Godzilla vs Kong

Gillipedia Official Rating: It’s like a heartfelt familial drama mixed with a dysfunctional coming-of-age comedy…. Or it’s a giant monster fighting movie. Who’s to judge

          Every company has a Verse. There’s the MCU, DCEU, this is the MonsterVerse I guess, I’m not sure if Jurassic World is part of a bigger DinoVerse that’s still just speculation at this point, and heck, Tom Cruise was supposed to kickstart the Dark Universe for Universal. Anyways, leading up to this we had the flawed but still quite enjoyable Godzilla (not the underrated Matthew Broderick one), Kong: Skull Island which I admittedly haven’t seen yet, and Godzilla: King of the Monsters. If you’d like to refer back to episode #22,714 of my podcast, I was not a fan of King of the Monsters. At all. And for full disclosure, I went back and looked at the review I did for King of the Monsters, and I completely stand behind it. If you want a halfway-decent review, that’s actually a pretty good one to look at.

          I want to start my review off with easily the biggest takeaway from this film. King of the Monsters made 4 huge mistakes:

1) It focused on the characters and not on the monsters.

2) It was so dark you couldn’t see any of the action.

3) Anytime any cool moment was about to happen from the Titans going at it with each other, they cut away to freaking reaction shots from the freaking characters that nobody freaking cared about.

*I stand by the idea that there were 4 huge mistakes, but for the life of me I can’t think of what the last one was. Use your imagination.

          Thankfully, G v K is the opposite of all of these points. The action scenes are all varied in location and are properly lit, so we see all of the glorious fighting. I almost recommend going and watching King of the Monsters beforehand just so everyone can appreciate how much better this film is. What this movie feels like is a sandbox where the monsters were dropped in, and the filmmakers just got to have fun playing around with what they wanted to do and where they wanted to put the camera. There’s a couple things I think they still could’ve done, but for being able to keep this film under 2 hours, they fit in quite a lot.

          As far as story and characters are concerned, there are a few returning members from King of the Monsters that will make things a little easier, but there isn’t anything really vital from the previous films to enjoy this one—and I think that was the right call. The focus is put more on King Kong and uplifting him as the main protagonist. The humans that accompany him are actress Rebecca Hall who you might know from The Town or Vicky Cristina Barcelona while I know her as the most underrated element from The Prestige, the Skarsgard brother that doesn’t play It, a deaf girl (vibes from A Quiet Place or Babel if you’re an egotistical cinephile) that is Kong’s bff and shares a guardian-like relationship with Hall, and a Mila Kunis lookalike who holds no real purpose except to be a minor inconvenience as an antagonist.

          Milly Bobbie Brown returns as the best part from King of the Monsters and teams up with a Ned rip-off from the Spider-Man films and Brian Tyree Henry. Henry plays the fanatic conspiracy theorist who runs a podcast convinced that the main corporation in the film is behind some dark secrets. While very cliched at first, Henry does exercise his comedic chops to better effect in the second half. And granted, Henry is correct in basically all the assumptions and claims that he makes, but it’s something that teenager Milly believes in and convinces her friend to illegally take a van to go meet up with Henry. If I were Kyle Chandler (Milly’s father), I would be quite concerned about my teenage daughter listening to the crazy podcast. But he’s pretty absent throughout the film, and this movie isn’t concerned about setting real world examples and morals and junk like that.

          This should be an early contender for best visual effects at the Oscars for the following year. There’s an occasional shot where humans are closer to the camera and Kong or a landscape is in the background and only really then does it slightly feel like they’re on a green screen partly because the lighting doesn’t quite capture what it needs to. But beyond that the visuals are solid and take some interesting directions later in the film. For instance there’s these flying ships that run on purple beam fuel looking like they’re straight outta Galaga. There’s some pretty stupid science that gets explained, but the movie isn’t worried about it, so neither am I.

          A couple quick points here. The music works, but it could have gone for a more operatic feel and really propelled the film this film into awesome territory. Going back to a previous point a bit, the action scenes here definitely take some Pacific Rim inspirations in how they’re shot (I assume from just the first film. I’m also assuming that like me the filmmakers haven’t even seen the sequel). What I mean by that is you can expect mainly 2 things from the action: wide shots that allow the audience to grasp all of the surroundings and the two titans, and shots from street level to provide that sense of scale as well as what a human perspective would look like if Godzilla was strolling down 2nd Ave. And last random point: Lance Reddick (most known recently for his cool character in the John Wick films) receives prominent billing, and I swear I can recall him having literally 1 line in the film, that’s it.

          Spoiler alert but there’s a climactic showdown between my boy Zil and the King of the Kong. It’s plenty of fun, but I did expect more buildup to an epic final kill shot or something—like how they did it in Godzilla. It felt like they could’ve added a couple extra minutes of fighting here. But all in all, the entertainment value is significantly higher than King of the Monsters, and it’s honestly the most fun film to come out in many, many months. I streamed it using HBO Max, but you will get your money’s worth by venturing to the theaters to watch it. Go in, have some fun, wear matching #TeamGodzilla or #TeamKong shirts/onesies, whatever you got. Oh, and to save you the trouble, there isn’t an end credits scene. I know, I was shocked by this as well.

 

In Brief:

• The Suicide Squad got a trailer and it looked good enough, didn’t blow me away.
• Voyagers is coming out soon and I’m a big fan of Tye Sheridan, but it seems to have a mix of premises that have been done already.
• My understanding is that Raya and the Last Dragon has not performed well in theaters, but I have no idea about its numbers from its premier access on Disney+. I do feel like the $30 price tag on top of the monthly subscription is overkill (I mean I just did a review on a film I streamed for free using my HBO Max subscription); however, I see the mindset where if you buy 3 tickets at the theaters, that’s going to already put you at $30 just about. And chances are that people aren’t buying the film for just themselves to watch. So I get it. I still don’t agree with the final tally, but I understand it. With that said if it’s like Mulan and streams for free after 3 months, why in the world are you paying that premier access to watch it now. If there’s any kind of premier access for Black Widow, I’ll for sure be showing up in the theaters to watch it that way instead.

I Watched That Movie

 

Gillipedia Official Rating: Better than the other movie

          This movie just came out in the last couple of years, but it’s already a classic. It has all the elements we look for. It starts off with a classic story between a main character and their love interest, and their best friends. Taking notes from Homer’s tales, we’ve seen these archetypes before. But that’s not to say there isn’t a modern twist. Because there is. It’s set in present day.

          This is an original movie. And I mean that literally. You have movies based off books or previous works, and you have original screenplays. This movie doesn’t even have a script—it was simply filmed. And that’s the beauty of it really. Throw convention to the wind. That scores points in my book. And now we’re up to 3 points. Kevin, I hope you’re keeping score.

          I knew I had to see this film as soon as I heard there was a 20-minute one take shot. The movie was right at the 2 hour mark, but after the director watched Zack Snyder’s Justice League, he changed the entire sequence to slow motion. Does it add an extra 37 minutes? Sure. But it’s cinematic. And that’s a nice sounding adjective. 2 more points, Kevin.

          Streaming exclusively on Disney-, I remember watching this film in theaters. The Wi-Fi connection was spotty, but I think that was intentional. I also just about lost it when I saw a cameo appearance from that one guy who’s the real-life brother of the girl who almost landed the role of featured extra in Moulin Rouge! That scene ended up being cut from the final film, but I recognized the actor, and that’s really what matters here.

          PLOT TWIST. Keanu Reeves plays the villain. He wields two loaves of bread at all times and makes the “pew pew” sound as he uses them as shotguns. The visual effects aren’t perfect here, but I do appreciate the fact that they decided to go practical.

          -insert clever analysis here-

          Overall, this is a movie. I was hooked the whole time, and I only checked the status of my Amazon package twice. I was convinced there was an end credits scene and my patience appeared to finally payoff until I realized it was just the previews for the next screening starting to play. I recommend this film only to people suffering from high blood pressure.

 

In Brief:

• Boop.

Justice League Super Ultimate Gold Zack Snyder Edition

 

Gillipedia Official Rating: Joss Whedon’s Knightmare

          I have to get this cleared up and out of the way. I knew about the hashtag, and I was a nonbeliever. Not only was I skeptical that this thing existed considering scenes had to be re-shot for the theatrical release, I also didn’t believe it would ever happen. Lo and behold, the internet stepped in. For those that aren’t unaware, Justice League had a tragic production both during and after. Zack Snyder’s daughter unfortunately committed suicide, and Zack very understandably so stepped away from production. Joss Whedon came in, shot some new stuff, pretty sure he made a comment that he was keeping the same tone but we all knew that was a lie, and infamously had to digitally shave Cavill’s lip raccoon. I didn’t watch that 2-hour Justice League in theaters. I watched it about a year later in the comfort of my home and was mildly entertained. It’s the type of film you pretty much immediately forget. This is Zack Snyder’s Justice League. And it’s 4 hours long. Hard to forget that. It’s the same movie, but it has been surprisingly revamped in many ways. Let’s get to it.

          I truthfully don’t remember too much about the original film, but one of my least favorite things about it was the villain Steppenwolf. He was this bland, cgi villain without much motivation and felt more like a simple vehicle with an army for our heroes to beat up on. Don’t expect him to be Thanos or anything this time around, but he is most definitely improved upon. He sports a new suit of armor, and this more imposing look combined with introduction of Darkseid as the final boss villain helps out. So Steppenwolf is still a bit like Thanos where he needs to get these three Mother Boxes to combine them into one MOAB (mother of all boxes), but Darkseid is the true Thanos.

          I should also note that I was under the impression that this was being released as a 4-part miniseries. That’s not the case. The film is separated into 6 chapters plus an epilogue, but all 4 hours are available straight away. And to be honest, I took a couple hour break (nap) after Part 2 and returned to finish it, and I felt that was a good balance.

          But anyways, yes, that opening with a kid filming Superman is gone, and Snyder has said that this film is Whedon-free. It’s also rated R this time. There’s a couple f-bombs and now a good bit of blood splatters, but I don’t think this version really took full advantage of the rating. There’s a cool disintegration and Wonder Woman has some good kills, but not much else that’s notable. But that does bring me to Wonder Woman’s first action scene early on with the terrorists. I’ve maintained that her theme song is one of the coolest of any superhero, and the way she beats up the baddies is exactly what I wanted to see. There were tiny glimpses of it in WW84 like in the White House, but it’s done better here.

          Out of the group of 6 superheroes, the Flash and Cyborg benefit most from the director's cut. Instead of scenes simply being extended or dialogue being altered, they are the ones who truly get more backstory that acts as a backbone for the whole film. So that itself is a joy to see. What’s not so nice is the grime behind the production. Ray Fisher has been the most outspoken about Whedon and the other executive at DC, and good for him. Sadly, as I understand it, Fisher’s Cyborg has been written out of the Flash movie that is still to come. I really hope this film bridges some gaps because that’s a movie I’d like to see.

          I believe I’ve heard Snyder attribute the length and vision of the film to The Lord of the Rings, and there is some of the adventuring qualities that reminisce it a little, but the closest comparison I can make to this film is Avengers Infinity War. Subtle changes to Affleck’s Batman instills a sense of hope throughout the film as he works with Diana Prince to assemble the league, and this film slowly grinds through that along with Steppenwolf’s quest for the 3 boxes.

          The length of this film plays into Snyder’s self-indulgent quality of slow motion and visuals. I believe without a doubt that this is an improvement from the rushed feel of the original, but it certainly is quite long. The cgi didn’t look great in the first place, and I know millions were poured into visuals for this film. What I hated most about the original was the overall green screen feel it had, and that couldn’t really be improved here, but the focus is more on building the story, so it’s not something you focus on as much here. I do believe you can shave a solid 20 minutes off of this film, but for me personally, the difference between the two films is stark enough to validate this film.

          The climactic battle is also very different. I remember 2 things from the original. First, it had that weird red atmosphere. And second, the Flash saved that Russian family and said, “Dostoevsky!” Neither of those things exist this go around, and the momentum leading up to the showdown feels soooooo much more natural. There was simply no time to build anything and properly explain exposition before.

          To go back to a previous point, Batman in this film really only uses his toys for fighting, and it makes me miss that scene in Batman v Superman where he beat everyone up like he does in the Arkham videogames—the closest we get here is that early scene with Wonder Woman. But this version also gives up Superman in his black suit. I know a little about the story with it and what it implies, but thematically and simply aesthetically, it works. People kind of look at Man of Steel and Zack Snyder and think of super dark and serious. Not only is this film dramatically more consistent in its tone, it’s not all bleak either. You still have the humor from the Flash, a more hopeful Batman, and a much more sentimental quality among Lois Lane, Superman, and Martha. I also know that Junkie XL overhauled the music, and the score fits the sweeping film.

          There’s still a couple scenes that act like cryptic premonitions of darker things to come. I think these are handled better than what Marvel has done because they’re both beefier while still being vague. The problem here is where the state of DC is now. I’m still excited for Robert Pattinson’s Batman, but Batfleck is out. Amber Heard is out of the Aquaman films (and to my current knowledge, thankfully so for that), no Cyborg in the Flash film, and essentially, everything you see means nothing because it won’t happen—at least not with this group. It both confuses and upsets me because I don’t know where everything stands in the DCEU, but it does succeed in reinvigorating my excitement associated with these characters and franchises.

          I still can’t believe this film actually exists. Since it’s still Justice League, I wasn’t expecting an entirely new story that changes the whole game. But what I did get was an overhaul that stands out way more than the 2017 mediocrity. It’s still not perfect, and in case you didn’t know, it’s 4 hours long. You heard it here first, folks. Despite flaws that would exist no matter what you did as well as the length and not-so-great occasional effects, Zack Snyder’s Justice League is way better than the studio mandated 2-hour junk we got a couple years back. I have no idea what Joss Whedon is doing nowadays, maybe a Buffy revival that he wants to botch. I don’t know. But if you have 4 hours of your life, you can spend it pretty well with this film. Possibly in 2 sittings.

 

In Brief:

• I watched the 2006 The Hills Have Eyes, and that’s one of the worst films I’ve ever seen. I hated it. I hated the way it was shot, it takes like 50 minutes for anything to start happening, Ted Levine got dragged into a terrible cast, and there’s an unnecessary amount of blood and gore.
• After disappointing myself by not doing Golden Globes predictions, I plan to make sure I do for the Oscars. But I’ve also not seen many of the films, so I’ll be working on that more in this coming month. The one I’m most excited to watch is Minari.
• A couple years back Netflix produced a Michael Bay film 6 Underground starring Ryan Reynolds. It has many typical Bay tropes, but it’s also extremely entertaining to watch. I was thoroughly impressed with the way Bay shot all the action and extravagant set pieces.

Gill Thinks About Chaos Walking

Gillipedia Official Rating: I’m Todd Hewitt I’m Todd Hewitt I’m Todd Hewitt

          It’s the YA movie featuring Spider-Man and Rey and … Hannibal Lector/Le Chiffre I guess. We’re talking about the unthinkable here—a movie releasing solely in theaters. I love the experience and will continue my best to support the industry, but I digress. What we’re really talking about is the dystopian sci-fi movie Chaos Walking starring Tom Holland and Daisy Ridley where only men are left (until Daisy shows up) and all of their thoughts can be heard. Don’t think too hard, masks up (that means over the nose), and let’s review.

          I have no idea what book series this film is based off, so my only reference point is in fact what I just watched. After a quick quote to begin the movie, we’re thrown straight into this world where the atmosphere has a slight tint to it, and it doesn’t take long to start hearing everyone’s thoughts. I’m impressed by the quick start to the film, and I guess part of that is thanks to the easily surmisable premise. This is a foreign world where you can hear men’s thoughts, pretty simple. No scientific explanation, no history of the planet, just straight into building the world. And none is really needed.

          Some thoughts come across a bit as expositional, but that’s not very often. I was a little worried that I would grow tired of all the thinking—the bulk rightfully comes from Tom’s Todd Hewitt (you’ll never forget his name)—but they reign it in just enough. Not to mention that in general, I think the movie does a pretty decent job of reflecting how people think and how it would be displayed to the outside world.

          Tom Holland does a more Southern American accent this time, and he gets hung up on a couple of words, but if you didn’t know he was British, I think he pulls it off well enough to blend in. Daisy Ridley is blonde, and again I have no idea if that’s how her character is written, but I think part of that has to be her trying to separate from Rey. And it works, and she’s fine in the movie. I always love Mads Mikkelsen, Demian Bichir is also good, there’s also the likes of David Oyelowo and Cynthia Erivo, and Nick Jonas is in there. It’s not like he does anything significant, but I can confirm that he is indeed there.

          The story won’t really surprise anyone on who the real enemies are, the adventure Todd Hewitt and Daisy are forced to go on, and what revelations they discover. There’s some clever uses of the thought gimmick, and it even allows Tom Holland to have some humorous moments as well, almost like a 90s Spider-Man TV show, but anyways.

          There’s two things that ultimately stood out to me about the film. Director Doug Liman (Edge of Tomorrow) does a better job in this movie than what is to be expected. There’s a good amount of chase sequences, and he makes sure to always have the camera moving and flowing around the environment alongside the action. If not masterful, it is still better than typical action fare. The other thing of note here is the ending. I do understand that this comes from a series of books and is certainly building toward a sequel, but it still didn’t feel complete. Even to the point where I wouldn’t mind another 20 minutes tacked on to finish the story in some way. I have no idea how many movies they’ll try to crank out or if there’s even that possibility with today’s box office, but it failed to leave much of a cliffhanger to entice me further into the story or a satisfactory ending by itself.

          The theater I went to is doing what now seems commonplace where you buy tickets, and the seats next to you automatically become unavailable to build that distance. And with the setup with the reclining chairs, you don’t feel like people in the row behind you are breathing down your neck either. Masks are mandatory unless you’re eating popcorn or drinking, and all payment was able to be made contactless. During the previews it was also noted what cleanliness measures were being taken before and after every showing. The point here is that the necessary safety precautions are being taken—at least, that’s what I’m able to take away from my experience. And when it comes to any innate risk we all take whenever we go out anywhere or the mental toll being couped up has already proven to take on the populace, if the only thing holding you back from going to the theater now is a worry about your safety, all I can say is that I believe it’s as safe as it can be to make me feel comfortable in its environment. Annnnnnnd with all that said, Chaos Walking isn’t exactly a film you need to jump out of your sunken in couch to go watch, but it is entertaining and at a relatively cheap price too especially if you go to a matinee showing. However you choose to consume your content, stuff is still coming out and will continue to. Enjoy it.

 

**This site’s creator recommends sanitizing after every review that is read. Please don’t cancel me.

 

In Brief:

• I’m ashamed I didn’t get around to making Golden Globes predictions. Probably the biggest surprise from the night was that I learned it was happening before it started. Tina Fey and Amy Poehler hosted. Overall, a lackluster night. But Chadwick Boseman’s wife gave a moving speech.
• There’s a decent amount of films I’ve seen, but the biggest recommendation I can give of what I’ve recently seen is for The Farewell with Awkwafina. It’s included with Prime and is a really fun film based off a true story.
• I watched Phantom Thread. Daniel Day-Lewis obviously is great and the costumes are also, obviously, great. But it’s also quite a boring film. I’m sorry, I don’t care what awards it won or was nominated for. That was dull.
• What wasn’t dull was Judas and the Black Messiah. Daniel Kaluuya will win the awards, but don’t count out LaKeith Stanfield. Terrific performance. And it has Jesse Plemons who is someone everyone has seen but no one really knows his name or even his face for that matter. Very interesting watch.

The Little Things

 

Gillipedia Official Rating: Watching a big movie on a little screen

          We start off on a single-lane, deserted road at night in 1990. We meet a seasoned cop who hasn’t been promoted in years, and his path crosses with the fresh detective who brings some bright ideas. We’ve seen this before. It’s not quite film noir, and its pacing is too slow to consider it a thriller. What The Little Things boils down to is a slow-burning, grim crime drama of two cops trying to pin down a serial killer focused on young women. And despite this well-worn premise, we’re also graced by three Academy award winners in Denzel, Rami Malek, and Jared Leto. So where does this film land? Let’s break it down.

          What better place to start than with the title. Is it fitting? Yes. But it’s also not enticing or memorable. I had been looking forward to this movie coming out for about a month now, and up until a couple days ago, I could never remember what the name was. It was just the one with Denzel coming up. And as far as story goes, the first paragraph is really all you need to know. Because part of what the title of the film does well is fit the narrative. We can immediately grasp the movie and the characters in the first 10 minutes; there’s a serial killer, Denzel is a well-known cop with some sort of past following him, and Rami is the new face of the department. There’s more to these characters than that, but we don’t learn it through lazy exposition like two no-named characters discussing them while sipping coffee or a news reporter catching us up on the latest with the case—nothing like that. Most of the pieces to the jigsaw puzzle will be discovered, but they are introduced in character details and small chunks.

          And really this film is ultimately much more of a trio of character studies than it is about the crime mystery. That’s where having three Oscar winners come in handy. Whether it’s Denzel displaying huge smiles in front of people while hiding his demons only for himself while spending the night in a cheap motel, the inquisitive way Rami tilts his head and makes eye contact with witnesses and suspects alike, or the wide swinging motion Jared Leto takes as he strolls through town; each character comes into their own in large part due to these performances. Jared Leto plays the main suspect, and once he is introduced in the film, he draws lots of attention. I think he probably had the least amount of acting to do considering how strange this guy is in at least the interviews he gives; however, his mannerisms are brilliant. I won’t go into detail about his character, but I was audibly chuckling multiple times; Jared Leto was in control.

          Strange jawline and all, Rami Malek really shows his range from Freddie Mercury to this detective. There’s a suaveness there, but it’s backed up by his true skill in his profession. I wouldn’t say he’s the standout of the group, but he gets his moments and always holds his own.

          Denzel. This man could lead me underwater and still convince me that I can breathe. I could ask him to show me where the milk is, and he could lead me down aisle 12 to the toilet paper and it would be considered a job well done. I could call in tech support for my Wi-Fi, and he could tell me to turn it off and back on and I would slow clap him for days. The point is this might not be the vehicle that lands him next to Jack Nicholson in Chinatown, but there’s no doubt that he elevates this film. The subtlety, the little things if you will, are there, and it works.

          I want to make sure everyone considering watching this film is aware that it’s not a jolly green giant film, and there’s definitely not enough action to call this a thriller. It’s a gritty character study, and if you’re good with that, then I do indeed recommend watching. The score by Thomas Newman is great, and the editing is terrific. “Gasp!” you say. “Gill, there aren’t any long one-take shots. You *love* your one-take shots. And even without those, you still think this film has great editing?” First off, thank you for the question, loyal reader. You’re right. I do have a soft spot for that kind of thing. But it’s not always necessary. There’s a couple of scenes of people either being chased or followed in car. The film perfectly switches between cars, what’s happening around them, and reaction shots from characters’ faces. We are perfectly able to follow what’s going on, and how each character reacts to every new action. I don’t think people will pay much attention to it, and that’s partly the point. Aside from the performances, I can’t give enough praise to the editing. But the directing and music are high points too.

          With their deal with Warner Bros., this blog site pretty much is turning into a review site for HBO Max movies. We have Godzilla vs. Kong and the Snyder Cut both coming up pretty soon to look forward to for instance. But I digress. The Little Things is a patient 2-hour film. It won’t be sweeping any awards shows, but I do fully expect it to receive multiple nominations, and it should. Despite the familiarities of the genre, it is simply well executed. And I am thoroughly satisfied with its hard-hitting ending. It may not have served the marketing department well, but the film lives up to its name.

 

In Brief:

• I considered doing a review for One Night in Miami. Simply didn’t feel I had enough content and different angles to warrant one. While watching the film I thought to myself that it would work better as a play; turns out that’s what it was in its original medium. It’s a good movie, and I’m fan of everything Aldis Hodge does. Well acted, might earn a nomination or two, but I wasn’t blown away.
• I was blown away by The Outpost. An action film released on Netflix had no right being as good as it was. Starring Katy Perry’s husband and Clint Eastwood’s son, it’s a war film about an American base in Afghanistan in a terrible location that gets attacked by the Taliban on a daily basis. The way the film was shot and the authenticity and respect for the real-life soldiers being portrayed really shone through. Yes, it lacks a little dramatic heft, but it fulfills its purpose in spades.
• I was interested in Disney’s new animated film coming out Raya and the Last Dragon. I was excited for a moment seeing its March release date and being put on Disney+. But then I realized that it would be like Mulan, and that disappointed me for a bit. No way am I paying $30 or whatever it will be to stream it. But if it is like Mulan, I will not mind one bit to wait a couple of months to stream it for free on the site.
• I watched Alfonso Cuaron’s Roma. It’s a good movie, and the way it’s filmed is interesting. It takes the perspective of a background I know little about. So for that in itself I can appreciate it. And one of the climactic scenes on the beach is stunning. But like many critical darlings, it’s also just… not always interesting. But yeah, it’s good. Can’t deny that.
• Really liked Outlaw King starring Chris Pine. Wish it had a wide release in theaters because that would’ve been a spectacle. Its opening scene is awesome, and the battles are thrilling and quite gruesome. It also has a pre-Midsommar Florence Pugh, so the film gets credit for that.

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JTG97 Reviews WW84

 

Gillipedia Official Rating: DCEU? More like DC, PU am I right?

I actually had high hopes for this film. I’m a fan of the original, and with director Patty Jenkins back and a strong cast, DC was set for a strong sequel. A vibrant poster and a fun 80s setting only reinforced the high hopes. But then I watched the film. All 2 ½ hours of it, and to say that at best it’s mildly entertaining is being very lenient. There’s a whole host of issues big and small at play here. Didn’t plan on starting 2021 with a bad review, but someone has to do the people’s work.
        Going in I had heard mixed reviews, and the opening sequence started out promising. Young Wonder Woman is starring in the newest season of American Ninja Warrior, and it’s her competing against other Amazonians set to some great music by Hans Zimmer. But my excitement quickly turned to a sinking feeling of worry. It’s not so much that this opening sequence is about 5 minutes too long, but the effects are the glaring error here. The physics of the Amazonians moving and jumping in superhuman ways feels off because there isn’t any weight or stress to their movement—they act like they’re taking a casual step but then leap 20 yards. It all feels kind of rubbery. Not a great start, admittedly, but maybe the movie recovers from this!
        The movie does not recover from this. In fact the next scene jumps to the year 1984, and this might be my least favorite scene of the movie. We start off with a commercial starring The Mandalorian, and as the commercial continues to play in the background, we switch around in an almost montage type of way to show various scenes of many clichés associated with the 80s. It feels like they wanted to mimic the humor that Captain Marvel pulled off with the 90s, but all the clichés feel so forced and are drastically overdone. This scene is the start of one of the strangest complaints I’ve ever had with a movie; the extras are terrible. Wonder Woman dashes by and every single person turns dramatically and wide-eyed to show their shock and disbelief. I’m not sure if an assistant director, Patty Jenkins, or whoever is in charge of making sure background elements blend well together, but the extras in this movie are really distracting and not funny at all.
        We are soon introduced to Kristen Wiig, and as a whole, her performance isn’t bad. The problem here is the whole characterization. Our introduction to her is her tripping over her heels, slightly frizzled hair, and dorky glasses. When she drops her papers, guys shake their heads, smirk, and walk away from the dork from Loserville, AL. But of course later she gets a Catwoman transformation, and as soon as she loses the glasses, hubba bubba, watch out we got a hot mama walking through.
        As a brief aside, one things I was thoroughly confused by was the hammy quality of the whole film (see dork to sexy makeover above). Part of me believes this is all intentional as an homage to cheesy 80s superhero films, but it’s too much of a contrast from the more mature elements they try sneaking in. And worst of all, the light-hearted humor doesn’t land. Back to the review, Gill!
        Thank you, Gill. The premise of this film is Pedro Pascal is a failing businessman who gets his hands on a wishing stone that grants one wish. He wishes to become one with the wishing stone and proceeds to take advantage of people wishing for things they don’t really mean. Before he makes his wish, Gal Gadot wishes for Chris Pine to come back, and Wiig wishes to be more like Diana (Gadot (Wonder Woman)). Instead of simply having him appear out of nowhere like many things will later in the film, Pine comes back in a random guy’s body. It’s problematic from a moral and continuity standpoint, but it didn’t bother me as much as it did other people.
        When I first heard the news that Chris was back for women to pine over again in the sequel, I wasn’t a big fan of the decision considering his emotional farewell from the first film. And I still believe his appearance here takes some emotional weight away from the first film; however, Chris Pine is by and large the best part of this film. Him getting acquainted to the 80s is played for laughs, and they definitely land. His presence is a joy and is the bright spot of this plagued film. Even if bright spots in a plague aren’t the finest metaphor…
        Due to bad writing, Pine’s borrowed body doesn’t have a passport, so they head to the Smithsonian to steal a fully functioning jet to catch The Mandalorian in the Middle East. They have a moment flying by fireworks, and this is one of the very few instances where the film’s visuals reflect the colorful movie poster and it looks great. I don’t know how safe flying by fireworks is, but ah well. The action scene that follows is pretty good too.
        The thing about the middle of the movie is repeated actions. Despite its lengthy runtime, character arcs are still underdeveloped. How does that happen? It’s from being shown the same stuff. Wiig has 2-3 scenes dedicated to showing that she’s noticing superhuman powers. At least one of those scenes needed to be cut. There’s also countless scenes of The Mandalorian going to people and getting them to make wishes that only help power his greed. The idea is building it up to the climax, but the point can be made with much less content. There’s a halfway decent 2-hour film somewhere in here. Unless this move gets a Snyder Cut. Then, of course, the run time would instead rival Gone With the Wind.
        There’s actually an action scene that kicks off the final third that’s pretty good. It takes place in a government building and Wiig emerges in villainous form. Security guards are scattered throughout, and Wonder Woman has to soften their falls as Wiig plows through them. It’s a fun mixup of every character having a distinct role in the action, and it works.
        The climactic fight, however, is quite underwhelming. Think back to the fight from Black Panther between two CGI characters, but remove some of the cool visuals from that fight. The CGI here is even worse, and nothing from the fight is memorable. It’s the part from the trailer where Wonder Woman gets her new, glamorous armor. It looks cool, yes, but besides off-handedly mentioning the armor earlier in the film, there’s no reference to it. I imagine it holds more importance from the comics, but seeing her wear it elicits nothing from me besides a hey, that looks neat.
        There’s some decent messaging in the film, but it’s very heavy handed. Pedro Pascal fully embraces the camp of the film, and it’s fun for moments, but it’s too much overall. And as a common theme, his character doesn’t have much depth. His whole motivation as a villain can be boiled down to even though he obtains a lot, why not have more?
        One action scene started using the awesome electric guitar theme associated with Wonder Woman as she starts going off on bad guys and I was all here for it, but then the music cuts out after like five seconds. Much too short. If there was like a five-minute sequence of Wonder Woman just beating up on guys to the rocking tune, that at least could have been a highlight of this film.
        One last thing I have to mention. There’s some really bad green screen usage here. Think back to the original Superman where the shots are shoulders up from characters and their eyes wander around at nothing in particular because they’re just looking at a green screen. There’s a chance that this again is an intentional choice for the 80s feel, but there’s no excuse for a big budget superhero film in the 21st century to have visuals this bad. It’s a combination of bad visuals mixed with poor directing choices.
        I’m a fan of the original, but there are few redeeming qualities from the sequel. Gal Gadot and Chris Pine return to form, but the directing takes a huge dive, and there’s poor writing and editing. It can be entertaining for moments, but is it worth sitting through 2 ½ hours for just a couple good moments? I believe I’ve actually enjoyed DCEU films more than the average person, but they really need to step up their efforts if they have any hopes of staying in the conversation with Marvel. The Batman, Suicide Squad, and Aquaman 2 all sound promising, but this film puts a dent in my hopes for their cinematic future.

 

In Brief:

• I also watched Soul. It was interesting to see Pixar go so high concept for what’s still supposed to be a kids' movie. And in that regard, I think it might be a little too ambitious for the young’uns. The animation is stellar, Jamie Foxx is obviously good, and I do appreciate its creativity. There’s good messaging here, but I think it stumbles around and is a little confused, and the movie didn’t know how to end properly. Overall, pretty good.
• I got around to the Coen Brother’s Netflix film The Ballad of Buster Scruggs. This is a Western anthology- style film, with 6 relatively unrelated stories. Not all of these stories are created equal. The third and fourth drag, and the last one doesn’t end in particularly entertaining fashion. The fifth is easily the highlight here and is engaging all the way through—no matter how much the ending still upsets me.

Mulan + A Bonus Review

 

Gillipedia Official Rating: Glad I didn’t spend $30 to watch this

          Sweating more than an engineer in an English class, Disney execs were hard at work to figure out how they could recoup all the production costs for their live-action update of Mulan set to hit theaters back in March to satisfy the stockholders. After multiple delays the solution was to bring the film to the Disney+ streaming service. But this was way too big a movie to simply release straight to a monthly service. Films like Trolls World Tour paved the way for films to still make money in 2020—on-demand. Not only did a person have to have a subscription for Disney+, but they would also have to hand over an extra $30 to the mouse himself ($20 was the price for Trolls). I’m here to say that even gathering a group of 5-10 to watch Mulan wouldn’t make that price point worth it. Hearing that the film would stream for free on the service probably in December, I gladly waited to watch it. To be fair I wasn’t all that excited for the film to begin with just because of all the fatigue I already have from these unnecessary updated remakes, but alas. Here we are. I’ve watched Mulan. Read this review so that you don’t have to. This is not a good film by any standard.

          There’s a couple different complaints that will be recurring throughout, so I’ll address them here and then give some examples down the road as we progress through the story. First and foremost, the editing is atrocious. Some of this I believe is on the filmmakers and not just on the editors, but it’s bad no matter who is to blame. The film is chopped up in pieces where a single action may require 4-5 cuts, and it’s so jarring. What I wonder about is the footage shot in some scenes. If what the filmmakers got in a day wasn’t any good, then the editor now has to somehow hide it while still showing what happens so the movie can go on. So I’m under the impression that at least for some shots, the editors looked at the footage they were given, said f this, and added 17 cuts and moved on.

          The other sin Mulan continuously makes is what The Rise of Skywalker suffered from. Mulan comes in just under 2 hours, and to reach that time limit, character development is thrown to the wind in favor of story beats and exposition. This is most glaring with Mulan’s fellow soldiers. While the animated film had clearly defined characters, everyone outside the 4 most important characters here are practically nameless faces that serve to try to provide comic relief and support. The end result is a film pretty to look at, but without any substance or technical prowess. Let’s see where exactly things went wrong.

          Well first let’s address the lack of dragon in the room, there’s no Mushu. Considering the poor attempts at comedy the film does make in an otherwise DC-esque serious film, Mushu probably would’ve felt out of place. But then again, he’s also most likely the element that the film was in desperate need of. Li Shang is also gone, split into a decent love interest fellow soldier and a traditional commander.

          From the very first scene, another new element to this film is the addition of chi. I have no idea why Mulan decides it needs a Force power, but okay. For whatever reason Mulan is born with an extraordinary amount of chi, something typically reserved for warriors. And just like how I felt Rey shouldn’t need to be a Palpatine to justify her powers instead of, you know, being born out of nothing and simply becoming something (tiny apology from me for that Rise of Skywalker spoiler by the way), now Mulan doesn’t feel like this empowering message where she works just as hard if not harder to show her worth; she still works hard, but it feels less important knowing that she simply was born with lots of chi to help her out.

          Early on Mulan goes to the Matchmaker of their village with her family to pour some tea and find a husband. It feels like they tried to emulate My Fair Lady where the scene builds up in a way that ends with a big joke, but it all just falls flat. She uses the pot to trap a spider, but Old Hag Matchmaker doesn’t see the spider and demands the pot be brought back to the middle of the table. Mulan finally relents, the spider is released, Matchmaker flips the table in hysteria, and all the silverware breaks. Maybe this came off as hilarious to people and I’m just a cynic, but this didn’t land with me. It’s also one of only a few attempts of humor in the film. So strap in for a fun ride.

          If you’re somehow not familiar with the story, the Rouran are the new bad guys instead of the Huns and are looking to invade China and reach the emperor. The emperor declares a creed for one man from every family to fight, and Mulan secretly takes her father’s place. The film proceeds to switch between the training camp for soldiers with Mulan, and the Rouran with baddies Bori Khan and the witch Xianniang. I do have to give credit here where there’s some really nice landscape shots, and the production design of the sets and costumes is really beautiful. But that’s really where the praise ends. One of the first scenes is the Rouran destroying a village, and one prominent shot from the trailer is them running up a wall and the camera is sideways. This technique of turning the camera sideways, like when shooting on an iPhone and switching from landscape to portrait, looks really neat here, but it gets overplayed the next 3 times it’s done.

          In one expositional scene, Bori Khan is saying something, and one of his henchman is ambitious enough to show defiance. When he speaks he’s hunched over and sitting, so of course we have to have a cut to him now sitting upright and moving to stand up. For one thing this is bad from a continuity standpoint, but it’s just one of many examples of unnecessary cuts. Like why couldn’t he say his line and -get this- stand up in the same shot? Similarly, there’s a scene in the barracks where Mulan and the soldiers are enjoying lunch and cracking jokes. One joke gets everyone to laugh, so the film proceeds to cut 4-5 times to show each person during the duration of the laughs. This was particularly jarring, and again, did they not have a wide shot they could’ve shown or just cut once or twice? It’s hard for the film to find any flow or rhythm when it’s constantly being broken up.

          The duration of Mulan’s time at the training camp is probably the closest the film tries harkening back to the original. A couple scenarios are played for laughs, such as Mulan entering the barracks at night where all the men are in various states of undress, and one plumpy fellow gets his towel ripped off. I don’t think Mulan’s actress does anything particularly wrong, but the timing is off, so again, I put that on the filmmakers. Keep in mind that there are so many scenes that there isn’t much time spent in any of them. Everything goes from point A to B without taking time in between, and it takes away any emotional weight from the characters or story. Like we spend 2 minutes around a campfire where a joke or two is told but not learning any backstory from the characters, the next scene shows a pile of helmets and bodies strewn across a battlefield, and the characters take one somber glance and move on.

          So at this point we’ve probably only covered about half the film. And while watching the movie, the most prominent feeling I had at this point was simply of boredom. I think my opinion of the film can be summed up as it being fine to have on while you complete chores around the house. Paying attention to the story isn’t very important with nothing complex going on, so it’s fine to have it play in the background and check in once and while without being invested in the stakes.

          Oh hey, I did think of another compliment to give. There’s a scene with the Rouran on horseback, and in order to fight against the Chinese behind them, they perform this cool move where they touch the ground with their feet and immediately jump up and flip over so that they’re riding but now facing backward. That was a cool stunt. But to give an example of the nonsensical action, there’s another scene with shades from the original where the Rouran are on higher ground. The witch lady turned into 1000 bats or something and attack the Chinese, forcing them to group together. The enemies bring a catapult and start launching flaming boulders with pinpoint accuracy. Mulan sees that her comrades, her battle buddies, her peas in a pod if you will, her ride or dies, her friends of the boy variety are in danger. She notices a mountainside with built up snow behind the Rouran and knows that even though she is currently in front of them, she needs to sneak behind the Rouran. One shot shows her jumping on her horse and grabbing a helmet. Then, literally in the next shot, wham bam shang-a-lang, she’s now behind them. Cue the white guy blinking and shaking his head meme because how did that just happen? That’s not even the last dumb thing to happen. She fires some arrows at them, and they shoot a boulder at her, but they got a little excited because they over crank that catapult by a long shot, and the boulder goes flying behind Mulan and causes an avalanche. What’s worse than it not making sense is the simple fact that it’s just not entertaining. It’s just watered down moments from the original but now in live-action and bloated.

          Let’s just move on to the climax because I can’t take too much more. The emperor falls for a trap, and the next 5 movie seconds I blame on the filmmakers and not the editor. There are Rouran soldiers above the emperor, and they shoot arrows with rope around the emperor. They run around the rooftop, and the next shot is the emperor helplessly being tied up. It’s very quick, but it’s still clearly not an action that then correlates to the next. It’s like they have an idea for the action, and the producers ask, “Well, how do you plan on filming this?” And the director replied with, “We’ll figure it out.”

          Spoiler alert for the following paragraph. Like you care. But now I have plausible deniability that I warned you. Anyways. When the witch lady dies, I honestly gave out a slight chuckle. Bori Khan shoots an arrow at Mulan, and witch lady transforms into an eagle to take the arrow. First off, I don’t know why Mulan’s chi would fail her here, but since they gave witch lady a redemption arc, she obviously couldn’t be alive at the end and somehow had to be a sacrifice. The part that got me was the shot where they obviously told the Mulan actress to feign catching a dying eagle. She’s running and she reaches out her arms and it’s simply not well executed. It’s also, again, super quick and deprived of emotional weight.

          A lot of people have already made fun of the final swordfight between Mulan and Bori Khan, so I won’t spend too long, but yeah, it’s bad. There’s lots of grunting, Mulan loses her sword in a way that doesn’t make sense, and the whole thing is cut to death. There’s also a faux death so that Mulan can do one last backflip chi kick.

          The biggest moment of conflict probably came when Mulan came out as a woman and she was kicked out of the army. She leaves, talks to the witch for a scene, realizes the emperor is in trouble, then heads back to camp to warn them. After the commander threatens her with death, her fellow soldiers, her brother-in-arms, her brothers from other mothers, her entourage, her co-workers that she gladly converses with but wouldn’t necessarily hang out with in a social setting, unite in Spartacus fashion, and everyone teams up again. If this movie were a dish, it would be tartare, which is fine, but what was needed was a stew constantly simmering. Look, bad metaphors aside, this film fails on most levels. I was surprised to see this film still hold a 73% certified fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes, but the 49% audience score is more telling. Maybe you’ll watch this film and enjoy it. And that’s fine. If the original Mulan didn’t exist, I could see this film potentially being hailed for the progressive move of its representation and culturally accurate cast; however, there are two things wrong with this thought. For one thing I think the film falls fatally short of providing positive messaging, in particular because of the inclusion of chi, but I also recently watched Ralph Breaks the Internet and that film showcased its message 1000x better than this film. The second thing wrong is the fact that there already is a Mulan film that exists, and it is far superior to this one. Even the credits in this update are too long and bloated at 12 minutes long. If you want to watch a film like Mulan, go watch something like Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. Or heck, butter me up and call me a biscuit, slap some buns on me and call me a burger, make it way too much effort for the small amount of meat I provide and call me a crawfish because darn tootin’ if I’m not crazy, there’s already an amazing animated film called Mulan that you can go watch.

 

Bonus Review time. Uh ya welcome

Bandersnatch

Gillipedia Official Rating: Make a choice to choose a different movie

          Apparently, there is over 5 hours of footage that can be discovered from watching this special interactive Black Mirror episode on Netflix. But after spending over an hour with it and viewing I think 4 of the 5 possible endings, I didn’t have any desire to see my character choose the other brand of cereal instead. Now this would be different if I knew there were more wildly branching paths to discover, but I’m confident I already watched the bulk of the content needed to see, and I’m disappointed.

          Bandersnatch is an interactive movie where you’re presented with 2 options for the main character to choose between at various points in the story, ranging in importance like what music to listen to on a bus to deciding if your character or someone else jumps off a building. Many of these choices quickly lead to a “game over” type of scenario, but the film eases the need of having to restart by letting you immediately choose the other option. I didn’t try too hard to make the right choices, but even then, it felt like I still did a pretty bad job of which choice to make. For example, after the character gets frustrated over their game glitching, you can hit the computer or pour tea over it, one of which results in a game over.

          I should also preface all this by saying this story takes place in 1984 where the main character is a 19-year-old introvert who is programming a video game with branching paths. He successfully pitches his game to a company, and he has a deadline to complete it. Other main characters include his off-putting dad, a well-meaning therapist, and the always fun Will Poulter who plays a famous video game programmer that seems to already be aware of parallel pathways.

          Since the game your character is making deals with narrative paths itself, it’s clear pretty early on that the film is going to show parallels between what you are doing as well as the character. What could be fun meta honestly turns into too on-the-nose awareness as well as a story that doesn’t fully satisfy. After having seen about 2 of the endings, I was convinced I had simply gone down a bad path at some point and would just need to go in a different direction. That’s not the case. All endings relatively revolve around similar concepts, and even simply just reaching most endings will leave you with a sense of, “Wait, that’s it?”

          There are some good moments. Following Will Poulter back to his place leads to an interesting scene full of pointless ramblings, when the character starts becoming aware that he’s not in control of everything he does, there’s some fun options, and a later scene with the therapist goes in a crazy direction that somehow manages to still feel right. And scenes that you may encounter again will change slightly based on previous actions (or actions you took later and now have returned to that scene).

          I think part of my disappointment is the whole concept of the story that is aware that you are making choices, but even then you’re limited to what is presented in front of you. I would’ve been perfectly fine with a more traditional story that simply differed based on choices I made. But since this is Black Mirror, there are illusions everywhere and only hints of social commentary. The end result is a quick story that doesn’t really have any satisfying ending, and sadly, the journey to get there is underwhelming as well. For all the philosophical nonsense spewed forth about free will and choice, Bandersnatch isn’t able to achieve what has been done so much better by some video games like Detroit: Become Human and Until Dawn that feature butterfly effects for the choices made and characters affected. For something that won an Emmy for Television Movie and seemed really novel and neat, this is a soft pass for me.

 

In Brief:

• Christopher Nolan voiced criticism against Warner Bros. for announcing that all of their releases for 2021 will also stream on HBO Max, but I think it’s a move that makes sense for the upcoming year for both the studio and the blossoming streaming service. I understand Nolan’s views on the moviegoing experience, a sentiment I supported as I went to see Tenet in IMAX, but this comes as a necessary move for an industry that’s been rocked by the virus. It also helps that I currently have access to HBO Max, so you better believe I’ll be watching films like Wonder Woman 1984 and Dune from the comfort of my home.
• As I mentioned in Mulan, I recently watched Ralph Breaks the Internet. Some really good jokes there, an interesting message, and fun Easter eggs makes this an animated film worth watching even if it is flawed in a couple areas.
• You can also probably expect me to watch Pixar’s newest film Soul that I believe streams on Disney+ on Christmas. Have to catch up on their latest couple films.
• At some point I will carve out time to re-watch and rank all Marvel films.
• Watched Aaron Sorkin’s The Trial of the Chicago 7 on Netflix. Sorkin knows he has a way with dialogue, so this should be a slam dunk from the guy who wrote my favorite movie A Few Good Men. It’s entertaining, but it doesn’t leave much impact ultimately.