I really did not know what to expect from this movie, I'd seen the trailers and like most people I was pretty fixated on why a 2nd American Civil war was happening. The western forces of California and Texas? The Florida Alliance? A third term president of the loyalist states. Some pretty interesting choices for factions of a 2nd American Civil War and if you were thinking would dive much into this you would be wrong. Civil War is fundamentally about a civil war occurring in the modern USA, journalism specifically war journalism and the people on the ground. We follow a group of journalists as they make their way to DC. Our lead is Kirsten Dunst as Lee a war photographer, followed by Wagner Moura as Joel her college, Stephen McKinley Henderson as Sammy as their old mentor and Cailee Spaeny as Jessie as an aspiring photographer who tags along. Kirsten Dunst is quite the battle hardened pro while Cailee Spaeny's Jessie is the extremely green newcomer and a good part of the movie is Jessie learning the ropes.
Really wised i got around to playing more this year on top of the giant backlog. Though I did play some other things besides WoW:Dragonflight. My GOTY is below plus some other highlights
It's been quite a while since the YA craze and the last Hunger Games movie but here we are 2023 and a new movie, a prequel, the origin story of the main villain. The Hunger Games series were some of the better movies to come out of the YA craze, the quality was a bit un even especially at the end with Mockingjay being split into 2 part but overall solid movies.
A Haunting in Venice is Third movie is Kenneth Branagh's Poirot movie series, coming just a year after Death on the Nile though I think that movie got caught up in the Fox acquisition and the pandemic. Personally I thought Murder on the Orient Express was decent, Death on the Nile not so much, serviceable but not great for this third I did not have high hopes. Anyway turns out this movie is pretty good and is the best one out of the three.
Special Mentions: Boyhood, Selma, Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, Xmen Days of Future Past
Hunger Games Mocking Jay Part 1
♫This Girl is on Fire♫
I enjoyed this movie for the most part, character wise I think everyone did a good job(save for the President snow.) were interesting, Katniss was not as mopey and actually did some cool shit. Story wise it felt like thing were being dragged out there are some cool action scenes and some good story scenes especially at the end but a lot of it is just people talking in an underground bunker. A few highlights were the propaganda creation scenes since I work in Advertising I found these pretty interesting about the message they were trying to send. The final scene(s) as well were pretty good and yeah that PTSD eh I guess that why it’s a disability. Overall good movie but it looks like the movie probably did not need to be split into 2 parts.
Really liked this movie, really interesting to see everyone age and I think that ads to the character growth you see in the movie. There is some kind of dark stuff in the movie especially in the middle, it's also quite long. If you looking for a good coming of age movie than this fits that bill.
Quite interested to see this, did not really know what to expect and it was a lot different than I thought it would be. Its shot to look like one big take and between the music, the camera movements and everything everyone is doing it feels a bit trippy. About 1/2 way through the movie I was on board but yeah it did take a awhile. Decent movie, very different probably not everyone's cup of tea.
This was a pretty good movie, David Oyelowo as MLK is really spot on. Everyone else is pretty good, Oprah is in it because I guess that’s what she does(to be fair she isn't bad). There are some scenes that are a bit unsettling but I guess that’s what it was like and people definitely had and some still do have these terrible views. It was good seeing a side of MLK that you don’t really see when you hear his speeches.
Pretty decent movie, the design of Baymax is amazing and the themes were handled well in what is ostensibly a kid's film. San Fran Tokyo is a really weird setting though, kind of cool a bit silly but I guess it was interesting at least. Quite a few questions brought up such as how on earth it came to be a thing. Anyway decent movie not as good a Disney's Animations last movie Frozen and not as good as the Lego movie but solid nonetheless
Grand Budapest Hotel Review
Quite liked this movie, had a really nice charming story. The visuals were amazing and the characters were good. There is a bit of darkness to movie especially background of some of the events and I think that added to it. For being primarily set in one place it had a great sense of adventure to it and bit of an old school feel especially with the 4:3 aspect ratio used for most of the movie. I watched this on an iPad not really knowing what to expect and it turned out that was a great decision due to the iPads aspect ratio which fit the movie perfectly. Overall very enjoyable, charming and gorgeous movie. Not the usual type of movie people go to see but it you get the chance go watch it you are in for a treat.
Snowpiercer
Who vows to fight like a man for what’s right night and day
I saw this on plane on a pretty terrible screen but none of that stopped this from being probably one of the best movies I have seen in 2014. Snowpeircer is a I guess technically a Korean film though its in English about the denizens of a train that speeds through a post apocalyptic earth. There is a class system on the train and it follows the passengers from the back(lowest class) and their attempts to get to the front. Its not your typical movie being based on a French graphic novel "Le Transperceneige" , directed by a Korean and primarily in English.
This movie was amazing , quite the surprise, I had heard good things about it but did not expect it too be as good as it was. Characters were really good, very interesting and the actors behind theme did a terrific job, especially Tilda Swinton and Chris Evans. Action was pretty good as well, there is not too much of it but what is there is was very well done. Story was really good, find out about the train and its take on issues in the real world be in global warming or the wealth gap. The journey through the train is very interesting and seeing all the different carts and the people in them gives the movie a good progression and there is a lot of creativity on display.
I wholly recommend seeing this movie, not sure how easy it is to see at the moment but if you get a chance or know where to get things on the internet than it’s a really good watch and you won't regret it.
Overall really good movie one of the best of 2014(even if it's actually from 2013)
Go See this Movie
Hobbit Battle of the Five Armies Review
One Shot, One Kill
Saw this movie twice for some reason ill start with the movie itself then talk about the HFR.
On the movie I thought it was pretty decent for what it was. Action was good story was I guess interesting enough although there are a few too many favorable coincidences. The characters were fine Bilbo was good, bard was cool, the elf king was fabulous , and Thorin Oakenshield becoming a bit of a villain was pretty good. Some of the shoehorned cameos during the LOTR avengers scene were a bit out of place but it was still cool. The movie is not perfect though and there is quite a bit to pick a part. The CG was very heavy handed, it looked nice and all but between the colour palate, and heavy use the battles looked straight out of a game and really have any soul to them. Still cool but were not really as grounded as LOTR and had a sort of mythological look, retelling of a great battle look to them, like retelling a glorious battle.
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Some of the things the characters did were also a bit off, Legolas has a silly moment and the portrayal of the lake town army militia was a bit strange in once scene they are grabbing gear from old armories then during the battle they look like peasant militia.
One of the most off things about the movie was the ending, possible spoilers but it is really abrupt. LOTR had closure for everyone but in the hobbit the battle is won then Bilbo heads home. We don’t see anything rebuilt we don’t see what happens to humans, dwarves and elves and there is a weird scene trying to tie the hobbit to Lord of the Rings in an extremely heavy handed way.
The movie plays around with the theme of obsession but does not really capitalize on it super well most of the various characters, armies etc. are fixated on something but there isn't really any attempt to show how similar they actually are.
One last thing the damn adviser there are so many opportunities to kill the guy and he does not die during the movie other characters die not him which kind of sucks
On HFR3D
So I was this movie twice once in regular HFR3D and a second time on IMAX HRF 3D. Now I'm generally fine with HFR I think its overall better especially for certain scenes and I think it does add to the hobbit. But it does have its issues certain CG heavy scenes look like they are out of game and sets/costumes can look fake especially at the beginning. IMAX HFR 3D was considerably better than regular HFR 3D the issues were still there but it was not as bad and I felt like everything came together better. If you have the option I recommend IMAX HRF3D
Overall decent movie, it probably did not need to be 3 movies I'm sure a 2hr cut will be better or maybe re-cutting the hobbit as a miniseries would be good idea. Good movie not perfect sad to see middle earth go.
Fury
This was an ok movie, there was nothing really wrong with it but nothing super great. Cast was fine, action was fine, story was fine, I did have a few gripes though. Everything basically happens in one day the rookie character. He has like 50(I exaggerate) life changing, milestone events happen to him in about the space of a day. I get war can have that effect on people but 1 day seems a bit fast. The "lasers" in the trailer turn out to be tracer rounds and they are not as prevalent in the movie.
Overall the movie was pretty average and you could probably easily watch something a lot better.
Welcome to my new blog, ill be posting my reviews and what not here not instead of my Tumblr. I figure if I'm going to pay for squarespace I might as well use it.
For my old reviews check out worldofraycraft.tumblr.com
raymondocdol.com
