What was the last movie you watched?

Men in Black: International: I don't think any MIB movie will ever touch the first one, though of course that could be my nostalgia talking. But this one did a fairly decent job of it all. Story felt a little rushed in some parts and I would have liked more time spent on some of the back story, villains, and aliens involved, but I enjoyed the acting and the main characters and that went a long way. I don't know that I'd advise anyone to throw their own money at the film, but for a rental/Netflix watch, it'd be fine.

Can I just say that I hate kids at movie theaters? Like, the kid behind me spent the entire movie asking "Is that Thor?" Shut up, kid. He was old enough to know to zip it, and should have been old enough to understand that actors can play more than one character. Ugh. AND his mother spent the whole film making suggestive comments. I get it, it's Chris Hemsworth, but geez, some thoughts should stay in your head. Especially when you're sitting next to your underage kid. Double ugh. Blast these two into the sun.

 

I love the first one and think it holds up pretty well even today. I can't actually remember the second one, though I know I've seen it, so I'd say that probably means it was fine enough, not good or bad enough to be memorable. I don't think I ever saw the third one. I'm not sure how to describe Men in Black: International. I liked the main characters and thought Chris Hemsworth and Tessa Thompson worked well together, much as they did in Thor: Ragnarok. The movie definitely focuses most of its time on them, but the rest of the cast (Emma Thompson, Liam Neeson, etc.) did well with what they were given. The story is pretty simple and works well enough- the leads find themselves with an alien super-weapon in their possession and are trying to keep it away from the bad aliens who want to destroy shit with it, while also investigating a potential mole in the MIB. But it felt a little hollow to me and I wanted more of that backstory. With regards to the villains of the film in particular, it almost felt like a sequel, like I should already know about these guys, and maybe they were referenced in another of the films, I don't know, but because I wasn't really invested, the stakes didn't feel very high. That said, I don't regret spending my money on it; it was a fun time, and I'd watch it again, if even only to see if I missed out on anything because of my crappy theater-going experience. I think that someone who likes all of the other MIB films will probably like this one fine. But I also know not everyone throws their money at the theater practically every weekend like I do, so I can't really say that if you go to see only a handful of films in theaters a year, that this should be one of them.

Luckily when I saw Endgame, there were very few kids there, and the ones who were there were really well-behaved. And I got lucky again at A Quiet Place, because there were only like 10 other people at the most in there, and none of them were kids. This audience at MIB just sucked, though. Maybe that's partly why I'm a little salty at the movie.

I haven't seen anything new since MIB, but I am taking my nephew to the *coughcashgrabcough* re-release of Endgame tomorrow, so I'll edit in if it's worth checking out or not. I'm guessing the extra crap probably won't be worth it, but he hasn't seen it at all yet, so...

EDIT: Eh, a few minutes long tribute to Stan Lee, a very short deleted scene from towards the beginning of the film

Spoiler

featuring an unfinished Prof. Hulk effect, showing what he was up to before Steve, Nat, and Scott met him at the diner

and another very short clip/teaser from Spider-Man: Far From Home. Not great, not terrible, but definitely not worth the extra bucks if you've already seen the film, in my opinion. It'll all be on the Bluray/DVD anyway.

 

^ Avatar is straight garbage, so I was kind of rooting for Endgame, but yeah, the whole thing is ridiculous.The only ones who win are the studios taking more and more of our money. And I'm not sure it matters anyway, because I bet they re-release Avatar again before the second (probably) trash movie is released, so even if Endgame beats the record, it probably won't last.

Yeah, that's not likely to change. Gone with the Wind was in theaters for a long time, like two years or something, with little to no competition, and since it was before home video, there was no choice but to pay to see it in theaters.

I think the deleted scene in particular was a let-down. There were so many better scenes they could have included- for instance, they apparently filmed a scene that would have featured Tony after his snap speaking with an older version of Morgan similar to the scene between Thanos and young!Gamora in Infinity War. Or they could have shown Steve putting the stones/Mjolnir back in time and reuniting with Peggy. Or about a million other things that would have been way more interesting. Instead, meh unfinished Hulk. But that's life.

 

I just saw Spider-Man: Far From Home as well and I also enjoyed it a lot. I agree that it was better than Homecoming. I also agree with you about Mysterio- I liked his character a lot and thought he was used well. I enjoyed the rest of the supporting cast, as well. I thought the movie also did a great job keeping a balanced tone- it had its sad moments, but was also pretty funny, too. I also appreciate that they try to do new things with the characters, seeing how many times Spider-Man has been rebooted now.

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I think I saw an interview with either a director or writer of Endgame that at the least implied that Bruce took all that into account and made sure that the people who were snapped were brought back safely, but I agree that this film doesn't really quite support that. I just kind of brush it aside and not think about it too closely, same as I do for the people who presumably died second hand from the snap, like people who were killed in car accidents after being hit by suddenly driverless vehicles or small children who were left alone after their parent got dusted, etc.

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I had a little trouble buying this aspect of the movie. I know that Mysterio is a Spider-Man villain, and once you find out more about what's going on, it makes more sense, but at the beginning of the film when it looks like there is a massive planetary-wide threat, Nick Fury tapping Spider-Man for the job seemed a little nonsensical. Definitely seemed like something Strange should've been handling.

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I was getting some Secret Invasion vibes from that post credit scene. I know Captain Marvel showed the skrulls in a friendlier light, but maybe they're setting the stage for a similar arc. I've also seen it mentioned that it could be setting up S.W.O.R.D., which actually makes more sense.

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I agree. I'll be interested to see where Spider-Man goes from here. I did love that they got JK Simmons back.

I'm sure there's more I could say, but for being the first film to follow Endgame, I think it did a pretty good job. It's definitely worth seeing.

 

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I can't actually remember how everything went down in that final battle- I don't remember how Mysterio got taken down in the end, but I agree that the mid-credit scene makes it seem as if he survived. Personally, I'm glad of it, if so. I liked him a lot and think he has more potential.

Marvel Wiki lists the founding members of the Sinister Six as Electro, Sandman, Vulture, Mysterio, Doctor Octopus, and Kraven the Hunter. It also lists two other members: Hobgoblin and Gog, whoever those are. I'm an X-Men comics girl. But that doesn't mean the movies have to stick with that. The founding members of the comics Avengers were Ant-Man (Hank Pym), Wasp (Janet Van Dyne), Thor, Iron Man, and Hulk, so I don't think faithfulness to the comics is something that the MCU holds in high priority.

Yes to all of that. Great casting on the part of both of Peter's chaperones.

I've seen two new films:

Toy Story 4: You can tell that Disney/Pixar cares about this franchise and puts the work in. It's engaging and emotional in all the ways a good Disney/Pixar film is. I'm not sure if this is supposed to be the end or not. If it is, it's a decent ending.

Dark Phoenix: *Sigh* I don't know what to even say about this one. I heard that it was terrible and yet I saw it anyway, so I'm part of the problem. Overall, I'd say that it did suck, but it wasn't as terrible as I was expecting. Low expectations wins again? First of all, I don't know why Fox keeps insisting on doing the Dark Phoenix storyline when the 90s animated series did it fine, but if they want to go there, they really need to take the time to develop it. That means multiple movies where this is the focus, not a side story. There needs to be time to build the relationships between the characters and develop their personalities enough that the audience is invested in them, especially with Jean. I personally find Sophie Turner so unlikable that it was hard for me to emphasize with her Jean at all, even when there was some crazy sad shit going on with her. The other younger cast- Cyclops, Storm, and Nightcrawler- were basically extras- I didn't care about them at all. Jennifer Lawrence was phoning in her performance same as she has been for a while now. Jessica Chastain's character and her companions should have been given more attention or else cut altogether. Story-wise, I didn't feel like the stakes were as high as they should have been and the action wasn't great except like one scene at the end. It also fucks the timeline all to hell and ignores movie continuity, even things established in Apocalypse. But, in my opinion, there were some good points. Spoilers for a pretty shitty movie ahead, although I don't think I actually give much away.

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For one, Charles is a massive dick in this film, and I love that people actually called him out on it. Charles is a dick in the comics, too, and McAvoy!Charles has always been more of a jerkwad that Stewart!Charles, but I felt like they went for it here and that made me happy.

Also, I loved that in this film,

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they actually broke the cycle of I think every other X-Men film and had Erik actually be a decent guy the whole time. Like, there was none of that bullshit where the X-Men trust him and he betrays them at the end and everyone's surprised even though no one should have been. Did he actually mature and learn something? I don't know, but I loved his character here anyway.

Also, my ridiculous (delusional?) shipper's heart was filled with joy at the ending of this film. It felt like a nod to Claremont's Excalibur run, which I loved, and I just want Charles and Erik to be happy and play chess and not fight each other. The Erik and Charles shit in this movie almost makes me love it, but then I remember the rest of the garbage. Like, don't pay to see this movie. It's pretty lame.

 

The Lion King (2019): It was fine? The original is fantastic in so many ways, so it would be hard for a remake to screw it up. The soundtrack is especially iconic and almost had me ugly crying in the theater (probably would have, if they hadn't unfortunately changed the music in a few key places). I think I had two major problems with the movie, besides the fact that it was basically unnecessary and you should just watch the animated version: 1) the animals look pretty realistic and some of them are adorable, but the realism means that the characters aren't able to be as expressive and show their emotions on their faces. It made the characters less engaging to me. and 2) I found myself missing the original voice actors. Having James Earl Jones return as Mufasa was perfection. I would have liked Jeremy Irons to return as Scar. Chiwetel Ejiofor just didn't have the same menace. And I honestly cannot tolerate Beyonce and the cult she has following her. Every time she spoke a line or sang, it pulled me right out of the film. I would have preferred almost anyone else.

Overall, I'd say it's about on par with the other recent Disney adaptations. If you wanted to see it, you probably wouldn't be disappointed, but you're not missing anything by skipping it, either.

 

She played the adult version of Nala.

Most of the voices in the remake were good enough. The differences really only stood out to me in a few places, but it was enough to break my immersion. The first was with Scar. And I don't think they necessarily had to get Jeremy Irons back, although I would have loved it, but I felt like the character needed someone who could ooze more evilness. Maybe it was an issue with direction, not the actor. The second was Seth Rogen's Pumbaa and the third was Beyonce's Nala. I find both of their voices really distinctive and it took me out of the film a little, but I actually like Seth Rogen mostly, so I could overlook him more.

I'm sorry, what? I saw the trailer with The Lion King but hadn't heard anything about the film itself. This news makes me want to cry. Why even remake the film without "I'll Make a Man Out of You"? And no Mushu? This is trash.

You know what this reminds me of is Shyamalan's The Last Airbender. He too thought it'd be a good idea to mess with the source material to make it more "accurate" and respectful to the cultures the show pulled from. And that's how we ended up with fucking Oong.

Wow, I'm super disappointed. The trailer was definitely serious and had none of the iconic music in it, but I thought that was just how they were cutting the trailer.

Yeah, I wouldn't be opposed to a serious film based on the Mulan source material, but that is so not what I'm looking for from Disney. As for the others, I haven't seen Maleficent (that one's getting a sequel too, fyi), but the others so far have been okay. Unnecessary, but not horrible films or anything. I would recommend the animated versions over the live action every time, but the adaptations have all been respectful. They add and/or change things a little, but it has yet to be in a way that infuriates me. Until now, it seems.
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So, I haven't seen anything new in a few weeks. The last movie I watched was Thor: The Dark World, since I've been on kind of a Thor kick, it's been forever since I'd seen it, and I wanted to remind myself if it sucked as much as people always say it does. And no, it doesn't. The villain is really lame, and they totally wuss out with the destructive potential of the Aether, especially in hindsight now that I know what it really is, but the character interactions and the acting are great. It also has a lot of beautiful imagery and a fantastic score. This seems like the sort of movie that had a lot of studio interference. I don't know if that's true or not, but in my opinion, everything that they cut out and put into the deleted scenes honestly should have been left in the film and a little more time spent on fleshing out the villains and actually making them menacing would have been welcome. It seems like they were more interested in keeping it under a certain time. *shrugs*

 

It: Chapter Two: I'm about to write a book here, fitting for a review of an adaptation of a 1000+ page novel, I suppose. As with the first film, the casting is top-notch and the actors do an extremely good job. The child actors are again amazing, and the adult actors both convincingly look like grown-up versions of the child actors and act like them. I would have liked more Skarsgard. One of my complaints of the first film was that he was at his scariest when he was still in the frame and just talking/interacting with the other actors and that I felt like the movie would have benefited from more of that. I felt like there was even less of that in this second installment.

There was also some really broke-ass looking CGI in this film. Some of the CGI was bad in the first one, but I felt it mostly worked because it gave an otherworldly/uncanny valley feel to the scares. Here, I thought a lot of it just looked fake. There was no moment in this film where I felt scared.

This movie is surprisingly funny. A lot of it is intentional, but I'm pretty sure some of it was not supposed to make the audience laugh, and people in my theater were laughing a lot. Some scenes were a miss for me in that regard. The movie did have a lot of heart, and it did a really good job of showing the bond these people share, which I always thought was the most important aspect of the book. I think my favorite scene was in the beginning of the film when they meet up again for the first time as adults, because you really see the love there. I thought that was very true to the book.

This film took a lot of liberties with the source material as far as the story goes, and it left book-fan!me sad. Some of the changes did the characters a disservice, especially Mike. I did not like what they did with Mike at all here. I also thought Bill was underused. The kids in the book all have their own roles to play, and I felt like each one's contributions weren't acknowledged. There were a few other things that I didn't like about the characters that I might rant about later when I get my thoughts together. The final form of It was even more disappointing than the stop-motion spider from the miniseries, something I didn't think was possible. I think the supernatural aspects of the story are difficult to adapt, and while the movie wasn't perfect, it did a fine enough job with it.

Overall, I'd say that It: Chapter One is the superior film, but fans of that one who aren't book purists will likely be satisfied with this film as well.

 

Oh, absolutely. Studios definitely pander to the Chinese market. I think I remember hearing talk that this was also why Tilda Swinton was cast as the Ancient One in Dr. Strange, because they didn't want to cast a more comic-accurate actor and risk offending them/losing money. I liked her in that role, but still.

I was talking to my sister the other day about these Disney live action remakes, and I'm still really salty about what they're doing with Mulan. I really just wish Disney would move away from this trend. The other films are mostly shot-for-shot remakes of the animated ones, and are therefore pointless even if they are watchable, and this one seems like it will have none of the charm of the animated one, making it even worse.

He's basically Deadpool all the time. Even in rom-coms he has that same personality/sense of humor. I'm still here for it, but it'll probably get old eventually.

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Haven't been to the theaters since It, but the last film I watched was Megamind. This movie is so underrated; I love it to pieces. I've been seeing a lot more discussion/memes since it was added to Netflix, so maybe it's finally starting to get the appreciation it deserves.

 

Finally got around to seeing Joker. I really enjoyed this as a character piece and it seemed like a pretty honest look at mental illness. This portrayal of the Joker is far superior to the crap we got from Leto in Suicide Squad, I'll say that. I'm curious to see what the plan is for future uses of the character. I liked that this wasn't a traditional comic book movie; I think that people who aren't fans of that genre would enjoy this if they are fans of films with a darker tone. DC should do more stuff like this, imo.

 

Why do people have to do that? They did the same thing with Captain Marvel, imo, trying to make it seem like some man-hating ode to feminism, and I really didn't get that from the movie at all. People should just chill and enjoy films for what they are. I can't imagine living life so determined to be offended all of the time.

Also, that's a stretch connecting Joker to white nationalism. If anything, I thought it spoke more about wealth inequality than race, and it seemed pretty relevant to today's issues in that respect. If the film sparked rage, I think it'd be far more likely to be towards the one percent.

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I'm going to see Knives Out tomorrow night, so I'll edit this post with my thoughts on that.

Edit: It's really good! It has a strong cast and an interesting story. My sister thought it was a little predictable, but it didn't go quite where I thought it was going, so I can't agree with that, although I see her point. I would have liked it to be longer so that we could have more time with some of the characters who weren't used very much. Aside from that, can't complain. I'd recommend!