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markmurphy561
Reviews
Arcane: League of Legends (2021)
Great story, animation, action and style with some cringey gamer-y choices made
Everyone's right when they say you don't need to play League of Legends to enjoy this show. I've played it maybe once. The characters are all great and complex, pretty much no one's a complete good or bad guy.
I always get this feeling when I see concept art for a movie, it always feels like the art is waaay better than anything they put on screen. This show is all amazing concept art.
What I didn't appreciate in the show though, were some pretty cringey stylistic choices they made. I get that Imagine Dragons made are associated with the game so you kind of have to include them for the fans, and I can skip the title sequence so that's not a problem, but having them show up for a partial musical number in the show as an in-world, modern looking, edgy gamer rock band?? And having characters listen to straight up pop music on the radio? Music choices like that took me out of it sometimes. But these things don't happen that often and they don't overshadow the good things about the show!
Years and Years (2019)
A show that doesn't seem to know it's a nightmare
Russell T Davies doesn't seem to know that what he's created here is more like a horror movie or never-ending episode of Black Mirror. What he thinks he's made instead is a wacky family comedy that maybe gets dark in some parts. It's evident in everything from the acting to the soundtrack. The soundtrack itself seems to veer almost into wacky black metal-ish blast beats in some parts.
It's a mostly great show. Telling the story of a family living through a (now alternative) future that tries to be as accurate as possible while also staying on the darkest timeline possible. When the show is at it's best, it immerses you in it's intensity due to it's nightmarish realism and grounded characters but where it loses some credibility is when Davies has some characters go off on monologues, recycling some of the coldest takes we all see on the internet, about how people are all stupid nowadays, society is crumbling, kids these days, blah blah. Davies really plays his boomer card here. Perhaps he's trying to say "this is how alot of people feel these days" rather than "this is how I feel" but whenever it happens, it just feels like he's getting on a soapbox.
I watched it in 2019 and I'm watching it again now in 2021. For a variety of fairly obvious reasons, it's an easier watch now and an easier recommendation to make. Needless to say, they didn't get everything right.
Upload (2020)
Goofy comedy, drama and an interesting Sci fi concept don't mix too well here.
Disclaimer: I'm only 3 episodes in so maybe things change.
I feel this concept was handled better in the San Junipero episode of Black Mirror. This show doesn't rely as heavily on goofball comedy as I thought it would, which is a relief. What comedy there is though, sticks the landing 50% of the time at best. This show is trying to be two different shows and not excelling at either. None of the characters react realistically to anything that happens which usually happens in absurd comedies, yet sometimes the tone of the show switches to something more dramatic and emotional.
The main thread keeping me going is the story of the software that the main character was developing before he died and the potential shady stuff going on around that.
The Aeronauts (2019)
Undermined by a large omission but a good spectacle
While I think a lot of the reviewers here sound like triggered alt-righters, I do think the film is lessened for having replaced a major figure in this story with a fictional character, for a shallow reason. The character of Amelia was a "combination of many real-world female aeronauts" and replaced the actual companion of the trip, Henry Coxwell. The filmmakers wished to appeal to a more modern audience. I, like everyone else in these reviews, looked this story up during the film and had no prior knowledge or attachment to this story like so many here would like you to think they had.
Representation is important in film but when does a story "based on true events" just become "inspired by true events" or even pure fiction? Instead of fabricating major characters for a story or changing them to be women, why not make more stories about important real-world women in history? Or have more female leads in historical fiction?
Aside from this pretty major aspect, the visuals of the film are amazing. Being afraid of heights, I found the intense scenes pretty impactful and shot well. The soundtrack was a surprise hit of the movie too. The script suffers at times and delves into minor cringe.
Star Wars: Episode IX - The Rise of Skywalker (2019)
Egregious pacing and plot issues aside....it's not all bad
I went in with low expectations given the reviews so maybe that coloured how I saw it. I agree with a comment I saw, that this feels like both of JJ's planned sequels squashed into one movie, while ignoring one of the major points of the previous film. The pacing is just awful. The first 10 minutes could have been half a movie and from there we're taken on a tour of a few new planets including an interplanetary Burning Man.
After a while of feeling angry at the pacing, I calmed down and started paying attention to what was good. Rey and Kylo's arc is continues in a satisfactory manner and concludes almost as well. The emperor, all things considered, was an interesting addition. He was clearly meant to be the big reveal at the end of the previous film, which could have been cool. Everything looks great obviously and the set pieces are as fun as usual.
I would put the blame for this trilogy's severe lack of direction, on both JJ Abrams and Rian Johnson equally. Say what you will about JJ Abrams' mystery box theory. It is silly, but you don't ret-con previously established intrigue simply because "it doesn't matter". Alright then Rian Johnson, what does matter? I think The Last Jedi failed to answer that. All it did was dump what had been set up in the first film but it didn't replace it with anything. That said, I would expect someone like JJ Abrams to be more than up to the challenge of building something meaningful from that point. Rather than that, he simply ret-cons the ret-con and says "so this stuff that the previous film said didn't matter, yeah it matters".
Jupiter Ascending (2015)
I mean, visually speaking...
You could probably watch this film on mute and have a better experience than having to listen to the plot and dialogue. I have a fellow film-buff friend who absolutely swears by the wachowskis as brilliant directors even going so far as to defend Speed Racer (I haven't seen it but I've heard generally poor things), but he hasn't shared his thoughts on Jupiter Ascending for some reason *wink wink*.
The plot is baffling, the dialogue is baffling, there's some Terry Gilliam-esque moments that don't fit in the already messy film. In the same year Eddy Redmane gave an amazing performance in The Danish Girl, he also gives us his performance here. Well I'll give him a pass because he definitely commits to this character!
But yeah, like all the other opinions here, no one can say this film isn't visually stunning so stick it on mute, get some work done and look over every so often to see some truly great visual effects and scenery.
War of the Worlds (2005)
Cosmic horror Lovecraft would be proud of
This film dances the line of the PG-13 rating as well earns itself a horror classification, from me anyway. I remember being waaay more scared of it than I thought I'd be, the first time I saw it and for that reason I didn't revisit it for while. But when I did, I realized that behind some of the corny and inconsistent writing are some lessons we need to learn if we're going to give HP Lovecraft the film treatment he deserves.
Much like you could describe Independence Day as a jolly patriotic ride to kick some alien ass, this movie could be described as the 9/11 of alien invasion movies. We're introduced to a completely unassuming world and group of characters that feel completely grounded and real and wouldn't feel out of place in a straight drama film. The film almost feels like it could've been a full on family drama if it weren't for that pesky alien invasion. Ray Ferrier is just about to have an awkward weekend with his kids when, Out. Of. Nowhere., a massive, disturbingly asymmetrical machine rises from the ground and just starts to drop some heavy genocide on New Jersey. Eventually we find out the same thing is happening all over the world and these machines are literally exterminating humanity the slow and painful way. You simply can't comprehend or make sense of an alien power and the perspective of the film only amplifies that feeling of "what the f'ck is going on!?" so much of the motives of the aliens is not made clear except through the narration at the beginning.
Accompanying the terrifying confusion is an unrelenting sense of dread and despair that Steven Spielberg pulls off masterfully.
There are missteps in the writing. Some corny dialogue, a drawn out sequence in a basement and part of the ending, but I think what the film accomplishes in sheer atmosphere actually overshadows the writing problems.
Hereditary (2018)
Relatively familiar horror territory, done RIGHT.
I'm generally affected by horror movies only while watching them but this one did stay with me after leaving the cinema.
On the surface it's a more or less standard horror movie story: a family is terrorized by demonic activity. I felt that the horror came from two different avenues in this film. There's the family drama which revolves around Toni Collette's barely-controlled resentment for her children and there's the demonic cult which her mother belonged to.
One of the greatest things the film does is force you in to place of immense discomfort pretty early on in the runtime leaving you vulnerable to the events that happen after. I thought that was a genius move!
My one problem with the film is that it fails to actually join the two story strands in the end. The last act of the film leaves behind the family drama and focuses on the cult without resolving the family or interweaving it into the cult story.
It sounds like a bigger problem than it is because the skill gone in to producing the actual horror and scares in the film MORE than makes up for the lack of tie-in at the end.
The Shining (1980)
It's just a little dated...
I'll only really understand praise for this movie of and in its time. I'm not some huge horror fan but I do appreciate a good horror movie. This just wasn't that scary. I'm sure it probably did much for the horror genre but I feel it's been surpassed by some of Kubricks horror-oriented protégés, Jordan Peele for example.
Beautifully shot with very eerie, weird and effective imagery and atmosphere and great performances all around. I thought some of the quieter scenes were some of the more effective. The scene with Jack and the apparent ghost of the previous hotel keeper in the bathroom was particularly well constructed, with the reveal of what's going on coming slowly but surely. But that's where the hype ends for me.
It's definitely not a bad movie. I just get the impression that there are more people hopelessly nostalgic over it, than sincerely believe it holds up today. Nostalgia from older generations has a tendency to influence younger generations ("Maaan, I wish I grew up in the 80's!")
Us (2019)
Solid sophomore effort
Definitely more of a pure horror film than Get Out. It starts out as a home invasion and morphs into something much bigger.
My understanding/reasoning for some of the things people seem to be confused about here is thus:
The scissors and red jump suits were probably left behind by the mystery people who made the Tethered, though I don't know the significance of the bunnies.
I'm guessing overworld Lupita didn't escape from the underworld because when they met, underworld Lupita found proper free will perhaps and then took the role of the overworld Lupita, thus forcing the actual Overworld Lupita to take the role of the mimic.
It looked to me that the Tethered were being forced to mimic their overworld counterparts and knew and felt on a primal level that their movements weren't their own but didn't know what do to do or maybe just accepted it as normal, seeing everyone around them doing the same. I know that would drive me mad....