Reviews on (deep breath): Star Trek: Into Darkness, Iron Man 3, Pacific Rim, Man of Steel, Bridesmaids, Airplane!, Spaceballs, Bullhead, Nuit Noire, Burn After Reading, Salt, 127 Hours, Chronicle, Boy A, Piranha part II: The Spawning, Paradox, Dexter season 7, The Walking Dead season 3, True Blood season 4, The Borgias season 1 & 2, The Tudors season 1&2.
Star Trek: Into Darkness
I have some strong mixed feelings about this one. It entertained me, some scenes were awesome, but at the same time, I had so much trouble not noticing the 461 plot/world inconsistencies, how utterly dumb everyone is in the future, and how it's as much Star Trek movie as Man of Steel is a Superman movie (I'll get back to that later). Ultimately, it's very easy to see this as a cynical cash grab where all the effort went into throwing as much visual effects at the viewer so he'll forget about the stupid story and even stupider characters. At least the first (well, 11th) Star Trek film has some character development. What's the character development here, the bromance between Spock and Kirk, or Kirk being confronted with his daddy issues? Both things were in the first one as well. As a Star Trek fan, the most offensive of all was taking arguably one of the best scenes in Star Trek history, only reversing it!!!! Wow, that was so clever man!! Related to that: "Oh no, he's dead *crying*". *two minutes later* "No wait, we have something that makes people practically immortal, he'll live again!! Hurray!!"
I mean, seriously. I can understand people enjoying this movie, but I'm offended how dumb it really is. Did the writers actually, you know, write anything? I had a sense of familiarity all throughout the film, and not just because they ripped people and plot devices from previous Star Trek films. I mean, wasn't the opening scene taken from one of the Pirates of the Carribean movies, only with a spaceship hiding under water (why??? they could've just stayed in orbit and beamed down on the planet, or at worst send a shuttle. Stupid stupid stupid - obviously this part of the film was only created just so they could do a SFX shot with the Enterprise coming out of the water)
Side note: they did a “best Star Trek movie” poll at a recent official Star Trek convention. Guess which one came dead last? Yeah. Exactly. Those trekkies are now my friends hehe.
Iron Man 3
I saw this shortly after ST:ID and enjoyed it a lot more overall. Sure, it had stupid moments, and it was quite messy in places, but it was fun and hat at least some character. Ben Kingsley was so good. So good. In the end, it's not as memorable as the first one, but it's still a worthy entry in the series, and obviously it would never be as good as The Avengers. But I'm honestly not sad that there won't be an Iron Man 4 in the near future. Time to move on to other Marvel characters, and only show Iron Man in The Avengers movies.
Pacific Rim
This movie, man. It's what I've been waiting for since...well...I can't remember. I said on twitter that this is the Independence Day of this decade, and I stand by it. Objectively/critically, it's pretty awful: it has a B-movie cast that deliver C-movie dialogues, quite a few scenes make little sense, and a lot of things couldn't be more cliché. But...I dunno, it's one of those rare movies that I can love pretty much unconditionally. Part of it is that it definitely has a retro, 80s feel to it. The characters, their silly names, the foreign teams (with obviously Chinese and Russian teams, and they don't survive very long hahaha), evil inter-dimensional aliens that just want to kill humankind, etc. It has so many elements from 80s cartoons and movies, and blends them together so well, it's a joy to watch. Well, for me. I saw this when I was in London with 4 friends - 1 absolutely hated it, 1 liked it, but didn't get all the 80s references, and two of them loved it, with one of them saying he'd like to see it again soon. I actually did see it again two weeks later hehe.
Really, it's something hard to explain rationally, I just...love it, you know?
I loved it even more after reading this blog entry (actually one of the reasons why I went to see it a second time). The Russian team IS the best. Love that woman, and not just because she's the dominant in the relationship hehehe.
Oh, and I also made a Belgian Jaeger. For the next movie, uhh, North Sea Rim. 
It has a sword, and the rocket punk arm! So awesome! (and, Witlof is a Belgian endive, if you're wondering where I got the name)
Man of Steel
I didn’t keep up with the trailers and stuff, and I was surprised how...sci-fi it really was, with all the spaceships and stuff. And how they tried to make everything “dark”, you know, because that’s the cool thing to do nowadays. And the scientific “rules” behind the superpowers and stuff. That was just as bad as the midichloreans in Star Wars. I had a similar feeling with this than with Star Trek Into Darkness: a lot of flash, little substance, no soul. Again, I did enjoy some scenes, the fight with Faora was the highlight of the movie for me. Faora was awesome, just like Ursa in the original... (yeah I have a thing for evil women with short dark hair, shhh!)
Anyway, this made me think about the current state of Hollywood, and seeing how well both this and Into Darkness are rated on imdb, it makes me realise I have little in common with the current movie-going audience. Some people complained about how this wasn’t “real” Superman, well, that’s true, it’s not the Superman people like me want. I mean, I could’ve done with another Superman Returns, because that was a very “quiet” and introspective movie for the most part, but obviously that’s not what the masses want. They want darkness, action, a shitton of special effects, and little actual content. In that sense, this is the Superman movie we deserve, isn’t it?
People are talking about Hollywood imploding in the next couple of years, and in a way, I hope it’s true. Surely they can’t keep releasing these bloated 200 million movies every two weeks.
Moving on to some movies I've seen on tv/DVD...
Bridesmaids
I was forced to watch this!!! But I actually ended up enjoying it :) Mostly because of Megan (Melissa McCarthy). She's hilarious. I'd marry her. Though her fetishes and mine aren't exactly 100% compatible, but still! Anyway, fun to watch with friends.
Airplane
I'm sure I must have seen this as a kid at some point, but didn't really remember anything from it. It was on tv again and I loved it. It has the typical Mel Brooks absurdity, which is a love it or hate it kind of thing, but I quite like it.
Spaceballs
Another re-watch, another Mel Brooks movie. I must say I didn't enjoy it as much as I expected to. It's still good, though I'd say Airplane is better.
Bullhead
A Belgian movie! This was a Big Deal over here, but I skipped watching it in the cinema. Mum liked it, dad said it was just okay, and guess who's opinion I trust more? Hehe. Anyway, finally saw it on tv. I must say, the first 45 minutes or so are boring, but at some point you "get" what the director is trying to do with this story and this character, and then you appreciate the movie on another level. Though, in the end, "it" is so in your face that it's almost becoming a parody of it's own story. Hard to explain to people who haven't seen it. I enjoyed it, it's pretty good, with some memorable scenes (and painful ones, if you have balls), but I wouldn't call it a classic.
Nuit Noire
I saw this because I have an account of a stupid Belgian DVD rental service, and I built up a backlog of about 60 movies I still need to see. Anyway, this is another Belgian movie, or film, since it's very arty farty haha. It's sort of sci-fi, paranormal, dystopian and...weird. I really liked it though, even though it really is very arty farty/pretentious, and it completely falls apart towards the end, but I really did like the world and a lot of the imagery. It tries to tell the story almost entirely in images, which works sometimes, but certainly not always, and especially not towards the end. Still, I enjoyed it, probably more because of the general weirdness rather than anything else.
Burn After Reading
Oh no, a Coen bros movie! Expect someone to get randomly killed near the end of the movie! And yup. Unrelated to that (cough), how good is Brad Pitt in this?? I loved him. His character is so, so stupid. I mean, that phonecall conversation, those stupid dances he does,... so good. Otherwise, good movie, nice characters. John Malkovich killing it again. Yeah, worth watching. Still upset about one character having a really stupid death though :(
Salt
I didn't quite know what to expect with this, but in the end this was a very entertaining action movie. Angelina Jolie can really annoy me in some movies, but here she's quite good. I enjoyed this a lot more than I thought I would. It doesn't really do anything special, but it was exciting enough for me to keep watching it. Lame ending though.
127 Hours
I have to say this reminded me a lot of Into The Wild - which I still prefer - slightly - to this. Even though I like Danny Boyle's movies in general, I just wasn't that interested in this one, but I was pleasantly surprised. I thought something like this would be pretty boring, but the director made it interesting and never boring. I honestly think it's a better movie than Slumdog Millionaire (I still don't get how people think the love story in that one is cute - it's horribly unrealistic, and the dude is an obsessive stalker, in real life people would call him a pervert and he'd end up in prison where he belongs!)
Chronicle
I can’t say liked the handycam thing (it does make the special effects more realistic), I enjoyed it overall. It raises some interesting moral questions... At the end it almost turns into a western version of Akira, but still.
Boy A
Even more of a moral and emotional ride, it’s a very interesting film that I liked a lot. It was interesting reading some comments on imdb - it’s inevitable that the audience will be split in two after this. I’m in the “yes, he deserves a second chance, leave him alone” camp. He spent more than half his life with his freedom taken away, he was punished in more ways than one, anything more than that would be a form of revenge and not justice.
The Perks of being a wallflower
Oh come on, they listen to The Smiths, how could they not know that was David Bowie??? But anyway...I really liked it, and uhh, had something in my eye for about half of the movie. I mean, I wouldn’t call it a sad movie - it’s not Dancer in the Dark! - but some scenes... if they don’t affect you emotionally, you have no heart. I mean, just the last 15 or so minutes of this... damnit :’(
I really should get this on dvd myself at some point.
Piranha part II: The Spawning
This is a funny because it’s the first ever movie from James Cameron... and it’s absolutely rubbish haha. Even for me, as someone who loves bad horror movies. And a few years later he suddenly creates and directs The Terminator, one of the best sci-fi/horror movies ever. Did he go to film school between those two? I say it’s some alien brain bug that took over.
Paradox
This is one of those awful Syfy movies, with Kevin Sorbo (Hercules!)... except this one has some redeeming features. It has a particular art style, the story is fairly original, and.... okay that’s about it. I was going to rate it a 6/10, but then the last 15 minutes happened, where they suddenly felt the need to only talk in famous movie quotes. So weird.
Moving on to the tv-series...
Dexter season 7
What happened in this again? Oh yeah, Deb finds out what Dexter is, then shoots LaGuerta. How they made 12 episodes on this, I don’t know. Respect. I’ll watch the last season of course, but I’ve started seeing Dexter as a self-parody after the season with John Lithgow.
The Walking Dead season 3
It had some good stuff for the most part, but I also feel they’re slipping a bit. Everything involving Rick’s wife was stupid. David Morrissey is great in this (well, I like him in pretty much everything he’s in). It also made me have some sympathy for Merle. I’m definitely watching the new season when it comes out, but I’m not expecting that much from it really.
True Blood season 4
Yes I’m hideously behind on this series, mostly because I can’t be bothered downloading new seasons and just watch it when it’s on tv. Anyway, I must say I absolutely loved Fiona Shaw (Marnie) in this. Great villain. I could’ve done without the Jesus/Lafayette witch thing altogether, same with the werepanther business, but otherwise I don’t have that much to complain about. I’ll be seeing season 5 soon.
V season 1
I saw the original V series a few years ago and quite liked it. I knew the new series wouldn’t be on that level, but it’s not that bad either. They added a lot of new elements, some good, some bad. In general though, a lot of episodes feel too long for me, in that it feels like a lot of it is filler.
The Borgias season 1 and 2
It has Jeremy Irons being evil and stuff, so it’s awesome!! Well, it has some really bad moments, but in general, it’s quite good, and, if the Tudors didn’t have such a great cast, I would’ve said this is the better historical series. Season 1 is quite uneven, but has some great moments (the war against the French and the Naples situation). Season 2 is (6 episodes in) more even, but I’d say the first episode is definitely the best one of both seasons.
The Tudors season 1 and 2
It’s quite a lot of fun watching two different series that are set at around the same time (well, give a year or ten or twenty. Or thirty). Quality wise, both series are close, each with their own great moments, bad moments, and unintended comedy. The Tudors especially sometimes very much veer into soap opera territory, especially how they treated the Anne Boleyn character. I still haven’t decided whether Natalie Dormer is a good actress or not, but she did have some good moments in this.
My favourite episode was ep. 5 from season two. It’s where all the good guys die hehehe. But seriously, Thomas More was probably my favourite character in this series so far, even though I think in the end, he was a stubborn fool. But I respected and sort of admired him. Same with Queen Catherine. Both played by great actors as well, but if they weren’t written well they wouldn’t have worked on screen anyway. Oh and of course I loved Peter O’Toole as pope. And I have to mention Sam Neill, who is secretly one of my favourite actors. Like I said, great cast.
Of course, just like with The Borgias, as an amateur historian I sometimes get annoyed with anachronisms and stuff that just plain didn’t happen, but I understand that above all it’s supposed to be entertainment and not a documentary.
Alright, that’s it for now! See you again in 6 months or something heh.
No comments:
Post a Comment