I Just Watched (Films)

[Raid]

I hadn't actually. It's pretty interesting that they cut the most recognisable villain in the Batman canon...

Spoiler

...with the exception of that scene at the end. I wonder if they did that with a sequel in mind, thinking it more effective if he appeared in silhouette rather than doing the full reveal in a film where he's not a major character.

It's more likely they just didn't think the scene added much, and I think I'd agree. I think it makes for a nice bit of world-building; it's showing how well established Batman is in this one compared to previous entries given that he's already locked Joker away, but if Joker gives Bats the answer to a riddle, it detracts from the detective aspect of Batman's character.

[Lenny Solidus]

As good as the scene is I think Reeves made the right choice to cut it, we’ve had more than our fair share of Joker time through previous movies and having the scene intact would undermine much of what the Year 2 story was trying to build, that this is not another origin take this is something you've not seen before foundation they worked so hard to achieve. Batman's so called infatuation with all things Joker is special for sure, but it has to be introduced at the right time in the right way. The Batman was not it and the movie was all the better for it.

Refreshing and purposeful, with Batman's newly recognised role as a beacon of hope and less a blunt instrument of vengeance. Having Joker would have sidelined far too much of that important development.

With all the rumblings that Freeze will be the follow up villain I'm more than certain much of the next movie will revolve in or around Arkham with jailbreaks and who knows what kind of lunacy let loose on Gotham. Now that, that would certainly be the perfect introduction.

[Raid]

With all the rumblings that Freeze will be the follow up villain

I would absolutely love to see them try to stick Mr Freeze into that setting and make it feel cohesive. It's the nearest Batman has come to believable (at least in film).

[Solitaire]

You all are correct about The Batman, far as I can see. The Catwoman actress nailed the role - great range, aggressive without being insipid or smarmy, and quite possibly the most beautiful woman I've ever seen on-screen, my goodness (yes, I know it's Zoë Kravitz, and she's been in Hollywood a long time. This is my first time seeing one of her movies ). Robert Patterson was a great fit to my mind, and I'm not surprised by it. He's grown considerably as an actor and his face and physique have matured. I do really like they way he was portrayed as more of a detective than previous iterations. There were some puns that went over quite well, at the beginning ("What, do you live in a cave?" or to that effect, e.g.) but the movie wasn't overburdened by anachronisms. Some of the scenes, they way they played out, I felt like I was in the middle of a video game, getting exposition and answers, which was cool. I doubt it's an effect they were going for, more just the way my brain synthesizes experiences. I thought the main villain got put into the category of crazy serial killer a la "Seven," with the extreme graphomania and other oddities, but that's okay. It's more a curiosity than anything else, a way to give some heft and depth to the character.

I'm happy to give it a 10/10 in the category of Superhero Movies. In fact, I'm happy to pretend this is the only Batman movie ever made, and hope they continue this reboot.

[Achtung Englander]

Being the Ricardos (Prime)

Deadly dull. I am really surprised given this is a script by Aaron Sorkin. I actually fell asleep twice and gave up at the half way mark. They made Nicole Kidman into a doll in their attempt to make her look like Lucille Ball. You cannot tell what expression she is trying to act because her face is botoxed up to become frozen in a state of blankness. I like Javier Bardem but he is too old to play Desi and Hollywood should look further afield than Bardem if you want someone to play a Mexican, Spanish, Cuban, Arab or any person of tanned colour.

The biggest disappointment was the script. It was just so boring. The stakes were so low the film was trying to make a drama out of essentially nothing. The sets were good but it felt like a movie and none of it felt real.
2/10

The Crime of the Century (Sky)

This is a 4 hour shocking documentary in 2 parts on the Opioids malpractice which literally legalised herion all in the guise of being an effective pain killer. I was enthralled by this. I had heard of this issue but knew zero detail. Its utterly disgusting how big pharma essentially paid off Congress and the Senate to legalise drug taking on a industrial scale. Millions of innocent Americans became junkies. For example Fentanyl is hundred times more addictive than herion and they sold it as medicine. Fucking nuts. To think its still happening staggers belief.
7/10

[Lenny Solidus]

Interceptor

A true cheesy 80's flick throwback, think JCVD or Seagal movies of that ilk a straight up leave brain at the door enjoy the experience kind of movie, obviously it was going to get raked over the coals review wise with many calling it unwatchable. It's no such thing, on levels all some of us want is to be entertained movies such as this as Hemsworth's Extraction are filling that space nicely thanks to Netflix. Are they somewhat clichéd and predictable? Sure. But both had me invested all the same and I came away satisfied my time was not misspent with either.

Elsa Pataky, what can I say? Seeing her physically commit so hard made me wonder if she would make a worthy older tipped Tomb Raider star. The very limited location works in the movie's favour adding tension and keeping the stakes feeling high at all times.

I've never heard of this Luke Bracey who played Kessel before, seems he's a Home and Away star. Great bad guy, nothing classic per se but certainly memorable with his slithery for the good of all charms. I was entertained, and that's all that counts in the end. I've watched it twice already.

7/10.

[Achtung Englander]

Searching for Sugar Man (Sky)

This is an Oscar winning documentary from 2012 and it is brilliant. What a rollercoaster of a story. Expertly edited about one of those stranger than life stories. Amazing. Highly recommend especially if you like documentaries about musicians.

8/10

[Raid]

Spiderman: Into the Spider-Verse

I don't often re-watch a film only 18 months after the first viewing, but I was trying to decide whether The Batman was really in the running for my favourite superher... nah, and it's not even particularly close. Batman's a brilliant film, no doubt, but I just don't think the darkness and brooding offers half of the entertainment that the heart and humour and creativity of Spider-Verse offers.

It's a staggeringly good looking film, in fact I'm failing to think of another film's aesthetic that's as stylish or distinct. Obviously with animation you get far more latitude to represent superheroes with this much fluidity and dynamism, and the halftone effects and saturation and framerate (which feels like a weird thing to comment on in a film, but it's just another example of how unique this film looks) just blend together so so well. It's the only film that I've considered buying the 4k Blu Ray for ( I haven't owned physical media in years) because I suspect the streaming bitrate isn't doing it justice. I already own the "The Art of..." book for this, one of only a couple that I've bought, because I love the film's look so much.

Miles is just immediately likeable in a way that none of the live-action Spidermen really approach, with the film wasting precisely zero time in introducing you to his personality. He's awkwardly endearing, but it never feels forced like it sometimes does in MCU films.

So yeah, I'm reiterating the point I made when I first reviewed this; it's still the best superhero film.

[Wrathbone]

Doctor Strange: Multiverse of Madness

I enjoyed it way more than the first Doctor Strange film. Saying that, unless you’ve watched most of the MCU, including several of its TV series, it’s not going to make much sense. And even if it does make sense, I imagine plenty of people will feel that it’s gone too far into reality-bending weirdness to warrant keeping up with.

Honestly, I prefer this direction to Black Widow’s banality. For me the MCU works best when there are things left to unpick, rather than the tedium of having no question left unanswered. The multiverse aspect of this phase is definitely not for everyone, though.

7/10

[Raid]

It's definitely for me though. I love alternate reality fiction.

Doctor Strange in the Multi-verse of Madness

I'd say this was a 7/10 too. Considering it's a big-budget action film featuring a flying wizard fighting a stupendously powerful witch, I'm honestly surprised to have been a little bored in the first half. I didn't think the script was particularly good, and America Chavez was dull as ditch water. It picks up in the second half, but the film survives entirely on its spectacle, even with some ropey CGI in the big monster fight at the start (although in fairness that was a hugely ambitious creature to create, animate and have interact with real actors).

But I think my biggest issue with the film is that they didn't do anything particularly clever with the multiverse concept, which surely was the point. They spend most of the film in only two realities, and the only real crazy possibilities they show came in the form of a 15 second sequence of them tumbling through a few others.

Spoiler

Does anyone else feel like Wanda's character took a bit too much of a direction change? At the end of Wandavision she still appeared to be one of the good guys, albeit with a dark side, but here her entire plan is to kill an innocent teenager so that she can once again pretend to be a mother? There's a line at the start about the Darkhold having a corrupting influence, so I suppose that explains it, but I don't really understand why she's going to such lengths when she's already created a family using her own power. Would Wanda-616 stealing another Wanda's kids be any different to just creating fictional ones?

Once again I had a nice surprise in this one spoiled before I had chance to watch it; Professor X (annoyingly it was in a discussion on the god-awful Picard series too, so it was a double insult). I know he's not the first X-Men character to appear in the MCU (Wanda and her brother were originally Magneto's kids if I remember rightly, I think the MCU gave them a different origin), but he's a primary protagonist so I'm hoping they're going to finally stop pretending that mutants don't exist in this continuity. I know Xavier isn't explicitly said to be a mutant here, but it's his character's whole deal, and it would be stupid to rework him so he's just a random psychic. Do you think Disney are just waiting a few years for the satedness from Fox's series to die down before they bring them in proper?

[eny]

25 years ago today Men in Black was released...still an entertaining ride, with great effects after all this time, not overdone either. Classic.

[Raid]

I saw MIB in the cinema when it was released (so I would have been 11 or 12). I remember being a bit disappointed by how short it was, but given it's 138 minutes 98 minutes long, I think I may just have wanted more of it. I don't think it's a classic, but it would have been one of the first sci-fi comedies I'd seen so it was certainly refreshing at the time.

Charlie Wilson's War

I love going into a film completely blind and being able to pick out a member of the production team through style alone. Given The West Wing is one of my favourite TV programmes, it didn't take long to realise this was Aaron Sorkin's work. The dialogue's fantastic, as are Hanks and Hoffman. I don't know an awful lot about the Soviet-Afghan war, certainly not the supply of weapons to the Afghan's from the West, but it's well explained and demonstrated and at no point did I feel I needed any context explaining.

Definitely worth a watch.

[2Channelwonder]

RocketMan on television

Surprisingly good, I didn't know that Taron Edgerton and Jamie Bell were singing for real and the musical format meant that ad breaks didn't slow the film down.

Top Gun Maverick

Has to rely on music from the first film for a bit of retromania but the flight combat scenes are updated in the modern style and Tom Cruise's performance got me over the massive plot contrivances at the start and end of the film

Spoiler

Where you can eject from a plane that's going over Mach 10 and there just happened to be a spare plane right in the nick of time

Overall worth the wait despite like I said not being able to reproduce the 80s-tastic soundtrack.

Jurassic World Dominion

One look at the trailer told me not enough people were going to get eaten in this film for it to be as entertaining as it could be, and I was right. The money's on the screen with the dinosaurs as usual though. Massive improvement over Fallen Kingdom despite concentrating on too small a group of characters all of whom have been spoiled in the trailer.

[Wrathbone]

Charlie Wilson's War

I love going into a film completely blind and being able to pick out a member of the production team through style alone. Given The West Wing is one of my favourite TV programmes, it didn't take long to realise this was Aaron Sorkin's work. The dialogue's fantastic, as are Hanks and Hoffman. I don't know an awful lot about the Soviet-Afghan war, certainly not the supply of weapons to the Afghan's from the West, but it's well explained and demonstrated and at no point did I feel I needed any context explaining.

Definitely worth a watch.

I'm not sure how I've missed this one given that I idolize Aaron Sorkin's writing and Tom Hanks is one of my favourite actors. I'll give this a watch ASAP.

[Raid]

It's on Prime until the 10th.