I really did not like the beginning of this movie, it felt as if the Matrix franchise was a joke the way they talked about it during the first 30-45 mins of the movie. Now after that, that's where it picked up. I loved the choreography, the action was fun and it was nice to see the effects from the original being this polished and real. I never went into the Matrix films for story all I wanted was some great action and I feel that it delivered it for me. Neil Patrick Harris really nailed it as the villain of the movie, it was a nice twist. I didn't really care for Smith in this movie though, it's not the same as Hugo Weaving's performance although I can appreciate Jonathan Groff making the character his own and still making him feel like Agent Smith. Morpheus didn't feel necessary for this movie, it felt like he was being used more to say most of the important old characters were back, however Yahya Abdul-Mateen II gave a great performance so it was easy for me to gloss over it. This movie is nowhere near as good as the originals however it is a good movie in the franchise, it felt like they were setting up for a possible Matrix 5 and if they do I hope that it's as good if not better than the originals.
Reviews
10 Reviews
Honestly... the movie is pretty funny
21 December 2021
Not gonna lie... I enjoyed it way more than I had any right doing. The movie has a lot of good humor and almost all of the verbal jokes land. The fact it also has some subtle dark humor jokes make it better, perfect example of putting adult comedy in a kids movie so parents can enjoy some of it. As well as getting see Slade Wilson fight the Titans again is a great time as well as great acting from Will Arnet and the veteran Teen Titans cast. The movie honestly shows it respects both the child and adult audiences with giving the kids something new and adults getting a hint of nostalgia in a new way.
Terrible Ending to an Otherwise Perfect Series
11 November 2021
The entirety of the last half of season 8 was painful to watch as the entire season felt it was at a rapid pace to finish the show. First off, we were lied to by Benioff and Weiss where they said to compensate for a shorter season the episodes would be at minimum of 2 hours long or longer to allow a well paced finish to the series when that was not the case and the longest episode was the finale (The Iron Throne) clocking in at 1 hr and 20 mins long. Now, where people are saying the ending sucks... no it doesn't, the pacing is what is awful. We the fans have to acknowledge that this was always the intended ending. George RR Martin couldn't keep up the pace of writing the books along side the show so he gave Benioff and Weiss the outlines of how the series was to end and had them go from there. But since it's been 10 years now since book 5 of the series came out with 2 more planned and no knowledge of when book 6 is to be released, we're forced to wait for books that at this point won't come to get to the resolution of the series at a satisfying pace to better the ending. So in this regard... this could be it, we know how the series ends but the series is now tainted with this bitter pacing and guidance where hardly anyone will want to take the journey through Westeros again.
The Last of Us: Part II
(2020 Video Game)
A Bloody Ride with Little Payoff
2 October 2021
Warning: Spoilers
First let me just say that the concept of the story itself is a 10 out of 10, I've always been a sucker for revenge stories and seeing fallen heroes consumed by rage and anger such as Ellie in this title. The graphics are amazing, the sound design is splendid, the atmosphere is truly horrifying when the context of the scene needs it to be. This has all the great makings of a masterpiece... but the execution is what drives it down the hole.
It is this perspective why I gave it a 4 because even though I can see the bigger picture of what they are trying to do with the story, their execution falls flat. The pacing is weird, the necessity of us having to play a whole story line, reach the climax and start the game anew as a different character pulls out of the immersion, and ruins the momentum built over the course of the first 10 hours of the campaign.
The ending irritates me as we go on our revenge spree, let Abby go, find her again and let her go again and having Ellie lose seemingly everything for no reason whatsoever. Had the campaign been polished enough it would have been an absolutely amazing experience, but the poor directing and writing and subverting our expectations just for the sake of expectation subversion with no sense coming from those plot points makes this game a slog to get through at times and can be quite painful as well.
It is this perspective why I gave it a 4 because even though I can see the bigger picture of what they are trying to do with the story, their execution falls flat. The pacing is weird, the necessity of us having to play a whole story line, reach the climax and start the game anew as a different character pulls out of the immersion, and ruins the momentum built over the course of the first 10 hours of the campaign.
The ending irritates me as we go on our revenge spree, let Abby go, find her again and let her go again and having Ellie lose seemingly everything for no reason whatsoever. Had the campaign been polished enough it would have been an absolutely amazing experience, but the poor directing and writing and subverting our expectations just for the sake of expectation subversion with no sense coming from those plot points makes this game a slog to get through at times and can be quite painful as well.
Onward
(I) (2020)
An Emotional Story From the Start
6 April 2020
Warning: Spoilers
As true Pixar fashion, they are not afraid to shy away at pulling at the heart strings of their audience. Personally that I would say this is more a movie for an older audience purely because children would have a hard time to fully grasp the concept of this film as their is not as much humor in this movie as most Pixar films do. This is a much more mature film from the animation studio as far as the story goes and this film hit me in a lot of feels. Losing my mother at an early age, I saw so much of me in both Ian and Barley that it felt good for the first time in my life to have a movie I could relate to. It is a very emotional movie, and has a lot of heart in it for its barely 2 hour run time. It is one of the few movies to make me cry (the list has 4 films total on it now) and I cried a solid 4 times during this film. So parents, this is a good movie to show kids though it might fall flat with them a bit. But to the maturer viewer, if you have had experiences like this in the film then you'll be in for the time to relate your experiences here. Its hard to explain this film in detail, you just need to see it to know what I mean.
Never Did I Think I Wouldn't Be Excited for Star Wars
10 January 2020
Warning: Spoilers
I don't even know where to begin here. This movie is just a mess. I've loved every single film, yes even The Last Jedi... but this just wasn't it. Most of my issues come from Disney more than the film itself, they made Abrams cut 20 mins out of the movie and they cut another 20 behind his back and filmed a different ending without his knowing as well. Had it not been missing an entire hour almost I'm sure it would've been fine but we'll have to hope they release the Abrams Cut. But now on to the review itself.
No backstory with what happened between episodes VIII and IX. We aren't shown how Palpentine broadcasted himself to the Galaxy, or how the First Order found out before the Resistance when it was all broadcasted on the same coms channel (revealed in the opening crawl).
Rey was too powerful for how little time she trained. Somehow she is able to Force Lightning and blow up a ship, Force Freeze Kylo Ren in place AND she knows how to heal someone through the Force. Leia couldn't have taught her that because according to the movie, Leia cut herself off from the force and never finished her Jedi training.
Reylo was forced, or wasn't given enough time to grow properly (at least in the cut we were presented with, in the 3 hour version that was supposed to be released it may have been explored more). The Knights of Ren weren't even used except for Ben Solo to absolutely slaughter them.
Rey being a Palpetine may be a nice "twist" and a decent answer to why she is so powerful but there is no way that in one year those powers would all just come at once as she starts her proper training. Rey defeating Palpetine the same way Windu got his scarred face (Lightning to the face) feels like a cop out and makes it seem like he was dumb for not stopping an attack he should've known would've happened.
Ben shouldn't have been able to fade into the Force when he died. He was way too young to have been taught how to do that. The same sex kiss at the end had no merit to the story at all except to please SJWs. I'm not homophobic or anything but it just felt misplaced, had that relationship been built upon a little bit I wouldn't have minded so much.
And finally... Rey identifying herself as a Skywalker. I can even say my disappointment in that. She wasn't close enough with either Luke or Leia to adopt that family name. Their relationships weren't built on at all, so it felt she had very little right to claim the name. And what's the point of burying Leia's and Luke's lightsabers but building her own when Luke's was technically her property. She could've just kept that one. And if there's no more evil, why even make a new one in the first place?
This movie suffers from pacing issues, points that don't correlate to the story where it should, hardly any proper answers to questions The Force Awakens asked. If the Abrams Cut is released and the other questions are answered and it doesn't feel as rushed, I will happily take some of my statements back. But as it is, this is probably the worst Star Wars movie I've seen, and it's sad too because I really wanted to like it, but the further it went on, the more I knew it wasn't going to get any better.
No backstory with what happened between episodes VIII and IX. We aren't shown how Palpentine broadcasted himself to the Galaxy, or how the First Order found out before the Resistance when it was all broadcasted on the same coms channel (revealed in the opening crawl).
Rey was too powerful for how little time she trained. Somehow she is able to Force Lightning and blow up a ship, Force Freeze Kylo Ren in place AND she knows how to heal someone through the Force. Leia couldn't have taught her that because according to the movie, Leia cut herself off from the force and never finished her Jedi training.
Reylo was forced, or wasn't given enough time to grow properly (at least in the cut we were presented with, in the 3 hour version that was supposed to be released it may have been explored more). The Knights of Ren weren't even used except for Ben Solo to absolutely slaughter them.
Rey being a Palpetine may be a nice "twist" and a decent answer to why she is so powerful but there is no way that in one year those powers would all just come at once as she starts her proper training. Rey defeating Palpetine the same way Windu got his scarred face (Lightning to the face) feels like a cop out and makes it seem like he was dumb for not stopping an attack he should've known would've happened.
Ben shouldn't have been able to fade into the Force when he died. He was way too young to have been taught how to do that. The same sex kiss at the end had no merit to the story at all except to please SJWs. I'm not homophobic or anything but it just felt misplaced, had that relationship been built upon a little bit I wouldn't have minded so much.
And finally... Rey identifying herself as a Skywalker. I can even say my disappointment in that. She wasn't close enough with either Luke or Leia to adopt that family name. Their relationships weren't built on at all, so it felt she had very little right to claim the name. And what's the point of burying Leia's and Luke's lightsabers but building her own when Luke's was technically her property. She could've just kept that one. And if there's no more evil, why even make a new one in the first place?
This movie suffers from pacing issues, points that don't correlate to the story where it should, hardly any proper answers to questions The Force Awakens asked. If the Abrams Cut is released and the other questions are answered and it doesn't feel as rushed, I will happily take some of my statements back. But as it is, this is probably the worst Star Wars movie I've seen, and it's sad too because I really wanted to like it, but the further it went on, the more I knew it wasn't going to get any better.
A Misunderstood Film but Not a Perfect One
18 August 2019
Warning: Spoilers
Now TLJ is by no means a bad movie, but it has major problems but I'll start with the pros.
Pros:
Rian Johnson used techniques of the Force in canon lore for the universe.
His writing brought light to a more dark Star Wars film.
It creates a path that shows that Ben Solo isn't entirely corrupted and does care about Rey and what happens to her.
Cons: It was more a comedy than a Star Wars movie. Finn and Rose's story line could be completely removed and adjusted for a better story arc. Snoke's death was untimely and permitted the return of a villain thought to be dead for decades. After Carrie Fisher's death, they should've let Leia die in the vacuum of space and used that as the driving force for Poe's story arc. No actual lightsaber battle, a thing Star Wars is primarily known for.
Some may like the film, others may not. I had no issue with the film but it's most likely my least favorite Star Wars film.
Cons: It was more a comedy than a Star Wars movie. Finn and Rose's story line could be completely removed and adjusted for a better story arc. Snoke's death was untimely and permitted the return of a villain thought to be dead for decades. After Carrie Fisher's death, they should've let Leia die in the vacuum of space and used that as the driving force for Poe's story arc. No actual lightsaber battle, a thing Star Wars is primarily known for.
Some may like the film, others may not. I had no issue with the film but it's most likely my least favorite Star Wars film.
Avengers: Endgame
(2019)
A Symphony of Action, Feels and Story
26 April 2019
Warning: Spoilers
The build up to the grand finale of this 22 film long story arc is slow, and is part of the reason that the 3 hour runtime is a thing. However the runtime proves useful for the story because if they had just done the first 2 hours in a matter of minutes, the film would feel as if it was rushed and possibly could've ruined it. That being said I feel like it could've had a bit more excitement than what it had but the story got a pass because the characters got the exposition and closure with other characters that they needed and that couldn't have been excused with the runtime under 3 hours long.
One of my favorite parts in the film was the fight between Hawkeye/ Ronin vs Black Widow where they were fighting over who would sacrifice themselves so the other would get the Soul Stone. Jeremy Renner and Scarlet Johansson played their parts to a T and it provided one of the most emotional parts in the film.
The last hour was probably my favorite in the MCU by far. The fact that we finally see Cap lift Mjilnoir and use it to the best of his ability plus using his shield to take on the Mad Titan one on one was amazing. Tony's sacrifice in the end was one of the saddest moments in cinema I've seen, especially since I've grown up with the MCU and got to see the end having watched the vast majority of the Infinity Saga. The closings of all our favorite characters was pure and blissful emotion that mad me sad to see it ending, but happy that the ends were what we as fans and them as characters both deserved.
After the masterpiece that was Endgame, I am very much excited for the next story arc of the MCU and hope that it is even better than the Infinity Saga.
One of my favorite parts in the film was the fight between Hawkeye/ Ronin vs Black Widow where they were fighting over who would sacrifice themselves so the other would get the Soul Stone. Jeremy Renner and Scarlet Johansson played their parts to a T and it provided one of the most emotional parts in the film.
The last hour was probably my favorite in the MCU by far. The fact that we finally see Cap lift Mjilnoir and use it to the best of his ability plus using his shield to take on the Mad Titan one on one was amazing. Tony's sacrifice in the end was one of the saddest moments in cinema I've seen, especially since I've grown up with the MCU and got to see the end having watched the vast majority of the Infinity Saga. The closings of all our favorite characters was pure and blissful emotion that mad me sad to see it ending, but happy that the ends were what we as fans and them as characters both deserved.
After the masterpiece that was Endgame, I am very much excited for the next story arc of the MCU and hope that it is even better than the Infinity Saga.
Assassin's Creed
(2016)
One of the best video game based movies out there
18 August 2017
Being a long time fan of the series I was extremely excited to hear of a film adaptation, but also kinda nervous knowing how poorly video game films perform. But Assassin's Creed did not disappoint. The story was great and the action was amazing. I would give it a full 10 stars, but the only reason I'm not is because it seems that the script was rushed and was in a hurry to be written. But Michael Fassbender's performance was terrific as was Jeremy Irons'. Go pick up this movie, enjoy it, watch it again and enjoy again. You will not be disappointed.
Wonder Woman
(2017)
Overall pretty good
4 June 2017
Probably the best DC movie since The Dark Knight. The action sequences were phenomenal. The slow motion affects in the fights added to awesomeness. Gal Gadot was a great Wonder Woman and shined brightly here. My only complaint was the bit of backstory in the first hour of the movie. It was a small dip but past that first hour, it was non stop action. The chemistry between Chris Pine and Gal Gadot was great. This movie is definitely a must see. Maybe it's even worthy of owning on Blu-Ray.
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