I guess that my subconscious related the words in the title - "Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness" - with some recent episodes I got through in the local medical system, without any connection with the movie, but making me to choose this as a subject. Because I actually don't have much to write about it...
The first "Doctor Strange" was slightly different than the rest of the Marvel universe, reason for I decided to give a chance to the sequel too. Even though the reviews are not stellar. And indeed it's not on par with the initial movie, but I think it's still a bit above the level where the Marvel fan armies set the production compared to others. The subject is a bit messy, keeping the spirit of the title, in a minimalistic description revolving around a good wizard battling an evil witch through various universes within the multiverse. I'm really not in the mood to provide more details for what is nothing more than a children's fairy tale.
The main criticism the movie received, from what I heard, targeted the direction of Sam Raimi. About that, even the story is not the best, I can say I felt somehow pleased that finally somebody had the guts to leave some of his own touch to distract a bit the attention from a Marvel multiverse filled with cliche. It's probably not visible to most of today's audience, but for who intersected a bit with Sam Raimi's older movies, not that much the initial Spider-Man trilogy but others like "Evil Dead" or the '90s series of Hercule and Xene, you can feel here a bit of the slightly dark humour from back then, as well as a characteristic "chaos" that provides a nostalgic charm. Three minutes of Bruce Campbell as a pizza salesman is just an example. For these crumbles I'm gonna give it a...
I should've picked "Shazam!"... Well, not that I really had a choice, just sayin'. I didn't watch any "Avengers" in cinema up to "Endgame". The first was ok-ish, but didn't impress me much, and "Age of Ultron" was... let's just skip it. The surprise arrived with "Infinity War", which finally had a narrative that was actually good, and a bit more complex than what could a 15 year old screenwriter do in a PlayStation break. So, with high hopes, although I was convinced that this is over-hyped, I decided to give it a chance. Call me hater, but it's a worthy candidate to the most wasted 3 hours of my life for this month, even though we're at the beginning.
You know that after "Infinity War" what follows is a "time travel" movie, so that's not a spoiler. You know that the lost team will be back in the end, so no spoilers there. You know that you'll also have Captain Marvel to save the day in the end (well, sort of), so again, no spoile. You know that the finale will have a big battle, where we finally get rid of Thanos and all his kind, so I'm really not spoiling anything. What you don't know is that the reasoning for time travel in "Avengers" is "smarter" than in all Hollywood's history (I'm not the one claiming it), because we're not going back in time to change history - that will wreck the law of physics, and destroy our present. We just need to gather those 6-7 stones in the past, bring them to the present time, make an "undo" for the missing people, and move them back into the past exactly where we took them from - no harm done (they say...). I'm too lazy to start arguing why it would be pretty much the same thing with that bad classic version of time travel. But let's get over this... Let's also get over the finale of "Doctor Strange" (some of the few MCU movies that I really found to be good) where everybody was aware that a stone is called "the time stone" and used it precisely for its time powers. Let's also get over building a time machine, just to realize towards the end of the movie that the one in an abandoned mini-van is perfectly usable (although we don't really use that in the end). Let's also get over the effect of "erasing people" of the magic glove, which one time is random wrt who's spread into dust a la the undeads in GoT (at least that's what we see in the end of "Infinity War"), and one time is not random anymore (at least that's what we see in the end of "Endgame"). And we can also get over other stuff, but I have better things to do than add more to "you're really a hater" :P
It's not a secret for who's bothered to check some stuff on this blog that I'm not a Marvel fan, and generally I don't like superhero movies. There are exceptions. I mentioned one before. Guardians of Galaxy is another example, and actually a decently sized part of the DC Comics universe before getting "Marvelized", which happens lately. I'm not gonna give spoilers on for whom "Endgame" seems to be really the end - that's indeed some of the few unpredictable parts, but I have doubts that Marvel will give up on making money out of the characters that end their story here. It seems to me like a continuous money making machine using thinner and thinner story lines. Again, we have an excessive amount of CGI - somebody should tell Hollywood that 1 minute of VFX in a movie with no VFX is more effective than 30 minutes of continuous VFX - who's still impressed of how fine are rendered the shrapnel particles at the n-th explosion; your brain is effectively saturated at that point to react to this anymore. We also have tearjerking finale (quote from Tony Stark), way too long, which probably appeals to people residing in geographical areas that have less stress in daily life. I've never referred to the cinema public before in a post, but I've read somewhere that in Netherlands there were applause and tears. Around here... let's just say that I wasn't the only one often checking my watch in the last half an hour of the movie. The part that maybe saves what we have here for becoming completely forgettable (really, try in a couple years to describe the action in "Endgame" - I'm curious for how many that would take more than 3 minutes; do a test with "Age of Ultron" now), is the comic side. Indeed, the jokes and all this part are ok, and help a lot on getting through this. The rest... again, call me hater, but I've seen enough movies in my life to place the new top 10 IMDb entry, below my first 30%.
Rating: 3 out of 5 (objectively... if I would be subjective... not even 20 infinity stones could save what we have here)
I wasn't expecting much from "Incredibles 2" and I didn't get the surprise I was hoping for (so... maybe, I was actually expecting :) ). In brief, it's too Pixar for my taste = too nice, too predictable. I don't remember where the first "Incredibles" left us, but the second starts in the context where super-heroes are illegal, and the Incredible family must keep away from using their super-powers to make justice. Stuff that's not very convenient, but we have Winston Deavor, a prosperous business man with nice childhood memories of super-heroes, who, together with his sister, Evelyn, seems decided to start a rehabilitation and re-legalizing campaign. And like that Ms Incredible gets a new suit, all the material support and the counseling she needs to open the path for a successful lobby to solve the matter. All this while Mr. Incredible is left at home to take care of the children, stuff that apparently exceeds his super-powers.
Unfortunately all this plot has an outcome that's as predictable as unlikely it sounds - stuff that's totally contradictory, and which theoretically should've make it unpredictable, but somehow it is. It's so obvious from the start that the evil character is part of the Deavor family, such that the only unknown left is who of them is it, or maybe both? This stuff makes it totally awkward to see such support given to Ms. Incredible, when the final purpose is totally opposite to what she's helped for... And even stranger is that the attempt to bring down all super-heroes effectively starts only when Ms. Incredible discovers that the help received does not come without an interest. Which discovery was not supposed to happen... But if it wouldn't have happened, there wouldn't have been any anti-hero attack... so I don't know anymore where was the evil interest. Really, at some point the logic of the negative character gets so mind boggling, that it seems more plausible that we have an evil schizo in this role and not an evil genius, as it should look like. Anyway, long story short: the best part of the movie is by far the youngest member of the Incredible family, Jack Jack - I won't say why because I already gave too much. In any case, the script is so poor that even the most promising character is not sufficiently used in the story...
... or the reason why I'm sorry that I've been too picky with "Baby Driver" one week ago - how can you qualify the 2nd reboot in a 15 year interval when we had 5 movies from the first one in 2002? Well, I decided to ignore my mean answer of something like "the sheep is milked so often at Marvel that the shepherd doesn't know what type of cheese to do from the milk", and following the ratings above 7.5 out of 10 on 3 sites I decided to give it a chance... I kept however my expectations low for this latest Spiderman, hoping for the John Wick effect = that I'll be so pleasantly surprised that my feedback will be 180 degrees different from what I'm thinking. Reverse psychology self-applied = fail ...
I'm not in the mood of writing about Spiderman. It felt so bland that I decided to watch quickly another movie for having a blog entry this week. Since in less than 10 hours I must leave to somewhere on the northern coast of Germany (yep, I'm writing on the run again) I decided to try rewatching "Das Leben der Anderen" = 2 in 1 = a couple extra words besides "Guten Tag/Auf Wiedersehen" will come back to me and I'll also have a subject. Fail again... I don't know how much Deutsch I remembered but not that much. What's certain is that the movie, as good as it might be, felt even more depressing than 10-11 years ago, so I'm not in the mood of writing about this either... Ergo, back to Spiderman...
What's to be said? The only, unique, and way too single scene worth mentioning in this movie comes about two hours after start, and surprises us about a family relative of "the main villain", Which I have to admit I didn't expect. Everything's in the Marvel typical line of super-hero stories, but more mild than usual, with more educational purpose than usual, small jokes and violence within the PG-13 limit, very politically correct. A clear target on the 13-16 years old public. I have problems here and there with getting over the line in some movies, but the sensation it went through a censorship office is much worse (I think I prefer the other extreme of excess sex & violence). Even the negative character here has a social motivation, gets locked up and has issues with the impact on his own family. Besides that, Spiderman, at least in the first part, is quite close to become a sort of Robin for Iron Man = there's lots in the suit - web throwing modes, combat modes, etc. So the spider power is actually in the updated version a sort of electronically assisted super-power. I had some other view on this, but well.. gadgets are trendy...
To conclude, I don't know if the professional critics have any contracts with Marvel, but I didn't see anything here. Maybe I'm a bit subjective based on the image formed through the years on Marvel, but there are exceptions: GotG and Dr. Strange + I have some hopes after seeing the trailer for the latest Thor. For Spiderman, I don't know... another reboot? ;)...
Good story, the script so & so, bad directing... that's what gets "Wonder Woman" from what could've been excellent to average consumerism...
I'm not sure I should say much more. I could get a tast of the best part in the movie because the trailer didn't give away the story. Well, as a short summary, Diana, the Amazon princess, moves from a very very remote island directly in the middle of the first World War. Decided to put an end to the global conflict by killing Ares the God of War himself, Diana teams up with a pilot/spy from the allied army. And like that we're getting in the front lines of the battle, and more of what's going on we can see in the movie...
The story is good (not very good) if we ignore a whole bunch of made up stuff, way out of the real version. From portraying the Amazons as a pro-peace nation, up to killing the evil general Ludendorff on the battlefield - that was a real character by the way, died of liver cancer quite some time after the war. The script is full of cliche usage (sort of expectable). The big issue though come form the directing, where leaving aside the ton of exaggerated slow motion (just to put a blame also on the editing), we actually have a major problem with the acting. And yes, the blame is on the director, because from what I've watched I can't believe the issue's with the actors but more with stupid instructions that led way too often into scenes where we have almost more over-acting than in a silent movie. Besides Chris Pine the lack of keeping it in the realms of natural is visible on everybody. I don't comment this too often, but here was way too obvious...
Rating: 3 out of 5 (really on the edge, and most probably subjective...)
No time, short entry ... "Doctor Strange" = "Diablo" meets "Inception" - for who played the Blizzard game I guess it's impossible not to see a link (from the colors to relics/artifacts, everything's there), and about Nolan's movie, well ... we don't have dreams, but we have an alternate dimension + time + others are there. What's not part of the sum above is the context/subject where everything is set. More precisely another Marvel super-hero, an ex brilliant surgeon, who irreparably damages his hands in an accidents and finds again his life somewhere in Tibet. But not as a doctor .. as a wizard/sorcerer who must get the world rid of dangers coming from other realms. That's the story. About the movie ...
It alternates between brilliant moments and abysmal scenes (somewhere at the intersection of cliche, childish and out of place = ex. "the comic relief" is way off way too often). Unfortunately the last category is dense enough to bring down the movie, but fortunately the first category is sometimes so good that keeps it above average. It's either bits of the script like thoughts on the end-of-life or more deep conclusions like - controlling time beats having an eternity in your hands. And still ... it could've been more. Or my usual issue with Marvel, too much box-office oriented :) ...
"Jeeg Robot" is part of a "super-hero" niche of movies that gains ground slow but steady lately, and I can say I like it more than the mainstream = Marvel + DC. To clarify, more stuff we have in this set: "Defendor", "Kick-Ass" (the first) and most probably others that I can't think of right now. Essential traits = the "super-hero" doesn't necessarily have super powers - or these are quite simple (no Ant-Man here), and is often more of an anti-hero until finds "the true call of doing good, saving the world, etc, and the rest" ... if he finds it. That's pretty much what we have here. Enzo Ceccotti doesn't like his life a lot, doesn't have friends, and he gains his daily dose of yogurt as a small crook. One day, being chased by some guys apparently worse than him, after taking a bath with some unknown potentially radioactive waste in the Tiber, he gets to be ... unbreakable and gains some extra strength in arms. Following that, we have some conflicts with the local gangs, a super-villain enters the scene, bombs, romance, drama, and others. The movie's funny, consistent, I'd say even touching here and there. The actors play their parts perfectly. Even the production design is surprisingly good for an indie. Something seems still missing, though ... But that's definitely not the Marvel logo in the intro :) ...
I've watched "Turbo Kid" last night. A crazy indie where sometimes you can't really get if it's really bad or just too good.
The year is 1997. In an alternative reality, the humanity collapsed into a wasteland where water is rare and hard to get (guess I've heard somewhere this context). There we have "The Kid". A boy of something like 15-16 years old, who lives his life trading scavenged waste. Sold for water in one of the existing camps .. the normal camp .. led by Frederick - the arm wrestler (a sort of Crocodile Dundee without the knife but with an iron fist - metaphorically speaking ... at least until a certain point in time). The other camp .. not so normal .. is led by Zeus - a guy with a single eye, who resembles a bit Immortal Joe from Mad Max, as well as his subjects (I was saying something about the water context, right?). Well, in all this uncertain and sad existence, in a sunny (or not) day, the Kid meets Apple. A girl about the same age, in a total contrast with the surroundings considering her continuous smile, the hair color and other things, who invades the personal space of our kid, who can't anymore get rid of her.
Writing the above, I realize that what looked like a sort of "The Quick and the Dead" mixed with "Mad Max" mixed with "Defendor", and which seemed to me that covered a simple revenge subject, is actually a bit more complex considering how much it puts together. I'll keep away the details for now, you have them in the titles above (on which you can add "Terminator" - now I'm getting the subtle '97 reference ;), "Tomorrowland" and others) + also in the trailer. Probably all this mix makes "Turbo Kid" so good in the end as combined product - not taking itself too seriously, being an assorted salad, and the way the salad is served. If some acted parts, starting with Apple, could get in line for an Academy Award, some others are utter abysmal, but overall they compensate each other. The production design has most often the level of a diploma movie for graduating film studies, but the directors were enough aware of that to make fun of it - and it works ... Chases using cheap and small bikes (the only wheel-based transportation apparently left after the apocalypse) - that I doubt I've seen in any other movie. On top of all we have also the '80s synth on the soundtrack that completes perfectly the image.
To conclude: I liked it. If you don't have an issue with blood & gore exaggeration and you're open for self-satire, you should see this. The verdict is positive, after placing everything together. Or maybe I got soft sensing the need for a "Apple" in my life ... :) ...
Busy, busy days ... I have the same time to spend for "Ant-Man" as much as he occupies on the poster area. So let's get to the point ...
I'm waiting for the day when I'll see a super-hero movie that I'll like. But something to really like. I don't think this happened since '92: "Batman Returns", where either I was too young to be really impressed or Tim Burton did some magic in that movie. Ant-Man comes with an interesting perspective, and quite original compared to what's on the market. Literally speaking. Spoiler: we can see a tsunami in the bath tub. The subject itself is sort of average, but I didn't expect much more. Probably the best part of the movie is the comic relief, very present and sufficiently well integrated to not leave the rest to get to the disaster state of alternating cliches with CGI sequences as we've seen in Avengers 2. The script and the acting ... better not talk about it (= fortunately Evangeline Lilly and her green eyes were there to save it a bit .. at least for my concern).
It's a light, summer movie. Fine if you don't expect much, and also if you don't expect that you'll be surprised for not expecting much. Worse in my opinion than the last Spiderman or Iron Man, but above Thor, Avengers, etc. from the Marvel Universe (yeah, I know ... I have a messed up scale compared to the box office and fan preference in the super-hero niche). Obviously, I didn't include Guardians of Galaxy in the Marvel list. That was brilliant. Probably because, technically speaking, that wasn't a super-hero movie ...
I'm gonna continue the last entry "trend" of sequels that I thought will waste my time, and eventually didn't :), with the 2nd part of the rebooted Spiderman franchise. ( Besides that, is Halloween anyway so I needed something with a mask ;) ).
I've seen when this was released plenty opinions on being the worst Spiderman movie to date. Also, there are plenty opinions saying that the tandem Alex Kurtzman/Roberto Orci is a real plague among the Hollywood screenwriters = after "destroying" Star Trek now the started doing it with other franchises, as the current one. I can agree with their scripts "quality" for "Transformers" without any doubt, but leaving that aside, things are far from being so bad. Yes, the script is superficial, has holes, there are 12 minute YouTube videos mocking smth like 100 scenes in the movie, it's in a word "Hollywoodish" with a big H, but ... it has a story, it's catchy, the jokes are becoming more natural + it has that something that you want from a two hours+ movie when all you need is to let your brain "fly away". I know, I'm repeating myself :) I said that before, but honestly I'm glad that I see movies giving me the opportunity to do it.
I didn't watch it in 3D, and I think it's one of the few cases when I regret it. The effects are superb even in 2D. But what's top notch in this movie is the sound & music area. Hans Zimmer's score boosted again my hopes after "Lone Ranger" that the guy is not yet left without ideas. Thing that happens at some point for most of the composers. Besides that we also have the sound editing & mixing. If this movie doesn't get an Oscar nod for this next year it means that my ears start failing ( or that the year is not over yet and something better will show up :) ).
I've skipped the story. I'll keep it spoiler free this time. And not necessarily because the story is simple. Some actually say that this movie has too many secondary threads, and too many villains. It's perfect, it doesn't get boring. And most important, it's fun ;) despite not ending the romance in a very happy note (well .. I couldn't keep it :P)
I've been terribly busy with other stuff since my last posting up till now, but fortunately I managed to see a couple of movies (actually .. exactly two), and the one about I'm writing probably deserves better than the half of hour I'm able to spend telling about it. "Defendor" is a fake super hero movie belonging to a genre that seems quite successfully in the last two years with three titles. We had also "Kick-Ass" which I've seen and "Super", which I just found out that's on the schedule tonight at one festival from where I'm living, but of course I have other stuff to do and no time for it.
If in the case of "Kick-Ass" we were presented with a pretty solid budget, effects, etc, resulting in a totally demented stuff rated R, with a big R, being probably perfect for the definition of guilty pleasure = you're fully aware at the end that pushed the limits a bit too far but you can't say that it wasn't funny, in case of "Defendor" we have a completely different approach. First of all, it's a drama .. not a comedy .. and this is already a pretty big spoiler, because it starts giving the impression of a comedy but in the end you can definitely say it's a drama. Defendor is a homeless guy without a family, helped by the current employer to live another day, and on top of all has also a little problem concerning his mental abilities that apparently remained at his childhood level. The result = during the night he turns into a "super" hero armed with "gadgets" ranging from little balls of glass to little wasp jars, searching for the evil "Captain Industry". Well, the mental issue doesn't cover exactly all the cause for this, but I won't say more, because there must be something to be left to see after all. The only thing I'll mention on top of what's above is that, incredibly but true, "Defendor" finds his enemy (well .. an enemy) and the way the story unfolds gets really touching, keeping itself simultaneously funny however, until the end.
The lead role is absolutely impeccable played by Woody Harrelson. It's beed a while since I've watched "Rain Man" with Dustin Hoffman but I think I can risk to say that's a comparable level. About the rest, the production is low budget = don't expect something like "Kick-Ass". Anyway .. there is an aspect that I think I'll remember for a while. The movie has one of the best soundtracks I've heard lately. Starting with the original part composed by a guy who's completely unknown to me - John Rowley, up to the songs part that gave me the chance to discover a canadian band - Metric (and to be more exact the song is "Help I'm Alive").
I'll finish this entry with a couple of words about the end of the movie with the risk of increasing the earlier spoiler, but I'm gonna try to keep it a bit cryptic. It's 99.9999999 % certain that the end of the movie will seem obvious and clear to you. 0.0000001 % is a little bee that you have in the last scene, and if you let it fly away with you imagination sufficiently far enough you'll probably reach another conclusion ;)
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