JoshDavisMC

This two hour movie felt like a four hour movie. There’s not much that was terribly bad about it, but there’s not much that was good either. It was just a slog. It reminds me a lot of the Disney live action remakes. The characters are bland and static. The story doesn’t add anything noteworthy to the original. They set it in the present (1976) but don’t do anything interesting with the time period. The only compliments I have for the movie is that the actors do a fine job and the Kong suit doesn’t look bad.

Very solid flick. Sure, the story is a bit messy, some of the characters are underdeveloped, and the humor is, as I’ve come to expect from Deadpool, very hit or miss. But this is a really fun movie with loads of heart. You can tell that the creatives behind this movie are super invested in these characters and their world. Not to mention how well-made this movie is from a technical standpoint. The soundtrack is stellar, the fight choreo is top-notch, the actors all bring their best, and the movie has some really exceptional camera work.

Calling this the best Transformers movie isn’t high praise, but this movie does deserve some high praise. The animation was stellar and the action scenes were cool as hell. The characters were largely well-written. The story was interesting. It drew heavily from existing Transformers lore while also paving its own path. That said, it’s not without flaw. Some of the character development was rushed, especially towards the end. The humor was definitely hit or miss. Overall, this would have been a near perfect movie with an extra 20 minutes near the end and a little less Marvel humor.

This is what I wanted the first Mad Max to be. First of all, the first few minutes of the movie fix my biggest problem with the original by giving some context through an opening narration. That context did a great job setting the stage and getting me invested in this world. This movie also did a much better job with the premise. In the first movie, I didn’t really care about the Leather Cops or the biker gang, but this movie did a great job getting me invested in the settler’s attempt to escape. It did a great job getting me to care for the characters, even ones that I didn’t think I would care about, like the Gyro Captain and Feral Kid. The one big mark against this movie for me is the antagonists. I didn’t care about Wez at all, he really just felt like Toecutter 2. Lord Humungus was interesting at first, but they didn’t really do anything with him from there. I think eliminating Wez and focusing on Humungus would’ve really helped flesh him out. The chase sequence at the end of the movie was pretty good, but what was especially good was the reveal at the end of it, which I’ll avoid discussing further for spoilers sake.

Went in expecting an apocalyptic story and instead got one part leather cops and one part Australian Punisher. But the fact that I expected one thing and got another is not why I didn’t love this movie. It’s because for must of the movie I was completely in the dark on what’s going on. The first 30-40 minutes of the movie set the scene. Or, that feels like what they’re trying to do, but very little is actually set up. There’s almost no exposition given, the dialogue is hard to follow (not sure if that’s a writing issue or I just don’t understand Australian lingo), and very little context is shown. The only thing the intro does do effectively is introduce our main character, Max. After that, the movie finally gets me to start caring by showing me Max’s home life and his struggle to be happy. From there, the movie had a pretty solid story, my only issues being the lack of a compelling antagonist and some iffy dialogue. The movie really hits its stride with just 17 minutes to go, which really just made me wish we had gotten to that point sooner. I felt like the movie would have been better without all the police work at the beginning and if we had instead just focused on Max, his family, and his revenge. Overall, there was a lot I didn’t love and some stuff I did like, but ultimately I could have scratched the same itch by watching or reading The Punisher and saved myself the headache.

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 was the perfect conclusion to the trilogy. One of the things I loved is that it felt like that: the conclusion to its own trilogy as opposed to another entry in a long-running story like the third Ant-Man or Captain America. This movie took everything great about the first two movies and improved on it. As the conclusion to the trilogy, the movie gave satisfying, well-earned closure to each of our main characters. Each character had their own arc in the film (a feat that can be hard to accomplish in an ensemble movie like this) that fit with what we’ve seen before, felt like a natural progression, and went to a fulfilling place. Not only that, but the arcs are intertwined in a way that doesn’t leave the movie feeling messy.Anyone who saw this movie’s trailers or poster releases could tell that Rocket was going to get a spotlight in this movie, but we couldn’t have predicted how well-earned that spotlight would be. Rocket really shines in this movie in a way that makes him feel more like the star of the show than Star-Lord (although Star-Lord gets plenty of time to shine, too). As anyone familiar with the series would expect, the soundtrack of the movie was excellent. James Gunn has a talent for choosing songs that really fit the tone of the story/scene and including them in a way that feels natural. The way he transitions songs playing in-story into the soundtrack is especially notable. The cinematography in this movie was excellent. More often than not, you only notice the cinematography if it's bad. When cinematography is good, you become immersed in the movie and tend not to notice it. However, sometimes a movie has cinematography so good that you can’t help but notice and appreciate it. That was how I felt during this movie. There were more than a few moments where I was taken aback by a particular shot. Of course, no Marvel movie would be complete without humor, but James Gunn reminds us that he was the one that really started that trend in the first Guardians. A lot of Marvel movies have a big problem with undercutting serious moments or scenes with humor, but this movie doesn’t really have that issue. The movie finds an incredible balance between humor and sincerity that allows the sincere moments to be sincere and create an opening for humor. The humor and sincerity work together rather than combatting one another. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 was not just a great Marvel movie or a great sequel, but a great movie. My only complaint is that the high bar this movie sets makes some other recent Marvel movies look worse than they already did by comparison.

I went into this movie expecting it to be okay at best and was really surprised at how much I enjoyed it. It’s by no means a perfect movie, and it has some glaring flaws, but it really is a very entertaining movie with a lot of care and attention put into the world and characters. Visually the movie looked incredible. The animation and character designs were flawless. It’s no best-picture nominee, but it’s definitely worth watching, especially if you're a fan of Mario already.

It’s rare to have a movie series without a single miss, but here we are. The fourth John Wick takes what people love about the first three and improves on it. The movie has, as one might expect, incredible stunts, beautiful fight choreography, and a great soundtrack. Chapter 4, however, surpasses its predecessors with its incredible cinematography, compelling narrative, and stunning sets. Visually, this is the best John Wick has ever looked, and the introduction of some new, very-compelling characters takes the story and stakes to a new level. The movie isn’t perfect. It does have some clunky dialogue at times, and one of the main characters, while interesting, didn’t seem to serve much purpose to the narrative.

Paddington is way more entertaining than it should be. When the movie first came out, I had no interest in seeing it. In the past nine years since its release, I’ve been hearing nonstop good things and now I see **** it a perfect movie? No. The CGI isn’t great (but it’s not bad either, consistently solid) and some of the dialogue falls **** the dialogue that doesn’t fall flat hits hard. This movie is so charming and fun. The humor in it consistently hits, the soundtrack really fits the tone of the movie, and all of the actors do a great job in their **** of my favorite things about this movie is how seriously yet casually everyone takes it. A bear walking around and speaking is clearly established as an abnormal thing, but nobody questions it or pokes fun at it. He’s just a bear who can speak, and that’s that.

Wakanda Forever had a really, really good story. Especially given the circumstances surrounding the film, they managed to create a sequel that lives up to the first, tells its own stand-alone story, and pays tribute to the late Chadwick Boseman. I never cared much for Shuri’s character in her previous appearances, yet this movie made me invested in her story. At its core, despite all the flare of a Marvel movie, this is a deeply human story about loss and growth. Like the first Black Panther, the movie adds in a compelling antagonist who works as a great inverse for our main character in the form of Namor. These opposing forces are supported by a great cast of side characters like Okoye, Riri Williams, M’Baku, and Queen Ramonda. One thing that that was missing from the movie were fleshed out supporting Talokanil characters. By only introducing us to Namor, Talokan feels empty despite the amount of inhabitants we see. On the Wakanda side of the story, the worldbuilding is very well-executed, and as expected, the soundtrack of the movie is incredible.Despite all of that, this is still a Marvel movie. And as has become a pattern lately, the special effects are noticeably lacking. Additionally, the editing and pacing of the movie felt strange to say the least. The movie also introduces an out-of-place subplot with Valentina, Julia Louis-Dreyfus’s character, that’s clearly intended to set up future stories and only loosely-connected to the story of this film.