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I being kind of let down with this movie the first time I watched it, and I definitely still feel like it has problems, but man this movie was pretty damn good! The time travel gimmick wasn't too horrible, the Quantum Realm is sufficiently set-up so it doesn't feel like too much of a random convenience.

Unlike Infinity War, I find that the central heroes have a lot more going on emotionally than Thanos does in this one, which sort of places these two movies on opposite sides for me - having the context behind Scott's loss of time hits so different now, seeing him navigate the world after the Snap was pretty heartbreaking.

However, this movie really does fall off a cliff into hollow fan-service by the end by literally devolving Thanos into a generic evil bad guy which is just a shame. It really felt like the Russos had no clue how to top the last act of the prior movie so they threw shit at the wall. They could have done something geniunely subversive but at the end of the day it's not massively offensive.

The ending is pretty perfect though - made me sob like a little baby.

This feels like a great initial premise - the idea of doing a 90s West Coast period piece is awesome, and seeing some of the characters in an earlier period of time is pretty cool, but unfortunately Brie Larson cannot muster the amount of charisma required to make Carol's already poorly written character work. Wondered why I never watched this and now I know I will never watch it again wow

I enjoyed this a great deal! I like seeing a smaller stakes MCU movie again, and this movie definitely has a lot more going on emotionally. The father / daughter dynamics being a consistent through-line of the movie was nice, and was a really nice way to take the emotional heart of the first movie (Scott and Cassie's relationship) and move it further into the actual plot.

Lawrence Fishburne should have had more to do in this movie considering the caliber of his acting talent but I'm glad he's here regardless

This review may contain spoilers.

This is another good one. I like how well the plot manages to balance all of the elements of the film in such a way where it doesn't feel overstuffed. Thanos is a brilliant villain played pitch perfectly by Brolin, and overall all of the characters give pretty good performances. I like how they focused on Wanda and Vision's romance, it gave the plot a nice emotional throughline. Thanos killing Gamora will always hit.

This is pretty good - the first act's kind of overlong and meandering, but once Killmonger shows up properly this movie locks the hell in. I don't really have a lot more to say on this one.

I like this movie. I do. I it being a super big deal when I was younger - seeing Taika Waititi finally getting out of the "NZ filmmaker" niche to helm a big budget Thor movie was great and I this movie doing a lot to win my friends over on the MCU.

With that being said, there is some drawbacks to this new direction. Thankfully, that wouldn't properly materialize until Love & Thunder due to this movie knowing how to actually balance the tone of a movie.

All of the Sakkar stuff is brilliant and fun. Taika's really in his element here, working with the natural chemistry of all of the actors to make a much more organic flow than anything that The Dark World could have mustered - but the Asgard stuff is very hit and miss.

Odin's death is actually super beautifully done, and I do like Hela finally widening the context of his past - however, as a villain she was kinda done dirty. Cate Blanchett definitely does have the presence to pull Hela off but it feels as if the character kind of treads water.

As a result it tends to downplay the work the last two Thor movies did in making Asgard feel significant - Thor being shut off from the place he calls home for most of the movie made it feel sort of intangible and less real than it did before - like Asgard was just another backdrop for a big battle to happen in. It makes it especially weird when Thor and co start to openly grieve Asgard (despite Korg's best efforts to undermine the moment).

This conflict would have been done so much better in a movie that wasn't so keen to get away from the world that the previous movies set up - and that's why I can't give it any more than a "fun movie, good job".

I forgot that this movie was good to be honest. A lot of shit's been thrown towards the MCU's adaptation of Spider-Man over the years, and I tend to agree with them. So sitting down to watch this was a very big "oh shit okay" moment.

I do feel like this movie has more merit than a lot of people give it, especially when looking ahead at Peter's future appearances in the MCU. It has plenty of charm and a genuinely well-written central narrative, but all this feels like it's struggling against the wider-universe / Tony Stark branded baggage which is just disappointing.

All the freshness from Civil War skipping the familiar backstory shit goes immediately down the toilet as Tony (probably representing the Marvel execs) actively stops Peter from being his own dude which just becomes progressively more frustrating as the plot escalates.

I like Tom Holland's Peter Parker a lot, especially with the way he's characterized outside of his dynamic with Tony. He marries naivete with good intention in a way that feels very human and real. Michael Keaton as Vulture is also phenomenal, and the obvious highlight of the car sequence still slaps.

So yeah, 4/5. That's it.

This was absolutely phenomenal. The tone from the first film is carried seamlessly across, but with a much more memorable villain (played by a perfectly on point Kurt Russell, who's casting is genius on multiple levels), and a much more cohesive and developed narrative.

I might be biased on this, but this is the only Marvel movie I've seen yet which has absolutely perfectly hit every part of what I want out of a blockbuster - great action, awesome music, and plenty of heart.

The ending was certainly sentimental but I have to it, it worked for a reason. Everything felt earned, and the great thing about this film is that it didn't sacrifice anything along the way. This is gonna be a hard film to top going forward.

This movie is pretty solid. I like Benedick Cucumberlumberslumberdumberbatch as Strange. It works. The movie is also very thorough with establishing his characterization which is good to see. The effects are still stunning. All the characters are good. This is just a good movie. I don't know what else there is to say.

I don't know how the fuck the human magic people know what an Infinity Stone is when even Thor fucking Odinson didn't know is kinda confusing but that's a minor detail at best. I like it!

This is good. I liked watching it.

I do feel like this movie locks in for moments - the final fight with Tony, Steve and Bucky obviously being a highlight - but the path to get there is often not as tightly focused or well-conceived.

The premise of the Accords and everything that comes with it is fascinating, but I feel like Sokovia being the thing that prompts this is just wrong.

I feel like it could have worked if Tony ever actually got called out for making Ultron for instance, but no. He gets to walk away scot-free for creating a genocidal robotic super-terrorist. I do appreciate that he clearly regrets what happened, but if the world was going to be angry at someone, why wouldn't it just be Tony? Why does the rest of the Avengers, who spent the vast majority of the last act of Age Of Ultron saving people, get punished? What the fuck?

And the issue is this is the foundation of the entire movie, and it makes a lot of character motivations here not work properly. The whole movie feels scattershot, but the action is good enough to keep me pretty locked in.

Also, what the fuck happened to Spider-Man's characterization after this movie? Like bruh

This is the movie I have seen.

I do like it, it's funny. Scott is well-written and I appreciate how it's centered around him wanting to do good by his daughter, but I could easily see it being better if it was put in the hands of a more comedically sharp director (LIKE THE GUY WHO WROTE THE FUCKING SCRIPT AHEM AHEM)

I love Michael Douglas though, so that gives it an extra half star for me. I love him so much.

Okay so here's the thing.

This movie yes, is overstuffed, it does kind of throw a bunch of different shit at you at once, and it does spend a lot of it's runtime setting things up for later.

HOWEVER - this is leagues more interesting than the first one.

James Spader as Ultron is fucking awesome. His voice is so intoxicating and his delivery shifts between menacing, detached, and sarcastic in a very natural way that I just love for some reason.

Wanda does what Loki wanted to do in the first movie: messing with the Avengers in a way that actually makes sense and has impact - the fear sequences actually have some degree of sauce which is really odd to say. The pacing is a little shit, but I will say that I appreciate them doing the "Avengers tear themselves apart" plot well this time.

Seeing Tony's character arc continue from 3 is nice - although I am very confused as to why they forgot, I don't know, THE FACT THAT HE ABANDONED BEING IRON MAN????? Whedon really picked and chose on that one.

I don't like how Natasha is being used as a love interest AGAIN. At least this time, there's actual chemistry but it kinda makes her look bad as a character. Really creepy vibes. Probably cause Whedon wanted it personally, the fucking weirdo.

Oh yeah bro.

This is the first MCU film I ever saw, and it just works so well as a fun lil jaunt with the gang that even the OBVIOUS jarring appearance of Thanos / introducing the concept of the Infinity Stones doesn't shove the movie off course too much.

Ronan is laughably forgettable, but thankfully the Guardians aren't. I don't need to go on about how great they all play off each other - it's common knowledge and it keeps proving that Marvel has a fucking fantastic casting department.

This movie also looks and sounds great - I forget how much visual sauce this movie had. Also I'm a major old-head when it comes to my music taste so the soundtrack is right up my alley really.

This is a great little standalone movie with some stupid fucking universal setup shoved in for some reason. Ah well, it still works.

YOOOOOO WE BACK CHAT

I like this a lot - it's very character-centric, got a nice and well layered conspiracy, and ties into the wider universe in a way that's not fucking hamfisted as fuck.

There's some phenomenal sequences in here - Fury fighting his way out of the HYDRA ambush, Zulo reappearing as an AI in the bunker, and pretty much everything with Bucky is gold.

There's some eyebrow raises - the romance???? between Natasha and Steve is just weird. It doesn't feel right. Why are they trying to push her at Steve when the bro is clearly a loyal king for the goat Peggy

But nah in all seriousness this movie bangs and it sets up some cool stuff for Steve's character going forward in a way that I have to appreciate. It's about here where I recognized how well planned this period of the MCU was. I don't know if that reflects badly on this movie or not but I do have to say it.

Most of the time I was watching this movie I was going:

"Why is Odin acting like such a dick now?"

"I wonder when something's gonna happen"

"At least Branagh had sauce"

"Why couldn't these two movie's lengths have swapped"

This is just forgettable and boring. Not like abysmally terrible but I struggle to actually understand why it exists outside of setting up the Aether as a thing in the universe.

I appreciate how this one feels more character centric than 2, however I do feel like it loses some of that cohesiveness and grounded spirit the first two films had.

I think it's probably cause of both the change in director and the fact that they now had to adhere to the stylistic doctrine of a wider universe, but this doesn't work as well as it could have.

I do like Tony's character development - having him respond to what happened in The Avengers was an intelligent choice and it does feel natural. I just think it's bogged down by external garbage again.

The villain is a lot less charismatic then Mickey Rourke's character in 2 and I find myself not getting too invested in his motivation.

Ben Kingsleys turn as the Mandarin is infinitely more interesting and it's just ruined for an ittingly entertaining but also disappointing punchline. I can see why people were upset at that when this movie came out.

It's sort of the same thing as 2 but it commits itself more to actually addressing Tony's issues which is nice. I think the scenes where he plays off the kid gives it a bit more over the OG for me, it's funny and heartwarming in an easy kind of way.

What a fucking mid-fest.

The choice of Loki as a villain is baffling to me - not only was he already easily done away with in Thor, he's also not someone who's very physically intimidating or threatening at all. Why he was chosen to be the big bad in this monumental crossover is actually a fucking mystery. The whole movie has no real tension or weight as a result - why are we worried about Loki when Thor beat him by himself last time?

And on top of that, this is the beginning of everything wrong with the MCU. The quippy humor, the dull color-grading, the over-reliance on ensemble casts, the weirdly paced screenplays, everything starts here. And it makes this movie retrospectively EVEN FUCKING WORSE THEN IT ALREADY IS. UGHHHHHH

ALSO JOSS WHEDON SUCKS AS A PERSON TOO SO I FEEL FULLY JUSTIFIED

Thank god there's at least talented actors in this to make this meandering nothingburger of a script go somewhere. And the effects look good too I suppose. I do appreciate how it lays the groundwork going forward but man looking back on this movie I just do not like it very much.

HELL YEAH AMERICA BABY!!!!!!!!! WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Okay but in all serious this whole movie works super well. Chris Evans is another instance of incredible casting and the movie balances the played out '40s plot with enough character moments and world building that it doesn't feel thin or cheap to play this as a period piece.

Hugo Weaving plays a fantastic Red Skull, enough that his lack of real motivation isn't an issue for me at all. He's just so evil and it's awesome. Toby Jones does a great job playing Zola as well, he just slots into the bumbling scientist role so well.

There's definitely some silly things here and there. Digitally shrunk Chris Evans will always make me laugh, Tommy Lee Jones just coasts through the movie with a uncharacteristic lack of screen presence, and the HYDRA salute is fucking silly as shit and I lost it whenever it happened.

But yeah, this is a solid movie all things considered. Not like GOAT level but definitely enough to keep my interest.

Honestly I fucked with this movie for the most part. I enjoy directors being clinically self-absorbed, so seeing a lot of Branaghs Shakespearean tendencies survive through the studio meddling is pretty awesome.

Anthony Hopkins is PHENOMENAL as Odin. MY GOD. Now this is an actor.

I love the way Asgard looks and feels here - it really leans into the mystique / grandiosity of it in a way that matches the tone of the dialogue and makes the fish-out-of-water plot work so much better when we get there. But honestly I would have liked to have spent more time with Thor and Jane - we're clearly meant to feel something at the end but it never really got across the line for me. A little more time in the middle would have really helped with that.

But man, this is solid - surely the next one will be great and cool and awesome

This is the most "studio interference" film I have ever seen. There's a lot of good character stuff here but it just gets drowned out by the rest of the dumbass cliche "hero vs. villain" shit.

I would have honestly loved to have seen a whole film just focusing on Tony's personal struggles as a character study but I have a feeling that would have made less than or around $2 at the box office so I understand. The scene where he discovers a new element thanks to his late father was a cool moment though and I just wish there was more than that.

Disney+ has decided that this movie does not exist and therefore Edward Norton does not exist this is my review

This is a good movie. I like how it actually feels like it was made by human beings - there's an earnest intent here to make an entertaining action flick and it shows. RDJ at that specific point in his career was perhaps the most inspired casting choice I have ever seen for a big-screen blockbuster. He really grounds the movie and makes it all seem tangible and relatable which stops it from being completely forgettable.

Jeff Bridges is also an insanely charismatic presence and just chews through every scene he's in - him yelling at the scientist is entering my back archive of lines I recite at random.

The feeling of ominous, miserable dread that came over me in the second half of this film cannot be understated

This movie is so ridiculous, and it's only able to maintain the tone it does thanks to Christian Bale just putting his dick and balls into this performance, but damn, it pays off. I find so much of this movie to be totally hysterical, and even it's central themes can still be taken seriously - the satire still kinda works.

What a standout achievement. It deserves everything it's gotten over the years, and more - a story so heavily planted in despair is handled with the empathy that it deserves. I'm struggling to find the words to describe how I feel, but this is the most human film ever made in my eyes, a film that touches upon the best and the utter worst of humanity at once in a way that I'm sure won't leave me for the rest of my life.

it's just the vibe

Absolute violent rocking back and forth between shock, horror, disgust, and being geniunely impressed by the character work and depth of writing this has

Not too bad.

Redoing this with a little more perspective.

I thought this was a brilliant adaptation - it's not.

What it is - however, is a watered-down version of one of the best comic book runs of all time with a veritable visual titan at the helm, great performances from a dedicated main cast, and great musical choices.

And it's still heads and shoulders above much else in this genre.

That's saying something.

This is a very worthy successor to Trainspotting - not due to it being a seamless extension of the original, but it actually building upon the context of the first film to allow for a new and interesting angle on the characters that actually has something pretty profound to say.

I do think it could have been executed a little better (Begbie gets sort of shafted in regards to his character development for most of the film, which sucks because his stuff towards the end had pretty substantial potential) but damn, I came away from this geniunely impressed.

I think the best microcosm of what this movie was able to accomplish thematically is the updated "choose life" monologue from Renton:

"Choose unfulfilled promise and wishing you'd done it all differently. Choose never learning from your own mistakes. Choose watching history repeat itself. Choose the slow reconciliation towards what you can get, rather than what you always hoped for. Settle for less and keep a brave face on it. Choose disappointment and choose losing the ones you love, then as they fall from view, a piece of you dies with them until you can see that one day in the future, piece by piece, they will all be gone and there'll be nothing left of you to call alive or dead. Choose your future, Veronika. Choose life."

Man I love edgy low-budget films with a distinct style to them that cover edgy topics

Watched on Friday August 11, 2023.

This went incredibly hard. Fuck me, this was good.

The most muddled first act I've ever seen but acts 2 and 3 were pretty good

This movie feels like it had everything it needs to succeed - good cast, interesting twist on the traditional plot set-up, good action - and then managed to fumble the execution in a multitude of such minor ways that it ended up overriding all the ittedly incredible stuff which is in this movie.

I just felt a general sense of disorientation throughout this whole thing. The pacing is super weird - scenes end too soon a lot of the time, there's odd cutaways, including a whole meta-aligned sequence-in-sequence, which is super cool and funny on paper, but the way the rest of this film is edited makes this feel unneeded and confusing. I get what they were going for on paper, it just needed a little more time to breathe, especially cause this is just Part One - it's not as if they needed to shove this all in to a first 2 acts.

The cinematography is super unconventional too. This movie felt really really flat at times, and I do wonder if COVID regulations had something to do with that, especially considering we're getting fresh content now which was shot outside of the active pandemic.

Oh, and another thing - I geniunely believe this is the movie with the most dutch angled shots per minute in the history of cinema.
It eventually gets ridiculous, especially when they start showing up during perfectly normal dialogue sequences. It's baffling and honestly distracting - especially one instance where the shot is borderline framed like a TikTok vertical video with how dutch it is, when it's just two characters reacting to exposition. What the hell?

The action is definitely a highlight - anything involving cars, trains, and motorcycles are definitely the best parts of this movie, including the chemistry between characters.

When I can hear them, of course, underneath the insanely fucked mix for any sound effect in any of the action scenes - it might have just been my theatre but my god, I geniunely dreaded hearing glass break or something metallic hit a wall. That's how bad it was for me.

Honestly, I still don't know whether I liked this movie. It'll definitely need a second watch by me to properly see if it's just a lack of adjustment that turned me off this one slightly.

Just a reminder that this is how good a movie about a famous person could be.

Just saying.

A masterpiece of a sequel. Superbly paced, perfect balance of humor and dramatic pathos. Builds and adds context to the themes and characters of the original whilst being prepared to undercut them to build on it's plot. The animation is next-level and establishes Sony Pictures Animation as the best in the industry.

Performances? Stellar.
Score? Stellar.
Writing? Stellar.

Let's just hope Beyond sticks the landing.

Fuckin' hell. This one was a tough watch, but this is a damn good film. Low budget for sure, but that works to this movie's strengths by keeping it grounded - which results in some of the most gutteral reactions I've ever had to a film. There was points here where I physically shook with anger and I nearly bawled my eyes out at so many points. The ending is also very underrated.

It's not perfect, but I cannot say that any other movie has hit me this much or this deep.

10/10.

Watched on Monday May 15, 2023.

Servicable enough, honestly the best result you could really get from these two generic mega-corporations smashing their brand images together.

Definitely for the fans, the references will be the main thing driving interest - it definitely shows a level of care that previous Illumination ventures have generally lacked.

But the film almost tries to shove so much of Mario's history in to the point that I would have preferred it to be a bit longer - because the pacing in this movie is insanely rushed, to the point where some scene transitions felt jarring. However, the gaps would need to be filled with substantial character development, which just isn't a thing here.

That's fine, but this movie ends up being my new definition of a roller-coaster flick. All flash, but well-looked after flash.

They did not have to go this hard

Watched on Saturday January 7, 2023.

Ya know, I have a weird apprehension towards stuff that's proclaimed to be the greatest works of a medium. In a way I think it's hard for me to separate the end result from the expectations that naturally result from people going on and on about how good it is.

For example, I had that same feeling with the Breaking Bad universe for a while, until I recently managed to get the nerve to actually jump into it. And I became the very thing that I hate, another person going on and on about it whenever I get the chance. And so, the cycle begins again.

I've heard a lot about this movie, how good it is. And that's precisely why I haven't sat down and watched it until I managed to un-mythologize it in my own mind. And it's not for lack of trying, I've tried to watch this movie 4 times before my mind decided to wander back over to Whiplash and Goodfellas for the 571st time that week. But tonight, I finally watched it. And yeah, it's pretty damn good.

One thing that takes me with this film is the fact that so much of this movie is focused on the environment surrounding the action as opposed to the action itself. The time spent is dedicated to getting you settled into the scene, which is most evident in it's use of sound, which is exceptional.

It's a thriller that places you in the room, the silence making it unbearably tense at times - and giving the relatively sparse lines of dialogue an unsettling weight to them, especially with Anton, who's few speaking parts reveal so much about his underlying character that it's comparable to a 5-minute long extended monologue from any other show or film I've watched.

It's almost like saying "show, don't tell" except it's more like "leave out, not in", and it's incredibly effective. It's an effect that I haven't seen executed this well before, and honestly it's shifted my entire perspective about what elements I should be looking for in a film. It's simply refreshing, and it 100% deserves the praise.

Fantasy epics will never be this good ever again and it's time to just accept it. I fucking love this movie

A damn good film, if not a little weighed down by the fact that it's meant to transition the plot between Fellowship & Return. The fact that this movie is as good as it is is a testament to how damn good everyone involved was at translating this story to screen. It's the best film it could possibly be under the circumstances.

Super solid film noir. It's good, the pacing and editing feels super contemporary despite the film's age, the performances are servicable (Orson Welles steals the show of course), and the shot composition is super refreshing and visually interesting. Definitely can see why it's one of the more revered noirs out there, but it still suffers from dull moments breaking their way through the exceptional scenes.

This review may contain spoilers.

Unfocused with no real narrative throughline but it still was a fun ride regardless. Whoever was on production design did an awesome job as I never felt like disconnected from the period. The little segments of in-universe performance from Dalton were super convincing too. Performances from Pitt and DiCaprio were super solid. Dialogue was snappy as ever, but that's Tarantino for ya.

It did feel like the final half-hour was sort of slapped on at the end though, which was distracting, but it was still a lot of fun.
It's an interesting alternative history, and watching Brad Pitt slam a teenager's face into assorted household objects was as shocking as it was comically violent.

In fact, I was surprised at how well the humor in this film landed, I laughed out loud quite a few times and I think that helped sell this for me. I'd give it a watch if I was you, just to see Tarantino revel in the period.

This review may contain spoilers.

Great visuals, creative and shocking action sequences, impressive performances, shit script. Felt like the movie needed a bit more time and focus to properly utilize all of the potential of a Multiverse Doctor Strange film, but hey, at least this movie is dripping with signature Raimi style. It's so good to finally see a MCU movie use the full color spectrum.

I'm a little pissed off with how they handled a couple of the cameos, but honestly I'm just glad the execs didn't use this as an excuse to turn this film into a bloated marketing vehicle by loading it full of recognizable characters from pre-MCU films. Oddly, I liked some of the casting for the characters they chose more than their MCU counterparts, so having them be this criminally underutilized kinda sucks.

In spite of all of that whiney nitpicky complaints the movie was still fantastic, easy 9 for me. I hope this gives Marvel's execs more faith in their directors because if they don't I could see the MCU dying out in a few years once they can't one-up themselves on scope.

PIRATES REVIEW: 2/5

Okay, wow. This was a pretty damn good sequel. The characters don't have to contend with a need for setup now, so stuff just kicks off with a bang and continues going throughout the whole film. Beckett is a total prick - definitely a downgrade in regards to characterisation from Norrington but sometimes it's good to just have a villain you can just fucking hate. It's balanced out by Davy Jones though, who's ironically the more human character - perfectly filling his role as a ing character.

The real star of the show here's the action, because goddamn if these aren't the most densely packed and well-connected action scenes I've seen in a film. The average action scene in this film will involve at least 2 different sets of characters having their own different fights, which eventually end up affecting each other in a carefully constructed cacophony of activity - the island sequence towards the end of the film is a perfect example of this. Being able to sit there and watch as stuff just spirals out of control is both intensely cathartic and slightly overwhelming. Watching this movie with a other people is the best though, because the unpredicability of these scenes are perfect for group reactions - just pure insanity that makes for a lot of fun.

That's pretty much how I can describe Dead Man's Chest. It's just over-the-top, pure, unpredictable, insanity, and I loved it.

PIRATES SERIES REVIEW: 1/5

Decided to hop back into the Pirates films to have a proper go at them alongside my girlfriend, and also to see if they're as good as we .

In this case, yeah. Curse Of The Black Pearl is still a really enjoyable time with a solid and well-cast character line-up, surprisingly good cinematography and action scenes that typically include some of the best swordfighting choregraphy I've seen in a film. And of course, Johnny Depp as Jack Sparrow is simply iconic.

In all fairness though, the pacing felt a little strange, with the film's second act probably needing a little bit more time to breathe. Although, that could be because of this movie just feeling very light and rapid in it's pace.

I might require a second watch to look at it from a more detached perspective cause honestly I was just completely engaged the whole way through this film.

• Whiplash
• Uncut Gems
• Se7en
• The Truman Show
• Avengers: Infinity War