Comparing “Captain America: Civil War” and “Batman V. Superman: Dawn of Justice”

Alright so I just watched the extended version of “Batman V. Superman: Dawn of Justice” for the first time, right after I watched “Captain America: Civil War” on Netflix. Listening to different sides of the argument for both movies, as well as, watching the movies through a different lens helped me to create a less biased comparison of the two properties. I have written a comparison of some main points that might clear up the argument between these two movies. I’ll have it known that I never completely hated the theatrical release of “Batman V. Superman” I just thought it was ok. So here we go with…

Round 1

Miscasting

Marisa Tomei Vs. Jesse Eisenberg

            One of my biggest hang-ups about BvS was the casting of Jesse Eisenberg as “Alexander” Luthor. Basically, every time he was on screen I wanted to claw my eyes out and wish for the sweet release of death. He completely took me out of the movie with his horrendous approach to someone who was supposed to the pinnacle of human power going someone who was the pinnacle of power. I understood what they were going for, they wanted to show that if a Luthor existed in this timeline he wouldn’t be the stereotypical  “stuffed shirt business man” that we’ve been made to associate with Lex Luthor from comics, animated outings, etc. It’s just extremely hard to disassociate the Luthor we have been seeing throughout most of our lives with the Luthor we got. I don’t want a new, edgy Luthor to appeal to millennials who have a different concept of wealth in this day and age. I want my Luthor. I get that we are supposed to like change but this was almost a complete 180 from the type of Luthor we have come to expect. I know this is what they were trying for, to see these characters through a new lens, but this character was a bit too “on the nose” for what we expect from billionaires today and didn’t sell me as a real threat to Superman at all. Eisenberg’s Luthor can’t really hold a candle to Hackman or Rosenbaum (Lex Luthor from “Smallville”). It was the only reason I held a major grudge against this movie from the beginning. Want to appeal to the new generation of billionaires? Let’s literally cast the person who was cast as the creator of Facebook in a different movie. Ridiculous.

            “So, Spider-man is young in this movie right?” “Yes.” “That means we have to cast a younger Aunt May right?” “No not really…” “Oh C’mon, she’s AUNT May not Grandma May, she should be around the same age as her sister right?” “Yeah, I Guess that’s right…” “So let’s cast a young, attractive actress as her, and point out in the dialogue how young and attractive she is.” “ummm… Ok I guess… but won’t the fans be a little put off by that? We had an older women portraying her for a while, Rosemary Harris is still a beloved Aunt May.” “Who cares about the fans” this is how I imagine the conversation went when casting Marisa Tomei as Aunt May. Seeing her there was a distractor but not as much of distractor as seeing Eisenberg as Luthor since I had to see a lot of Eisenberg and only a little of Tomei. I know I will be seeing more of these characters in movies to come and it makes me a bit uneasy.

Eisenberg was too present and served a far greater role in the film to make my hatred for him grow exponentially.

Winner: Civil War

Round 2

Good New Casting

Chadwick Boseman and Tom Holland Vs. Ben Affleck, Gal Gadot, and Jeremy Irons

            This is basically a competition between the unknown and the known. We are trying to compare two actors we know very little about and two actors we know a lot about (with the support of one actress we know very little about). As it stands it is a little more even than I could have imagined.

            On the one hand we have two actors giving the characters accents very convincing accents that match the tone of what their characters should be going for. Boseman gives us a great interpretation of an African accent and Holland gives us the New York accent Spiderman has sorely been missing. These actors gave life to characters that held special places in fan’s hearts. Holland specifically has two other Spider-men to compete with, but he came out swinging and proved to the audience that he had what it took to carry this character into the new age.

            On the opposite hand we have Affleck, Irons, and Gadot. Affleck faced controversy since the very beginning when he was announced as Batman, but he turned out to be the Batman fans have been wanting for a long time. He is a fan of the series and showed his experience with character in his portrayal of the role, by bringing new life to a character who has shared this mantle with four other actors (excluding small screen and voice). When Keaton was announced as the original Batman he was met with similar controversy and turned the opinion of the masses around, Affleck did the same here. Gadot had smaller shoes to fill but those shoes were still enormous. Lynda Carter has been the only real Wonder Woman we have known for a long time until Gadot came in swinging her sword and whipping her lasso. She had limited exposure in this film but stole the show for all intents and purposes. Alfred has been played to perfection first by Michael Gough, then by Michael Caine. Jeremy Irons was attempting to fill a role that no one thought could be played any better, but he found a way. Who else could step to the challenge if not a classically trained actor like Irons. He brought light to this character that turned the character around and that is what we expect from great actors. So even though I love to give credit to lesser known actors the casting of Batman V. Superman for these pivotal roles was too good to ignore.

Winner: Batman V. Superman

Round 3

Fallout

Metropolis Vs. New York, Washington D.C., Sokovia

            Both of these movies feature fallout from previous movies in the series. Metropolis for BvS, and a myriad of locations for Civil War, the question is, who did a better job of painting a picture of the loss from the previous movies?

            BvS had a full scene where Bruce Wayne tore through the streets of Metropolis to try and save his employees. This scene was obviously a ploy to answer for the countless lives that were lost during the events of “Man of Steel,” to appease fans (like me0 who were put off by all the destruction; this ploy worked gang busters in the grand scheme of things. It served as a grim reminder of what tragic events really looked like to those directly affected by them. Bruce Wayne stopped to help everyone he could and all he could do besides that was look in horror as these godlike creatures literally tore through a city. It was one of the most powerful scenes I have seen in a comic book movie.

            All we got was a brief synopsis of the events from past movies from General Ross, and a tear filled cry for help from a mother of one of the victims from the past. I need a bit more to go off of for a plot of the movie. The counter point to this is that they don’t have to go in any more detail since we had movies describing what we went through for each, the footage Ross shows is just a new perspective on events we have already scene. These moments are powerful but nowhere near as powerful as the fallout from BvS.

Winner: Batman V. Superman

Round 4

Casualties

Superman Vs. Warmachine

            Both of these movies have casualties from the fight between the main characters and it begs the question, which was worse? Which effected the main characters more? Which will most likely have more fallout for future movies?

            In Batman V. Superman, we are given the tragic death of Superman. This may bring up some old scars from seeing that event in the comics back in the day (since that event has been directly tied to the downfall of the comic industry). Regardless of how you feel about the death it still brings a lot of weight to the movie, we are met with real loss and that is something Marvel hasn’t done since the original Avengers movie. We even feel the effects of Superman’s death in the movie that came after “Batman V. Superman,” “Suicide Squad.” Now, is this going to stick? No. He’s already been announced for “Justice League,” but in pure storytelling this death means something. If it wasn’t for that scene of the dirt shifting at the end I would call this perfect.

            With Warmachine being crippled we don’t get anywhere near as much fallout. Yes, when it happened it did shock us, but there wasn’t any real weight behind it. With his best friend being Tony Stark you know there isn’t going to be much to it. He’ll have a little bit of trouble getting used to new robot legs and be fine after. Even in the movie, when it happens there isn’t a whole lot of focus pulled. He gets hit, Tony gets mad, we see him getting checked out at a hospital, we see him getting used to the new robot legs, that’s it.

Winner: Batman V. Superman

Round 5

Writing

            So the writing in Batman V. Superman is a mess from top to bottom, even with the extra scenes in the ultimate edition we are still left with a lot of holes in the story. It’s serviceable but you can tell there was a great deal of struggles between the writers to make everything coherent. There is still no reason to have Flash coming back to see Bruce since he does nothing with the information, the “Martha scene” is still lazy and uninspired. The extended cut does manage to plug a few holes, but the ship is still sinking. I liked the dark tone that they went for, but it didn’t make up for the mistakes that came from putting too many cooks in the kitchen.

            Civil War had one of the more coherent stories, but it had some struggles as well. Their “Martha scene” was Tony Stark just deciding out of the blue to listen to what Steve was talking about. The setup to eventual reveal of Winter Soldier killing the Stark parents was a better payoff than…. Well anything the Batman V. Superman movie was attempting to do.

Winner: Civil War

Round 6

World Building

            It was up to Batman V Superman to set the tone for all future DC movies to come. We had to get excited for anything they were hinting at so we would eventually want to see the future movies. Did they do that? Kind of, it was just a tad sloppy. When I saw the Darkseid parademons I started to geek out, when I saw the Flash scene it felt show-horned in, when I saw the videos of the other superheroes it felt lazy (especially with the character symbols being in place with no setup to how that happened), but even though it felt lazy I still enjoyed it.

            There was no real world building from Civil War, the most we got were post credit scenes hinting at the Black Panther movie and “Spiderman: Homecoming.” Aside from that all we know no is that The Avengers are basically The A Team now: people hunted by the law trying to help others.

Winner: Batman V. Superman

Round 7

Choreography

Both of these movies had amazing choreography in them, so much so that it is almost impossible to figure out which is better. On the one hand, we have Batman in the warehouse fighting exactly how you would think a Frank Miller inspired Batman would fight. He’s heavy handed making quick strikes to try and end the fight fast. We also have Wonder Woman and Superman fighting exactly how you would assume they would both fight. Wonder woman fighting like a Greek solider, Superman fighting like he has no idea how to fight. On the other hand, we have Black Panther fighting exactly how you would assume he would fight. A certain flow to his movements that make us believe that even if he wasn’t wearing his suit you could tell it was Back Panther just by the way he moves. The same can be said for Black Widow, Spiderman, the Winter Soldier/Captain America team up. It’s all just a bit too close to call.

Winner: Draw

Round 8

Handling the source material

            Both of these movies are drawing from the some of the most popular stories either company has produced. Civil War was a world changing event for Marvel, the fallout leading to some great stories (Death of Captain America) and some not so great stories (One More Day). The movie version took some different steps, from the original comic. It had to because a lot of the characters in the original Civil War comic weren’t introduced before the movie. They didn’t get to go into the moral gray area of teaming up with villains. They completely cut out Director Maria Hill and replaced her with General Ross. What we got was a shadow of the original story. It’s still about registration, and the plot still works but it didn’t have teeth like the original story.

            In order, to ask “How did Batman V. Superman handled the source material?” we first have to ask “what source material?” Are we talking about Frank Miller’s Dark Knight Returns? The Death of Superman? Flashpoint? This movie was drawing from so many different comics it lost focus. Yes, there are a lot of references to Frank Miller’s Dark Knight Returns but then you throw in the Death of Superman and we have a bit of a mess. Instead of Superman being sanctioned by the government to take down Batman we have him trying to take down Batman because Lex Luthor is blackmailing him. Instead of Superman being taken down by Doomsday in 1v1 combat we have him taken down by Doomsday when it was 3v1 combat, and that opens even more plot holes. Why couldn’t Wonder Woman stab Doomsday with the spear? The world may never know.

Winner: Civil War

Final round

New Costume Design

Batman and Wonder Woman vs. Black Panther and Spiderman

            In this round we have an interesting match-up. Two characters who we have seen multiple times, played by multiple actors, and who have had multiple costume designs. We have two other characters who have either never been seen or haven’t been seen since the 70’s.

            When we compare Spiderman’s costume in Civil War to Batman’s costume in Dawn of Justice it is almost impossible for us to make comparisons without noting the old costumes and seeing where the current costumes match against them. In the case of Batman I can’t say that this is the best Batman costume I have ever seen. Bale’s suit seems much more functional, and even Keaton’s suit seems better suited to the character. Affleck’s suit has the big bat, which is nice but the rubber hood is completely distracting, as well as the random and unnecessary lines going all over the suit. It’s far from the worst suit we’ve seen (that honor still belongs to bat-nips), but it definitely isn’t the best. When we look at Spiderman’s suit he is given a slight advantage. The only suits he has to compete with are Garfield’s and Maguire’s, but this also makes it a little harder. There is no clear winner between the three. Do we pick the more animated looking suit that is closer to the comic because the eyes can squint? Do we pick the best looking realistic suit worn by Garfield? Or do we pick the original based purely on nostalgia? I’m willing to give the newest Spiderman the advantage because we got to see the “homemade suit” and the new clean suit. We got the squinting eyes, plus we got a tiny spider instead of big spider.

            Let me preface this next part by saying both suits are great. Wonder woman does the exact opposite of Batman and tones the suit down a few notches. The problem I have with it is that it seems a little too toned down, the suit is missing a bit of flair. On the other hand Black Panther’s suit is just perfect. It does what none of these other suits do and allows me to believe that a person would actually wear this into battle. Sure it has a gimmick, but the gimmick doesn’t really define the suit. He’s a cat, but he looks more like a cat warrior than anything.

Winner: Civil War

When it is all said and done both of these movies do a lot of things really well, they fumble but every superhero movie has some fumbles here and there. I think that these movies are exactly equal as long as you take the Ultimate Edition into consideration. Neither of these movies would make my “top 10 of the year list” but I didn’t hate either of them. I had a different appreciation for both. My original reaction to BvS was disgust because it let me down so hard, but it eventually won me over with the extended edition and me taking other factors into consideration. I initially loved Civil War but it started cracking with me the more I thought about it and the more I watched it. 

Sausage Party

Take that Disney and Dreamworks!

In a random supermarket there is food that is waiting to be taken away by gods (humans) to the great beyond (out of the store). This movie follows Frank the sausage (Seth Rogen) and his girlfriend Brenda the bun (Kristen Wiig). The air were separated from their friends in a package and must find their way back so they can be chosen before "red, white and blue day" (Fourth of July); however, Frank doesn't trust the story of the gods that he has been force fed through out his entire life. He decides to go on an adventure to figure out exactly what happens to food after they leave the supermarket. 

I couldn't even begin to fathom how Seth Rogen and company got away with this. This is one of the most sexual, brutal, deranged movies I have ever seen.... and I absolutely loved it. There is not one moment in the theater where I wasn't either laughing or cringing from what was displayed. There are some obvious jokes, but that doesn't impede the movie from being one of the smartest and funniest movies I have seen this year. Moments like singer/actor Meatloaf being portrayed as a meatloaf don't really bring me out of the experience too much. This movie is filled with every dumb stereotype that you can think of and it serves as more of a comment on them than actually offensive. From a Jewish bagel, to the fruits being gay, to an antagonist douche. This movie hits all the markers but does so in such a funny way that I can't hold it against them. In an almost bizarre way, I can't hold anything against this film. It makes fun of itself, while making fun of everything else. Whenever it comes off as preachy, it immediately makes a joke to remind you that it is a cartoon about sentient food. There is a song in the movie about the gods and when we meet the people responsible for making the song they start to say that it was changed for more propaganda related purposes. This is an obvious comment on how religion changes to adapt to whatever someone is trying to preach at the moment, but it is done in such a way that you are laughing at it more than being taken back by it. The same thing happens when they comment on "crackers" taking an aisle away from "Fire Water" and the other none perishables. The preaching never comes off as overly preachy, it just comes off as funny.

The voice acting in this is great simply because we have the Seth Rogen crew all accounted for. Nick Kroll as the douche was the funniest part of this movie. He put on a "Jersey Shore" level of "typical douche-bag voice" through out the entire movie, and it made me fall in love with him even more than I already had, There isn't a single misstep on the voices anywhere. Edward Norton doing his best Woody Allen impersonation for the voice of the bagel, Seth Rogen just being Seth Rogen and having an amazing voice, Craig Robinson playing Grits. It all works in the best of ways.

In conclusion, there isn't a whole lot to say about this movie, accept that it is great. There are clever jokes, mixed with eye rolling jokes. There are great voices. There is graphic violence. There are fourth wall breaks. Needless to say if you have enjoyed anything from Seth Rogen and company you will enjoy this. This is possibly in the pantheon for my favorite thing that they have done and it will make a nice addition to my BluRay collection when it is released for the home. Go see this movie. 

A letter to readers

I recently released a movie review for Suicide Squad, I hadn't released a movie review for over a year before that and I decided to take some time out in order to write down my plans for the future. Before I get into the future, I decided to give a brief explanation of the past by saying:

What Happened?

I love writing, I especially love writing about movies which is why I have done it for so long without being paid for it. I am under the impression that if you love doing something you should want to do it regardless of any money involved (even though I would eventually want to make a career out of writing about, or for movies). It's been my extreme pleasure to write on this blog, while also being able to write on different websites through the years. Given this information, why would I stop? Well, while I love writing about movies I still had bills to pay. The last time I wrote about movies I was working for the site upcomingdiscs.com, I loved working at this site. The editor was very generous with me, and extremely patient. He helped me to hone my writing to a more professional level. The site opened my world to movies that I would never have seen without being employed there. It has always been a dream of mine to be published on a website (or in print), and I was finally realizing that dream. Unfortunately, my schedule was beyond insanely busy. I was going to class (physically, not online) full time, working a full time work schedule, and had a slew of other things pressing for my time. I was always unable to go to premieres that I wanted to go to because my schedule was so unforgiving, and I was constantly pushed to the wire with deadline dates. I don't like turning in half-ass work at the last minute simply because my outside schedule was too stressful, so I had to quit. I quit during the week of my final exams and was unable to turn in my last two reviews, so my name was taken off their site. It was very clear to me why they did this and I harbor no ill-will towards them. When I quit upcomingdiscs.com, I couldn't come back to my blog because my schedule hadn't slowed down. It's only been recently that I have been able to get a handle on my work and finally get back to writing.

What now?

Now I am going to go back to my weekend format of writing at least one review per week on the newest movie in theaters. It won't always be the biggest blockbuster out, and my format is going to change from the way I used to write. I will no longer write in the "angry, joking" manner I did in my blog previously. I think every movie is important to someone out their. Even if I think a movie is bad that doesn't mean that their isn't someone out there that thinks a movie is great (or vice versa); coincidentally, my most recent review happened to be for Suicide Squad a movie that has gotten a lot of hate from critics and viewers a like. I happened to like it, takes different strokes to move the world. Now, just because I am writing in a more respectful manner doesn't mean I won't talk to people about movies in the comments of my review. I love discussing movies, and the difference in opinions most people have. I'm not going to argue, but I'll always talk civilly about anything you love, hate or are indifferent towards in regards to the movie. 

Other than the reviews I will be releasing random articles about movies at random times (like this, but about movies). 

What I hope for from the future

I want to get my podcast off the ground in November. The only thing I am waiting on right now are microphones; beyond that, I will be finding everything else through out the coming months (like: a theme song, cover art, possibly sound drops, etc). My podcast will be weekly or twice per week. My boyfriend, Sean Shimoji, and I will watch a "classic" movie and give our opinions on it (we are also thinking about doing new movies as well, hence the "twice per week"). I came up with this idea because, unlike me, my boyfriend wasn't raised by movies growing up. He's missed a lot of the classics, and (oddly enough) the classics I have shown him he seems to dislike. I'm thinking of calling the podcast "Millennials at the Movies" or "Gayte Night." 

Other than that I still want to bring my reviews to a video format but it is going to be a while until I get that since I have no camera and know fuck-all about video editing at the moment. 

In conclusion

It feels great to write in my favorite format again. If an offer ever came along to work at a website I would still have to think about it. I'm still going to school, still working full time. The reason I started to blog again is because this is a schedule set by me. I would still love to work at another website, but I would want to make sure that I was able to put in all of my effort instead of my remaining effort. Other than that:

This week I will be reviewing Sausage Party. See ya later.

Suicide Squad

A DC victory

Suicide Squad follows a group of villains employed by the government to accomplish tasks that the heads of state would rather keep quiet. With the code name "Task Force X" we join Deadshot AKA Floyd Lawton, the hitman that never misses his mark; Harley Quinn AKA Harleen Quinzel, The Joker's number one girl; Enchantress, the centuries old witch with immense power; El Diablo, the pyrokinetic ex-gang memeber; Captain Boomerang, the Australian criminal who uses boomerangs as his weapon of choice, Killer Croc, the incredibly strong, mutated, crocodile-man; Rick Flag, the soldier in charge; and finally Katana, the assassin whose sword keeps the souls of whoever it slays. The team must rescue an important person in the middle of the world ending, while trying to make sure those in charge don't blow their heads off.

I really liked this movie. I didn't love it, it's not my favorite superhero movie (not even my favorite DC movie) but it was good. It has been a while since I've seen a DC movie and had so little to complain about. So let's get the complaints out of the way first. The pacing was a bit crazy. It went from being drawn out, to being rushed to get to the end, almost instantly. When the movie took it's time it shined a lot more than when it started trying to wrap everything up. In the beginning, the audience is introduced to the team individually, the team is recruited, the team is sent on a mission, and everything seems to be going well. All of a sudden when The Joker shows up for Harley Quinn and it goes off the rails. Next thing you know, we are finding out Rick Flag's true intentions, going into a bar and finding out about El Diablo, being lectured about values, fighting a big villain. It's so much crammed into such a small amount of time. Much like Batman V. Superman: Dawn of Justice this movie could have stood to have an extra 30 minutes attached to it. 

I have now seen the Suicide Squad brought to life four separate times (the episode "Task Force X" in Justice League: Unlimited, the "Suicide Squad" episode of Arrow, and the DC Animated Film Batman: Assault on Arkham) the thing the other incarnations all had in common was that the Suicide Squad was always put on missions where you never really saw them fighting anything huge. They are always trying to steal something/retrieve something and that works for them because they are "bad guys" so it plays to their strengths. That's the main place where this movie stumbles. The mission is for them to get a person out of a hot zone while crazy stuff is going down around them, and that is a great premise for a suicide squad movie. When you take away that premise and make them fight a big monster at the end we are left with just another run-of-the-mill superhero movie. The characters in this deserve more than that.

The place where this movie shined the most was in the performances given by the incredible actors. The person that always makes or breaks a good Suicide Squad is Deadshot. He is the person that will always be in the squad, and usually gives the squad a certain amount of heart. Will Smith played this character perfectly. Just the right amount of touching scenes with his daughter, and clever quips to make me believe he was really Deadshot. As good as Will Smith was he is almost completely out shined by Margot Robbie as Harley Quinn. I never thought I would see Harley Quinn played so perfectly. Every "Mistah J," or "Puddin' " instantly brought me back to seeing that character on Batman: The Animated Series. The rest of the cast did very well with their roles as well, but not everything was perfect. I was not a huge fan of Jared Leto in The Joker role. I admit I had reservations about the way he looked before this movie came out, but I always said that his acting could probably save my perception of his look. He does do well in a lot of aspects; his laugh is great, his menacing stare is great, and I did feel generally uneased by him overall.... its just that stupid mouthpiece that really trashes his performance. Most of the time I was wishing for subtitles because I couldn't hear half of what he said. 

The directing in this was phenomenal. During El Diablo's arch you get to see some true struggle and it is shot in a great way that pulls you into that characters troubles. You can go from the bright neon of a car chase between the Joker and Batman, to a dirty sewer waiting for Killer Croc and feel completly at ease with the major changes in scenery. The job of the people involved in this is to make me lose myself in each transition, and they did that almost effortlessly each time. I'm a big fan of David Ayer From Fury, Training Day, and End of Watch, I could see a major difference in his style of "Comic Book movie" then someone like Zack Snyder's style. The only thing I wished for was more time with the characters as individuals and less time fighting the big bad guy at the finale.

In the end, this movie may not change your life, but it was extremely fun and it is the best thing DC has put out since The Dark Knight. It would be a disservice to this movie to not see it in theaters. It feels good to write reviews again after a long break, and thankfully I didn't have to see something awful as my introduction back into the writing game. 

Score: Decided to do away with the scoring system, never believed in assigning numbers to how I thought about a movie. Read the article to discover how I felt about the movie. 

Poltergeist

People look for work, and this movie is here for them

A down-on-their-luck family moves into an old house to subsidize their current living situation. The father who is recently out of work, and mother who has made her living staying at home and writing, must deal with their children who are not happy about all of the recent changes. Unfortunately, this old house has angry spirits dwelling within it, and they might take more than the family's finances before the night ends.

A brief history on the "Poltergeist" movie franchise before I get into the actual review (or more accurately a curse... fitting right?). If you are a fan of this series like I am, you will have undoubtedly heard of the curse that surrounds the "Poltergeist" movies. Two unexpected deaths happened while one of the movies were in production, one happened to the child actress that brought life to the phrase "They're here!," the other was the big sister in the first film. Two more deaths happened to actors that played in this series but they were foreseeable. Ever since than this movie has lived in Hollywood as a small omen to avoid, whether people actually believe in this stuff or take other's advise is completely subjective. I guess we will all have to wait on the news to see if the attached cast of this remake is getting haunted.

Anyway, now that I have set the tone let's get into it.

As stated in the above history/curse lesson, I am a big fan of the first film, and I watched the others. The first film scared the hell out of me. The first film through out the rule book for scary movies and just did what they wanted. The first film gave the family a false since of security, then flipped the switch and terrified them. The family knew strange events were happening in the first film, and proceeded to have fun with their haunting. The first film was great, but what of this? Honestly, it is still scary, but not nearly as scary as the original. It is damn hard in this business to do away with preconceived notions when making a remake, but this made a fair enough effort. A big thing that holds this movie back is recycled characters. I know we are making a remake movie, but it doesn't hurt to try and play around with characters that could have popped off the page. We've seen the little boy that doesn't get listened to, and it comes back to bite the family in the ass. We've seen the over privileged, foul-mouthed, teenage daughter. Fortunately, their are two characters that kind of save this movie. I love the father's arc of recent unemployment and feeling like a failure to his family. I love the overly caring, but not caring enough mother.  The youngest daughter is the same as she was in the first movie, and that is kind of integral to the story, so they get a pass on that. The story itself was filled with a lot of cliches, but still managed to scare me, and in the end that is the only thing that truly matters,

Gil Kenan is not known in the directing world at large. He has a small body of work, that only contains this movie, "Moster House," and "City of Ember." I hope this movie sets him up to make more horror films, because this was shot exquisitely. I think the way this movie was shot gives credence to why this film was so scary in the first place. He let your mind do the work, and build the tension. You might have known what was going to happen to a character, but your mind asks "what if it didn't? What if the thing under the bed is actually the thing in the closest? And what if it was a lot bigger than I remember? And what if it kills the boy? Is it going to kill the boy? Please don't let it kill anyone?" It doesn't quite get your brain to that level )I mean, it wasn't the scariest movie in my life), but it gets your mind in that area of thinking. The sound haunts every shot, and makes you want to be scared. The camera angles lead to tension. Every bit of this movie bled horror onto the screen, Thus I was frightened.

The thing that drags this movie down. The thing that is even worse than recycled characters. The thing that annoyed me about this movie the most. The acting. Wow. Just WOW, is the only thing that comes to mind when the cast at large is phoning in these performances so hard you would think they were someone's lifeline on a game show. Sam Rockwell paints us a pretty picture of what it is like to be looking for work, since he seems so damn disinterested in the work he is doing now. He may have been perfect for the role, if he was trying to show us a realistic take on how his character got fired from "John Deer." Saxon Sharbino is clearly not ready to helm a film of this caliber, and if she doesn't learn to emote she never will be. Nicholas Braun is quite possibly the worst example of "act scared" that I have ever seen. His one scene where he had the most screen time was filled with so many issues, I honestly don't know where to start. The term "don't look at the camera, but don't try to look like you are not looking at the camera" comes to mind, the guy letting out the most fake of fake screams in the world, the guy not knowing how to look confused after he was just "acting" scared. He was the worst, and I ask that no one put him in movies again. Please. Luckily, not all is lost since we have Gil Kenan to save us from the depths of despair. I may still miss the old woman from the original, but this guy knows how to act, and I can appreciate that. The rest of the cast went from mediocre to bad, but I won't go into too much detail, this is that highlight reel after all.

Final Verdict: Rent it A movie that scares me is truly hard to find these days, but when actors are so bad that they take away from the tension it is a bit upsetting. Still worth some money, see it if you have the time. 

Avengers: Age of Ultron

Robots and avenging, cha cha cha. Ultron is the bad guy, cha cha cha.  

We rejoin our friendly neighborhood Avengers in the wake of Hydra surfacing, and Tony Stark taking over funding for the team. They raid a Hydra base in order to find the Tesseract scepter Loki controlled in the first movie. They retrieve the Tesseract, and confront two super powered test subjects Hydra was keeping under lock and key. The super powered beings leave the Avengers to take the scepter, and Tony Stark finds blueprints to create artificial intelligence. He and Bruce Banner mess with the blueprints and accidentally make Ultron, who proceeds to try and help humanity by killing it off. It is up to the Avengers to stop Ultron before he completes his goal to end our species, while trying to deal with the same super powered beings from before.

Let's get this out of the way. I loved this movie, but no movie is perfect so I'll say some of the things that bugged me about this movie, then we can geek out together. Like one big Marvel family.

So, my main overlying problem with this movie is that they didn't really explain the Vision (if you have paid attention to the trailers or posters at all you know he is in this, so no spoiler for you). When he arrives in the movie we come to know him as a powerful being, but we never really know what his powers are. Sure, we get to see him use a laser beam, super-strength and flight; and I know that he has the ability to control his physical density, by reading the comics; but, what about the people who didn't read the comics? The only reason I saw him "phase through" something is because I was looking for it, but if the people who didn't read the comic saw that would they just assume that he had this ability? I don't know, I could have just done with a 10 second piece of dialogue that said "Oh hey, here are Vision's powers." Also, Scarlet Johannson still refuses to give me a Russian accent, and it is becoming a bit of a nuisance. I know it sounds a bit "nit-picky," but it annoyed the hell out of me this time because of a certain scene in this movie. The only other thing I didn't like about the movie enters spoiler territory. Aside from these oversights, I loved the film.

Let's talk about the positive shall we. No need to be so bleak on an otherwise joyous occasion.

This movie was awesome, and I can say that while knowing some faults. Why? Because it was the most fun I have had at a movie throughout the year thus far. I loved the way they made the Vision look. I loved the Hulk "Bruce Banner"/Widow relationship, because it makes so much sense. I love the Hawkeye story. I love the way they did Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch. I love Ultron. I love the fight scenes. I love almost everything about this movie. The story was intriguing, the characters grew depth. The new characters fit into the film quite nicely. I don't mind that the "true origin" of Ultron was changed from the comics. I don't mind that we only get a small taste of some other characters. I don't mind that Ultron's plan can only exist in a universe where Tony Stark never saw any of "The Terminator" movies. I don't mind these things, because I was too busy having my hair blown back with fan service. There are certain parts of the movie that comic readers will love, there are certain parts of the film that people who only watched the Marvel Movies will love. Will you be lost if you haven't seen any of the Marvel Movies? Yes, but at this point that should be expected. The people who have seen every Marvel movie are rewarded time and time again in this movie for their dedicated service. I thank Marvel for not making crap movies.

The way this movie was paced was also great. Sure there was the one thing that could have been explained better, but everything else was right on the nose for me. The movie rushed passed some of the bits of information that we only needed a quick overview for. Ultron's origin? Yeah, he is an AI, finds all the bad stuff people have done, wants to kill us to keep us safe. Those twins? He's a speedster, she messes with peoples minds. There was no more that needed to be explained really. If they wasted a whole bunch of time getting us to know these characters the audience would have a lull point. They picked and chose what to pay attention to and it turned out great in the end.

We know the actors for the old Avengers right? I don't need to go into them right? Cool, I won't. Let's talk about the new people. Elizabeth Olsen as the Scarlet Witch was great, she could have been a bit darker, but she kept the soul of the character intact. Aaron Taylor-Johnson was a perfect Quicksilver, and yes I say that because he did a better job at it than Evan Peters did in "X-Men: Days of Future Past." The portrayals were entirely different than one another, but Aaron seemed to get lost in this role a lot more than Evan did. Paul Bettany is finally shown in the flesh, and he is perfect as the Vision. He has this somber, mechanical tone laid over some genuine emotion, that makes him seem emphatic to the human race; but, also makes him seem above them. It's like a robot dad looking over his human children, it's perfect. James Spader as Ultron blew me away. I didn't expect them to add a funny component to Ultron, but I am so glad that they did, because it fits. He had this cruel sense of humor, which when mixed with the amazing voice was pure gold.

Does this hold up to "The Avengers?" I can't tell. This movie had more character depth, a better plot (or similar plot with some twists), some great fan service, a great villain, and amazing action sequences..... but "The Avengers," was THE Avengers. We had Loki, we got our pay off for waiting for the movie for so long, we had moments like "he's adopted," " puny god," "I got that reference," we had shawarma, we had Hulk smashing, we had Captain America shielding, we had Iron Man blasting, we had Hawkeye shooting, we had Black Widow espionage-ing, and we had Thor thundering. I love both films and can't really say which one was better..... than again.....the first one was totally better. Look this movie was better in a storytelling aspect, but when I watched "The Avengers" for the first time, I found no flaws. Sure after re-watching it a bunch of times I found some holes, but I was too entranced to spot them in the first couple of viewings. This movie was amazing, "The Avengers" is on a different level in my head.

Final Verdict: Buy it Yes, my highest rating. Just so you know that even though a movie has flaws, doesn't mean the quality degrades overall. Sometimes a movie just is, and this movie is amazing. 

Unfriended

The internet is pretty damn

The story here is pretty simple, as far as horror movies go. We look at a computer screen from the perspective of Blaire. Her friends start a video conference, and they are soon haunted by the memory of their friend who committed suicide due to cyber bullying (and I guess some regular bullying too). Her friends start dying from forced suicide (or suicide from being possessed by a spirit), and they must play this spirit's game in order to survive.

I was pretty excited to see if this movie could accomplish being scary from a bold new way of film making. I put the actual budget for this movie at about $50,000 maximum, and in an age where hundreds of millions of dollars is par for the course to spend on a film, that is pretty impressive; however, only impressive if it works. Luckily, this movie works. Let's get this out of the way right now. This movie is in no way perfect. The characters are pretty weak, but since I never expect anything mind blowing from a horror movie's story I wasn't let down. The characters in this are basically copy and pasted from a book called "every horror movie character ever." I was hoping after "Cabin in the Woods" came out, horror movies would pay more attention to the characters, but sadly here I sit. We had the overweight, hacker, joker type. The main protagonist, the jock, the good boy, and the slut. Not all was lost for the characters, luckily they do kind of play around with the classic horror movie tropes, so the people that you expect to fit certain character designs are switched. There is something else I like about the character design, but it enters spoiler territory so I will just say: none of the main characters are really likable. Which is great, not exactly original, but still great.

The thing that surprised me the most about this film was the storyline. The story here was spot-on for today's generation. It wasn't perfect (the haunting from an angry spirit thing is starting to get really old), but there are certain parts of this movie that should appeal to today's generation. The moral of this story is the biggest home-run. This movie tackles cyber bullying above all else, and that is a growing issue for today, since anyone can be anonymous. Now there is a movie out there that says cyber-bullying has consequences, albeit you won't be possessed by a vengeful spirit, but still. If there were more movies out there like this, I feel like the message could come across to today's youth a little more than it is.

The biggest question here, as always, is: Was it scary? Actually, yeah, kind of. Look, it takes a lot for a movie to scare me these days, but this movie had some great scary elements. The way it was shot allowed for loading screens to serve as tension builders. Every part of this movie was made well enough to scare the layman horror movie watcher. The ending kind of annoyed me as far as horror endings go, but that is only because I saw it coming. The sound made the movie all the more tense, and the relatability to certain computer problems made the movie hit home. It made the movie feel more real that it was. If you are looking to be scared there might finally be a movie out there for you.

Normally, I go through the acting at the end, but how bad could teenagers mess up being teenagers. Seriously, if the acting in this turned out bad I would have no hope for the next generation of actors. So was it good. Sure. They acted like teenagers. No big deal.

Final Verdict: See it in Theaters Just a hair under flawless, for a horror movie. If it weren't for a few choices in the character and story department I would say that this movie was well worth buying. Still a pretty great piece of work. 

Furious 7

Bye Paul...

I'm going to do that thing I do sometimes in my reviews, and tell you that this movie needs no synopsis (because it really doesn't). Out of respect for the involved creative parties, I will say that it is about the brother of the antagonist from the last movie, seeking revenge for his brother being hospitalized by the gang we now know from six previous movies. This is not to say that the film was bad, just that the plot was basic, but we all know a movie can transcend the need for good storyline. This is one of those rare occurrences.

So, the story here is your basic bullshit revenge story, and I will not insult my readers by gauging the movie based on the merits of a lacking storyline. This series threw-out the need for good storyline after the first movie by becoming self aware around the fifth installment. This is not a series where you are going to find the best acting (for the most part), the best plot, or any awards attached, this is a series where you strap in and have fun. This is a series where Dwayne Johnson can flex his way out of an arm cast, rotate his shoulder (with provided cracking sound effects), moments later drive an ambulance of a bridge, walk away unscathed, and it seems perfectly normally. This is a series where if CPR fails to bring someone back from the dead, a touching story will do the trick. Lastly, this is differently a series where Vin Diesel and Jason Statham can have a sword fight with wrenches and car parts. This series holds very little basis in reality, but ever since they embraced and ramped-up the ridiculous action it has been extremely enjoyable. Every once in a while a movie like this is a nice break from either ultimately bad movies with nothing but shit surrounding them, and amazing movies that you have to pay attention to. If you want Ronda Rousey demonstrating MMA ,or The Rock giving Jason Statham The Rock Bottom, this is the movie for you.

While I love the mindless violence, and cheesy one-liners presented in this, I have to admit that the directing is a bit of a dice roll. Sometimes the glamour shots and slow motion bullshit are right one the money; other times, they make you want to hold the directors head under water screaming "COULD YOU PLEASE GET TO THE POINT!" James Wan has a fair amount of my respect for some of the movies he has graced us with in the past, but the direction in this was all over the map. Don't get me wrong, when the action is exploding he does a great job; but, for those really important moments, he likes doing the same trick numerous times and it gets to be a bit tiresome.

Now, for the acting. I ask that everyone please remember that this is said with the utmost respect for everyone involved. Almost everyone in this picture seemed to deliver their lines half halfheartedly, right up until the last part of the film (more on the ending later). Everything just seemed so stale coming out of people, and that struck me as a bit strange since all of the movies before this seemed to have a lot of excitement attached. I'm not saying all of the actors were horrible, just that there were moments where I could tell that certain actors didn't want to be there that day. Dwayne Johnson is about par for the course here, as is Michelle Rodriguez. Everyone else seemed to not care as much. I do think we have to crown Ronda Rousey as the absolute worst performance given in this. She had a total of two lines and couldn't seem to deliver.... TWO LINES!

Final Verdict: Rent it  It is hard to gauge a movie like "Furious 7," but in the end I have to go with how entertained I was by the movie. I was thoroughly entertained, and the ending might have you wiping your eyes.



*Spoiler Warning*
 Let's go ahead and talk about the ending real quick. We see "Brian O'Connor" (for all intents and purposes) playing with his family on the beach. Dom says some really touching shit, and goes off without saying good-bye. Cue the flashbacks to all of the other movies in the series. Brian catches up with Dom on the street says something about him not saying good-bye, and they both ride into the sunset together.

This is the perfect ending, and it got me a little chocked up. I honestly wasn't effected by Paul Walker's passing... I mean I was sad for his family and friends, but it didn't effect me much. For those who were effected by it, this was the perfect ending. It was handled gracefully, and the actors were noticeably effected in the film. Even for someone that wasn't directly effected by his passing, this got to me, and I appreciate the artist sharing it with the world. 

Insurgent

Woodley and friends act their butts off for a mediocre story

*Reminder* I still haven't read this book series. Still have no need to delve into it.

We continue the story of the last movie following Tris and Four (Shailene Woodley and Theo James) runnning as fugitives from their society. They have a new plan to bring the fight to their pursuers as they search for the rest of their friends in Dauntless. Four's mother appears and offers the aid of the faction-less to bolster the numbers, but four is not happy with her arrangement (given the history they share). With the appearance of a box that Tris' parents were hiding, and the hunt beginning for all Divergents, Tris and four must hold back the forces while trying to stay alive.

So, this was a bit of a hard movie to describe, and that is mainly because the storyline is so jumpy in this that you can't pay attention at one thing for too long. It is so erratic I feel that the writer must have had some form of ADD, but overall it is solid when you can get through everything. I don't hate the overall storyline in this, it serves as a descent enough allegory for Gay Rights, classicism, and racism, while giving today's youth a powerful woman protagonist. Not "Katniss Everdeen powerful," but still it is nice to see that her brother or boyfriend might not always have to come to the rescue; albeit, she does actually get rescued quite often in this.... maybe she isn't the best female role model, but she is okay. Okay. That's a word I would use to describe almost the entirety of this picture. It tries to be a tad bit different, but ends up bland. It is the most "meh" I have ever felt towards a "popular" series.  I like the factions, but hate the fact that they keep adding to the divergent mythos (now you can be a certain percentage Divergent, like a Divergent married into your family or something). Overall, my main problem with this movie is that everything seems so jumbled and forced. For example, two people having sex seems to be in the movie only to appease the fans, and doesn't seem to have much place in the scene. It is a good try, but their is a big problem when the best thing I can say about a story is "that the concept is still interesting" even though we were introduced to this concept last movie.

On the other hand the director seemed to take this project very seriously because everything looks and feels beautiful. It is surprising that the director of films like "R.I.P.D" and "Flightplan" could make something that looks this good, but I can't deny that everything seems to be well above my par. Given that I need more from a film than pretty things to look at, this compliment doesn't hold much water, but I was surprised none the less. Hopefully they give Robert Schwentke a better movie to sink his teeth into next time, and hopefully he can remain on this path.

Oh Shailene Woodley, I wish you would have gotten popular off of a better series, because you do have a great amount of talent. So, unsurprisingly Woodley did a great job in this, her emotions flowed off her like a waterfall, and she got the entire audience glued to the screen, while they empathized with her character. I can only hope that she gets better work. As for the rest of the cast... Miles Teller has fallen a long way from his performance in the amazing "Whiplash," but given the source material he did what he could. Theo James seems to be taking some acting classes, and I can't wait for them to start bearing more fruit... he did better than last time, but still needs some work. Kate Winslett was damn near flawless, and Jai Courtney surprised me with a pretty great performance.

Final Verdict: Netflix it Some pretty stellar performances and directing did a lot for this movie, but not enough to make up for the story. Here is hoping they find a way to keep me interested in the next two or three in the series. 

Run All Night

Neeson picks up the slack for Kinnaman...some what

Retired hit-man Jimmy Conlon (Liam Neeson) has found himself in a bad situation. His son, Mike (Joel Kinnaman) has witnessed a murder committed by the son of his best friend and employer Shawn Maguire (Ed Harris). Chris runs and the son catches up to him, unfortunately Jimmy is there when he does. Jimmy kills the son, and has to get Chris and his family to safety before the night runs out.

This movie can join the seemingly endless cadre of films that Liam Neeson is being wrangled into in his ever quickening crusade to try and make sure elderly men are taken more seriously as action stars. The difference between this movie and the recent crop of shit that has been looming over our theater screens for the past couple of years is the the story here at least tried to be ambitious.  There were a lot of interesting points in this film, that made this seem like a different animal than Neeson's recent starring roles. The first thing I noticed was that Neeson's character was portrayed as pathetic, even when he went kill crazy, which was a pretty interesting turn. Another thing was the story between the main character and his adversary, who used to be his best friend; that was an interesting plot that added a bit more depth. All was going well (and most of the fault lies in some of the actors and the child like director at the helm), at least that would be the case, if the ending didn't seem to come out of no where, and feel anti-climatic. The story had me for a lock until the final act, then almost lost me completely. There is a lot of cliche nonsense in this that I was trying to overlook but a soft climax to an action movie is not a great selling point..... Also, not to nit-pick, but this really bothered me: I have dealt with my fair share of cabbies that don't care about who their fare is; but honestly, city wide man hunt and this guy is taking a lot of cabs, not one person is going to call?

Given this director's history with horror I know he can build tension (which actually did help one of the scenes in this movie), but even the amount of tension that he built didn't give a lot of substance to this movie. The problem I have here is mainly with the dynamic camera shots he was trying to take through out the entire thing. He basically took me out of the movie completely when I had to look through about ninety different lenses for his point to finally come across in the film. I can blame this movie's pacing problems on the writer, but something tells me the director called for massive cuts in the script so he could get the shots he wanted. The shots in this were, again, ambitious; but, they all just felt so forced and annoying. Plus, this director can't seem to have Liam Neeson take someone down in a movie without the use of slow motion (see his last film "Non- Stop" to get that reference).

You all remember when Liam Neeson was an actor, and not an action star? I do, and I actually got to see some of that old-form Neeson in this film (praise be to whatever movie god made that possible). When he is portraying his character as helpless and pathetic you can really get a sense for the character's plight. You feel his embarrassment as he has to go and ask his best friend's son for a loan to get a new heater. You feel his pain as he looks for the answer to sleep at the bottom of a liqour bottle. This was a "Schindler's List" Neeson, or what I like to call "Pre-Taken Neeson." Sure he acts well in other projects, but this was a nice look at the Neeson audiences fell in love with. On the exact opposite end of the spectrum we have Joel Kinnaman. Is it possible to go back in time and abort this actor's career before he started to ruin movies? I mean it, he is so hard to watch. Annoyingly bad acting, that follows his abysmal performance in "Robocop" from last year. Please stop giving this guy work. Please. Ed Harris showed up, and he was the same intimidating mob boss we have come to know from some previous films, so no problem there. The children in this should probably have tried to take more classes for acting, because I know I can't count on the director to give them the correct guidance. This movie's actors were all over the map, but somewhat predictable sans Neeson. Kinnaman sucks again, Neeson is surprisingly fresh, Harris is standard, and the support varies.

Final Verdict: Rent It Not quite horrible, but some major draw backs held this movie from true greatness. I am only sorry that a movie with a good Neeson performance had to be this movie. 

Chappie

Artificial Intelligence, Religion, Human Consciousness, cha-cha-cha 

Deon Wilson (Dev Patel) has revolutionized the police force by adding robots to their force. Crime is now down and thugs are running scared from the new mechanized officers; however Deon is not done creating. He has a dream of making a sentient machine, able to be the next step in robotic achievement. He goes against his bosses orders and makes a robot known as Chappie (Sharlto Copley). It is up to Deon to teach Chappie how to be more human, with the unasked for "aid" from street thugs, who have their own plans for the robot's upbringing. Throughout the robot's education the thugs and Deon must fend off another gang, and one of Deon's rivals, while trying not to kill each other.

Let me get some of the bad things about this movie out of the way right now, so I can start singing this film's praises. First off the character building felt forced and rushed, as the run time of the movie was unforgiving. Rushed is a really big word for this, because the pacing of the movie was all off. At points you wanted to know more about the characters, at the end you wanted them to pick an ending and stick with it. There were some blatant advertisements for Sony, but I don't think I can complain about that, as I have seat through "Transformers: Age of Extinction."

Now that we got that unpleasantness out of the way, let me tell you how awesome this movie is.

So, at first you are thinking this movie is going to be a revamped "Short Circuit." Then you realize there are about fifty subtle (not-so-subtle) messages in this. From religion to ethics this movie runs the gambit on awesome story telling. I loved that the entire thing can be equated to a theological discussion, while explosions sound off in the background. This movie could very well be used to teach classes about religion, or at the very least about acceptance. The character development may have failed with the side characters, but it picked up with the development of Chappie. It still felt rushed, but you felt for the character. You might have been able to feel more for the character if more time was given, but you still felt bad for him. Maybe it was because of the brilliant acting, maybe it was due to his naivety, but every time Chappie felt pain, you wanted it to stop. The villian's were well calculated to allow more hatred for them. The side characters were there enough for me to at least accept their presence. There are only a few minor details that could have been tweeked to make this movie perfect. This movie absolutely screamed to be turned into a sequel or trilogy.

So I have been a fan of Neil Blomkamp, and I have asked for nothing but his success, because he likes to take risks on new storytelling. Every movie he makes has a something interesting about it, and a pedestal to stand on. Not only is he an extremely talented writer, but he is also an extremely talented director. The man makes his scenery feel alive to the point that you can taste the grit from a battle in your mouth. You can feel the cold of a city lost to violence, or smell the garbage waft over your nostrils as if you were in New York or Detroit. The man can make anything feel like the real deal, and that is a highly sought after talent. This movie follows in his line of beautifully crafted films, and I cannot wait to see what he does with "Alien."
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What's that? Oh yes, his balls do feel good in my mouth, thanks for asking. Asshole.

There was a familiar voice featured in this. A Blomkamp veteran. It always surprises me to see how much talent Sharlto Copley displays in these pictures, how much range he has. The man ate this role, the man slept this role, the man bled this role, the man was Chappie. I know I have a "hard-on" for voice acting, but this was truly remarkable. He brought out the child-like naivety in Chappie, and made it easy for the audience to relate to the character. If I had to give one tip of the hat to anyone in this movie, it would have to be to Mr. Copley. No one really turned in a bad performance, but the A-listers in this were put through the ringer by new talent. None more so than Dev Patel. I think the fans can finally forgive him for 'The Last Airbender" because he is truly remarkable in this.... oh yeah, Hugh Jackman and Sigourney Weaver were in this. They were good too.

Final Verdict: See it in Theaters Some obvious mis-steps in the character development made this movie a bit hard to handle at times, but it was just flat out fun. If you are a movie lover in any sense there will be something here for you.