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.
I feel like I don’t have much to day about Spiderman Far from home other than it was good I really enjoyed it. It is a bit janky at times with the number of locations but everything else clicked really well. Loved the mysterio scenes and yep those end credits scenes are something.
Short Version
Glass starts off pretty promising continuing both the stories of Split and Unbreakable but cracks start to show as the movie progresses with one particular character's behavior being very off. James McAvoy is the MVP once again with all the personalities of the horde but it's nice to see Bruce Willis back, Sam Jackson is pretty good once he finally shows up in the movie and my personal favorite would be David Dunn's son who is played by the same actor as in Unbreakable. The action is decent though depending if you care or notice how the budget may have limited the number of locations and when Bruce Willis is using a stunt double. Despite the movie being called Glass, Mr. Glass himself is largely absent till midway through the movie. The ending is understandable but is quite unsatisfying and the very end scene is a bit strange.
I'm actually not super familiar with the Ocean's Franchise outside of seeing Oceans 11 on TV when I was younger. I never saw the sequels but from what I have heard they are decent and the fact that a trilogy was made implies that the oceans franchise was fairly popular. Fast forward to 2018 and we have Oceans 8 a sequel/reboot though mostly a sequel. Now I am definitely not in the target market for this but I enjoy a good heist movie and with the trailers being alright I thought there could be some potential here.
I’m pickin’ up my blaster
Put it on my side
I’m jumpin’ in my Falcon
Wookie at my side
My initial expectations for Solo a Star Wars Story were quite low, after hearing about the troubled production and not being the most exciting things in the world. Then the early reviews started rolling in and they were mostly positive though there were a few saying that it was generic. So going in I expected at least a well-made movie with my biggest fears being that this would just be a by the book and uninspired. Turns out the movie is pretty good, its very solid for the most part but by the end does leave you wanting. The comparison I would give would be Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest aka the second one. I thought Dead Man's chest was a solid movie again not the best but for anyone who has seen the movie it definitely leaves you wanting.
If you were deciding between Ready player One, Tomb Raider or Pacific Rim Uprising, RP1 is definitely the one to see. It won't be remembered as one of Spielberg's better movies but it's still good, and seemingly a big improvement over the source material.
Avengers Age of Ultron is the follow up to the avengers and the culmination of everything that went on in Phase 2 of the Marcel Cinematic Universe. AoU was not a bad movie, in fact it was a pretty good movie but it has quite a few issues and struggles to bare the weight of the MCU. It's strange in almost every way AoU was better, the action was better, the interactions were better, the world was better, there was more of everything but as a whole it does not come together as well as the original. Sometimes there is too much and you see it really trying to just be better than the Original but not have as much impact, there are a few sequences that are just bugger versions of ones from the Avengers but don’t have the same impact.
On the characters, they have been more fleshed out since the first Avengers and are about as good as they were before. Interactions and banter is good, there is a bit of a forced romance which does not work super well and Hawkeye of everyone probably gets the best character development and the best line in the movie. The new additions are a bit underwhelming, Scarlet Witch and Quick Silver have their moments, they don’t get a ton of dialogue which is a guess for the best considering their fake Russian/eastern European accents. Visision on the other hand is very good, his initial appearance is great and Paul Bettany got pretty lucky. Quite a few other MCU characters pop up in the movie and its good seeing them, War Machine gets a slightly bigger role than you would think, Falcon not so much.
Ultron is mostly good, he sound amazing and looks amazing save for his mouth movements which were a bit off for me but that’s knit picking. The main issue I had with him is the flip flopping he goes through being very menacing to a bit too comical. He is supposed to be of Tony Stark and his displeasure at being compared to Stark is funny but it also feels out of place at times. If I could pin point it Ultron lacks charisma, he's says the right things but I don’t think he inspires much confidence.
As for the MCU in general, there is some interesting Thor Ragnarok stuff that sets the scene for Thor Ragnarok. The stage is set for Captain America Civil war but nothing directly leading in. Not really any mention of Ant Man unlike Winter Soldier, No Spider Man hints either. There is some Phase 3 strings but too much aside from the Thor related stuff and a Dream Sequence.
On the Subject of 3D don’t see this in 3D, I don’t know if it was because of lack of sleep since I had gone out the previous night but when I saw it for the first time the 3D was pretty subpar, passable in most cases but definitely made the movie worse. When I saw it regular it was a lot better, motion was better as as expected colours were a lot better.
Overall Avengers Age of Ultron is not a bad film, its pretty good actually but it does not have the impact of the original. Everything is technically bigger and some would say better but there are also times when it feels like its going through the motions. The story of Ultron and the evolution of the characters is fine and everything but with Thanos on the horizon Age of Ultron feels a bit like a warm up for Phase 3 than the culmination of everything Phase 2.
The fast and the Furious Franchise is a pretty interesting thing, starting off with the first few movies being about street racing, it has become one of the biggest action movie franchises in the world. The fast and the Furious is universals biggest movie franchise and Furious 7 this year's first billion dollar movie.
...
Get hard is a comedy starring Will Farrell and Kevin Hart, and while they are very funny people the movie itself ends up being a bit of a mixed bag. For people not aware the gist of the story is that Will Farrell a successful stock trader/investment banker/financial something has been found guilty of fraud and faces hard time for his crimes. He enlists the help of Kevin hart to get himself prison ready. Not the worst premise in the world and some potential for good jokes. I feel like I have been saying this for a lot of my reviews lately but the movie does not start off strong. Before Will Farrell gets arrested and he and Kevin Hart are just living their normal lives I feel the movie is pretty weak. The jokes are pretty meh, the way will Farrell goes about his life is absurd and Kevin Harts set up is also a bit odd. Once Will Farrell gets arrested the movie gets better and then when Kevin is training will for Prison the movie gets pretty decent. The jokes become better, the banter is good and Kevin Hart and Will Farrell work pretty well together. There Will Farrell has some pretty good scenes at the beginning of his training, at one point the two have to go into the hood and that’s pretty funny and at one point during the movie there is a confrontation with neo Nazis which is really good. The finale has some decent jokes but the ending is a bit predictable. Not all the jokes are good and there are a few that could probably considered homophobic and racist though I don’t think there mean spirited. I guess I should also mention the rest of the cast, they are fine. Alison Brie is in it and I did not recognize her at the beginning, but she is in it. Her character is a lot different than Annie on community, though as usual she is pretty hot.
Overall the movie was decent and Kevin hart and Will Farrell are pretty funny in. is this their best work? defiantly not Will Farrell has been in way funnier movies and Kevin Harts stand up is also a lot better than this movie. If you're looking for a comedy to watch this movie is not too bad, but defiantly check out Will Farrell's other movies or Kevin Harts stand up if you're looking for something better.
raymondocdol.com
