Category: Theaters

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The Justice League Has Finally Been United!

It has been a long time coming, but the Justice League has finally made their big screen debut, and for nerds like me it was a pretty great moment, but for everyone else it was probably just ‘fine’.  The movie had too many things to do and not enough time to do it, but the characters themselves were awesome.  Showing that if nothing else DC has a great casting director.

The movie starts pretty soon after Batman v Superman, and the world is still mourning the loss of Superman (Henry Cavill).  AKA The monster that everyone hated after Man of Steel because he destroyed Metropolis, but I guess you don’t know what you got until it is gone.  Bruce Wayne (Ben Affleck) has decided to take Lex Luthor’s (Jesse Eisenberg) advice seriously and get ready for an invasion, so he has to get a very special team together.

The team is far and away the best part of the Justice League.  Ezra Miller and Jason Momoa are great as The Flash and Aquaman.  Bringing their characters to life with so much fun and flare.  Ray Fisher was fine as Cyborg, but he wasn’t given much to do other then brood, so I will need to see more of him before I pass final judgement.  Gal Godot as Wonder Woman continued to be great, but the movie needed to pick up the camera off the floor when filming her scenes.  We get it, she has a nice butt.  Ben Affleck was given most of the heavy lifting in this movie to try and connect everything together, so sadly a lot of his dialog was exposition, and his character suffers for it.  Making him the least convincing member of the League.  I am not going to say much about Superman, other than he finally gets to genuinely smile, and it is fabulous.

Unfortunately the movie built around this great cast was not great, and honestly unlike everyone else I am not upset about the fact their villain was another gray blob.  When introducing three new characters you don’t have time to develop a villain, so random angry alien guy makes sense.  The problem was this movie was rushed.  The special effects are garbage.  The reshot scenes seemed to be filmed with a different type of camera on cheaper sets, so they stand out in bad way.  All in all this movie needed more time, and Warner Brothers/DC will no doubt pay the price for not delaying Justice League until early next year.

The fantastic cast of well acted characters made the Justice League work for me.  It has been a lifelong dream to see the League all together on screen, and slapdash special effects and poorly edited added scenes were not enough to ruin that for me.  For other people, maybe wait to rent or stream Justice League.  Though you will want to see it.  If only to get ready for Aquaman because after Jason Momoa’s fun performance you will be as pumped for it as I am.

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Did Rotten Tomatoes Forget That Metacritic Exists?

So by now I am sure that you have heard that Rotten Tomatoes is withholding Justice League critic reviews and the ‘Tomato Score’ until it streams its new show ‘See It/Skip It’, and if Rotten Tomatoes was the only critic aggregating site in town it might make sense to use its popularity to promote its new show this way, but guess what?  It is not.  If you want to go see a bunch of reviews with an average score just click on over to Metacritic.

I can save you some clicking and just tell you that Justice League is doing okay.  Not great, but much better than Batman v Superman and Suicide Squad.  Apparently the story is rushed nonsense, but the characters are great, so if you love Bats and Wondy, there is a good chance you will like this movie because they act like their true selves.  In other words, the dialog works, so it sounds like the Joss Whedon part of the flick works.  I will find out myself on Friday and then let you know what I think on Monday.  If things work out as planned that is.

Anyway, if Rotten Tomatoes makes this delaying the reviews thing a normal deal.  There are other, and some may say better, places to get the same info.  In this case, Metacritic.com.

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Dynamite Wants Red Sonja To Get Some Of That Wonder Woman Money!

Dynamite Entertainment, the current publisher of Red Sonja comics, has optioned their fiery red headed barbarian to Millennium Media to be turned in to a feature film … again.  Last time it didn’t go so well making only $6 Million on a $17 Million budget, but they think with the success of Wonder Woman that now is the time to try again.  I am not so sure.  While her currant comic book run has been successful, Red Sonja is not the women’s power icon that Wonder Woman is.  She is more of a pin-up, and kind of always has been, but they have tried to change that recently.  All that being said, it has been a while since someone has made a good sword and sandals epic, so here is hoping they do Hyrcania’s fiercest warrior justice!

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Ragnarok Came For Thor, And It Was Glorious!

Thor finally got the movie he deserves.  It is big, loud and silly, and he got to bring his friend from work along for the ride.  That is not to say Thor: Ragnarok is a perfect movie, just that it is way better than Thor’s two previous films, and Taika Waititi proved that a director’s unique talent and style can add to a film not just take away from its marketability.

As far as timeline goes, Thor: Ragnarok takes place some time after Thor: The Dark World, but not much longer after Doctor Strange.  Thor apparently has been busy looking for Infinity Stones, but he was not having much luck, so he has decided to make sure that the prophesy about Ragnarok (the end of Asgard) never comes true.  Things were looking up until his long lost sister Hela comes to visit and throws a wrench in his plans.

Thor: Ragnarok is probably the funniest of the MCU films.  There are jokes and sight gags galore.  It is apparent that Taika Waititi set out to make this movie a comedy above all else, and the comedy is what works best.  Whether it be buddy moments between Banner/Hulk and Thor, or the brother versus brother one-upmanship of Thor and Loki.  It is all great, and it all works well.

What works less well are the action scenes.  It is almost like they were thrown in to remind us that this is a Marvel movie.  Like some suit reminded Waititi that Ragnarok sill needed its three or four major MCU action sequences.  They are not bad, but they are just not as good as the film’s lighter moments, and some of them feel a little obligatory.  What is worse is that all the money seemed to spent on The Hulk and the movie’s amazing sets, so the CG for all the fights and chases don’t look quite right.

The actors from all the previous films continue to be great, but the new additions really hold their own.  Obviously we all know that Cate Blanchett is extremely talented, and she was clearly enjoying herself as the over the top Hela, snarling with glee in all her scenes.  Tessa Thompson was also very good as the conflicted Valkyrie.  Not to mention this movie also throws Karl Urban and Jeff Goldblum in to the mix, and those two almost always make any movie better.

Thor: Ragnarok is the movie that the MCU needed.  It is funny and unique and it reinvigorates Thor and Loki’s characters.  Before I was kind of done with them, but now I can’t wait to see what they get up to from here on out, and any extra time spent with Ruffalo’s Hulk, is time well spent.  So grab your tickets and your popcorn and go see Thor: Ragnarok.  It is a ton of fun.

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Blade Runner 2049 Is A True Sequel To Blade Runner, For Better Or Worse…

I was skeptical when it was announced that Alcon Entertainment, Warner Brothers and Sony were teaming up to make a new Blade Runner movie.  It seems like movies that are remade or get sequels decades after the original miss the mark more often than not, but Blade Runner 2049 stays true to the source material and delivers a sequel that feels much like the first movie from 1982.  Of course the flip side of that is if you found the first movie to be long, dark, pretentious and have issues with the male gaze, the same will be true of Blade Runner 2049, but if you love the first one like I do (or at least learned to love it later in life), you will probably love Blade Runner 2049.

I am not going to give away a lot of the plot, since for once the trailers don’t give too much away, but it is safe to say that K (Ryan Gosling) is a Blade Runner like Deckard (Harrison Ford) was in the original.  A Blade Runner is a police officer that hunts down and ‘retires’ rogue Replicants (genetically engineered/created slaves).  He also gets tasked with a case that takes him in way over his head.

Also like the original Blade Runner, in the grand scheme of things the plot is a pretty small story in the movie’s world.  Nothing really changes due to the events in this film.  I think 2049 may have a happier/more hopeful ending than Blade Runner, but not by much.  This is a still a future that is terrible, and no one is happy.  Especially not the Replicants who are treated like disposable garbage and are yet still resented for existing.

The performances are all muted in Blade Runner 2049.  It is like everyone is on valium.  This of course is by design.  We are not supposed to know if this is because they are Replicants or because they live in the worst future possible.  My guess is a bit of both.  Though that does add extra power to the scenes where characters do emote.  There is a reason the people in this film are breaking down.

Denis Villeneuve did a good job creating another great futuristic Film Noir Blade Runner movie.  You will either love it or hate, but I doubt you will forget it (though its long shots may put you to sleep).  In the end how you feel about Blade Runner 2049 will probably depend on how you feel about the original Blade Runner, since 2049 very much sticks to the formula that made the first one so good, or bad (though I am going with good).