Last Movie You Watched

Saw this one last week, it's good enough

 

Eternals tonight, and I have a lot of feelings.



This movie felt far more akin to Snyder's DC films than a standard MCU film. The film notes this as well, with Icarus openly being called "Superman" by a kid within the movie itself. But the similarities run deeper than that. Between the religious parallels and relations included in order to make the "gods among men" theme, the slower pace, and the overall...mutedness of the movie, it wasn't something I'd attribute to Marvel. Oh, and members of the rest of the team have powers or personalities that roughly line up with Justice League members. Can't forget that.

Gone is the Third Act CGI army, or the "supervillain with the same powers" archenemy. No, the heroes of this adventure face something else at the end. But let's talk about the characters for a second.

The Eternals are...okay. I mean, I like most of the actors from other stuff - shoutout to Kit Harrington & Richard Madden from Game of Thrones (their onscreen meeting got some chuckles from the audience because of this. And of course, the lovely and and amazingly talented Gemma Chan - and the acting here was phenomenal, but I just didn't relate to them. They stood apart, as was their focus and purpose. But that made them hard to get to know, or to care about. The pacing of this movie didn't help. Oftentimes the movie would ask us to care about something but only give us a reason to connect and care after the moment has passed. The format of a movie didn't really help in this IMO. I think this movie could have been broken up into four 90 min episodes, and could have accomplished roughly the same thing but given us more time to see these characters' history in order to help us care better. All of that said, the acting DID sell the emotions, just not the connection.

The action is this movie is well done, but focused around the primary action characters, not all of which are main characters. But besides that, the hardest part of the fights was dealing with the aspect ratio change. I watched this film in Imax. Usually when I watch a film in Imax, I don't notice the aspect ratio change until about halfway through the scene at best, if I ever notice it at all. Here (particularly in the opening fight) the aspect ratio changed so often I couldn't help but notice.

Eternals also had some other...bold choices for a Marvel movie. It had the first on-screen sex scene I can remember since the Iron Man 1. Here it's all emotional and while not graphic, far more ah...intimate than I was prepared for or would feel comfortable showing children. (Then again, considering how I've seen fifth graders these days act, I'm pretty sure they've seen worse.) It also had it's first openly gay character and LGBTQT+ kiss onscreen. I'm pretty sure this is what's causing the banning in the Middle East, and I'm not surprised if that's the case. Still, it's an important thing for many, and I think it will be greatly appreciated by members of the community.

It's weird then that right before this moment, there's a scene that is openly a pet-peeve of mine. It's a personal one and a very touchy one. I'll put it in the spoilers, but it's a minor thing. (The pet peeve, not the spoilers. The spoilers are major.)

Spoiler: ETERNALS SPOILERS

Gilgamesh's death. I'm annoyed that he died protecting Thena, not because I dislike her character, but because it feels like franchises can't have a minority man be in a romantic relationship with a Caucasian woman. I KNOW THIS RELATIONSHIP WAS ENTIRELY PLATONIC AND READ AS SUCH, BUT THE POINT STILL STANDS. Finn was FAR from platonic with Rey, and that ship sank very quickly. Then other ships for Finn rose and were torpedoed. (No, I'm still not over it.) The guy that helped Natasha acquire things in Black Widow was completely friend-zoned in the most brutal of ways. Even in one of the later Purge movies, the main black character died so that the Caucasian politician could live. But when it's a white man, it's all fair. I guess It rubs me the wrong way because as a black man and a romantic myself, I dislike seeing people who look like me constantly get sidelined. It's not like they're doing something to deserve the woman, I'm not saying that. Just that...it's hard to express. It also bugs me because I've seen interracial couples of all dynamics in all corners of the world. So why can't a popular movie franchise have at least ONE couple like that? Then again, maybe they should start by expanding the amount of minority superheroes they have in the first place.
And then right after Gilgamesh's death, we catch up with Brian Tyree Henry's character, and he has a husband and son (who amazingly looks like both of them). So the black guy did win in the end. It's not the victory I would have asked for, but I'll take it.

Ultimately, this isn't your standard Marvel movie, and that's for the best. It was a risk, but I think it was a necessary one; and I hope it's a risk Disney will invest in going forward - Marvel has earned the right to keep a risky franchise afloat ten times over at this rate. I'm still not sure if I like this movie, but I appreciate it, and I want to see Chloe direct a sequel.

Of the MCU movies released this year, I think this ranks about the same as Black Widow. Black Widow starts stronger but ends weaker, while this movie is consistent throughout. Neither reach Shang-Chi's heights, however.

Recommended if you're a fan of:
Snyder DC movies, particularly Man of Steel and Justice League (2021)
The Stormlight Archives - yes, I'm serious. Stormlight fans were making parallels between the characters and their powers when the trailers started coming out. But after seeing the movie, the parallels are even stronger. It's honestly pretty amusing.
The Magnificent Seven (Remake)

EDIT: I'm also afraid that Black Widow, the Eternals, and Captain Marvel - three soon-to-be (if not already are) perceived as lower-tier MCU movies are directed by women, we'll see fewer women direct MCU movies. I desperately want more women behind the cameras in the MCU, in Star Wars, and in the film industry in general, so I want this movie to do well if only for that sake. Is it an unreasonable fear, especially considering how well the director for FATWS did? I'd say so. But I don't think it's an unfounded or illogical one.

 

I also just saw Eternals last night. I was pleasantly surprised by it; I was expecting much worse based off of the reviews and whatnot. I don’t think this movie was as strong as Shang-Chi, and I honestly had more fun seeing Venom: Let There Be Carnage, but this was still far from a bad movie. I enjoyed most of it, even if it dragged at points and the pacing was a bit off. For the most part, I feel like the jokes landed here. More so than they did in this years’s Black Widow or Shang-Chi actually. I thought Kingo and his friend were hilarious.

A qualm I have with the movie is that the two Eternals that get the most focus - Ikaris and Sersi - were two of the most boring members of the “family”. Not to say that I disliked either of them, though I didn’t really feel much chemistry between the two of them, I just felt like the other Eternals stood out more and had more distinct personalities. (Less “stoic-ness” as well.) The plot is somewhat unique from a lot of the other Marvel movies, but is still a bit overstuffed and ultimately still a typical save-the-world sorta thing.

Overall though, I enjoyed it. I’m excited to see how the plot threads and characters are handled in sequels or Disney+ shows. Now onto Hawkeye and No Way Home.

 

Alright! Another movie week is over, and while I didn't get to everything, I got a lot of movies under my belt. So let's get started!
This week's movies started and ended with previously seen and/or started movies:

Monday was a two-for-one special. First up was The Princess and the Frog!



I started watching this with some students of mine almost a month ago, nearly finished the movie with a combined group, and ended up finishing the movie on my own.
I have a lot of complex feelings about this movie. I love the story and songs, and this movie has phenomenal animation! The handling of the...ahem... "complexity" of the era was also brilliantly done. But it also turns it's most prominent characters into frogs for over half the movie. Sure, it's not the first time, and it meshes well with the story, but it also makes Tiana a very uncomfortable outlier of the Disney Princesses, as she's the only Black princess, and the only Princess to have been turned into an animal for the majority of her movie; something no Princess before or since has been.
I'm also not from Louisiana, so many of the cultural aspects fall flat for me. Except for the beignets. Those are great and delicious, and I'm too hungry to think about that right now! Overall, this is a highly underrated and Princess movie, and fans of Princesses (or fathers and mothers who have children who are fans of Princesses) who haven't watched this should queue it up for the next Movie Night.


Next up was the first Pirates of the Caribbean movie!



After Dune, I was in a swashbuckling mood, so I put on a swashbuckling movie. While details had escaped me, the overall plot didn't. Still, I was surprised at just how much they fit into this first movie, and how fun it was. Some things haven't aged well, and the CGI doesn't hold up as much, but it's still a fun classic full of laughter, heart, love, joy, and Jack Sparrow.


Tuesday saw me FINALLY finish watching Sleeping Beauty!


I started this months ago when I was working on a little pet project that took inspiration from Sleeping Beauty. I got about halfway through, and then things got busy. After things calmed down, I just put it on the backburner until this past Wednesday. Speaking of animation, for a 62 year old movie, Sleeping Beauty has aged very well. The animation is fluid and gorgeous, the music fitting, and the singing awesome. The plot and characters are barebones, as is the voice acting, but those are hardly things I can blame the movie for. I'm sure they stood up to the times they were in. Humorously enough, my friend and I had a fun discussion about this before our movie this morning. He likes villains, and thinks the whole plot could have been solved if Maleficent had been invited to the party at the beginning, and blames the Fairies for unnecessary heartache and separated family. Meanwhile, I think Maleficent would have been just as bad had she been invited, and her downfall was nothing short of pettiness and spite. Regardless, this is a very good movie. (And I love that poster!)

This is recommended for fans of:
Disney Princess Movies
Once Upon a Time
Maleficent


Wednesday saw the breaking of the Disney Movies trend and the start of a different trend. Thursday was Godzilla Against Mechagodzilla!



45 years after the original Godzilla's defeat in 1954, Godzilla has been sighted again, and delivers a quick attack on Tokyo. He is deterred away, but ultimately, he won the first bout against humanity. Japan's latest weapon, the Mazer gun, did unfortunately little; and with the technology of the Oxygen Destroyer being lost with its original creator, Japan must create a new weapon - inter Kiryu, also known as Mechagodzilla.

Of the movies I watched this week, this was my favorite by a fair amount. It captured me from the beginning, and gave me all the things that Godzilla vs Kong didn't. You see, Godzilla in recent movies has been seen as something of a hero, and I'm starting to realize I don't really like those stories. Not to mention that many movies fail at the human aspect of Godzilla movies - they get too bogged down in either the mythos of the King of the Monsters, or too swept up in the grandiose nature of the events.
Godzilla Against Mechagodzilla doesn't really - it's the dual story of a woman without a reason to fully live committing herself to killing to something that has hurt her, and of a father and daughter who must learn how to deal with loss while cherishing life. It feels very insular and intimate despite the desperate nature of the events.
There's also the fact that Kiryu is a giant mech robot, so this really had me hankering to watch Pacific Rim again.

That doesn't mean everything was perfect. I watched this dubbed (not by choice), and while it was overall very well done, there were sometimes MAJOR discrepancies between the dub and the subtitles. The most egregious example is towards the beginning. The dub mentioned that the Mazer cannons powers were reduced by 70% of their power, but the the subtitles said they were reduced to 70% of their power. That's a MAJOR difference of power, and while it doesn't change a lot in the scene, it's still an important detail.
The CGI is a little dated as well, but overall still pretty good for a 2002 movie. There are also some really cheesy moments, but overall, this was a pretty serious movie.
But the worst part was the ending though. The events belie what actually happened, and it annoys the stuffing out of me. Still, the post-credit scene is very sweet.

Overall, this was a movie worth revisiting, and my favorite movie of the bunch.

Recommended for fans of:
Godzilla (1954)
Shin Godzilla
Pacific Rim
Neon Genesis Evangelion and other similar Mech stories such as RaXephon
Attack on Titan


Thursday was Eternals. the above review for my breakdown on that. I have nothing more to add other than that I sort of like the movie looking back. It's grown on me.

Friday's movie was supposed to be either Ugetsu or The Mummy, but I really wanted more Godzilla, so I watched Godzilla Against Mechagodzilla's sequel, Godzilla: Tokyo S.O.S.



A year after the events of the last movie, two fairy twins come to a retired researcher in Japan, warning him to return Kiryu to the sea for rest, and promising Mothra as Japan's defender in return. This...doesn't go over well with other Japanese officials.

This Godzilla movie is not my favorite. It's not a good sequel IMO either, as it takes away what made it's predecessor special in order to expand the lore world of Godzilla.
Gone are the characters from the previous movie, even the main character who had unfinished business as she's shuffled off to America for training. Gone is the semi-isolated aspect of this movie, trading it in for a more connected story, as this movie tied into previous Kaiju movies more directly than GAM. Watching this really helped me feel like what people who don't keep up with the MCU must feel like when watching a new movie. I was asking myself "who are these people? How do they know this? Where are my old favorites?" It's like jumping from Captain America: The Winter Soldier straight into Captain America: Civil War without having watched Avengers: Age of Ultron or Ant-Man. Or maybe it's more like watching the fist two Avengers, and then jumping into Infinity War and wondering why things aren't the same.

This didn't really help with the plot either. Japan is supposed to entrust its largest and most populated city to a monster that once wrecked said city. A monster who really can't stand up to Godzilla on her own, once in the fight as well.

The human characters aren't bad, but they don't shine as much as the previous cast, sadly.

Ultimately, I recommend watching Godzilla Against Mechagodzilla and calling it a day there.


Yesterday's movie was My Hero Academia: World Heroes' Mission



The third MHA movie sees our heroes spend some of their Winter Internship overseas working for the World Hero Assosiation in order to take down a terrorist group called Humanize, who see those with quirks as blights to be cleansed. As that happens Deku is framed for a crime he clearly didn't commit and must find a way out of the country with a petty criminal in tow.

Anime movies are weird. It's not just the pacing or the canonicity of the movies, but how they decline over time. Anime like Naruto, Bleach, and MHA all have really strong first movies*, but nearly every movie after feels like a cash grab. While MHA tries to avoid most of this by attempting to slot its movies in canon timeframes, it still feels off.

This movie feels more like the end of an arc than an independent third movie.** There were several movie-only characters that I had NO IDEA ABOUT throughout the entire movie. Every time they were on the screen, I asked out loud (because I was literally the only person in the theater) "who are you?!"

The acting was fine, and the action was slick and well animated and directed (Bakugo's fight was great, but Todoroki's was criminally short, to the point his fight in the second movie is more memorable than this one), but this came at the cost of MHA's fifth season. If there's a reason why the MHA fandom dislikes the movies, it's because they steal the quality from the show, not because they're bad. And since Season 6 is bound to have the biggest arc in the franchise to date, they BETTER NOT BE PLANNING A FOURTH MOVIE AT THIS TIME. I think Post-Season 6 will be a great place to slot a movie about Deku and All Might. But I won't say why for spoiler reasons.

Anyways, back to this movie, the music (both the songs for the movie and the movie itself) were great, and there was a travel/road trip montage that was the highlight of the movie for me.

The newly introduced character wasn't my favorite, but he surprisingly grew on me. I think I liked him more than the kids from the first movie, but he's nowhere near Melissa Shield's level of charm.

The bad guys were meh, as the Evil Terrorist Cult is a tried and true but uninspired trope, especially in isolation like a movie. The Big Bad had a cool power, but the movie took the generic way out.

Spoiler: MHA WHM Spoilers

The villain reflects all things done to him, such as violence, love, and even suicide attempts. The movie goes the standard "overpower the limits" approach, which fits as the villain didn't know his own limits because he never tested them; but I think having the villain have a weakness of taking the damage that he inflicts on others would have been better. He would know this, and so his hypocricy about quirks would be related more to cowardice than willful ignorance. The final fight in turn would then involve Deku tanking hits and goading his opponent into actively fighting - maybe with a smile? - so that he will K.O. himself.

Overall, this movie was okay. If you're looking for some sort of Spider-Man movie to hold you over until No Way Home, Deku swinging around like Spider-Man may scratch that itch. But the rest of it is really only for MHA fights. Also, those cool outfits are only used in the opening scene. It's criminal I tell you!

*Naruto: Ninja Clash In the Land of Snow and Bleach: Memories of Nobody respectively.
**Arc 1 would be about joining the WHA, the second would introduce Humanize, and the third would be this movie.


Lastly was Black Widow with my friend this morning.



My friend really enjoyed it, more than either of us thought he would. He did feel that Natasha was outshone in her own movie, and hated Alexei (and called the BW Cure something very inappropriate and hilarious), but he really liked it! This time around, I agree. Black Widow was a lot smoother of a movie this third time than at least the second one, and is far more fun compared to Eternals. Lorne Balfe aka The Wheel of Time's composer did a great job here, and the set pieces are pretty fun. This movie clearly does struggle between its spy genre roots and the MCU movie it wants to be, and the two never really reach a harmony, but I enjoy it for what it is. (Now with 20/20 hindsight, a D+ show about Yelena and/or Natasha trying to find rogue Widows in the vein of the Jason Bourne movies as a prelude to this one would have been appreciated.)

And that's it! There probably won't be any new movies until around Thanksgiving from me - these next two weeks will take up all of my time, and after that I'll be out of town. I MAY watch Shang-Chi next week, or the week after, but it depends on how much work I need to do.

 

Was quite funny. Although I had to read the subtitles the whole time.

 

Saw this one Netflix The Guilty, it took 17 days to make

 

Shang-Chi with my friend this morning. He gave the movie a solid 7.5, as he liked the action and CGI when it was well done, but the poorly done bits really took him out of the movie. He also didn't bond with the titular character as much, preferring the "Shaun" aspect of his life and wanting more of that. The music was a final miss as well, making this score to him what Rogue One is to me - a respectable and well-liked score that just lands wrong.

I personally still give the movie a 8.5-9/10 I LOVE it, and found myself laughing at the funny bits all over again. It's most certainly on my top ten movies of this year.

 

An old favorite of mine!

 

Great movie based on a true story from the cold war era, great performance by Benedict Cumberbatch

 

Better than I remembered

 

@NinjaRen and I started our Christmas movie marathon last weekend, the first one was Gremlins, yesterday we watched the first half of Krampus. I'd say if you like the Gremlins you must watch Krampus, both movies have a similar feel.

 

At Dragonsteel Mini-Con, author Dan Wells had a public viewing of Jaws, where he and other viewers could yell out "pause," and he'd talk about a scene or aspect of the film. It was a really fun way to enjoy a film I haven't seen in 20 years or so. It used to be on every time my family and I went to a certain Chinese buffet as a kid. (That's where my dad taught me how to use chopsticks!)



The day before Thanksgiving, I watched Shang-Chi for a fourth time with a friend who hadn't seen it yet.

Then on Black Friday, that same friend and I - along with another third friend of his - went to go see Venom: Let There Be Carnage. It was as bad as I remembered it being, but most of the jokes still worked, and I don't think the directing was awful. This movie still doesn't deserve the songs created for it though.