I watched three movies this year: Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes, Deadpool and Wolverine, and Alien Romulus.
While I enjoyed these films, I wouldn't praise them to infinity. All of them were like 8/10. It feels like some blockbuster films are taking a safe route which isn't always a bad thing. But I wish they did something unique to be reminded for.
I watched Transformers One and I thought it was pretty damn great! Way more compelling, emotional and much funnier than the marketing would have you believe. The tragedy of the relationship between Orion Pax (Optimus Prime) and D-16 (Megatron) deserves nothing but praise. While I was initially hesitant with the "all star" cast, I do honestly think everyone does a great job with their performances, especially Chris Hemsworth and Brian Tyree Henry who are absolutely wonderful. Hemsworth really impressed me during moments where he damn near sounds exactly like Peter Cullen. I was also really surprised with Steve Buscemi as Starscream even if he isn't in the movie a whole lot. I had no idea it was him at all but he does a great job being a sniveling asshole. The action in the movie is great, really fun and cool looking without being incomprehensible to look at, even with a high number of characters on display.
Obviously, not all the humour in the movie hit me, but there were some legitimately great jokes that had me laughing pretty hard. Bumblebee borders on being incredibly annoying for me since he rarely shuts up, which is also kind of a funny in itself considering the live action movies go out of their way to ensure he never speaks. Unfortunately the soundtrack also isn't super memorable, I don't think they even used the Transformers theme anywhere in the movie which was surprising. There's also a couple moments that I think could have been improved to further push the themes and character moments in the story, but they're pretty spoilery so I'll just leave it at that.
Overall I thought it was great. In my opinion it's the best storytelling I've seen in any of the Transformers movie, even if the bar isn't exactly high in that regard, and the characters are especially great. It's really fun, has a lot of heart, and surprisingly emotional. This might be one of my favourite movies of the year so far!
About a week ago, I watched the original 1979 Alien movie for the second time in quite a long time...
Also because I wanna revisit it because I've heard the new Romulus is pretty good, and inspired by going back to its horror roots... for whenever I go to see that thing.
It's such a good slow burn horror film. Also filmed in a way films aren't filmed anymore...
The scene where the crew wakes up from hypersleep is like a good 2mins I'm sure, with the camera slowly revealing each of their pods, and putting focus on Kane waking up with a lot of fade-transitions to different angles.
Definitely a slow scene that savours its runtime that wouldn't happen today...
also right after watching it I downloaded Alien Isolation again which may prove to be a fatal mistake once I finally choose to boot it up but we'll see... 🤔
I watched Dreamworks’ latest animated movie, The Wild Robot, and it's nothing short of spectacular. It may well be the best animated film of the year and it's one of my favorite movies of the year overall. From the stunning visuals and powerful score to its heartfelt characters and compelling narrative, this film shines in pretty much every way.
Set in the far-ish future, The Wild Robot follows Rozzum 7134, or "Roz" (voiced by Lupita Nyong'o), an everyday helper robot who finds herself stranded on an island teeming with wild animals. After a series of mishaps with the island’s inhabitants, Roz unexpectedly becomes the caretaker of a newly hatched gosling who she dubs Brightbill (initially voiced by Boone Storme, later by Kit Connor). Together with the help of a crafty fox named Fink (portrayed by Pedro Pascal), Roz navigates the challenges of raising the gosling in a wild environment. The voice performances in this film are exceptional. Lupita Nyong'o, Kit Connor, and Pedro Pascal each bringing so much emotional depth and chemistry to their characters.
The movie is pretty damn funny and often has some really dark undertones revolving around death. It's especially funny hearing these lines coming out of the mouth of the child characters. Speaking of dark, the movie deals with a lot of pretty mature subject matter, again mostly surrounding death and the circle of life. As for the music, it's honestly nothing short of breathtaking. There are several moments throughout the film that had me really swept up in the emotion of it all due to the visuals and music.
The Wild Robot feels like an absolute triumph by Dreamworks, which seems fitting considering this'll be their last entirely in-house movie. This is a movie that deserves to be remembered. I absolutely love it!
I watched Dreamworks’ latest animated movie, The Wild Robot, and it's nothing short of spectacular. It may well be the best animated film of… more the year and it's one of my favorite movies of the year overall. From the stunning visuals and powerful score to its heartfelt characters and compelling narrative, this film shines in pretty much every way.
Set in the far-ish future, The Wild Robot follows Rozzum 7134, or "Roz" (voiced by Lupita Nyong'o), an everyday helper robot who finds herself stranded on an island teeming with wild animals. After a series of mishaps with the island’s inhabitants, Roz unexpectedly becomes the caretaker of a newly hatched gosling who she dubs Brightbill (initially voiced by Boone Storme, later by Kit Connor). Together with the help of a crafty fox named Fink (portrayed by Pedro Pascal), Roz navigates the challenges of raising the gosling in a wild environment. The voice performances in this film are exceptional. Lu… [view original content]
It's fantastic, easily one of Dreamworks' best. If you've seen Puss in Boots: The Last Wish it's very much in that same vein, with a nice mix of comedy and drama.
Last night, I went to go see Alien Romulus in theatres, because I found out that apparently it's still around my area.
Overall I had a great time watching the film, it had some really spooky and tense moments and some very fun and interesting setpieces/obstacles the main cast had to deal with.
The style of the environments is really fun to look at. I love all the clicky buttons and lights and bulk of this ancient-future tech. Fancy holographic touch-screen stuff would never be cooler than this.
There are some grisly kills (though I wish the main trailer didn’t showcase a few of them) loooots of Aliens to contend with by the end, and some fun twists and reveals.
I quite liked one involving an android’s personality getting overwritten, letting its actor completely change the way he behaves and comports himself on-the-fly.
I’ve only ever seen Alien and Aliens, Prometheus, and played the game, so I don’t know how this movie compares to the rest of the franchise, but I think this Alien film does a pretty good job of getting back into Horror, adds in some dashes of action, and also calls back to the original Alien in some fun ways.
There are a lot of really well-shot horror moments, and it’s awesome how the production wanted to focus on practical effects and puppetry over CGI, as it evident in almost every scene. Almost.
I’m reminded of “the pod on the wall” scene and how that was the most beautiful terrifying thing I’ve ever seen. The slow reveal of the Xeno popping out of that thing, seeing its iconic tube-head, then its claws, oooohh man it was a perfect re-reveal of Scary Alien is Back babyyy!!
That said, the movie isn’t without faults that made me eye-roll or shattered my suspension of disbelief.
Overall I definitely enjoyed the whole package, but it’s due to some repeating issues that I’m giving this a 6.5/10. Great fun horror movie, but with issues they should have ironed out.
Spoiler-talk of my issues:
For one thing, I feel like Fede Alvarez needed to not be afraid to end the movie with a darker ending. Everyone dies, even the main Alien, kind of thing. Because main character Rain ended up surviving like 5-6 reeeeally risky/dangerous situations or getting way too lucky with the Alien’s behaviour in a row near the end, and it ended up becoming a little ridiculous. The Xeno needed to stop chewing the spooky scenery and just go in for the kill sort of thing.
This would have also made this film an interesting, darker mid-quel entry after Alien, since it already solidifies in the first 3 minutes that Weyland-Yutani won despite everything Ripley went through. They just… get a craft to pick up the frozen Alien in space after the Nostromo explodes, excavate it out of a space rock, and boom, they have their Perfect Organism to experiment on as they please. Having all that, plus main characters who survive the encounter by the end, feels a little too much like a re-hash of the first film.
Speaking of, the movie has quite a few verbatim callbacks to the original Alien and Aliens (plus maybe some more from other films I haven’t seen. It got a little silly with how much the film “paid homage” to the films by just straight-up copying or recreating its iconic lines, just for some 'member-berry points.
The line “Get away from her … … … You bitch.” stuck out very sorely to me as nostalgia for nostalgia’s sake in an already ridiculous moment.
Plus there’s just a bunch of smaller things that don’t make all that much sense in the script, like how After the first Chest-Burst, why do the characters around that area (who got knocked out) know immediately to be quiet and creep around? They should be calling out for each other. Or, “rewriting an Android’s clearance” takes a very clear few minutes in the beginning of the movie, but only takes like 20 seconds near the end, because any longer would get the characters killed.
Just stuff like that, which was a little weird.
Oh yeah, and also, the movie employs some really weird deep-fake techniques to recreate and add in the late Ian Holm’s face to an android in reference to his character Ash in the first film.
I looked it up, and the team had a lot of cooperation from his family, and especially his widow, who know he wanted to return to the series but never got the chance. And they employed a lot of puppetry and real-actor stand-ins to recreate it, so that’s good. But… I dunno, the CGI use for his mouth was always strange when not behind a fuzzy screen, and they used some generative AI and other tech to recreate his voice over-top someone else’s.
While I like that it adds onto the idea that of course Androids of a similar model would look identical which allows Holm’s face to reappear, it feels strange that he was given such a pivotal and extended role… because he’s been dead for 4 years, he couldn’t have agreed to any of this.
Did a fun little horror movie marathon with some friends and wanted to share some quick thoughts of each of them.
Barbarian
If I wasn't watching this movie with friends I think I would have just straight shat my pants. Really creepy atmosphere, the characters are great, not super deep but fun to watch, and the movie also does a surprisingly good job of making a certain character very empathetic (if you've seen the movie you'll probably know who I'm talking about). It's also a surprisingly funny movie at times that feels like it belongs in a comedy. There are also some absolutely disgusting scenes, not in terms of gore though there is some of that, but in... other ways. The movie also does a good job of really keeping you guessing and leading you into a false sense of security before swiftly loosening your bowels.
Ready or Not
It's just a really fun movie. The characters are great, super unlikable in the you can't wait to see them get it kind of way, I really like the main character Grace. Someone who knows how to take care of herself, while not being hyper competent. She feels like a fairly grounded character in what is overall a kind of silly movie. Some really fun kills, good laughs, and a pretty wild finale.
Thankgiving
Another fun movie though. Really dumb and cheesy, but highly entertaining. Some gory kills that absolutely sent a shiver up my spine. Also pretty funny, especially the intro which was so over the top you really can't help but laugh. I will say that the movie really seems to hate women. All the men get it super quick and more often than not painless deaths. The women though get it really fuckin' bad. Slow, painful and borders on fetishizing. This has nothing to do with the plot of the movie, it's just how the deaths in the movie go. Outside of that it's honestly a fun movie. Funny, gory, and very absurd.
I really liked all three of the movies. Very different, but overall very fun movies, especially with friends.
Did a fun little horror movie marathon with some friends and wanted to share some quick thoughts of each of them.
Barbarian
If I wasn't … morewatching this movie with friends I think I would have just straight shat my pants. Really creepy atmosphere, the characters are great, not super deep but fun to watch, and the movie also does a surprisingly good job of making a certain character very empathetic (if you've seen the movie you'll probably know who I'm talking about). It's also a surprisingly funny movie at times that feels like it belongs in a comedy. There are also some absolutely disgusting scenes, not in terms of gore though there is some of that, but in... other ways. The movie also does a good job of really keeping you guessing and leading you into a false sense of security before swiftly loosening your bowels.
Ready or Not
It's just a really fun movie. The characters are great, super unlikable in the you can't wait to see them get … [view original content]
Hello everyone I’m back , I saw Terrifier 3 last week on Monday . It was awesome I love the creative kills in the 3rd film David Howard Thornton continues to make me smile.
The first three episodes of Arcane season 2 are out and my verdict is...
It's fuckin' great. The animation and visuals are as beautiful as ever, and the writing is just as heartbreaking. Only complaint is that there is definitely a lot of set-up for the final six episodes, it's great set-up don't get me wrong, but it does feel like they had to sacrifice the pacing a bit. There isn't a lot of room to breathe as every minute that goes by feels as important as the last. Aside from that it's wonderful. I absolutely cannot wait to see how it all ends!
It's great! Much more room to breath with more moments of characters just talking to each other. Of course there's still a lot of action but things no longer feel like they're going through hyperspace. I await the finale with bated breath, but I will be very sad to say goodbye to Arcane. What an absolutely incredible show.
Light spoiler
I can't believe season 1 can now be considered the happy season.
The finale of Arcane has finally released and overall I thought it was great! The animation, characters, and voice acting continue to be top notch, and I was satisfied with the direction and ultimately the ending. My only real gripe is that there are definitely parts of the season that were very clearly rushed, with the writers sometimes trying to hard to expand the world of Runeterra to the detriment of what's already been established. It feels like they could have easily given each arc an additional episode to really smooth things out. The final episode alone could have been split into two episodes with how much was going on and really give the characters more room to breath.
Aside from that, what an absolutely incredible series from top to bottom, and to come from League of Legends of all things. I absolutely love Arcane and I'm sad to see it go. It's a special show that I won't soon forget. Hopefully this isn't the last we see of Violet and Jinx in a way that doesn't require me having to play the game lmao.
Also I pre-ordered the The Art and Making of Arcane book as soon as I learned that was a thing cause I had to, it's the law.
A friend and I are going to rewatch Season 1 together in prep for S2, also because another friend of ours from our DND group wants to watch S1 that he's never seen before 😆
Gooosh avoiding spoilers so far has been hellish! Hopefully over time the hype will die down and I can still experience S2 with fresh, untainted eyes.
Had some free time finally from work and I used it to watch The Last Kingdom. Such a magnificent show. I loved every minute of it. There's also a movie that's a sequel to the show which I highly recommend to everyone particularly if you enjoy the Vikings / Saxons era
New season of Squid Game is here. Is anyone excited for it as I am? Gosh there's been such a long gap between the first and second season releases but it's finally here!
It's been getting a lot of good buzz the past few months, about how gorgeous it is and is highly in the running for a potential Oscar win.
And yeah! It's really good!
I think it's primarily a Latvian movie, as the director is from there, but you wouldn't know that because there is no dialogue throughout the entire film.
The movie follows a group of 5 animals who've come together by chance after an apocalyptic flood, and must learn to work together, tolerate each other, and survive...
This movie has something for any animal lover. Or animation lover really.
Cat, Dog, Capybara, Lemur, Bird, Fish, Ancient Dino-looking fish, Ancient Ruins, Nature's Wrath...
Though, warning, it does feature a lot of tense AF animal peril...
Gosh, but it's really well-done.
The environments are gorgeous, the animals move so life-like and are incredibly expressive for feral puppets basically.
You can distinctly learn their behaviours throughout the film without any word spoken or seen... the Cat is curious but cautious of everyone. The Dog is adorably stupid, and really wants a friend. The Capybara is eternally chill and honestly just wants a nap. The Lemur is a kind-of smart kleptomaniac, but gets obsessed with its hobby. And the Bird -- my favourite of the bunch -- is a gorgeous, towering maternal figure, seeking to protect the smaller animals beneath its gaze.
A lot of the heavy lifting in the film is done by the visuals and music.
The main "hook" that builds up over the course of the movie are the animals' quest to find higher, safer ground, and using these mountainous stalagmites that jut from the ocean floor, always in view, always providing a guiding point. And whenever these spires appear, droning, ominous music can be felt. As mysterious as they are spooky.
All in all, its a great watch, and with plenty of interpretations on what/why these flood events take place by the end, that I'm sure I'll look up interviews with the director to find more. It's very smart for a film that can basically transcend all language barriers, since it has none.
Last night work friends and I went to go see the new Wicked
WOW, oh MAN it's like really good. Cynthia and Ariana do fantastic jobs.
Galinda is super hateable yet cute/silly, and Elphaba is tragically resilient and wonderfully performed.
I've seen the stage musical and also think it's really good, and obviously have some favourite songs in it, and since the movie is 2h40m long, it really takes its time with the pacing -- especially since this is just Act 1! But gosh I just kept expecting "man when are we going to get to X song?? aaaa" but not to say I didn't enjoy the anticipation to get there.
The set design is really really cool and full of whimsical architecture and technology. The music and backing track is stunning.
(The Oz Dust Dance was really well done, and nearly made me cry with an impressively long sequence of Elphaba dancing on her own as everyone else laughs at her, nearly breaking down until Galinda joins in unexpectedly)
Even had a few surprising performances as Michelle Yeoh has a small singing bit in an early song she does pretty well, and even Jeff Goldblum, in all his kooky Goldblum-ness, has a surprisingly good singing voice in "I'm A Sentimental Man"
I think this movie has a similar emotional "issue" that the Matilda Musical Movie adaptation had --- in that, the Main Character's plight they face is Hate from their family/those around them, which is played up and exaggerated on-stage probably to better sell and communicate that to the audience. Because in Matilda :musical_note: the family's extreme neglectfulness and abuse felt extremely horrible and way-too-real. And in Wicked here I was shaking my head at the screen every 2 minutes, because nearly literally everyone mistreats Elphaba with bad glances or always running away from her.
Maybe that's just the "real-ness" of movie magic though. Makes it seem all the more believable and horribly heartbreaking.
The movie does have quite a bit of additions and minor changes from the Stage version, and notably I really liked how they expanded the cast of sentient animal creatures in the film which builds up and strengthens Elphaba's connection to and need to help these creatures. And GOSH Dulcibear the Midwife is SUCH a cute and soothing vibe, she was a wonderful inclusion at the start of the film, raising young Elphie
(Unfortunately Universal has still not released an official image of her character, but yeah she was cool)
The movie only covers Act 1 (and damn it DOES have a banger climax and final number that sets up the beginning of the Witch's rise to power in Oz) so when it ends with credits it's like... I KNOW there's more after I NEED MORE. (And thankfully from what I read, they filmed them at the same time, so if editing goes to plan, we'll get Part 2 in November of this yearnext year)
I finished watching the final season of The Dragon Prince, and overall I'd say it was alright, though it's definitely rough around its edges. There are some really great moments throughout the season that are bogged down by some less than great ones now and again. Voice acting remains excellent and the antagonists continue to have some of the strongest story elements. The show does a terrific job in showing how far gone these characters really are, and the increased violence this season really helped raise the stakes. There were a couple moments that really had me gasp at how far they went with things.
Wonderstorm deserves massive praise for going through with an incredibly villain arc for Claudia. I can't believe they managed to turn what was originally such a goofy and kind-hearted character into someone that's just truly reprehensible by the end in a way that feels natural. I don't think they did everything perfect with her, but considering she's a character in a kids show, I really believe this is something to be applauded for.
I think my main criticism with the season is the lack of follow through with a number of events and storylines in the show. It happens so often to the point I'm left wondering why these elements were even introduced in the first place. This along with the past couple seasons felt like a nonstop barrage of MacGuffins that are introduced as being incredibly important only for them to quite literally do nothing by the end of the finale. I also found myself having gripes with the interpersonal drama between some of the characters. Not that the ideas are necessarily bad, but the execution left so much to be desired. The biggest one being the fractured relationships between Callum, Ezran, and Rayla which honestly brings up a really good point that I didn't really think of, but how it's carried out felt more like a detriment to their characters.
I'm a lot less harsh than most people and I did have fun with everything overall, but still I can't say that I'm not disappointed in the direction the series went, especially with how strong the first three seasons were. Not just in terms of writing, but even in animation and choreography which is noticeably weak in the final season, despite there being very little action outside of a couple episodes. Even season 1 despite its jarring framerate, I feel had much better fight choreography and cinematography than anything in what should be the grand "finale". The ending very much opens the show up for a sequel of some kind. So if that ends up becoming a thing, hopefully Wonderstorm takes the criticisms to heart.
Spoilery thoughts
I really liked Callum and Soren's devastation at the ruins of Katolis. It's a quick scene but very emotional and the performances by Jack DeSena and Jesse Inocalla were great! I also really liked the imagery of Ezran sitting on a throne atop the wreckage of the castle.
Runaan's return brings up some really interesting ideas for conflict between the main trio, but I found the execution to be incredibly frustrating. I really dislike Callum being entirely on Rayla's side when defending Runaan from Ezran, especially after having an entire episode dedicated to Callum and Harrow's relationship way back in season 2. While I don't think it would have been right for him to despise Runaan like Ezran does, there should have been at least some form of resentment and distrust for what he did. Maybe have it mirror the Janai and Karim, where Runaan is given the opportunity to "redeem" himself and takes it, while Karim does the opposite and suffers for it.
Speaking of Karim, while I've handed out a lot of praise for the antagonists of the show, he is the one black spot. I find him incredibly annoying, especially since he really doesn't change at all throughout the four seasons he's there. It would have been fine if he was a villain for one or two seasons, but he really overstayed his welcome by the end. The one silver lining is that he gets a pretty horrific death. Also whatever happened to that Bloodmoon Elf he teamed up with. I thought they were gonna do more with her but it seems like she just got written out.
Alright so this isn't a gripe with the final season but something that's kinda irked me for a while. I don't understand the logic of the Moonshadow banishment. Shouldn't it be the other way around where the banished are the ones who can't see other elves. Like, all a banished elf would need to do is find someone to dance with and they could just return and do whatever since no one would be able to see them unless they look at a mirror.
I again would like to praise Claudia's road to villainy, especially towards the end with the combination of sunk cost fallacy and her unresolved feelings of abandonment. She stops holding back and goes straight for the kill. I also liked the paternal relationship she had with Aaravos, even if it was underbaked.
While I did think that Katolis would form some sort of united kingdom with Aanya, I think Evrkynd makes a lot of sense for Ezran. It's been clear throughout the series that he just doesn't feel comfortable being king, so him establishing a community run city made a lot of sense for his character in my opinion. Also Zym suddenly speaking with Dante Basco's voice was hilarious.
Not gonna lie I was afraid Callum was gonna propose to Rayla lmao.
I do not like that Aaravos is just gonna come back in a few years. He's been the overarching antagonist for seven seasons. Literally years of build up to his defeat and you're telling me he's just gonna take a nap and come back fully restored? Claudia is still around just have her be the main villain going forward.
I'm catching up on The Last of Us series. The adaptation’s been pretty solid so far, love how it blends the game's emotional depth with some fresh twists.
Comments
Aliens
I watched three movies this year: Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes, Deadpool and Wolverine, and Alien Romulus.
While I enjoyed these films, I wouldn't praise them to infinity. All of them were like 8/10. It feels like some blockbuster films are taking a safe route which isn't always a bad thing. But I wish they did something unique to be reminded for.
Nick went from skinny to fat back to skinny. I'm glad he's finally done this. And hopefully he stays this way.
The fact that we got Niko's redemption's arc before The Wolf Among Us 2.
What kind of world am I living in anymore?
He did it in a shorter timespan than the time of GTA 5 and GTA 6.
I watched Transformers One and I thought it was pretty damn great! Way more compelling, emotional and much funnier than the marketing would have you believe. The tragedy of the relationship between Orion Pax (Optimus Prime) and D-16 (Megatron) deserves nothing but praise. While I was initially hesitant with the "all star" cast, I do honestly think everyone does a great job with their performances, especially Chris Hemsworth and Brian Tyree Henry who are absolutely wonderful. Hemsworth really impressed me during moments where he damn near sounds exactly like Peter Cullen. I was also really surprised with Steve Buscemi as Starscream even if he isn't in the movie a whole lot. I had no idea it was him at all but he does a great job being a sniveling asshole. The action in the movie is great, really fun and cool looking without being incomprehensible to look at, even with a high number of characters on display.
Obviously, not all the humour in the movie hit me, but there were some legitimately great jokes that had me laughing pretty hard. Bumblebee borders on being incredibly annoying for me since he rarely shuts up, which is also kind of a funny in itself considering the live action movies go out of their way to ensure he never speaks. Unfortunately the soundtrack also isn't super memorable, I don't think they even used the Transformers theme anywhere in the movie which was surprising. There's also a couple moments that I think could have been improved to further push the themes and character moments in the story, but they're pretty spoilery so I'll just leave it at that.
Overall I thought it was great. In my opinion it's the best storytelling I've seen in any of the Transformers movie, even if the bar isn't exactly high in that regard, and the characters are especially great. It's really fun, has a lot of heart, and surprisingly emotional. This might be one of my favourite movies of the year so far!
I watched Silence of the Lambs for the very first time.
While I didn't understand everything about it, I had a helluva time with it and I am already crushed on Jodie Foster's character. A true gem.
About a week ago, I watched the original 1979 Alien movie for the second time in quite a long time...
Also because I wanna revisit it because I've heard the new Romulus is pretty good, and inspired by going back to its horror roots... for whenever I go to see that thing.
It's such a good slow burn horror film. Also filmed in a way films aren't filmed anymore...
The scene where the crew wakes up from hypersleep is like a good 2mins I'm sure, with the camera slowly revealing each of their pods, and putting focus on Kane waking up with a lot of fade-transitions to different angles.
Definitely a slow scene that savours its runtime that wouldn't happen today...
also right after watching it I downloaded Alien Isolation again which may prove to be a fatal mistake once I finally choose to boot it up but we'll see... 🤔
I watched Dreamworks’ latest animated movie, The Wild Robot, and it's nothing short of spectacular. It may well be the best animated film of the year and it's one of my favorite movies of the year overall. From the stunning visuals and powerful score to its heartfelt characters and compelling narrative, this film shines in pretty much every way.
Set in the far-ish future, The Wild Robot follows Rozzum 7134, or "Roz" (voiced by Lupita Nyong'o), an everyday helper robot who finds herself stranded on an island teeming with wild animals. After a series of mishaps with the island’s inhabitants, Roz unexpectedly becomes the caretaker of a newly hatched gosling who she dubs Brightbill (initially voiced by Boone Storme, later by Kit Connor). Together with the help of a crafty fox named Fink (portrayed by Pedro Pascal), Roz navigates the challenges of raising the gosling in a wild environment. The voice performances in this film are exceptional. Lupita Nyong'o, Kit Connor, and Pedro Pascal each bringing so much emotional depth and chemistry to their characters.
The movie is pretty damn funny and often has some really dark undertones revolving around death. It's especially funny hearing these lines coming out of the mouth of the child characters. Speaking of dark, the movie deals with a lot of pretty mature subject matter, again mostly surrounding death and the circle of life. As for the music, it's honestly nothing short of breathtaking. There are several moments throughout the film that had me really swept up in the emotion of it all due to the visuals and music.
The Wild Robot feels like an absolute triumph by Dreamworks, which seems fitting considering this'll be their last entirely in-house movie. This is a movie that deserves to be remembered. I absolutely love it!
Is it really that good? I was feeling tempted by the trailers. Interesting...
It's fantastic, easily one of Dreamworks' best. If you've seen Puss in Boots: The Last Wish it's very much in that same vein, with a nice mix of comedy and drama.
I watched Joker: Folie a Deux.
This movie is poop from a butt.
This flop from WB will make a fine addition to my collection.
Last night, I went to go see Alien Romulus in theatres, because I found out that apparently it's still around my area.
Overall I had a great time watching the film, it had some really spooky and tense moments and some very fun and interesting setpieces/obstacles the main cast had to deal with.
The style of the environments is really fun to look at. I love all the clicky buttons and lights and bulk of this ancient-future tech. Fancy holographic touch-screen stuff would never be cooler than this.
There are some grisly kills (though I wish the main trailer didn’t showcase a few of them) loooots of Aliens to contend with by the end, and some fun twists and reveals.
I quite liked one involving an android’s personality getting overwritten, letting its actor completely change the way he behaves and comports himself on-the-fly.
I’ve only ever seen Alien and Aliens, Prometheus, and played the game, so I don’t know how this movie compares to the rest of the franchise, but I think this Alien film does a pretty good job of getting back into Horror, adds in some dashes of action, and also calls back to the original Alien in some fun ways.
There are a lot of really well-shot horror moments, and it’s awesome how the production wanted to focus on practical effects and puppetry over CGI, as it evident in almost every scene. Almost.
I’m reminded of “the pod on the wall” scene and how that was the most beautiful terrifying thing I’ve ever seen. The slow reveal of the Xeno popping out of that thing, seeing its iconic tube-head, then its claws, oooohh man it was a perfect re-reveal of Scary Alien is Back babyyy!!
That said, the movie isn’t without faults that made me eye-roll or shattered my suspension of disbelief.
Overall I definitely enjoyed the whole package, but it’s due to some repeating issues that I’m giving this a 6.5/10. Great fun horror movie, but with issues they should have ironed out.
Spoiler-talk of my issues:
For one thing, I feel like Fede Alvarez needed to not be afraid to end the movie with a darker ending. Everyone dies, even the main Alien, kind of thing. Because main character Rain ended up surviving like 5-6 reeeeally risky/dangerous situations or getting way too lucky with the Alien’s behaviour in a row near the end, and it ended up becoming a little ridiculous. The Xeno needed to stop chewing the spooky scenery and just go in for the kill sort of thing.
Speaking of, the movie has quite a few verbatim callbacks to the original Alien and Aliens (plus maybe some more from other films I haven’t seen. It got a little silly with how much the film “paid homage” to the films by just straight-up copying or recreating its iconic lines, just for some 'member-berry points.
The line “Get away from her … … … You bitch.” stuck out very sorely to me as nostalgia for nostalgia’s sake in an already ridiculous moment.
Plus there’s just a bunch of smaller things that don’t make all that much sense in the script, like how After the first Chest-Burst, why do the characters around that area (who got knocked out) know immediately to be quiet and creep around? They should be calling out for each other. Or, “rewriting an Android’s clearance” takes a very clear few minutes in the beginning of the movie, but only takes like 20 seconds near the end, because any longer would get the characters killed.
Just stuff like that, which was a little weird.
Oh yeah, and also, the movie employs some really weird deep-fake techniques to recreate and add in the late Ian Holm’s face to an android in reference to his character Ash in the first film.
I looked it up, and the team had a lot of cooperation from his family, and especially his widow, who know he wanted to return to the series but never got the chance. And they employed a lot of puppetry and real-actor stand-ins to recreate it, so that’s good. But… I dunno, the CGI use for his mouth was always strange when not behind a fuzzy screen, and they used some generative AI and other tech to recreate his voice over-top someone else’s.
While I like that it adds onto the idea that of course Androids of a similar model would look identical which allows Holm’s face to reappear, it feels strange that he was given such a pivotal and extended role… because he’s been dead for 4 years, he couldn’t have agreed to any of this.
I have been watching all the Conjuring films the past few days.
Did a fun little horror movie marathon with some friends and wanted to share some quick thoughts of each of them.
Barbarian
If I wasn't watching this movie with friends I think I would have just straight shat my pants. Really creepy atmosphere, the characters are great, not super deep but fun to watch, and the movie also does a surprisingly good job of making a certain character very empathetic (if you've seen the movie you'll probably know who I'm talking about). It's also a surprisingly funny movie at times that feels like it belongs in a comedy. There are also some absolutely disgusting scenes, not in terms of gore though there is some of that, but in... other ways. The movie also does a good job of really keeping you guessing and leading you into a false sense of security before swiftly loosening your bowels.
Ready or Not
It's just a really fun movie. The characters are great, super unlikable in the you can't wait to see them get it kind of way, I really like the main character Grace. Someone who knows how to take care of herself, while not being hyper competent. She feels like a fairly grounded character in what is overall a kind of silly movie. Some really fun kills, good laughs, and a pretty wild finale.
Thankgiving
Another fun movie though. Really dumb and cheesy, but highly entertaining. Some gory kills that absolutely sent a shiver up my spine. Also pretty funny, especially the intro which was so over the top you really can't help but laugh. I will say that the movie really seems to hate women. All the men get it super quick and more often than not painless deaths. The women though get it really fuckin' bad. Slow, painful and borders on fetishizing. This has nothing to do with the plot of the movie, it's just how the deaths in the movie go. Outside of that it's honestly a fun movie. Funny, gory, and very absurd.
I really liked all three of the movies. Very different, but overall very fun movies, especially with friends.
I just watched Thanksgiving a week ago. The ending was a big surprise,
Hello everyone I’m back , I saw Terrifier 3 last week on Monday . It was awesome I love the creative kills in the 3rd film David Howard Thornton continues to make me smile.
The Halloween Franchise movies.
The first three episodes of Arcane season 2 are out and my verdict is...
It's fuckin' great. The animation and visuals are as beautiful as ever, and the writing is just as heartbreaking. Only complaint is that there is definitely a lot of set-up for the final six episodes, it's great set-up don't get me wrong, but it does feel like they had to sacrifice the pacing a bit. There isn't a lot of room to breathe as every minute that goes by feels as important as the last. Aside from that it's wonderful. I absolutely cannot wait to see how it all ends!
I watched act 2 of Arcane season 2...
Oohhhhh, the miseryyyyyy 😭
It's great! Much more room to breath with more moments of characters just talking to each other. Of course there's still a lot of action but things no longer feel like they're going through hyperspace. I await the finale with bated breath, but I will be very sad to say goodbye to Arcane. What an absolutely incredible show.
Light spoiler
I can't believe season 1 can now be considered the happy season.
The finale of Arcane has finally released and overall I thought it was great! The animation, characters, and voice acting continue to be top notch, and I was satisfied with the direction and ultimately the ending. My only real gripe is that there are definitely parts of the season that were very clearly rushed, with the writers sometimes trying to hard to expand the world of Runeterra to the detriment of what's already been established. It feels like they could have easily given each arc an additional episode to really smooth things out. The final episode alone could have been split into two episodes with how much was going on and really give the characters more room to breath.
Aside from that, what an absolutely incredible series from top to bottom, and to come from League of Legends of all things. I absolutely love Arcane and I'm sad to see it go. It's a special show that I won't soon forget. Hopefully this isn't the last we see of Violet and Jinx in a way that doesn't require me having to play the game lmao.
Also I pre-ordered the The Art and Making of Arcane book as soon as I learned that was a thing cause I had to, it's the law.
Heckin nice...
A friend and I are going to rewatch Season 1 together in prep for S2, also because another friend of ours from our DND group wants to watch S1 that he's never seen before 😆
Gooosh avoiding spoilers so far has been hellish! Hopefully over time the hype will die down and I can still experience S2 with fresh, untainted eyes.
Had some free time finally from work and I used it to watch The Last Kingdom. Such a magnificent show. I loved every minute of it. There's also a movie that's a sequel to the show which I highly recommend to everyone particularly if you enjoy the Vikings / Saxons era
New season of Squid Game is here. Is anyone excited for it as I am? Gosh there's been such a long gap between the first and second season releases but it's finally here!
Today I went to see the animated movie Flow.
It's been getting a lot of good buzz the past few months, about how gorgeous it is and is highly in the running for a potential Oscar win.
And yeah! It's really good!
I think it's primarily a Latvian movie, as the director is from there, but you wouldn't know that because there is no dialogue throughout the entire film.
The movie follows a group of 5 animals who've come together by chance after an apocalyptic flood, and must learn to work together, tolerate each other, and survive...
This movie has something for any animal lover. Or animation lover really.
Cat, Dog, Capybara, Lemur, Bird, Fish, Ancient Dino-looking fish, Ancient Ruins, Nature's Wrath...
Though, warning, it does feature a lot of tense AF animal peril...
Gosh, but it's really well-done.
The environments are gorgeous, the animals move so life-like and are incredibly expressive for feral puppets basically.
You can distinctly learn their behaviours throughout the film without any word spoken or seen... the Cat is curious but cautious of everyone. The Dog is adorably stupid, and really wants a friend. The Capybara is eternally chill and honestly just wants a nap. The Lemur is a kind-of smart kleptomaniac, but gets obsessed with its hobby. And the Bird -- my favourite of the bunch -- is a gorgeous, towering maternal figure, seeking to protect the smaller animals beneath its gaze.
A lot of the heavy lifting in the film is done by the visuals and music.
The main "hook" that builds up over the course of the movie are the animals' quest to find higher, safer ground, and using these mountainous stalagmites that jut from the ocean floor, always in view, always providing a guiding point. And whenever these spires appear, droning, ominous music can be felt. As mysterious as they are spooky.
All in all, its a great watch, and with plenty of interpretations on what/why these flood events take place by the end, that I'm sure I'll look up interviews with the director to find more. It's very smart for a film that can basically transcend all language barriers, since it has none.
Go watch it please. 10/10.
Last night work friends and I went to go see the new Wicked
WOW, oh MAN it's like really good. Cynthia and Ariana do fantastic jobs.
Galinda is super hateable yet cute/silly, and Elphaba is tragically resilient and wonderfully performed.
I've seen the stage musical and also think it's really good, and obviously have some favourite songs in it, and since the movie is 2h40m long, it really takes its time with the pacing -- especially since this is just Act 1! But gosh I just kept expecting "man when are we going to get to X song?? aaaa" but not to say I didn't enjoy the anticipation to get there.
The set design is really really cool and full of whimsical architecture and technology. The music and backing track is stunning.
Even had a few surprising performances as Michelle Yeoh has a small singing bit in an early song she does pretty well, and even Jeff Goldblum, in all his kooky Goldblum-ness, has a surprisingly good singing voice in "I'm A Sentimental Man"
I think this movie has a similar emotional "issue" that the Matilda Musical Movie adaptation had --- in that, the Main Character's plight they face is Hate from their family/those around them, which is played up and exaggerated on-stage probably to better sell and communicate that to the audience. Because in Matilda :musical_note: the family's extreme neglectfulness and abuse felt extremely horrible and way-too-real. And in Wicked here I was shaking my head at the screen every 2 minutes, because nearly literally everyone mistreats Elphaba with bad glances or always running away from her.
Maybe that's just the "real-ness" of movie magic though. Makes it seem all the more believable and horribly heartbreaking.
The movie does have quite a bit of additions and minor changes from the Stage version, and notably I really liked how they expanded the cast of sentient animal creatures in the film which builds up and strengthens Elphaba's connection to and need to help these creatures.
And GOSH Dulcibear the Midwife is SUCH a cute and soothing vibe, she was a wonderful inclusion at the start of the film, raising young Elphie
(Unfortunately Universal has still not released an official image of her character, but yeah she was cool)
https://variety.com/lists/wicked-movie-changes-musical-references/universal-logo/
The movie only covers Act 1 (and damn it DOES have a banger climax and final number that sets up the beginning of the Witch's rise to power in Oz) so when it ends with credits it's like... I KNOW there's more after I NEED MORE. (And thankfully from what I read, they filmed them at the same time, so if editing goes to plan, we'll get Part 2 in November of this year next year)
I finished watching the final season of The Dragon Prince, and overall I'd say it was alright, though it's definitely rough around its edges. There are some really great moments throughout the season that are bogged down by some less than great ones now and again. Voice acting remains excellent and the antagonists continue to have some of the strongest story elements. The show does a terrific job in showing how far gone these characters really are, and the increased violence this season really helped raise the stakes. There were a couple moments that really had me gasp at how far they went with things.
Wonderstorm deserves massive praise for going through with an incredibly villain arc for Claudia. I can't believe they managed to turn what was originally such a goofy and kind-hearted character into someone that's just truly reprehensible by the end in a way that feels natural. I don't think they did everything perfect with her, but considering she's a character in a kids show, I really believe this is something to be applauded for.
I think my main criticism with the season is the lack of follow through with a number of events and storylines in the show. It happens so often to the point I'm left wondering why these elements were even introduced in the first place. This along with the past couple seasons felt like a nonstop barrage of MacGuffins that are introduced as being incredibly important only for them to quite literally do nothing by the end of the finale. I also found myself having gripes with the interpersonal drama between some of the characters. Not that the ideas are necessarily bad, but the execution left so much to be desired. The biggest one being the fractured relationships between Callum, Ezran, and Rayla which honestly brings up a really good point that I didn't really think of, but how it's carried out felt more like a detriment to their characters.
I'm a lot less harsh than most people and I did have fun with everything overall, but still I can't say that I'm not disappointed in the direction the series went, especially with how strong the first three seasons were. Not just in terms of writing, but even in animation and choreography which is noticeably weak in the final season, despite there being very little action outside of a couple episodes. Even season 1 despite its jarring framerate, I feel had much better fight choreography and cinematography than anything in what should be the grand "finale". The ending very much opens the show up for a sequel of some kind. So if that ends up becoming a thing, hopefully Wonderstorm takes the criticisms to heart.
Spoilery thoughts
I'm catching up on The Last of Us series. The adaptation’s been pretty solid so far, love how it blends the game's emotional depth with some fresh twists.