Wednesday, June 22, 2016

Spring 2016 Catch Up

So there are a lot of movies I've seen since the last time I wrote so each review will be brief.  I'm also including some flicks I saw on HBO Go and Amazon Prime, so not every movie here is from 2016.  Here we go.

The Jungle Book

  • Highlights:
    • beautiful CGI animals
    • unique interpretations of old characters
  • Weak points:
    • child acting
    • lackluster plot
    • heavy use of CGI
  • One Line Review:
    • A so-so movie, but a great adaptation.
Captain America: Civil War

  • Highlights:  
    • cool action choreography and camera work
    • some funny bits
    • Chris Evans
  • Weak points:
    • pretended not to be an Avengers movie, but was a much better Avengers movie than either Avengers movie
    • Too much Iron Man
    • Not enough endings (topped out at 0)
    • Wasn't directed by Ken Burns
  • One Line Review
    • Was the most fun I've had in a Marvel movie since Ant-Man and simultaneously
Ant-Man
  • Highlights:
    • funny lines
    • great performance from Paul Rudd
    • Well shot/choreographed action sequences
  • Weak points:
    • Villains in Marvel movies have to be simple, black & white bad guys, huh?  Can't be any more complex than "this man is evil, because he is?"  And, speaking of "man," have any of the Marvel films had a female for their main villain?  I guess Marvel's saving that for when a woman hero gets her own film;  keep the girls together.
      • Sorry, Ant-Man, you don't deserve the brunt of that equality rant.
  • One Line Review:  Actually better than most Marvel films, and also pretty good.
  • Makes my top five MCU films list:
    • Captain America: The Winter Soldier
    • Iron Man
    • Ant-Man
    • Captain America: Civil War
    • Guardians of the Galaxy
The Martian

  • Highlights:
    • DAMN, Ridley Scott knows how to shoot a f#@king movie!
    • funny dialogue
    • cool science
    • Sean Bean
  • Weak points:
    • I personally don't care for survival stories.  I don't care for films without an antagonist.
    • Sean Bean didn't die in this movie.
  • One Line Review: I enjoyed it more than I expected, but not as much as everyone else did.

The Man from U.N.C.L.E.
  • Highlights:
    • Henry Cavill and Armie Hammer's performances
    • Some fun action sequences and witty dialogue
  • Weak points:
    • Maybe it's because I was also playing Minecraft at the time and didn't give the movie my full attention, but I found a lot of the film forgettable.
  • One Line Review:  Fun, but forgettable.
Frequently Asked Questions About Time Travel
  • Highlights:
    • Lead actors nail their comic timing
    • I LOVE INDEPENDENT SCI-FI!  This feels like a cute, contained, indie sci-fi movie, though it did have HBO and the BBC producing it so. . .
    • Funny dialogue and situations
    • Great exploration of time travel through a comedic lens
  • Weak points:
    • I was underwhelmed by the third act, but, in the movie's defense, I did get distracted by the launch of the Pokémon Go beta, so. . .
    • It wasn't as indie as I'd hoped, having a little more CGI (and better CGI) than I'd expected.  Weird to hold "having too much money" against a movie, but I kind of do.
  • One Line Review:
    • Probably the 2nd best small-scale time travel movie I've seen since Primer.  Have you seen Primer?  It's on Netflix; go watch that s#*t now!
Ex Machina
  • Highlights:
    • I LOVE INDEPENDENT SCI-FI!
    • Great performances all around
    • Very contained story and characters and setting, all of which make for great indie sci-fi (like Primer and Moon)
    • great sci-fi commentary/discussions on robotics
    • great social commentary, discussing the future of human technology and looking at human nature
    • beautiful production design
    • very, very, very good special effects
    • beautiful camera work, but. . .
  • Weak points:
    • I got a little tired of the heavy backlights with lens flares that fog the frame.  I want to see actors' faces, damn it!
    • Ending was a little predictable; one of those films where I kept waiting for the twist that never happened. (Technically there's a twist, but I've experienced enough sci-fi stories to accurately predict the twist.  So I was waiting for a different twist that never happened.)
    • Because I predicted the twist, I felt the ending went on a little too long; I felt a little Return of the King syndrome.
  • One Line Review:  Probably the best sci-fi movie since Moon.

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