Movie review rant 2019

people from all over the world that would only be recognized by the people from those countries that watch them.
I have no clue who the German girl is. And frankly, I have no intention to change that.

As for Frozen 2: as a father of a young daughter who loves the franchise, my immediate reaction to the trailer can be summed up as: "Brace yourself; Winter is coming".

Given all those maple leaves, I wonder whether it'll feature Canada, eh? ;)
 
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Oh no. Why, oh why again!

The trailer seems to make no sense. I’ve heard of rumours that Elsa may be the villian...
Elsa was originally intended to be the antagonist of the first movie. I think if it had a stayed that way, it would have made the movie a whole lot better (I HATE the way the movie ended up).
 
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I just can’t let the horror go....
 
Well, I'd rather have Frozen 2 than any of the remakes Disney has planned. (And even if Frozen 2 doesn't turn out that good, at least it won't be as bad as the direct-to-video sequels).
 
Have you not seen The Lion King 3 (or 1.5)? A work of minor genius and well worth watching. :)
That has some funny moments, but I'll never forgive it for cheapening the opening of the original film, making Pumbaa's farting the reason the animals bowed to Simba.
 
The Lego Movie 2

I went to the cinema to watch this yesterday, and I was slightly worried after finding out it was a musical. I hate musicals as a general rule, but this was on a completely different level. It was absolutely brilliant! :)

Where to start? Well first up there's soooooo many pop culture references, meta humour, cameos, and callbacks to certain characters previous cinematic outings, for example Batman prefers his Michael Keaton portrayal over Christian Bale's! :p I left the cinema and still couldn't get my head around just how many jokes they squeezed in, trust me when I say this film is definitely geared towards adults as well as kids.

The plot's pretty straightforward, with one twist that you probably won't see coming. The voice cast is brilliant, stand out performance is probably Will Arnett . Bruce Willis pops up, along with several DCEU actors, and I'm pretty sure Gal Gadot pops up as one version of Wonder Woman even though she wasn't listed on IMDB.

This film is close to perfect so I'm giving it a 10 out of 10, it was that good. Equally as good as the original movie and close to Lego Batman's solo movie in quality.

And to finish off my glowing review here's a song from the film. If you don't find it brilliant then we can no longer be friends.
 
I saw How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World last night. These movies have a special place in my heart, they've been a huge part of my life since the first film came out. I grew up with them and always related a lot to Hiccup, who's always been close in age to me in each film. They're truly something special, and bravo to Dreamworks for creating the best film trilogy of the last decade.

The relationships between Hiccup and Toothless, Hiccup and Astrid, and Toothless and the Light Fury were all so charming and believable. The animation is breathtaking, the sequences in the hidden world and between Toothless and the Light Fury are gorgeous to watch. John Powell's score perfectly complements the film and I'd consider it some of his best work. And oh god the ending absolutely ripped my heart out, I can't remember the last time I cried so much during a movie.

There are some flaws, the pacing was eh but that's been a consistent thing throughout the series. Some scenes go on too long, others are far too short. I also thought that the antagonist, Grimmel, could have used more development.

Overall the film was a fitting end to an amazing trilogy, and I'm glad it went out on a high note. It ranks slightly above the first but below the second. I'd give it a 8.5/10 but that may change to a 9/10 after a second viewing, we'll see.
 
Happy Death Day

I had heard this movie title before but it sounded like The Purge or something along those lines, so I never paid it any attention. But Honest Trailers just did a video for it and I thought "hey that looks like fun", so I watched it and it was fun. Basically it is Groundhog Day but the reason the main character relives each day is because she keeps getting murdered. She needs to find out who the killer is to stop herself being murdered, and hence break the loop. Sort of a cross between Groundhog Day and Edge of Tomorrow really.

I don't like horror movies particularly (I'm too prone to thinking that zombies are actually real and hiding under my bed) so this was a good one for me. It is more a funny thriller-whodunnit than a slasher movie, and it's PG13 so no gore. I thought the identity of the killer was quite well-kept until the reveal, although that jerk on Cinema Sins considered it to be obvious. I actually thought most of his sins this time were pretty stupid apart for a few well-noted ones (like how the MO of the killer kept changing as if knowing how the previous "lives" had played out).

The continually-murdered girl is played by Jessica Rothe who is very good in the role, which is helpful given that she is in every scene in the movie. It wouldn't have worked using some "currently the in-thing" actress who can't actually act.


The sequel - Happy Death Day 2U - is coming out in a week or so and I think I shall go watch it because the first one was a fun movie. The trailer goes on a bit long but it keeps the fun feel to it. Seems like there's some sort of multi-loop thing going on it.
I went to see Happy Death Day 2U last weekend and I thoroughly recommend it. I think it is still basically being billed as a horror, which is unfortunate for me because the trailers they played before it were all horror trailers and (as stated earlier) I don't like horror movies. Even the first Happy Death Day wasn't a horror as such, and the sequel is even less-so. It would be better described as sci-fi with a random knife-murderer in it.

Interestingly, the sequel doesn't just remake the original as hollywood is prone to do, but instead takes the actual characters and makes the sequel around them. So even though the genre has sort of changed, it doesn't matter because it is a natural progression from the first movie from the point of view of the characters.

Speaking of characters though, the lead actress (Jessica Rothe) is almost 32 and is playing a new college student. I didn't notice this when watching the first movie on a small screen, but with a cinema-sized screen it is pretty obvious she isn't 18. Not meaning that in a mean way, of course, she looks great - but clearly not the age the character is supposed to be!

I won't go into any details or spoilers, but I do encourage people to go see this movie. (Watch the first one beforehand though - I guess you could watch the sequel as a stand-alone but I think knowing what happened previously would make it a lot more enjoyable and understandable).
 
Overall the film was a fitting end to an amazing trilogy, and I'm glad it went out on a high note. It ranks slightly above the first but below the second. I'd give it a 8.5/10 but that may change to a 9/10 after a second viewing, we'll see.

Though I am a fan of the franchise I'm slighly more critical. I agree with most of the good points you note, and it was in no way a bad film. It delivered what I (and I think many others) expected, but little more. See spoiler for details. Also Grimmel was in no way the most interesting or dangerous villian in the franchise. Not as strong as Drago, not as (over the top) crazy as Dagur, not as smart and cunning as Viggo, and not as calculating as Krogan. He was the most evil I think, but other than that he didn't really stand out in any way.

What I mean with "It delivered what I expected, but little more" is that any element we want from this film was in there and it was nicely done. A great dragon fight, Hiccup and Astrid getting married, Toothless finally finding a mate, a bittersweet but fitting ending to the franchise and that great farewell scene. But it lacked a surprise element, something truly emotional and unpredictable that would shock both characters and viewers. They showed us they dare to do that in the second film with Stoick's death, and that film was so much better because of it. The final film did not have such a moment, which prevented it from going beyond good into great in my opinion. One could argue the downfall of Berk was such a moment (and it maybe it was meant to be) but it was not delivered very well. For a franchise that likes to stretch certain things out this part felt a bit rushed and could have used a lot more emotion. But aside from that moment, there were (too) few unexpected things.

Overall though, it is a good film that gives a great franchise the ending it deserved. I certainly recommand it. It's currently my least favourite of the trilogy but that may chance if I watch it a second time.
 
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