rotten tomatoes says it's got about a 2/3 like to dislike ratio, so it's not a universal blockbuster.
Actually saw Eternals yesterday. It was a fun movie, but not particularly exciting like the kick-off of a new part of the MCU should be. Not like Guardians of the Galaxy, where every new character was amazing. There were maybe 10 folks in the theater (I was actually hoping for less on Christmas Eve) and about a third of us got up and left before the mid and end credits scenes. I mostly felt like I wished I'd seen Spider-Man instead.
As I already posted in the watch thread, Morpheus wears my favorite watch so it's already a 10/10.
Overall I liked it. It felt very meta, and I found it amusing that they included word for word Keanu Reeve's famous discussion with his agent.
Warner bros is making a matrix sequel with or without you
I think if you come in expecting it to be like the original movies you're going to be very disappointed. It's very different, and I was ok with that. Overall I liked the story as a coda for the original trilogy, but I'm also an apologist that has found myself liking the original matrix sequels more and more over the years. Thumbs up from me.
The former movies are a high bar to meet, truth be told. But this movie doesn't get off the ground. The acting is the high point. The rest? The lack of Bill Pope, and Yuen-Woo Ping is comically noticeable. It is shot poorly, edited even worse, sound design is non-existent. If this showed up on SyFy as The Matrices, it would be scarcely worth the watch. The talent of the Wachowskis is not in the technical aspects of movie making, made abundantly clear by this movie. Some interesting ideas, but holy smokes it feels cheaply and dispassionately done.
I wish I would have liked this one as much as others do. It's unique and a fun idea.
But when it turns out that the child is the mastermind of all this it changes the feel of the film to a reverse home invasion flick. He's the protagonist but now he's evil, malicious, and not someone I want to root for. I wanted a messed up R-rated Home Alone and I got something different.
Just watched a deliciously messed up movie called Vivarium. Indie flick, kind of a sci-fi thriller and it is so flipping weird. Still not 100% sure what to make of it, but it's absolutely weird and twisted in a way that I couldn't stop watching.
I think Disney got their movies mixed-up this year, because Encanto (a regular Disney release) feels way more like a Pixar movie than Luca. It's about family expectations and fitting in, and can get fairly deep (much deeper than Luca). It doesn't shy away from a tragic backstory and some dysfunctional family issues. Mirabel, the main character, is realistic and relatable as someone who feels like she doesn't fit in.
The animation is amazing. The lighting was incredibly realistic, as was the hair and cloth physics and the face and body movements.
I think Disney got their movies mixed-up this year, because Encanto (a regular Disney release) feels way more like a Pixar movie than Luca. It's about family expectations and fitting in, and can get fairly deep (much deeper than Luca). It doesn't shy away from a tragic backstory and some dysfunctional family issues. Mirabel, the main character, is realistic and relatable as someone who feels like she doesn't fit in.
The animation is amazing. The lighting was incredibly realistic, as was the hair and cloth physics and the face and body movements.
Just saw this myself, I really enjoyed it, but I kind of wish the ending was a bit longer and had a "how are they now" moment after the last big scene.
Abuela had a lot to answer for in this movie that I felt they kind of glossed over in the last big scene. Yes, she went through trauma when her husband was killed trying to protect her and the triplets, but the expectations she had on her families' gifts did more then just inconvenience them. Her own son lived what looked like a decade in a wall with rats, peeking out a little hole in the wall with a makeshift family table placement, yearning to be with them again but unable to face his own mother because the people in the town made him into a pariah. That isn't the type of reaction you have if your mother supports you and stands up for you. He even left specifically to prevent telling his mother that his last vision was Maribel destroying the Casita, to try and spare Maribel the scorn and fear everyone showed him. That type of long term trauma isn't something that can or should be made up for with a single kiss and a hug.
While the ending did try to quickly show that Maribel is now the "heart" of the Casita's magic (as the candle never came back) and the new "head" of the family, we never see if she finally gets her own room. She was still sleeping in the nursery, for Christ's sake, because Abuela couldn't be assed to manually try building an extension to the house after the magic decided to snub her. We never got to see if the dynamic changed and they really made up for the trauma they put Bruno and Maribel through after they all got their powers back. Just like the aforementioned Luca and it's credit sequence, it just would have been nice to see how the family was doing a month down the road so we can get closure on things actually changing for the better. It just feels like it ends so quick once the house magic comes back.
Saw both the original Frank Sinatra, and the more known Clooney remake of Ocean's Elleven in the span of two days. HONESTLY-I feel the remake is better, as in that one each member of the 11 was introduced one/two at a time, each having different quirks, where as in the original they were kinda all lumped together. Its nice seeing Sammy and Dino sing and all, and while I thank it for being proto-typical to the heist genre, I give my hat to the remake.
Saw both the original Frank Sinatra, and the more known Clooney remake of Ocean's Elleven in the span of two days. HONESTLY-I feel the remake is better, as in that one each member of the 11 was introduced one/two at a time, each having different quirks, where as in the original they were kinda all lumped together. Its nice seeing Sammy and Dino sing and all, and while I thank it for being proto-typical to the heist genre, I give my hat to the remake.
Saw both the original Frank Sinatra, and the more known Clooney remake of Ocean's Elleven in the span of two days. HONESTLY-I feel the remake is better, as in that one each member of the 11 was introduced one/two at a time, each having different quirks, where as in the original they were kinda all lumped together. Its nice seeing Sammy and Dino sing and all, and while I thank it for being proto-typical to the heist genre, I give my hat to the remake.
I did the same when the remake came out, except I put on the original immediately on coming home from watching the remake. And damn it was slow to me. Neat to see the scenes of 1960 Vegas, though.
The King's Man
What I loved most about the first Kingsman (2014) film was how it had a nice blend of serious and ridiculousness. It was like an R-rated Pierce Brosnan era James Bond film.
What I hated about Kingsman: The Golden Circle (2017) was how the ridiculousness overshadowed the serious.
And ironically enough what I hated most about The King's Man (2021) is how overly serious it is. In fact it only barely begins to get into the ridiculous in the third half of the film. The other 2/3rds of the film is almost like a completely different movie. The story is an Oscar winning war-epic... but with the writing and direction of a rushed made-for-tv movie. The tone isn't even close to that of the first two films. I'm pretty sure even the studio was so concerned with the drastic change in direction that they created very deceptive trailers to make the film seem edgy, comedic and cool.
I considered walking out of the theater several times due to this deception but decided to stick with it. I even barely stuck around for a mid credits scene which just turned out to be a sadly predictable and awkward sequel setup.
The King's Man
What I loved most about the first Kingsman (2014) film was how it had a nice blend of serious and ridiculousness. It was like an R-rated Pierce Brosnan era James Bond film.
What I hated about Kingsman: The Golden Circle (2017) was how the ridiculousness overshadowed the serious.
And ironically enough what I hated most about The King's Man (2021) is how overly serious it is. In fact it only barely begins to get into the ridiculous in the third half of the film. The other 2/3rds of the film is almost like a completely different movie. The story is an Oscar winning war-epic... but with the writing and direction of a rushed made-for-tv movie. The tone isn't even close to that of the first two films. I'm pretty sure even the studio was so concerned with the drastic change in direction that they created very deceptive trailers to make the film seem edgy, comedic and cool.
I considered walking out of the theater several times due to this deception but decided to stick with it. I even barely stuck around for a mid credits scene which just turned out to be a sadly predictable and awkward sequel setup.
This is more a quirk of myself, but when I start a sequel to a movie and the first thing it does is kills off over half the cast of the original movie offscreen, I just kind of turn it off. GI Joe : Retaliation and Kingsman : The Golden Circle were two of the biggest offenders to me in recent memory, so I never finished them. Am I weird?
I vaguely remember a bunch of film people raving about this film when it came out. There was talk of showering it with awards, yadda yadda yadda. And...I didn't really like it?
The body horror and seemingly practical effects to pull them off is top notch. Without giving anything away, there's a really weird, inhumanly thing throughout the movie. But it's mixed with human drama. And the two things...just don't really mesh. It feels like two, maybe even three, entirely different movies. And it just didn't work for me. The acting is quite good and I'll admit, I was engrossed by everything going on for the first hour or so. But then it all slowed to a halt where it was a human drama between the two main characters. The weirdness seemed to come and go, almost like the filmmaker was like "Oh right, we set up this weird thing at the start. Guess we should go back to that."
Maybe I'm missing thematic elements the movie was trying to convey. But I'm just not seeing the brilliant movie that I'd heard about months ago.
This is more a quirk of myself, but when I start a sequel to a movie and the first thing it does is kills off over half the cast of the original movie offscreen, I just kind of turn it off. GI Joe : Retaliation and Kingsman : The Golden Circle were two of the biggest offenders to me in recent memory, so I never finished them. Am I weird?
I felt that Golden Circle was much closer to MIB 2 where it brings cast members "back to life" for the sole purpose of having that namesake actor back in the film to promote it.
The King's Man
What I loved most about the first Kingsman (2014) film was how it had a nice blend of serious and ridiculousness. It was like an R-rated Pierce Brosnan era James Bond film.
What I hated about Kingsman: The Golden Circle (2017) was how the ridiculousness overshadowed the serious.
And ironically enough what I hated most about The King's Man (2021) is how overly serious it is. In fact it only barely begins to get into the ridiculous in the third half of the film. The other 2/3rds of the film is almost like a completely different movie. The story is an Oscar winning war-epic... but with the writing and direction of a rushed made-for-tv movie. The tone isn't even close to that of the first two films. I'm pretty sure even the studio was so concerned with the drastic change in direction that they created very deceptive trailers to make the film seem edgy, comedic and cool.
I considered walking out of the theater several times due to this deception but decided to stick with it. I even barely stuck around for a mid credits scene which just turned out to be a sadly predictable and awkward sequel setup.
What irked me a lot about Kingsman: The Golden Circle (apart from the ridiculousness of the stunts...) was the americanisation; it felt like heavily pandering the american market (sorry, guys, really sorry that it irked me).
I was about to switch it off when
Merlin stepped on the mine and started singing 'Take me home, Country Roads'. Very british, Mr Kingsman. What's wrong with Danny Boy or We'll meet Again? That, for me at least, took a lot of the scene's gravitas.
What irked me a lot about Kingsman: The Golden Circle (apart from the ridiculousness of the stunts...) was the americanisation; it felt like heavily pandering the american market (sorry, guys, really sorry that it irked me).
I was about to switch it off when
Merlin stepped on the mine and started singing 'Take me home, Country Roads'. Very british, Mr Kingsman. What's wrong with Danny Boy or We'll meet Again? That, for me at least, took a lot of the scene's gravitas.
What irked me a lot about Kingsman: The Golden Circle (apart from the ridiculousness of the stunts...) was the americanisation; it felt like heavily pandering the american market (sorry, guys, really sorry that it irked me).
I was about to switch it off when
Merlin stepped on the mine and started singing 'Take me home, Country Roads'. Very british, Mr Kingsman. What's wrong with Danny Boy or We'll meet Again? That, for me at least, took a lot of the scene's gravitas.
While I don't disagree, per se, I have to laugh because that's my husband's favorite part of any Kingsman movie. That Scottish brogue singing John Denver; he plays the soundbite all the time. But it's also an old song. I don't find it any stranger that Americans obsessed with The Beatles, The Who, The Rolling Stones, Elton John* etc. in movies.
While I don't disagree, per se, I have to laugh because that's my husband's favorite part of any Kingsman movie. That Scottish brogue singing John Denver; he plays the soundbite all the time. But it's also an old song. I don't find it any stranger that Americans obsessed with The Beatles, The Who, The Rolling Stones, Elton John* etc. in movies.
I felt that Golden Circle was much closer to MIB 2 where it brings cast members "back to life" for the sole purpose of having that namesake actor back in the film to promote it.
Yes, it did that for Harry Hart but obliterated all the rest of the Kingman other then Eggsy and Merlin early in the movie. A lot of it boils down to the fact I get rather invested in "side characters" in a lot of these movies, and so when the side characters who get some development in the first movie are killed off in the sequel very soon after the movie starts, it just leaves a bad taste in my mouth.
So, i've been watching movie summaries on youtube for films i'd never watch for real, because i'm not wasting almost 2 hours on it (hell, i even play the 15 min recap at 1:25 speed).
But the one thing that has jumped out at me in this one movie called The Thinning (staring internet asswipe Logan Paul).
See, in the film the world population is kept in check in different ways in every country, with the americans killing the kids that aren't smart enough to pass a test each year...
But then, at the end, in what is seriously the most American twist ever, it turns out that
they're not really killing the kids, but instead they're druggin' them and shipping them off to factories to make their cheap ass mobile devices they use throughout the movie!
Because, of course that's way worse of a fate then death, and much less acceptable to the public.
Yes, the one from a few years ago w/ Mysterio. We hadn't gotten around to seeing it yet and we wanted to go see the new one soonish, so rented this one for a couple of bucks from Prime.
It was good. I had managed to avoid most spoilers for it during all this time so went in mostly fresh.
I am, however, a huge Marvel fan, so knew immediately that Mysterio was not on the level. What got me, though, was the immediate turn to cartoonish, mustache twirling evil and the entire team is ok with him just murdering a bunch of innocent teenagers. One of the team even going and interacting with them and then stupidly standing around non-chalantly on the Tower Bridge during the final attack. It's not like there would be tons of cameras pointed that way that would likely catch him.
That may be addressed in the new movie, No Way Home, since the end scene did out Peter as Spider-Man. I'll have to see.
The first movie, Homecoming, handled that team dynamic a lot better. Vulture's team were all in it for the money, most just trying to earn a living at first. One started going a little rogue and Vulture shot him with what he thought was a non-lethal weapon that turned out to be a very lethal weapon and he had to just roll with it. He seemed at least some conflicted with killing, but was doing what he had to in order to keep his team and family safe.
Encanto
Spouse and I watched this the other night and it was a cute little movie. None of the songs were especially memorable, though. A good family movie, but not likely one to rank up there with the classics. It probably will hang around with the likes of The Rescuers and Brave. Ones that are enjoyable to watch, but you don't really remember the plot all that much.
I do agree with the criticism that Abuela got off way too easily and I also wanted an end scene where Maribel's room was shown. Or at least her own door. Some kind of closure on that would have been nice (pun not intended).
Matrix 4: Redundancy... no, Restrictions... Return... Reiterate... Rebuilding? Reaction! Definitely an "RE-" word... Retread..?
Watched this last night. It was.... fine. I did like the way they incorporated a lot of talk about reboots and sequels and stuff into the narrative to take the wind out of the sails of a lot of the critics for it, but in the end it just felt kinda bland. I did like the setup and a lot of the set pieces were good, but it overall just kinda didn't sit together properly for me.
I think the worst thing about the film is that it didn't have a satisfying end to it. The new Smith character shows up, does his thing and then just leaves. No further animosity with Neo, no big fight with him at the end, just an "Ok, bye!" It may have been a bit more fun if they had gotten Hugo Weaving to do a quick cameo before leaving.
The final bit with The Architect just fell flat for me as well. He is a program that suddenly starts spewing corny, 50s-era levels of misogny towards a now awakened Trinity who kills or maims him for each one and then they just leave as well. Promising to remake the world, but none of that is shown.
The motive behind doing everything was never really clear either. They briefly mention a need for more resources, but even with Neo and Trinity now removed, they never showed any issues coming up. At least have The Matrix start crumbling or showing some sort of damage to it. Also, the machines never thought to make fusion reactors or build towers up above the cloud level to collect solar energy? We know it's possible to get above the clouds because we see Neo and Trinity do it in a ship and I feel like fusion was mentioned in either the first trilogy or the Animatrix. Both are still better than plugging in humans to siphon off energy from them.
Also, it felt to me like Keanu was sleepwalking through this movie. Some of that was the point for the first bit, but even after coming back into the real world, it still felt like he just didn't care.
Also, just fyi, there is an end credit scene, but it is not worth waiting around for. It does nothing for the plot and does not setup anything for the future, it is just a scene that felt like it should have been on the outtakes real.
It's the programmers from earlier in the movie still talking in circles and eventually saying the new Matrix should be all cats, "The Catrix" END SCENE
Matrix 4: Redundancy... no, Restrictions... Return... Reiterate... Rebuilding? Reaction! Definitely an "RE-" word... Retread..?
Watched this last night. It was.... fine. I did like the way they incorporated a lot of talk about reboots and sequels and stuff into the narrative to take the wind out of the sails of a lot of the critics for it, but in the end it just felt kinda bland. I did like the setup and a lot of the set pieces were good, but it overall just kinda didn't sit together properly for me.
Not bad honestly, not laugh like a maniac funny, but it had plenty of gags that landed, a solid plot, and likable characters. It also somewhat condemned the toxicity and deification of frat culture, being one of the first college movies I've seen where they treat a main character having bad grades due to partying as something to not be laughed off .
Matrix 4 - I liked it. But then again I also liked 2 and 3 which makes me some kind of sci-fi leper in most discussions.
There were some gaping plot holes, however. Like it was sure nice of the second helicopter to go away for a little while so that Neo and Trinity could bask in the sunlight for a bit before it resumed its attack.
I loved every bit of this. I loved the characters, the use of the original score, all of it. As someone who loved the movies (my 9th birthday was Ghostbusters themed; we saw Ghostbusters 2 in the theater as part of it), I wish I had Phoebe around when I was younger. Probably going to watch this a few more times.
Matrix 4 - I liked it. But then again I also liked 2 and 3 which makes me some kind of sci-fi leper in most discussions.
There were some gaping plot holes, however. Like it was sure nice of the second helicopter to go away for a little while so that Neo and Trinity could bask in the sunlight for a bit before it resumed its attack.
I liked 2 and 3 also, and the animatrix, and even the online video game. In fact anyone familiar with the game storyline (which Lana Wachowski has said is canon) would be a lot less surprised about what happens with Trinity in resurrections.
But upon watching the fourth movie a few more times, I think I've gone from liking it to loving it, for one simple reason: it's the ultimate shitpost.
Lana Wachowski didn't want to make this movie. In being forced to, she managed to make a very sincere and heartfelt love story, a metaphor for being your true self, pissed off all the manchildren that had co-opted matrix symbology for a movement that is openly hostile to people like her, and publicly gave the middle finger to WB, in a movie they banked, and is allegedly losing them a hundred million dollars. All while putting an end cap on the original mythology, touching the people it was meant to, and ensuring no one tries to remake the franchise again for at least another 20 years.
