Wonder Woman - What the DC movie universe should be.

As per usual i am not going to go in to plot details but it is a movie worth seeing and it is in my mind how DC should make their movies. I do feel sorry for whom ever had to write the script for Justice League trying to do Wonder Woman justice in that movie. Done wrong and and the backlash will be savage. 

Anyway the movie does a good job of blending Wonder Womans often changed and rewritten backstory and give it a solid feel. It is not a perfect movie.. what even that means. But it has solid humor and a fairly well-crafted story. Supporting roles are properly supporting and the villain actually have a believable motivation. Even if it is a bit stock. 

Visually the movie is stunning and it does a really good job of telling a story through light and set dressing. Same goes for sound design. The movie sounds great. It does pander to the 3D for the sake of 3D but nothing really important would be lost if one was to view it in 2D. Mostly it is a bunch of stuff flying towards the viewer. I lay this solidly at the feet of WB and not the crew who made the movie. 

As for the actors. Gal Gadot and Chris Pine bring that timing and chemistry that have been lacking in all the other modern DC movies. You believe them and the journey they take. As for Etta Candy played by Lucy Davis, she brings just the right light and snarky observation needed to ground the start of the movies second act. Would have liked to see a bit more of her tho. 

Now it is worth mentioning that this movie have very little connective tissue to the rest of the DC universe, but that was to be expected seeing as it is set during WW1. And since this is not Marvel... No end credit scene for you. 

In short. Go see it. It is worth it even if you dislike the rest of the DC offerings. Just remember to not base your decision of watching Justice league on this movie as there is no connection between the production teams. That one will be a Snyder picture. 

Until next time

Stay safe, be kind and play fair. 

Bye

Logan... My opinions (no spoilers)

Ok to be fair... By no spoilers i mean no more than the trailers have spoiled (actually less) but fair warning is fair. 

So now this movie is way more in line with the MCU movies as in it is a story that happen to contain super heroes. It is not really s story about super heroes who does stuff. Now my biggest complaint is that the version we saw had a horrid audio mix but that might be down to the cinema and not the movie. But it was LOUD at times and not a pleasant gut punch loud, no this was a more along the lines of shaking your teeth kind of loud. 

Did not detract from the story at large, but worth mentioning. 

So on to the movie it self. 

There is not much i can say about the plot without going in to spoilers so i will simply say that the story is well written and hit all the notes i would expect from such a story, the only nicks being that it get a bit lazy in the third act. But that might be due to editing, i can see a extended version solving some of those issues. It does also tie in nicely to the two previous movies without winking and nudging so much that you have to watch the, A basic familiarity with the character is enough. All in all it holds together to the end and wraps up in a satisfying way. 

Visually it is a stunning movie, the sets look very good, music and soundscape ties things together and the final track in the movie will do you in. Is it the best super hero movie... No not by a long shot, Nor is it even the best Marvel movie in my mind (that is still GotG). but it is with out a doubt the best movie featuring Wolverine in my opinion. The supporting cast is also very solid and i really like the story beats they choose to go with. 

Gha... I do not really know what to say... Go and see it, it is worth the price of the ticket. 

I will do a more spoilery dissection in a week or so. Because there is much to talk about. 

But for now.  

Stay safe, be kind and play fair. 

Bye. 

A Star Wars story: Rogue One. - No spoilers impressions

So this will be as per usual the more spoiler free version, no major plot point or stuff revealed… (beyond what is revealed in the ep 4 crawl). More my own opinions and feelings about the movie in general and it´s place in the greater universe.

It was fucking awesome… .. .

In my opinion at least.

It was for all intents and purposes getting the whole “wink n nod” thing right. Unlike The Force Awakens that more or less pelted you over the head with “oh look at this callback to the old movies.” Rogue one does it a lot smoother and gentler. The plot, as far as you need it can be read in the opening crawl of ep 4. But it was a very good story and it wraps up nicely. This is important seeing as this movie is a sort of stand-alone movie. You do not like to have sequel or cross-over bait in a stand-alone movie. Sure it has a fairly large cast and more than a few of them end up nothing more than a face on the screen. But the core cast is solid and it is a diverse set of characters. Very nice to see and a welcome nuance from the Force Awakens.

The movie also gets both the visual and the audio bits really right. Beyond some really impressive special effects it also have a good overall visual style. The different planets are distinct and we get some “new” ones. Like the beach settings as well as some old classics. The audio is as solid as always, things sounds and feels the way it should.

It is also nice to see Disney are using the lessons learned from the Marvel movies and incorporate parts from the broader universe. This also explains why they first wiped the slate clean with the old expanded universe. Being able to pick out the best crumbs of 30+ years of brainstorming must be awesome.

Anyway. I will do a more spoiler type review next week. But my general thoughts are tat you should go see this if you like Star Wars or space fantasy in general.

Just don´t let your expectations choke you.

Cheers.

Fantastic beasts: A spoiler free review

First off, sorry about the lateness of this post but i simply fell asleep before i could write it up. It is also good to digest a movie a bit before writing about it in my mind. 

Fantastic beasts and where to find them, for the people unfamiliar is the latest movie in the Harry Potter universe. It is a prequel of sorts and is set during the roaring 20´s. As the title suggest it is about the the author of the in universe book "Fantastic beasts and where to find them". This book has been presented as a end all be all source of best knowledge. I am going to leave the story of the movie at that and simply say that it is a very good story. 

Now the movie it self is well crafted, if one discount a handful of scenes, but these does not really impact the movie so that is something i am willing to overlook. Both the female and male lead are likeable and especially Redmayne have that perfect adrokable vibe. But as good as they are they are almost upstaged by the supporting cast, human and beast alike. It is also nice to see the movie break a few tropes that plagues most average blockbusters. 

Now no movie is flawless, and in the case of this movie, outside of those errant scenes most problems in this movie have to do with how the action scenes are cut, they are messy and the use of a first person view in some of them really does not work. Add a rather lackluster use of 3D and you have what sometimes feel almost Michael Bay-ish. I´l go in more detail about my thoughts regarding what worked and not in my spoiler review. 

To sum things up i think Fantastic beasts and where to find them is a great movie and i felt my money was welt spent. But it does touch on some subjects that will leave people who have just read the books or even more just seen the other movies a tad bit confused. Go watch Fantastic beasts and where to find them, you will not be disappointed. 

/T

Extra delivery: Miss peregrine's home for peculiar children (non-spoiler review)

I watch Miss peregrine's home for peculiar children this very evening and walking in blind so to speak, being entirely unfamiliar with the source material I was partially bracing my self mentally. After all I sat through City of Bones and came out feeling like I had just gargled a kitten soaked in absinth... I was very confused. 

Good news... Miss peregrine's home for peculiar children is a coherent story that is fairly easy to follow and hit all the needed notes. I would even say that it is enjoyable as long as one can disengage the brain enough. 

I am not going to go in to the story at all because it is pretty much impossible to do so without spoiling things. But I have seen in being compared to the X-Men franchise and that is not a bad place to start. But it is still a coming of age story leaning on the classic heroes journey. So don´t expect a earth shattering experience with twists so sudden that you fall off your chair. Instead prepare for a fairly innocent and adorable young adult fantasy story with clear sides and distinct characters. Also the actors are well cast and do a very nice job, again nothing that will win a Oscar but still a solid performance. 

I will do a more in dept review come Monday (I need to look in to the source material among other things) but my initial thoughts are that you should go see it for a nice wind down from the summer blockbusters and enjoy something a bit more quiet before Marvel injects you with some digital LSD by the way of Benedict Cumberbatch.

A good movie and for the genre one of the best we have seen so far... Even if that in it self is not saying much.  

Be kind and stay safe.