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Crawl (2019)
I'm completely over CGI
I came across this film and thought the concept seemed like a fun popcorn flick. Wasn't expecting an Oscar performance or groundbreaking script but thought it could be a little mindless entertainment and I've always enjoyed Barry Pepper and Kaya Scodelario so I disregarded the comments about their acting since I'm already a fan.
Maybe 20 minutes in and I'm enjoying what they've laid out for us and I'm waiting anxiously for this gator to appear. The very second the creature showed up my rating for this movie tanked and I realized how much I despise CGI. It just looks so dang goofy and completely removed my immersion.
What followed was increasingly wacky shenanigans with the animated gators that I personally could never take seriously. The acting felt weak, the script felt weak, but I chalk it all up to the CGI making everything just feel laughable and not worth caring about.
The Batman (2022)
The Batman's New Clothes
I left my viewing of "The Batman" utterly baffled. The reviews are off the charts, as of writing this there's nearly 100 thousand 10 star reviews for this film on this site. Probably quite a few bots though. I honestly believe this to be an "Emperor's New Clothes" situation. Where people see how praised the film is and are too afraid to admit they didn't feel the same way so they nod their head & agree that it is somehow a masterpiece.
I laughed at the negativity that the film was too "dark." I have no issue with that. Kids don't need to see it. I did, however, find the dialogue horrendous and often times way too on the nose or forced. People would just spout exactly what is happening or preciously what was expected to be said to move the plot without any prompts. Almost akin to the old "Super Friends" cartoons. The scene when Falcone is being brought outside in cuffs up until the point he releases his last breath in a very theatre-esque performance is so poorly done you could convince me it was suppose to be a joke or that everyone was in on it and he wasn't really dead.
In that scene, Falcone, whose casting just doesn't work, spouts the extremely obvious & clichéd "you boys in blue work for me" line. Penguin then seemingly tries to commit suicide by cop after an awkwardly forced confrontation, that again felt like the obligatory "you're a rat" spiel, but the otherwise trigger happy cops unfortunately read the script & don't end his suffering.
The intrigue of The Riddler is completely stripped away by the direction they took. I get they are trying to go more realistic & less cartoony but have crossed over into generic.
I feel like the whole Vengeance bit really excited people with the callback but that really shouldn't justify it. It felt silly as hell throughout the film & the callback just made me realize why they were forcing it so hard. The callback didn't suddenly negate the fact that it was silly in the first place.
The emo rendition of Batman isn't bad, felt kind of like a poor man's Rorschach, but his desire to walk face first into bullets without a plan, which is suppose to be his thing, makes me feel he may have gone too emo. A little stealth would have gone a long way for me. The reliance on his literal plot armor just doesn't work.
Overall, I'm not sure what about this movie is suppose to blow me away. We are thrust into a world where we skip the backstory, because we've already seen it a million times, but are left with a bunch of generic characters, poor dialogue, a needlessly long runtime, and just a weak, meandering & messy script.
Last Night in Soho (2021)
The first half had such promise. My rating reflects my disappointment.
I found myself incredibly invested in this movie throughout the beginning. I thought the introduction to the characters, the atmosphere, and story was captivating. I had only seen Thomasin once before in Jojo Rabbit and was very hopeful for her acting ability. She plays the soft tone, withdrawn, loner role very well.
Once the movie dropped the mystery theme, it didn't dip its toes into the horror genre, it abruptly dunked its head and cracked it comically against the floor.
Thomasin's over the top, wide eyed expressions immediately felt out of place in the movie mystery I had felt so invested in. It, however, didn't take long to realize her acting wasn't actually disjointed from the rest of the film. The movie's quality overall had tanked all at once. The acting felt abysmal and the atmosphere was suddenly goofy and lost all of its luster.
Every ounce of intrigue into the mystery of the film was extinguished whenever a ghost would appear, accompanied by the cartoonish reaction of Thomasin, having me torn whether the scene was suppose to elicit confusion, contempt, or comedy.
I was so derailed by this film's pivot into campy horror that it crushed its rating for me. I genuinely believe had it stuck to the mystery genre, it would be a top tier movie and another notch in Thomasin's devolving career; without highlighting her lack of acting range.
Conversely, it may have been better off starting as a low quality horror from the jump and just swapping out Thomasin for Scary Movie's Anna Farris who it felt like she was evoking throughout this train wreck.