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jeph_b
Reviews
Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016)
Flawed but thoroughly Entertaining
Like many people I was concerned when I heard about this movie being made. I've not read the comic books so I don't know if the run in between batman and superman is 'a thing' and the whole premise behind two heroes hating each other for very hypocritical reason's was a bit forced to me.
However the movie does deliver, it's entertaining from start to finish and there is no particularly clear weaknesses in the acting line up. Affleck does a decent job as a Batman which is somewhat different from the Bale version. There are several plot twists and the movie moves along at a very fast pace. The action is very good and the special affects are awesome, of course.
The real hero of the movie was Wonder Woman for me, they did a really good job with her small contribution to the movie. She never needed saving, or to use her looks to get out of situations, she just turns up and does a good job on the alien at the end, ultimately contributing significantly more than batman to his eventual downfall.
I was less convinced by Eisenberg as Lex Luther however. I couldn't see past the character being a Heath Ledger Joker Mark 2. Maybe I'm being harsh as I don't think he played the part badly, it just didn't feel unique or fresh to me.
There are of course many plot holes which I have seen listed on this site. This is what stops the movie from being any more than a 7/10 for me. But it's certainly much better thought out than say a fast and furious movie with action, action, action and no substance.
It's also an improvement on Man of Steel. Again though I felt there was unnecessary sections of the movie which could have been left out. I didn't feel the need for the 5 minute batman history at the beginning. We've seen this over and over again in the Bale movies.
Finally the thing that really let's the movie down for me is that I couldn't help getting the feeling that the main purpose of this movie was to solely set the stage for (and promote) the whole host of DC Universe movies which are set to appear over the next 5 years. Although I'm somewhat excited by new characters such as Wonder Woman on the big screen having got bored a long time ago with the likes of Marvel's Tony Stark and Captain America, I do feel like DC are looking to replicate the success in creating a long running Cash Cow of movie franchises, assemblies, sequels and spin offs, which is fine in itself, but the way it was represented in the movie felt very forced. Take Batman at the end when he says 'We must find them and fight with them'. At this stage how does batman know about the imminent threat? The well presented Logos of each character on LexCorps database is another obvious indication.
Maybe this is just me, generally I love to watch original ideas in movies and I'm not the biggest Comic Book Movie Fan either. Ultimately this was a very good and thoroughly entertaining one though, if you can see past the flaws.
Allegiant (2016)
Significant Improvement on the last Movie
I'm not a big fan of this franchise, but the first movie was reasonably solid and entertaining. The second was hugely disappointing and actually fairly boring.
As for Allegiant, I think they've somewhat rescued the franchise with this film. It answered a lot of questions and moved the story on. We find out the truth about what a Divergent actually is and the truth about what is the other side of the wall. There is some good action in the movie and it's still feels very much a twilight, hunger games style teen movie. The acting is fairly average for what you would expect.
The overriding feeling I got though is how on earth have they got 4 movies out of this franchise? We haven't come a long way in the story so far yet we've sat through 6 hours of movie time. I don't therefore have high hopes for the 4th and (hopefully) final installment. Large sections of all 3 movies could have been cut out and merged and we could have seen 2 really good 2 hours movies. Instead it will go down as another disappointing franchise spread needlessly over 4 movies. Money...
Fifty Shades of Grey (2015)
Boring but a bit Sexy, Good Soundtrack
I tried to watch this film with an open mind, it did have some positives so I'll start with them... Bear in mind I haven't read the book:
The Soundtrack was pretty good, some of the soft-core porn scenes where quite sexy, the actors are good looking, and the film eventually ended...
Another point of note, those claiming the film is about rape, can't be more wrong; in fact, the sex is so consensual, that 90% of the films dialogue is spent debating will she or won't she sign a contract to be his sex slave. The word prostitution comes to mind more than rape.
The plot was straight forward, it started with lots of boring slow dialogue and staring, then a soft porn scene, more boring staring and dialogue, porn scene, boring, porn, boring, domestic abuse, boring, credits.
The script and acting was poor and didn't capture my imagination at all, there were several poor jokes which I didn't find funny, such as 'I don't make love, I f***', yet the mostly female audience seemed to giggle away like school children to; must just require a female sense of humour i guess; the only moment I laughed at was when he said something along the lines of 'but first I need to get your consent in writing'. Meanwhile the sex scenes, did somewhat make you sit up and take notice. They aren't particularly shocking except perhaps for the scene where he beats her up with his belt.
The characters are non-believable and hard to relate too. Mr Grey is supposed to be desirable, however he's actually a complete prick who apart from a set of abs to be proud of, and being very rich, has nothing going for him at all. Women aren't that shallow are they? He stalks her, lavishes her with expensive gifts and refuses to be romantic in any way shape or form. It's the perfect cliché that doesn't exist, rich handsome multi-talented manly fella who can't love because of his past, but she's going to 'tame' over the course of 3 movies I guess. Also, when does the billionaire entrepreneur who worked his way up from being an orphaned son of a hooker have time to master playing piano and being a helicopter pilot, all by the age 27? Not to mention his other extra curricula activities...
The female lead is a very week character too, so they expect us to believe a girl would be a virgin up until her college graduate year, and then a guy comes along and shows her his 'play room' and she doesn't run a mile?
Rita Ora was very disappointing, only on the screen for about 10 seconds, I expected a larger role for her...
The film is a return to 90's style erotica movies, like Wild Things and Basic Instinct. Only it isn't as good. To be fair the makers of this film are always going to be up against it; The book was popular I believe, not because it was a literary classic but because it was raunchy. It was always going to get made into a movie, but should never have been given the hype and the build up which this one has. If it is trying to be a soft-core B-movie which goes straight to DVD then it does a good job, but hyping it up and releasing it for valentines day is wrong, because millions will turn up and be exposed to something that in the end is rather tame.
All in all it's worth watching if you're curious; probably better than most people on here who give it 1 star, but please don't waste your money on it, download or wait till it's on TV!