Movie Review Rant 2024

Chlidonias

Chlidonias

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15+ year member
There hasn't been one of these for a while - 2023 was entirely skipped! I'm guessing @Brum was so disappointed with The Marvels that he just stopped watching movies altogether.

So, I went to see Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga today, and it was great. It is absolutely bombing at the box office and I can only assume that is because people don't go to theatres any more, they just wait for a movie to come onto Netflix and watch it at home.

For the uninitiated, Furiosa is a prequel to Mad Max: Fury Road, following the life of the title character from a child up to the start of Fury Road. Interestingly, the movie is set out in numbered chapters which works quite well for the passage of time. To get the most from the movie you'd need to have seen Fury Road already because there are multiple characters from that movie in this one and you're sort of expected to know who they are. You also really need to see it on the big screen for the grand spectacle of the desert landscapes.

Anya Taylor-Joy - who I really wasn't sure would be believable - does a very good Furiosa, and even sounds and somehow manages to look like Charlize Theron (who played Furiosa in Fury Road). Stand-out in the movie, though, was Chris Hemsworth as the villain Dr Dementus. I like Chris Hemsworth, but he is very Chris Hemsworth in all his movies, so I was wondering if this would basically be "Thor on a bike". Instead I more or less forgot Dr Dementus was Chris Hemsworth. I suspect they gave him face prosthetics for that exact reason, so it was easier to see him as this character and not, well, Thor.

One weird aspect of the movie which I didn't care much for, was the character Praetorian Jack who was basically just Mad Max, even being dressed almost the same as Mel Gibson's version in Mad Max: Road Warrior. It felt weird.

Overall: good story, good acting for the most part, great action set-pieces (albeit not feeling as "real" as other Mad Max movies because there is more CGI and less actual stuntmen doing real stunts), great scenery. If you haven't seen it but were thinking about it, then make sure you see it first in a theatre and not on a tv or phone!
 
Chlidonias said:
New There hasn't been one of these for a while - 2023 was entirely skipped! I'm guessing @Brum was so disappointed with The Marvels that he just stopped watching movies altogether.
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I enjoyed The Marvels to an extent, not the best Marvel movie but definitely not the worst. Quantumania on the other hand... :confused:
 
Just popped in to say that there will probably be a review posted in here tomorrow, no prizes for guessing what the film is though... :p
 
Deadpool & Wolverine

Straight out of the cinema reaction here, more details to follow later, but I really enjoyed this film. Not my favourite Deadpool movie but probably my favourite Wolverine film (if we're not counting his very brief cameo in First Class). There's a lot to say about this film so when I'm at my laptop I'll try and be comprehensive but will try and avoid spoilers at all costs. :)

Current feelings have me giving it a 7.5 out of 10 for now.
 
Brum said:
Deadpool & Wolverine

Straight out of the cinema reaction here, more details to follow later, but I really enjoyed this film. Not my favourite Deadpool movie but probably my favourite Wolverine film (if we're not counting his very brief cameo in First Class). There's a lot to say about this film so when I'm at my laptop I'll try and be comprehensive but will try and avoid spoilers at all costs. :)

Current feelings have me giving it a 7.5 out of 10 for now.
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I haven't seen it yet, but my expectation is it will be the "worst" Deadpool move and the "best" Wolverine movie. (With worst and best obviously being relative to the other movies, not saying the others are bad).
 
Chlidonias said:
(With worst and best obviously being relative to the other movies, not saying the others are bad).
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Some of the films featuring Hugh Jackman as Wolverine are definitely in the bad category, X-Men Origins and Last Stand spring immediately to mind... And to be honest, now I've had time to think about it I'd say it's far too removed from the first two Deadpool films (in scale) that it's hard to compare it in the same way as the budget and world building goes beyond anything you'd have imagined back in 2015... Jeez, can't believe it has been nine (NINE!!!) years since the first film was released. :eek:

Anyway my thoughts on the film after a few hours reflection - this is definitely Marvel's third instalment in what I'm calling "The Fan Service Series", following on from Endgame and No Way Home, and I'm sure the next Avengers movie and Secret Wars will keep it going.

As a Marvel fan I do like being serviced (innuendo intended), and this film really delivered on that premise. The more you know about the lore of the movies and comics, along with if you know details about behind the scenes drama on any previous Marvel (mainly Fox) projects then the bigger kick you'll get out of some of the jokes and references, but if you know the bare minimum then you'll probably still have a good time. :)

It's hard to talk about the plot without spoiling too much, and I don't even want to use the little spoiler box so as to avoid tempting anyone... 100% try to go into this film knowing as little as possible, the trailers barely touch the surface so there are tonnes of surprises, and we're not even talking small cameos but genuine big (and unexpected) names appearing for a good 15 minutes of screen time! Also, whilst setting up absolutely nothing going forward the post credit scene is hilarious! :D

Negatives were the side lining of Deadpool's original supporting cast, they're there but not for too much of the film, the complete underuse of the Deadpool Corps (If you haven't read the comics it probably won't bother you but it annoyed the f**k out of me!)*, and Emma Corrin is a fairly sinister villain, but god is she underdeveloped for someone so powerful.

Still a 7.5, but that could go up or down when I get round to rewatching it.




*I'm using an F bomb because it's in keeping with the film, I'm censoring myself because I quite like using ZooChat! :p
 
Chlidonias said:
Lies.
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Nope, I stand by Origins and Last Stand being amongst the worst of the Fox X-Men movies, but I will concede that Dark Phoenix (the only true X-Men film not to feature him) is far, far far worse than any he does appear in.
 
Brum said:
Nope, I stand by Origins and Last Stand being amongst the worst of the Fox X-Men movies, but I will concede that Dark Phoenix (the only true X-Men film not to feature him) is far, far far worse than any he does appear in.
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I feel like the only reason people think those are bad movies is because of the story choices and script and studio interference and Deadpool and Juggernaut and ... I forget where I was going with that.
 
I watched Deadpool & Wolverine today. I basically agree with the thoughts of @Brum above - although I suspect he has seen it two or three more times already. I'd probably rate it higher, maybe 9 out of 10. It is the best Wolverine movie certainly, Hugh Jackman was great, maybe the second best Deadpool movie. Definitely go see it without spoilers - I deliberately avoided all the cameos videos and such on Youtube, although one of the trailers did spoil an important one which would have had a bigger impact if had been kept quiet. There was an unexpected bait-and-switch moment, and several characters/cameos that were totally unexpected.

It wasn't really a funny film for me. I chuckled at a few moments, but mostly it was just lots of fun rather than being comedic funny.

The main villain felt very under-powered for someone so over-powered. She showed off her abilities when they first meet her, and then just didn't use them after that. A bit like in Multiverse of Madness where the Scarlet Witch just doesn't use her already-demonstrated powers because then the movie would be over, but there is no good in-universe explanation for why she doesn't.

Probably unrelated to the movie itself, there was a person in the row behind me who fell asleep and was snoring. And inexplicably one couple left the theatre as soon as the credits started! Do they know nothing of Marvel?

I liked the clip show of behind-the-scenes footage from various movies that played through part of the credits, and the end-credit scene was actually funny (don't know if it was worth waiting for though).
 
Yesterday I watched A Quiet Place: Day One, which is a prequel covering the arrival of the aliens and following one character and her helper-cat in the search for pizza. I have seen the first movie but it was some time ago and I don't really remember it well enough to know if this one was better or not. It was definitely different in tone to the first one, kind of slow actually - some might say dull and boring - but I thought it was interesting enough. (I just looked it up and there were actually two other movies - I never knew the second one existed!)

For those who haven't see the first movies, the premise is that alien creatures have invaded earth, they are blind and hunt solely by sound, and the few surviving humans have to live their lives creeping around in silence.

This movie (the prequel) doesn't explain anything about the aliens - it just shows showers of meteorite-like objects crashing down into New York and then there are giant monsters running everywhere. The creatures don't appear to be intelligent or have any technology, they are just mindless movie monsters out of nowhere. And the movie itself goes nowhere - it doesn't tell you anything you didn't already know and it doesn't lead to anything. You just follow this girl and her cat around, and then the movie ends.

There were definitely some inconsistencies in how acute the alien's hearing was. Sometimes a small object simply falling over would bring dozens of aliens screaming down from the tops of buildings, but at other times they apparently couldn't detect the breathing of terrified humans a couple of feet away. And the way the main characters - knowing that the creatures only detected sound - would run from the aliens instead of just standing in silence was infuriating.

The most unbelievable part of the movie was the cute little helper-cat which acted like a bloodhound finding people, barely ever made a sound - I think it meowed once in the entire movie - and which showed almost no reaction when the person carrying it leapt off a pier into the ocean, submerged, and then swam across the surface to a waiting boat. The cat just sat on his shoulder like it did this kind of thing every day. Any real cat would have been clawing that dude's eyes out!

I'd rate it middle of the road - 5 out of 10.
 
Couple of trailers I saw while at Deadpool & Wolverine:

Aliens: Romulus looks good. Going for the vibe of Aliens, hopefully not ending up like Alien 3.

Trap - an M. Night Shyamalan movie so you know it's going to be bad with a stupid "twist" at the end. Really clumsy trailer voice-over with the vendor guy "Jason Bourneing" all over how amazing the serial killer is.
 
I watched the Netflix movies Extraction and Extraction 2: Extract Harder last weekend. I may have made up the title of that second one.

These are Chris Hemsworth movies where he plays a mercenary-for-hire and rescues ("extracts") kidnap victims. I actually watched the sequel first and then the original one but I don't think it matters. The sequel starts right where the first one finished but that isn't important to the plot at all.

In the sequel the plot is that the sister of Chris' ex-wife (played by Olga Kurylenko) has been taken with her kids by her Georgian crime-lord husband, and he has to rescue her. I thought this meant Chris' ex-wife would be the focus of the first movie but not at all. Instead the first movie was about Chris having to rescue the kid of an Indian crime-lord who had been kidnapped by a Bangladeshi crime-lord. Crime-lords everywhere! I think the point is supposed to be that he isn't a hero, he's just doing a job. He may have even said at one point "I'm no hero, I'm just doing a job".

Netflix reckons that the first Extraction is their most-watched movie ever. I'm not sure if that's a boast or faint praise. They're not very good movies. They look like tv shows not real movies, most of the action scenes are CGI, I'm pretty sure every single helicopter is CGI, and the fight scenes (of which there are many) are all strangely slow with no sense of speed or impact. It's like the actors were rehearsing the moves and the director was just like "great, cut, that's a wrap" and Chris says "wait, what?" and the director says "we'll fix it in post" but then they never did because they had spent all their money on CGI helicopters. The way they seemed to think that wearing a bullet-proof vest turned hails of point-blank gunshots into tickles and sunshine was also pretty hard to dismiss.

I just googled the movies after writing all of that. Apparently I don't know know what I'm talking about and these were great movies with high ratings! And Chris Hemsworth was paid $20 million dollars for the second one. No wonder they couldn't afford to do real action scenes!

I'd rate both of them at about 4 out of 10.
 
Chlidonias said:
Aliens: Romulus looks good. Going for the vibe of Aliens, hopefully not ending up like Alien 3.
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Watched this one a few weeks back - set up, and in some ways tone, very similar to one of the Jurassic Park sequels. Great visuals as you'd expect, some interesting aspects to the premise. Didn't rely too much on jumpscares. Haven't watched the Alien sequels, so can't compare effectively but overall an enjoyable watch. Main gripe would be the majority of the characters' decision-making, but this is hardly an uncommon problem with the horror genre... :P
 
Haven't seen a lot of movies in theaters this year. Nothing much has piqued my interest. Though I loved both Monkey Man and Challengers.

Monkey Man absolutely ruled, and I'm not just saying that because of my perfectly healthy 15-year crush on Dev Patel. It almost went directly to streaming, but fortunately Jordan Peele intervened and got it into theaters so it can be seen the way God intended. The action scenes are both brutal and creative. Like a lot of action revenge movies, it is a masculine power fantasy, but it deviates from the standard model of that by being, specifically, Dev Patel's masculine power fantasy, and that makes it more interesting. The movie is a little messy at times, but that's to be expected from a first-time director.

Challengers gave exactly what the trailer promised: a thrilling, sexy sports and relationship drama. The movie intertwines sports and relationships to show how both can be about ambition and ego and selfishness, but can also be about love and connection. The cinematography is good, some of the tennis scenes are shot in these really creative and interesting ways that make them more intimate and exciting. And how good is that soundtrack?!
 
I've just come back from The Wild Robot and... wow.

In my opinion this is a must-watch for animation lovers, it's up there with movies like The Last Wish and How To Train Your Dragon. It's a beautiful work of art. The oil painting style and gorgeous setting make it a stunning movie to view in cinemas, let alone the story it tells. The characters are fun and well-written, and the story is beautiful. I went in without spoilers, only having seen a single trailer, and I suggest you do the same, which is why I'm being a little vague with this rant.

This is a story that is truly meant for all ages. Sure, there are kids movies that can be enjoyed by adults, such as the Disney renaissance movies or the Shrek franchise. Just as there are adult movies (no, not that kind) that kids will get entertainment out of, like the Jurassic park movies. But The Wild Robot reminds me more of movies like WALL-E, the story is mature and beautiful. Kids will enjoy it, of course, but I can't think of any age group that won't enjoy this movie.

In my opinion, this movie is a solid 10/10.
 
I saw 2 movies in theaters this year, those being:

Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire - It's not fine art, but it was a lot of fun watching big monsters beat the living daylights out of each other.
Kingdom Of The Planet Of The Apes - I loved the first three films in the reboot franchise, and this one was also amazing. I initially was skeptical of the film, but I was pleasantly surprised.

In terms of films I'm planning on seeing, I will probably go see Transformers: One. As a pretty big Transformers fan, it looks pretty good. I was initially skeptical when I saw the first trailer, but I've been hearing lots of good things about it.
 
Beetlejuice: 2024 A.D. was a rather funny and charming film- especially when contrasted with cheap attempts of “modern” re-makes of classic films (I’m looking at you, Disney). The film’s plot (or lack thereof, in this case) was probably the most amusing thing about it, as it seems that there are multiple “B and C plots” in play, in addition to the main plot. Keaton nailed his reprised role as the eponymous Beetlejuice, while Jenna Ortega’s character added an interesting “emotional” undercurrent to the film. The only problem with the film, as noted earlier, was the lack of a constructive plot, but then again I think this is what they were going for, as Beetlejuice’s antics essentially distract from the film’s weak points.
Solid 8.5/10.
 
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