.

Stranger Things on Steroids

Now, I’ve seen the original It mini-series from the 80s and I’ve read the book. While I think the book is good (except for the ending), I remember the mini-series being just okay. I loved Tim Curry’s performance as Pennywise but I thought the rest was a bit bland. However, this new version of It really upped the ante so to speak. While I don’t know if Stranger Things inspired anything in the movie, I do know that it definitely has a Stranger Things feel to it with the focus on kids struggling against the supernatural. I think that the acting on all fronts was highly believable and the scares are definitely there, even more so than in Stranger Things, much more closer to the “jump scares” variety in more traditional horror movies. That being said, like Stranger Things, the movie picks its moments. There are places where the kids band together and we see their normal lives or how they deal with the aftermath of crises, but this isn’t a “jump-scare-a-thon” where you’ll be constantly quaking.

A Horror Movie for a Non-Horror Fan

Now, before I go too deep here, I want to be sure to mention that this movie has plenty of scares and violence. If you don’t like any horror/horrific elements, this isn’t a movie to watch. However, I personally don’t really care for horror as genre. I used to like “ghost stories” and some “scary stories” as a child, but I discovered that horror (as modern writers do it) activates my “flight or flight” reaction and makes it impossible to really get invested in the story (unlike action/thrillers like Terminator 1 & 2, Alien & Aliens, etc. that have some horror elements). Horror, as modern writers/movies do it, just doesn’t work for me. It Chapter One was on the edge of what I can tolerate and still be invested in the stories and characters. Sometimes it slipped over the edge, but it was never too much, so that I called it quits, unlike other horror movies that I’ve tried to watch and finish recently (Sputnik and Life, I’m looking at you). For me, Stranger Things never crosses the line, but It Chapter One sometimes just barely crosses the line before returning back. I like it and say that it is a good one to watch if one doesn’t really like horror, but there will be times when it will probably be too intense for the non-horror fan.

Overall Rating: B+

Rating: 4 out of 5.

I really enjoyed the movie, more for the interaction with the kid characters than for the horrific elements in the story, but I thought that the horror was also well done, just a little too intense in some cases for my personal tastes, but others may feel that it doesn’t go far enough (especially, horror aficionados). Still, I definitely intend to rewatch it and I’ll also watch the second chapter in the story, even though it is supposedly not as good as the first. My mother, who doesn’t like watching horror movies at all, would NOT be a good candidate for this movie at all. I, however, felt that it was a good movie that was just a touch too scary in a couple of places, but did a really good job of establishing characters and conflicts to tell a really good story.

Sidney

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Raya and the Last Dragon Mini-Review

Image of Raya and the The Last Dragon, Sisu (a purple and blue dragon from the Chinese mythos--serpentine with no wings).
Image Source: https://www.cinemablend.com/news/2564916/raya-and-last-dragon-make-money-disney-data-suggests-streaming-mulan

So, this blog is late, and yes, there’s a reason for it. One of the reasons is that I am going to eventually get around to drafting these entries on the weekend and then release them during the week. That is going to happen . . . eventually. There’s no question of it. Eventually.

However, it doesn’t help when WordPress goes and changes the way the blogging editor works for no good reason. I like my titles as they were clearly defined from the rest of the content. WP has changed this and now the title works differently as I draft these entires. I’m going to stop here as the rest of this entry would likely be a “grip session” at WP, but please allow me the option to choose what I prefer in order to write the blogs rather than making the choice for me. Thank you!

Back to regularly scheduled blog entry now.

Raya and the Last Dragon

So, I’ve been out of the “movie watching” habit. On Saturday nights, as a reward for getting through the week, I treat myself to a movie that I’ve not seen before. Before school, I would buy a DVD/Blu-Ray that I’d not watched before, but after going to school (and being a student again–read, poor), I started streaming movies through Netflix (although I did subscribe to their DVD/Blu-ray Disc option for a time). However, even back in 2016/2017/2018, I could see where streaming would be the “future” of the industry (if I’d had any money for stocks, I definitely would have invested in Netflix and other streaming ventures–though I’d probably lost money as streaming didn’t really become viable until late 2019 with Disney+ entering the market and kicking off the current streaming wars, and the pandemic of 2020 really forcing people to reevaluate the streaming vs cable cost paradigm).

However, I’ve been trying to get back into the movie watching habit, so I’d thought last Saturday,–yes, it’s late, but I’ll go ahead and watch a movie. After not being able to decide, I saw that Raya and the Last Dragon was available on Disney+ and since I’d really liked the trailer, I decided to give it a shot.

Not Bad

This is going to sound like “damning with faint praise,” but I liked it and thought that it wasn’t bad. It isn’t my favorite Disney animated movie, but I still think that it is a strong movie and a fun watch. Unfortunately, it just didn’t hit the heights of other Disney animated movies. Still, at the moment, a middle of the pack Disney movie is still better than the majority of live action movies out there.

I really liked the characterization and the story. The setting seemed a little too “on-the-nose” for my tastes as the way the land and water are visualized in a map depicted in the story makes it seem like a “dragon.” There isn’t a villain, per se, unless you count the faceless monsters in the story, but there are antagonists. However, they make the antagonists wanting to do good, but acting out of “fear” and trying to make their lives better at the expense of others. However, fundamentally, the story argues that all people are good and that coming together is better than being separate.

Moana Does It Better

However, the message, which is so central to most Disney animated movies, seems a bit too forced in this one. Maybe it is that “on-the-nose” quality that I mentioned earlier, but from the way they bring the characters together, to the way the faceless villains are depicted and motivated, to the resolution of the story, all seem to be more geared to a more child-like, less experienced audience, where a movie like Moana, at least to me, still speaks to me as an adult. I can glean a message from Moana while enjoying the story, but for Raya, it felt like the message was the story. As a writer, I can intuit that, for Raya, the theme is central to the story, but for Moana, the story and characterization are central and the theme emerges naturally from the story.

This isn’t to say that Raya is bad or “preachy,” but for me (and probably for most adults), the story is better when I’m allowed to take what lessons I can from a story due to the characterization, plot, and setting, even if there is a “preferred” idea that is strongly hinted at/encouraged by the film. Raya gives you only one (To Trust is Divine). Yes, there are others, like “better together” or “come together in order to defeat a greater evil,” but realistically, the movie is exploration of the idea/theme of trust (who do you trust, when, how, why, etc.). That’s a little two-dimensional for me as a writer, storyteller, and audience member. Moana’s focus on her heritage and what it means to be the person that she was always meant to be adds that third dimension that I think Raya is lacking. I think that if they could have combined their characters and plot in a different way and utilized the “faceless creatures” in a different way–then Raya could have truly been a truly great movie on the level of Moana.

Overall Rating: B (85 Above Average)

Rating: 4 out of 5.

Even though it seems like I mostly focused on the negative, I still had an enjoyable experience with this movie. In the late 80s, there was an ad for a comic/graphic novel that I desperately wanted called The Last Dragon by Chuck Dixon. Unfortunately, when I finally found it and read it years later, it was a bit of a disappointment because it was more along the lines of a period piece and a biography of one of Dixon’s forebears (as I remember it–I could be wrong on this as this was YEARS ago, so YMMV). Raya is much closer to what I hoped that graphic novel would have been (although it still doesn’t quite match what I have in my imagination, so maybe . . . one day, I’ll write what I envisioned). The fight sequences were excellent and the characters, while not laugh out loud funny, still made me chuckle or smile, so it is an enjoyable film. It just, in my estimation, misses the mark of greatness for various reasons, but the biggest reason is that it lets the theme dominate the characters/plot, rather than letting the theme grow organically from the characters/plot.

Sidney

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Mini-Movie Review: The Grinch (2018)

A picture of the Grinch (with green fur) drinking coffee and looking annoyed.
Image Source: https://www.empireonline.com/movies/reviews/grinch-2-review/

I’d planned on watching the animated/anime version of Ghost in the Shell last night as I had recently seen the live-action version with Scarlet Johannson. However, Netflix is scheduled to lose The Grinch shortly, so I decided to prioritize that movie and see it first before it left streaming. I’m not so sure that was a good choice as I really didn’t enjoy the movie. I hate to say it, but I’m going to get all “grinchy” on the movie, so if this movie is your favorite, you may want to pass on this review–you have been warned.

The Good

There’s not much that I liked from this version of the movie, if I’m honest. I did like the quality of the animation and I thought that the animation was of high quality. However, even the animation couldn’t distract me from the myriad of problems that I felt that this movie had. I also liked some of the musical selections. Sometimes I thought they were inventive arrangements of the old songs; the new, more hip-hop version of “You’re a Mean One, Mr. Grinch,” was mostly effective and at least, different, but I didn’t like the addition of new lyrics. It was best when they kept the old lyrics, but rearranged them in a new and different way. Also, I liked the character of Max. I thought they kept most of what made Max such an endearing character in the movie as both accomplice and loyal friend to the Grinch, but hated how they made him a “willing accomplice,” unlike the original version where he was decidedly perplexed by the Grinch’s anti-Christmas antics.

The Bad

Where do I even begin? There’s so much wrong here that it would take nearly a lifetime to catalog it all. While I did like some of the music, some of it was awful. I don’t mind rap, per se, but some of the music wasn’t even good and only had a tangental Christmas time theme made by the lyrics reference Santa Claus or the like. The music seemed forced to try to appeal “hip” to today’s youth (like a bad Christmas play updated for modern times), and I, personally, just didn’t like some of it. The aging up of Cindy Lou Who, which I understand was also done in Jim Carrey’s version, still didn’t sit well with me. One of the best things about that character is that wild-eyed wonder that she exhibits coming down the stairs and seeing Santa with the tree and being mollified by the “Grinchy Claus” answer. Aging her up takes away the wonder and majesty of being a child and not having to worry about “grown-up” problems. Again, in trying to modernize the story and have Cindy Lou carrying for her younger brothers and trying to help out her single parent mom, the writers give her a rationale for meeting “Grinchy Claus” that undermines their very intention (see the scene where her “friends”–don’t even get me started on them–are called “home” by their respective parental units as to how aging her up defeats the purpose of her believing in Santa Claus as a child with her acumen would known, or have guessed, the “Grinchy Claus'” identity. I could go on and on, but I’ll move on to the movie’s biggest sins.

The Ugly

Giving the Grinch a “backstory” is an admirable, but ultimately, futile endeavor that misses the mark. Having the Grinch’s heart be “two sizes too small” is ALL that’s needed. He doesn’t “feel” the way the Whos feel. His heart can’t express or comprehend joy the way they do, so giving him an “orphan” backstory seems pointless–except that all “modern” heroes/villains now need a backstory. So we get this “lonely child” archetype in a story that already has a reason for why the Grinch is the way he is. [Spoilers] Worse, this movie robs the Grinch of any agency–having a reindeer, who he befriended earlier in the movie and set free to see his family, is the catalyst for saving the day rather than his triumphant epiphany and the revelation that his heart grew “three sizes that day.” It is as if the writers actively hate the idea that understanding gives you abilities beyond the norm. Have they never witnessed a mother/father perform superhuman feats in defense/protection of their child. They would rather have one of the worst plot devices (Deus ex Machina–“God from a Machine”) ruin their ending rather than allow superhuman strength gained through wisdom and clarity of the human condition to rule the day. Finally, the ending where he brought the toys back and apologized was both cringe-worthy and unbelievable, even for a movie about the inherent goodness of people. When Cindy Lou questions her mother about who would be “sick” enough to steal Christmas when everyone comes into the town square, both she and her mother (and Cindy Lou’s friends) all display an awareness of evil and badness in the world that they willfully ignore at the end of the movie in order to have the “happy ending” the movie desires. The writers can’t have it both ways–if you’re aware of the evil, then you must address the evil. Or you could do like the original animated TV special did–not have the Whos acknowledge the evil in the world and carryon as if no evil had been perpetrated.

And I think this is what bothers me the most. Without denigrating the writers, it feels like they denigrated the original. Based on my perception of the movie, it felt as if they found the original lacking and set out to flesh it out, but in doing so, to me, made the original stand out all the more because the choices that were made in this one seemed to lower, rather than raise, the storytelling bar and detracted greatly from the experience.

Overall Rating: D (65)

Rating: 2 out of 5.

To say that I didn’t like this one would be an understatement. Sure, there are some funny moments and the animation is excellent. However, the changes made the story worse, not better, and in focusing on the loneliness idea and that lonely people are sad and miserable, completely missed the mark as to what Dr. Seuss was trying to get across: that Christmas really isn’t about the presents and traditions, even though that’s what it looks like to outsiders. Christmas is about the innate goodness that is inside all of us and the realization that, for at least one time every year (Christmas time), we all have the potential to be better versions of ourselves, if we but have the courage to both listen and to try.

Sidney

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Mini-Review: The Hunger Games

Jennifer Lawrence as Katniss Everdeen pulling a bow with an arrow nocked and ready to fire in a lush, green forest.
Jennifer Lawrence as Katniss Everdeen. Source: https://www.deseret.com/2019/10/4/20898787/title-cover-art-hunger-games-prequel-ballad-of-songbirds-and-snakes-suzanne-collins

Currently, the free streaming service IMDB TV has The Hunger Games Trilogy (Quadrilogy as it four movies?) streaming for free. Having read The Hunger Games multiple times, but missing this movie in the theaters and not seeing it when it was on streaming on Amazon (?) a while back, I decided to go ahead and see it before it left the service. I’m glad I did–I actually liked it and felt that it was a good representation of the book.

The Good

There’s a lot to like about this adaptation, but probably the most important thing is that the movie is that it stays true to the spirit of the book. It is a fairly faithful adaptation of the story. Yes, there are some changes to the script–some fairly major, like the ending which doesn’t quite happen as described in the book, but the spirit and essence is still there (probably because Suzanne Collins, the book’s author, was listed as a writer on the movie).

Another thing that I think is really good is the fact that the actors don’t overshadow the characters. That was something that I feared knowing who the actors are in the movie. However, I can see the characters in the movie and not the actors playing a role. This is often a problem for me with movies staring huge actors like Tom Hanks and Tom Cruise. It doesn’t happen often, but it does happen–I was able to enjoy several of the X-Men movies with Jennifer Lawrence, but the last one she was in, I could only see her as the actor and not the character. This movie, happily, doesn’t have that issue. I see Katniss Everdeen in Jennifer Lawrence’s performance and I feel she does a great job!

The Bad

About the only thing that I can think of that’s bad for the movie is the compression that has to take place to fit the book into a two hour time frame. I like that the movie didn’t split itself into two parts for each movie (yes, I know Mockingjay does, but I’m assuming that’s because it is a longer, more mature book as it acts as a conclusion to the trilogy). However, some scenes are (necessarily) modified so that some of Katniss‘ inner dialogue has been given to other characters in order to get at her emotions and/or exposition.

The Beautiful

So, this is the first movie mini-review that I’m going to do that does not use “the ugly” paradigm, but rather the “beautiful” paradigm as the movie is gorgeously shot. The cinematography is excellent and the mise-en-scene for the various shots and locations is masterful. While I still think that The Lord of the Rings movies have the best book-to-movie adaptations in recent memory, I do feel The Hunger Games is close behind. I really like both the authenticity of the movie as compared to the book, and I love the choices made, from acting, to locations, to set and costume design, to story construction for the movie.

Overall Rating: A (95)

Rating: 5 out of 5.

In case you can’t tell, I really liked this movie. I thought that it portrayed the book accurately and fairly and didn’t make major alterations to the story–just smaller, minor ones. I wish that we could have gotten some of the exposition and character moments in that we either had to cut or give lines to other characters more closely adhering to the book, but again, time constraints would have made that almost impossible. An “extended edition” could have alleviated some of my concerns, but considering that the movie is as good as it is, I think the producers and directors went for a “well enough approach.” My late uncle’s advice is currently ringing in my ears: “perfect is the enemy of good,” so that’s something I need to remember–this is a good movie and trying to make it perfect might have caused something to have been lost. This is a very good movie and I really enjoyed it!

Sidney

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Mini-Review: Starship Troopers

Man in futuristic war gear with a helmet being chased by a giant bug (2x-3x human size) on a sandy desert world with a blue-white sky.
Image Source: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/nov/09/starship-troopers-reality-west-war-terror-paul-verhoeven-science-fiction-genius

Okay, so for the near future, I’m going to have to change my time for writing the blog. Mornings no longer seem to work for me. Mornings have been the best time for me for about 2.5 years and I’ve been able to be fairly consistent, but Covid and my teaching schedule just aren’t compatible with me producing blog posts regularly (at least during the morning as I’m ALWAYS prepping for class, grading, reading drafts, or researching sites/activities. So all this to say, that I’ll be writing and releasing blog posts during the afternoon–while I ma not be back to weekly, you should see more posts than the anemic 2 or 3 that you’ve been seeing lately.

Now on to the review: Starship Troopers was a movie that was on Netflix, but was scheduled to go off and I wanted to see it before it did. I watched it a couple of weeks ago and here’s what I thought.

The Good

I’ve actually read the book by Robert Heinlein years ago from my local library, but I’d never seen the movie. I remember when the movie came to theaters, but it was before I really got back into going to the theaters after my childhood theater going experience. I’d always wanted to see it, so I did before it left Netflix.

I thought it was good, but not great. I liked the premise of it and I (sorta’) liked the sardonic humor of the film in which there’s this “sarcastic” look at the idea of citizenship, the military, violence, and even love. I felt that, while all of these things could have been done better, they come together to create a cohesive whole that I thought makes the movie a good one (just not a great one).

The Bad

For me, the bad is just the way straddles the two lines: action movie and sardonic parody. The filmmakers do NOT stick to one genre and I think that hurts the movie. I really think that it was a mistake not to stick with one genre and run with it. For me, my enjoyment was blunted because the funny and sardonic elements were over the top and veered into farce (think the scene where the kids and the mother are stomping “bugs”), but then asked me to turn “serious” when they wanted to show serious action scenes and emotional beats. It is very hard to take the story seriously when you have the sardonic humor and over-the-top farce in order to make a point. SNL sketches work because they are ALL the way in one camp or the other. When they veer into “seriousness,” things tend to go off the rails. I think that between the two, they should have gone with an “action movie,” but use the violence and the script to make a comment on war, the military, and other aspects that they use the sardonic humor to try to express.

The Ugly

I may use something like the “beautiful” for movies that I think are inherently good and don’t have 2 negative aspects. This movie does have an ugly side. The sardonic and sarcastic humor aside, which can be ugly by itself (again, referencing the kids and stomping scene), I think that this is one of those movies that has not aged well. The “bug” special effects are still pretty good, but the costuming, cinematography, editing, and some space scenes do NOT hold up well, in my opinion. Even for 1990s movies, I felt they were not quite up to par. They remind me of very early special effects for Arnold Schwarzenegger movies such as The Running Man and Total Recall. Again, like the movie itself, many of the elements of the movie have that good, but not great feel.

Overall Rating (80-82, B-)

Rating: 3 out of 5.

This would get 3.5 stars if I could do .5 stars because I liked it, but there were just so many little flaws (the elements of the movie that I just talked about) in addition to the straddling of the line of genres. I really think that an action movie played “straight” (like Predator) and using the violence to make the points that the “farcical/sardonic humor” tries to make. I think that would have made the movie so much better, but again, it is a good science fiction movie that I’m glad I finally got a chance to watch.

Sidney

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Grandmaster Mini-Review

Mr. Ip dressed in black and wearing a white hat standing next to 3 other martial artists, all in black, and all in the pouring rain against a black background.
Image Source: https://variety.com/2013/film/reviews/the-grandmaster-1117948960/

So, I’ve been away for a while as grading and school work have kept be super busy (to be honest, I’m now taking an unearned break that may cost me Friday of this week as I have something for school on Friday that needs to get done ASAP, and I have a whole stack of papers to grade right now, I’m still going to quickly write this blog post).

The Good

Grandmaster is a movie that has been on my “watchlist” on Netflix for a while. I knew it was a martial arts movie and I knew that I wanted to see it. It was supposed to go off Netflix (which apparently got pushed back until October here in the US, but I saw it before it left.

I ended up liking it, but just barely. While it is a martial arts movie, it is also a biography/documentary of the famous martial arts master, Ip Man, who trained Bruce Lee and brought the Kung Fu fighting style of Wing Chun to notoriety.

Even though I’ve seen this story through the Ip Man “franchise” (I’ve seen Ip Man 1-3 with Donnie Yen & have Ip Man 4 in my watchlist), it tells about a period in Mr. Ip’s life that the other movies haven’t explored (yet), so I found the story engaging.

The Bad

So, I really wanted to watch a “martial arts” film, and while this film discusses the concepts behind martial arts and has some interesting martial arts fights–they are not the center stage. Rather, the fights (and the fight choreography) are very much stylized in such a way that the viewer infers the intricacies of the moves/fight rather than the fight choreographer actually setting up and showing each move.

The fights are more about the “impressions” of the fight rather than the “specifics” of the fight. Now, don’t get me wrong, there are many clever and inventive sequences, but they are bolstered by fancy camera techniques, shifting angles, slow motion, blurring and transitions, in addition to the “hidden wire” work that makes some moves seem unrealistic to the point of supernatural.

When you really want to see them mix it up, but they use cinematic conventions to make the action more stylized, it can be pretty anti-climatic.

The Ugly

So, I believe they do this for a very specific reason–it isn’t really a martial arts movie–at least, not in the traditional sense. It is more a documentary and it really wants to focus on a woman that Mr. Ip knew in his past who was both intriguing and a tragic figure. I’d say it is about 60% documentary and 40% martial arts. It doesn’t want to get bogged down in the minutiae of fighting–rather, it wants to make sure you understand the “simmering” drama of a life lived by Mr. Ip along with all its incumbent successes and trials.

And it succeeds–again, that just wasn’t what I (personally) was in the mood for when I watched the movie. I wanted more fight scenes and I wanted more detail on them–I wasn’t wanting an extended character piece, but that’s more of what this movie is–although it is a sumptuous movie and very well done (from a cinematic point of view).

Overall Rating: C+ (78-79)

Rating: 3 out of 5.

This a good movie that is just marketed wrong. It should be clearly marketed as a fictionalized biography, rather than a martial arts movie. As a fictionalized biography, the martial arts sections are just a bonus, but when it is a “martial arts” movie, I want to see clever, inventive fight sequences rather than stylized sequences. Expectations in check, I might have rated this movie higher because it is by no means a bad movie.

Godzilla King of Monsters: Mini-Review

A picture of a lizard like monster on two legs (Godzilla) walking in the ocean with a blue background and the words: Godzilla King of the Monsters in a light blue font at the bottom
Image Source:https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3741700/

Yesterday, for the Labor Day Holiday here in America, my parents and I watched Godzilla King of Monsters. I actually found it to be a pretty good movie, far above the lowly Rotten Tomatoes score (43% critics, 83% audience). I feel that the critics were overly harsh with this movie and that, while it has problems, still is a better movie than the critics give it credit for.

The Good

There is much to like about this movie, but the acting and the special effects are very good. Sure, like all things, there are exceptions within the movie, but I really liked the actors and their performances in this movies. I think the actors do a fine job with their roles in this movie. I thought the hero/protagonist was interesting, if a little one note at the beginning of the movie. Think “grieving dad” and you’ll have a pretty god idea the performance for the 1st third of the movie, but then the role opens up a little for the actor and gives him more to do. The same is true for most of the actors’ roles in this movie.

Another highlight was the special effects. This movie definitely prefers spectacle over characterization and emotions. Most of the visual effects in this movie seem to be computer generated (CGI), but it didn’t look fake to me. So many CGI movie monsters look a bit “rubbery” meaning that the folds of the skin, the coloration, the way they move, and other factors make the monster (or CGI) creation look as if they aren’t real. Usually this is because of a “rubbery” look on the part of the CGI creation where nothing moves underneath the skin as it would in real life. For the most part, the CGI monsters avoid this in the movie, although Godzilla walking sometimes doesn’t move like I would expect and so it breaks that “suspension of disbelief,” but on the whole, this is one of the better examples of CGI and an example of how CGI should be done in movies. In fact, the flying monsters were done so well, that the movie’s best, and most intense scene, is depicted in a flying chase between one of the monsters and the plane of the heroes. It manages to keep the tension high as well as clearly defining what’s happening on the screen and where everyone is in relation to one another. Good stuff!

The Bad

The script.

Yet again, the script lets down the movie. While there are many differing opinions on why the movie isn’t good. Of the 3 critics that I turn to watch their internet reviews after I watch the film, only one liked it. One was mixed, but leaning towards the dislike camp, and the other liked elements of it, but overall didn’t seem to care for it.

While setting up the main characters’ problems, the script does that old trope of setting up a scene and letting us infer what happened without us having any emotional investment in the characters. They don’t want to take the time (waste time) setting up what happened to the main protagonists’ child, but we are expected to “care” when they are sad.

Nope. Doesn’t work like that Hollywood. That’s why Star Trek (reboot) worked so well. In 10 minutes of screen time, they set up what happened to Kirk’s father and why it mattered that we empathize with Kirk, who let’s face it, for most of the movie, until he finds “Spock the elder,” is an out of control “brat.” We want Kirk to succeed because his father sacrificed to save his mother and Kirk, and his father wanted him to succeed.

That is how you do it, Hollywood. Now there are many more problems than just character motivation. The story isn’t great and the way it jettisons old characters from the storyline is, borderline disrespectful. However, the plot holds together well enough to tell a story of “titan” fighting each other and humans caught in the middle and that’s what a Godzilla movie should do.

The Ugly

Critics vs audience. This is another movie that isn’t as bad as its Rotten Tomatoes score indicates. I can usually see why a movie has a low RT score, but this one is a bit of a mystery. Sure, San Andreas featuring the Rock has a higher RT score, but its audience score is directly aligned with the critical consensus (currently, 50% critic, 52% audience). That is how you can tell the movie probably isn’t good.

However, in the case of this movie, there is an insane 40 point difference in opinion. I can only think that, for this movie, spectacle = boring, which it isn’t, at all. Again, I’ll note that critics don’t seem to understand, or care, that watching “real life” drama can be fun and intense, we see much of this in everyday life. Godzilla is literally a property about a larger than normal creature, wreaking havok on cities, created/restored by man’s use of technology. The newest movie includes these tropes and shouldn’t be penalized because it isn’t The Joker or The Dark Knight Rises with equally “silly” concepts (a man with a painted face like a clown who is “criminally insane”) just because it doesn’t delve into the nature of violence acts or the reprehensible qualities of human nature when people are under duress. Spectacle doesn’t automatically equate with bad, which seems to be the case with most critics.

I’ll stop here as I feel a critics “rant” coming on, but I found the movie to be enjoyable despite its flaws in the storytelling department.

Overall Rating: B (83-85)

Rating: 4 out of 5.

I thought long and hard about what I would give the move, but settled about where everyone else settled. The characterization and the story elements alone would have earned a C, but because the acting was good–the actors tried their best with the weak material and the special effects created tension where the story could not, I found it to be a satisfying experience (and maybe that’s the difference in audiences and critics–the audiences are able to accept tension in other places outside of story/characters, where critics are not–they see story (plot) and characters–especially characters–as the end all, be all tension makers in the story). For me, the scenes with the monsters were strong enough to balance out the flaws elsewhere in the movie and the movie, while not the best iteration of Godzilla I’ve ever seen, it was still a fun movie to watch that I wouldn’t mind watching again (unlike The Dark Knight Rises which I will never watch again if I can help it, or The Joker which I’ve still yet to see and have no real desire to see any time soon).

Sidney

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Double World Mini-Review

Picture of the main characters from the movie Double World on a blue background with gray and white clouds.
Image Source: https://www.denofgeek.com/movies/double-world-review/

After missing watching a movie on the Saturday that I was released from the hospital, I wanted to get back into the movie watching habit, so I decided to forgo my plan of watching movies from different streaming services and just watched a movie on Netflix. I was looking for something fun and breezy, in the same vein of The Forbidden Kingdom movie starring Jackie Chan. A while back Netflix had a movie called Monster Hunt (a martial arts takeoff of Monster Hunter, I believe) and while I thought about watching that one, I saw a featured movie on Netflix that looked similar: Double World.

Chinese Martial Arts Movie

Double World is a fantasy martial arts movie that plays it mostly straight, except there are a couple of fairly major fantasy elements. While in no way Game of Thrones, there is a light fantasy element to the movie that, in addition to light “unreality moves” (a la Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon), lend the movie less realistic bend than most martial arts movies, which was what I was looking for.

After a little research, I seen that the movie is based on a fairly popular MMORPG in China. This makes sense, as there is a bit of Warcraft to the proceedings–a sense of a fully realized world in which only part of it exists on-screen and the audience should know more about what is happening in the world and is able to fill in the gaps because the movie never explicitly explains the world or the relevance of all the players.

Suprisingly Dark Movie

So, did I enjoy the movie? Surprisingly, no. Or at least, not as much as I was hoping I would. Unlike other movies in the same genre, this one has a completely different tone. I was hoping for a movie more like The Forbidden Kingdom or the Detective Dee movies or even The 14 Blades, but the movie’s tone is much darker than those movies. Death is rampant in the movie and not just heroic death, but also capricious death and violent, visceral death. I can’t go into too much detail here without spoilers, but suffice to say that this movie is more in line with movies like Ip Man and Kung fu Killer that are more intense and more contemplative about the nature of death and honor than what I was hoping to watch.

I really just wanted a fun, breezy martial arts movie–and it is that (mostly), for the first half of the movie. The second half, however, devolves into the nature of revenge and vengeance, of characters finding out their heritages and it isn’t what they were expecting, and characters doing silly things, like going off on their own, which we all know from the horror movie icon Scream, that that is a sure way to not survive to the end of the movie.

Not Sure that I Understood Everything in the World

As I mentioned above, I’m pretty sure that I missed quite a bit of the world/world-building. I originally intended to talk about this in relationship to Chinese history/mythology, as it always seems like I was missing part of the puzzle of the world. The world never quite felt “complete” to me, and I thought it was because I was lacking in enough knowledge of Chinese history (of which I have a pretty good foundation, but I’m no expert/historian) or Chinese mythology (of which I only have a passing knowledge).

However, in looking up articles about the movie, I see it is because this world is built on a video game property that I’ve never heard of, let alone played. That is why the world seems missing or incomplete as I’m sure the director and screenwriters believed that their audience would be familiar with the game world and, by extension, would be able to fill in the gaps with prior knowledge. However, like Warcraft, the movie world ends up feeling incomplete in some way as if you only have a partial grasp of what’s happening in the world of the story. Compare that to something like Brandon Sanders’ Stormlight Archive series where the world is an integral part of the story.

Overall Rating (C + 78)

Rating: 3 out of 5.

So, I think this one could have been something special as I really like the characters and the story (especially the first half). However, the fight scenes, while inventive for the fantasy world, weren’t the best ones I’ve seen in a martial arts movie. Also, the dark turn in the 2nd half of the movie was at odds with the fairly light, happy-go- lucky beginning of the movie. I think this movie is one that, while not a wasted opportunity, could have really been something special. The Forbidden Kingdom was one that had an American who was center stage–I think that without the dark tone to this one, Double World could have been as impressive The Forbidden Kingdom.

Sidney

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Mini-Movie Review: Terminator: Dark Fate

A movie poster with an orange background and Linda Hamilton and Arnold Schwarzenegger as the two largest figures. Two women are in the middle of the frame and the new Terminator is at the bottom with the name of the move and the crew listed in white lettering.
Image Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terminator:_Dark_Fate

So, this is another time that I wish that I could use typical spoiler tags (<spoiler></spoiler>) on the blog as it would make writing this mini-review much easier. A cursory search on google shows that it is possible on WordPress, but you need to be a paid user to access the feature (at the time of writing). I scanned through all of the “embeds” and wasn’t able to find it, but did run across what I wanted to do on a forum. However, this being the case, I will try to discuss the movie in a non-spoiler way.

Know this, however. There is a major spoiler within the first five minutes of the movie. Your reaction to the movie is largely going to depend on whether or not you buy this particular scene. Fans of the classic two movies Terminator and Terminator 2 probably won’t like this scene, while those of the newer generations may care less/may forgive what happens in the scene, and may find this one a good or decent movie. A lot of it depends on your frame of reference, point of view towards, and attachment to the original two movies that are well regarded.

The Good

Okay, as I mention periodically, I don’t watch the reviews for a movie until after I’ve seen it as I don’t want to be influenced by any perceived biases on the part of the reviewers. That wasn’t always the case as I remember watching Siskel & Ebert movie reviews as a child for their opinion on the latest genre fair–except for Star Wars and a couple of other major exceptions, they always tended to be mixed or negative from what I remember.

However, afterwards I watched the reviews to see how closely my opinions matched with reviewers. In this, both the reviewers and myself are closely aligned. The actors/performers were awesome (“on point,” I believe is the current, soon-to-be dated reference), and did an amazing job. The new actors and the return of Linda Hamilton and Arnold Schwarzenegger really worked well and they all gave solid and believable performances. I thought the establishing scenes with the protagonist and her brother and father were witty, charming, and fun, not necessarily because of the script, but because of the actors and the way they portrayed their characters.

The Bad

As usual, the script/story. This seems to be a repeated meme and one that you’d think Hollywood would work harder at getting right. You can’t get through the door unless you’re part of the Writer’s Guild (or Director’s Guild, or Producer’s Guild), but the story has 5 credited writers (for the story & 3 for the screenplay), and yet the scripts continue to (often) be the weakest parts of the movie. This is probably a blog topic for another time, so I’ll save it, but Hollywood is too entrenched (in my opinion) in trying to find a magic “formula” that guarantees success. It’s a business wrapped around art–sometimes you’re going to hit it big (The Lord of the Rings 2001-2003) and sometimes you’re going to strikeout (Dungeons & Dragons – 2000). The best you can do is put up the best you can in terms of talent and story and swing for the fences–which Hollywood would argue isn’t a sustainable business model–but which gives you movies like Terminator: Dark Fate.

So what’s actually wrong with the script? It is basically a “callback” to ideas presented in the first two Terminator movies. While not a one-to-one recreation, there are scenes right out of the two movies that newer viewers might think are original, but have actually been done before (and better) by the older movies. Small vehicle (insert protagonists inside it) vs “Big Bad” vehicle, check. Helicopter scene, check. I had to physically clamp my jaw down to keep from sighing or reacting when I saw yet another scene that had a reference point from one of the other movies.

The Ugly

This is a no spoiler mini-review, but we have to talk about the first scene in the first five minutes. This is an Alien 3 level scene. If you want to know absolutely nothing–then maybe skip to the next section now . . . . . .

Okay, still reading? This scene destroys the themes of the first two movies and makes those movies seem irrelevant, in exactly the same way that Alien 3 did for Aliens (and to a lesser extent, the way the Disney Star Wars movies have done for the the original trilogy). There’s this “thing” in Hollywood that says if you don’t want to deal with things in a previous movie, its okay to write your beginning (or whole movie) in such a way that completely drops that whole set of themes so that you can do what you want to do. And that’s not what we, as an audience, want. Ideally, we want you, the creators, to advance the plot, in novel and unique ways that we never thought of (Empire Strikes Back–>Star Wars, Aliens–>Alien, Terminator 2–>Terminator, Bourne Supremacy–>Bourne Identity, etc.). Less ideally, we’ll accept (or at least I will), same character/plot (or different characters with same basic plot) inside a different setting (Home Alone 2, Karate Kid 2, Jaws 2, Predator 2, Jurassic Park: The Lost World, etc.). Not okay (in my book) are the movies that destroy characters, themes, and mythology just because you don’t want to be bothered with them (Alien 3, Star Wars: The Last Jedi, and now Terminator: Dark Fate).

Overall Grade: C (although this really should lower)

Rating: 3 out of 5.

Above Average (B) for the actors’ performances, but well below average for the script/screenplay (D) = a C. However, the fact that it really plays hard and fast with the continuity of the overall Terminator series really does annoy me and while it is a movie I could actually get through (unlike Terminator Genisys), it is one that, while full of action like other Terminator movies, makes me wonder if I should rate it much lower than I have as I don’t feel that it was a very good movie in the overall Terminator “franchise” (for the business people) or “canon” (for the audience members).

Sidney

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