Liked this ever so slightly more than last time (way back in high school), if only because the book wasn’t as fresh in my mind. I could easily write several thousand words on the deep-rooted problems with Cloud Atlas as a movie, as well as the struggle to reconcile those with its myriad, undeniable successes, but I think I’ve solidified my main issue with the adaptation. David Mitchell’s novel is, underneath all its structural knottiness, not all that interested in being…
Watched the Ultimate Edition. Like many, I wasn’t in a headspace to give this a fair shake on release, and I don’t think having seen Man of Steel would have helped matters. Five years out…well, I still don’t like it much, but I have better reasons than just spouting buzzwords like “joyless”. My main issue is that both Zack Snyder DC movies have fascinating things to be about, and then they spend most of their runtime being about anything but that. BvS should be…
I was expecting fan service—it’d be foolish not to—but I wasn’t expecting it to be so on-the-nose from the literal opening seconds. Seriously: “no resurrections this time?” Right after a “we have a Hulk” callback? You’re supposed to be subconsciously activating those pleasure receptors, Joe and Anthony; it lessens the effect when you’re this shameless about it.
I watched Russian Ark a couple weeks ago, and throughout Infinity War, I couldn’t shake the feeling that I was witnessing the screenwriting equivalent of…
Better than I’d been led to believe. The messianic imagery, ripe for ridicule as it is, actually mostly worked for me—the “superheroes as gods” conceit was bound to be applied to the icons of the genre on the big screen eventually, and there’s never been a more fitting director to make that happen than Zack Snyder, a man whose entire brand rests on his fixation on the aesthetics of power (Evan’s wording, not mine). He rightly treats the concept of…
Man, what the fuck…I was never anti-Reloaded, but nothing could have prepared me for how well this would line up with my current-day tastes. This is a huge movie, a story so sprawling that it makes the original seem walled-off and intimate by comparison—come to think of it, there’s a pertinent metaphor somewhere in there, but I can’t engage Critic Brain with The Matrix Reloaded. It’s too cool for that. It’s Spider-Man 3 with the thematic cohesion of Spider-Man 2. It’s structured like three consecutive TV episodes in the middle of a final season. It’s messy in all the most interesting ways. It’s ᵇᵉᵗᵗᵉʳ ᵗʰᵃⁿ ᵗʰᵉ ᶠᶦʳˢᵗ ᵒⁿᵉ
Liked this better than my vague memory of my high school viewing, though I’d attribute that more to my greater knowledge of Shakespeare than any revelations about filmmaking. I’m mostly just a fan of the naturalistic interpretation style that was common practice by this point, where the emotion and intent of each line takes precedence over the particulars of the language. (Too bad it’s almost always accompanied by hootin’n’hollerin’ ad-libs. At this point I consider those a necessary evil, and…
Pretty much the exact same reservations as last time, but boy oh boy, when this is good, it’s the best movies have ever been. Downright depressing that nothing else has ever looked or moved like this. Closest reference point is The Cat in the Fucking Hat—depressing, I tell you!
Saddled with most of the standard MCU problems (nondescript action, unpolished CG physics, bland camerawork, inconsistent score, endless climax that's structured a little too neatly, really awful comedic timing), but it’s also the first Marvel film since The Avengers to feel like a real movie, something with stakes and vision and a purpose for existing beyond setting up future installments. Captain America: The Winter Soldier remains my favorite in the franchise—the atmosphere and combat sequences give it an edge—but this…
It’d be stolen valor for me to call myself a Godzilla fan, but I felt personally insulted on all Godzilla fans’ behalfs watching this. Hell, I wouldn’t call myself the biggest apologist for the 2014 film, but I could still get down with its “let them fight” ethos—and here we’ve got, what, “make them fight”? Unbelievably ill-conceived. Add in disted fight direction (Dougherty is embarrassingly out of his depth here) and one of the worst blockbuster scripts I’ve ever seen…
I came around. The one holdover critique from my first watch is that I was once again thoroughly desensitized to female nudity by the end, and I don’t think that was the point [reading this back two years later: maybe it was?], but I can only commend Paul on his stamina in response. Otherwise: perfectly structured, directed/acted to a mesmerizing fever pitch, and frequently insane-looking. This must be heaven on 35mm. Simply too good to be a bad movie.