Blade Runner 2049

No time to go into great details now, so long story short - I liked it. A lot. A lot more than I thought I would. It's a very, very good movie. In fact, it's something of a miracle. It's a 150 million dollar R-rated sequel to a box office bomb from decades ago. And it's damn good. The visuals, mood, music, actors, it's all top notch. It's not quite as good as the original, but I never even dreamed it would be. It never quite achieves that same phenomenal atmosphere, that ambiance, that visceral quality (thanks to Groot for that expression). And I liked it more that the stakes in the original were lower. It was just case, not a worth changing event. But to it's credit, this movie still manages to play it's grand events in very intimate, personal, character driven fashion. Vangelis' soundtrack is also unmatched, but 2049 has a decent approximation. The fact it feels like a worthy sequel to something I always thought should never have one is fantastic enough.

I'm not sure if I should say it's a pity it's apparently something of bomb at the box office, much like it's predecessor. It almost feels right. It's great to see an ambitious sci-fi movie like this get made, but it's hard to imagine it being a box office smash.

Oh right, I finally saw the Mad Max: Fury Road the other day.

It was... ok. Just ok. I guess my expectations were a bit too high as I saw some people saying (also here) it is the best action movie for quite awhile, and I recall how my sister's husband was a year ago praising some early scene in the move (not sure if he was talking about the running/chasing scene, or the first driving scene, or what).

The driving scenes were quite nice and the main baddies were believable in their badness, but I story overall was maybe too predictable and cookie-cutter. Maybe I've become jaded, but I was hoping some kind of substantial twist or different kind of ending or whatever...

I didn't find Furiosa's character (nor the actress) that interesting, but I guess at this day and age a movie has to have a strong woman character who takes no shit from anybody, especially men. The ending kinda suggested maybe there will be spinoff movies starring Furiosa?

I also saw Edge of Tomorrow (2014).

I kinda liked it, it helped that I knew nothing about the story beforehand. The "twist" has certainly be used in many movies before, but it still gave a nice... twist... to the story.

In the end though, this was also rather predictable otherwise and the story gave no other surprises, even the true weakness of aliens was too predictable (hive-mind). I still liked the action parts with exo-skeleton suits or whatever they were called.


While I felt both of those movies were ok, I don't feel like watching them again.

I've watched Contact (1997).

When the credits rolled I was surprised to see this movie was based in a book. It contains everything you'd expect from a typical movie from the 90's, with all the good and the bad that implies. The movie is full of the innocence and hope that we don't find anymore in post 9/11 productions, but also features every single cliché and trope you can imagine (orphan girl whose father interested her in science, love story that happens in the first 15 minutes, obstacles in the scientific experiments that are overcome in the last minute...). There weren't many surprises, it wasn't hard to figure out what was going to happen next. But that doesn't mean it wasn't entertaining; I am glad this topic found its way to the big screen, the story defends tirelessly the work of scientists, the writers certainly did their research, characters are more developed than what we usually see nowadays, and Jodie Foster is great. Plus the twist in the science vs religion debate near the end was smart.

The movie is looong. It builds up during 2 hours for the grand 30-minute finale, which in the end feels a bit underwhelming. It was nice to watch, but 20 years ago it was probably considered a lot more ground-breaking than what it feels in 2017.

The book is looooooooooonger! :P

A great read but well over 1000 pages and there was a lot of differences, albeit minor (in the book several people take "the trip" not just Ellie).

Thor: Ragnarok

If your not a fan of Marvel movies it probably won't do much to change your mind, but if you do it's another good one. It doesn't take itself very seriously, but it also has a lot of serious moments in it.

Taika Waititi (Hunt For The Wilderpeople) from New Zealand did a fine job, it's jam packed with good stuff and probably one of Marvels most entertaining, I'm sure Marvel will want him to do another film for them at some point.

I particularly liked Cate Blanchet, like most Marvel villians she didn't have much to work with but she made every line count. It takes Marvel's Cosmic Universe even further than Guardians of the Galaxy, I think it would have been even better if a lot of great moments wern't spoiled a bit by the trailers.

Baby Driver

Driver, music, car chases. It's hard to not compare it to Drive, even though it's a quite different movie. It was entertaining, the actor playing Baby did a great job, might be a bit of a star making performance from him. But the inevitable conclusion is, it's not Drive.
But I'm happy it seemed to do well and we'll get more Edgar Wright movies.

SPOILERS FROM CONTACT

Did they believe the travellers? Did they all experience the same? In the movie, an easy way to prove Ellie's story would have been sending a second traveller, while keeping the detail's from Ellie's travel secret from the general public, and comparing the two versions. It was implied that the device was not reusable so they would have had to start from scratch, though.

"It"
Watched it last monday already.
It was good.

:)

Just watched the director's cut of Legend for the first time since it was originally released on DVD. I have to say it's better than I remembered, and the longer version was already a major improvement on the crappy U.S. theatrical cut. It manages to keep a delicate fairy tale tone, where even when things get nasty they're still pretty goofy. I mean, in one sequence a character gets shot in the forehead with an arrow, and when his friends come by to see him, he sits up and happily explains how he got killed. It's not that he was faking or just deeply wounded - he's still dead - but in fairyland dead people can do this sort of thing.

Tim Curry as Darkness is a classic creature design but I'd forgotten that Robert Picardo playing a swamp hag is almost as fantastic. The whole movie is gorgeous, although Ridley Scott lays it on a bit too thick when he starts blowing bubbles all over the set.

I'm not a fan of Marvel's movies in general, at least not after the first Avengers, but I really liked this one. I think the humor is way better than is usual for Marvel's movies, and most importantly it's well balanced with more serious moments, and those are given time and proper mood to play out. The result is a funny movie, but not devoid of tension or drama. There's good character stuff. The relations between Odin, Thor and Loki were always the strongest, most interesting relationships in the Marvel movies, and this movie makes great use of those characters.

Sure, in the end it's all pretty shallow, it's an action comedy that we're likely not to remember much about in a year's time oher than that we enjoyed it, but for what it's supposed to be- it works. And some of the visuald are really cool, much more distinct than the rather bland and samey Marvel films usually go for.

And I agree- the movie would have been more impressive if the trailers didn't spoil so much.

Justice League

It's fun. It's not great, not in my top 10 superhero movies, but it's a lot of fun, at least if you like superheroes, especially DC. It's just great to see the Justice League fighting parademons on the big screen. Snyder really makes it look and feel like a comic book come to life. I think they did great work with the characters. They are all different, all likeable and have a great dynamic. They actually managed to introduce Flash, Cyborg and Aquaman all in one movie, and make them all fun, distinct, likeable heroes. And Batman and Wonder Woman are still just as great as they were. Affleck and Irons are definately my favourite Batman/Alfred duo now. Irons steals every scene he's in, and Affleck's Bruce is the closest to a live action version of the TAS Batman we could get. The movie does a great job balancing the serious and funny, light and dark. I know Steppenwolf was criticised a lot, but I thought he was ok. A properly sinster villain with a nicely played "slightly insane" twist.

Obviously, the movie is going to be compared to the Avengers a lot. I find it hard myself to choose the better one (it's obviously much better than Age of Ultron). I think both work well, and are very similiar but also just different enough. I think it comes down to which characters you'll like more.

I wasn't blown away like I was with Wonder Woman, but I'm looking forward to seeing more of every one of those characters, solo and in team-ups. I seriously hope Affleck doesn't quit being Batman yet, and that Aquaman is as big a success as Wonder Woman.

Justice League:

It's alright. About what you'd expect for a super-hero team-up movie.

On par with Age of Ultron. Unsurprising, considering they both have the same director.

Well, about 1/3 of it has the same director.

Closer to half of it, if Cavill's uncanny upper lip is any indication.

Outside of the intro, Cyborg's, Batman's and Wonder Woman's introductory scenes, and the fight scene in the Superman monument, very little actually felt like Snyder's work.

Except perhaps the scene where Steppenwolf is excuting people in brutal fashion, and it cuts to another of Flash's comic relief moments. Half of that was definitely Snyder.

I guess we'll never know exactly. I'd have to watch the whole thing again focusing on guessing which scenes belong to whom. Definately the first half feel much more Snyder than Whedon, and after it's the reverse. I still think 1/3 is more like it, but then again it's hard to fairly say - after all the cast is all Snyder's, as is all the work done in pre production, but it's Whedon getting the final cut... or at least the producers and Whedon. I guess much like Rogue One, we'll never really know what the pre-reshoots movie would have been like.

Anyway, I still think it's way better than Age of Ultron. That movie was just weak, and it was weakest where JL is strongest, that is the characters.

Really? Cyborg and Aquaman aren't developed at all. Neither is the villain. Flash is just a walking quipping machine.

Batman and Wonder Woman are okay, but they had other movies where they were introduced and developed in. Superman is nothing like he was in previous movies, but in this case that's a good thing, bringing him closer to a classic portrayal.

It feels exactly like a regular team-up movie. No time to develop characters, but it's okay, that's what their solo movies are for, we just wanna see them interacting with each other. Except in this case half the cast are showing up for the first time.