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M3GAN (2022)
Just a frustratingly bad film
I'm sure the writers would argue that the film is tongue in cheek but it didn't work and instead you get a film that has characters that are a total mess. Just who am I supposed to be rooting for here?? The lead female is just such an unsympathetic character, who has no empathy or concern about the child left in her company. Even the child (although acted well), behaves really bizarrely at times and then turns into an action hero at the end.... have the writers ever met a child?
The robot and the idea behind her had potential but it was all the human characters that were done poorly (maybe that is a statement about Hollywoods fake culture).
As for the men... well its just getting so predictable these days... but they are of course all stupid or evil or just insane. Amazing how concerned film makers are about sexism and yet sexism is just dripping from there films.
The film just left me frustrated that anybody could make this garbage.
Three Thousand Years of Longing (2022)
Boring and pretty pointless
This is not a good film. The special effects are OK and the actors do their best with what they have to work with. Idris Elba being particularly good, and its unfair to criticize Tilda Swinton as she was playing a character written like a piece of wood (and she did that convincingly).
The writing really lets the film down. The dialogue is OK if a little flat, but the story seems almost completely pointless and contradictory. Our protagonist is described to us as being happy in her solitude and indeed that is what we mostly of her, but after a couple of stories from the Djinn she immediately decides that her first wish is for him to love her. That doesn't come after some process of her learning she has been wrong all these years, we don't see any growth or character arc in her. No she just suddenly decides that's she wants him (there hasn't even been any chemistry between the two of them).
The main story line is inter cut with flash backs from the Djinn telling his stories of his life and the previous owners of his bottle. The trouble with these stories it that the Djinn takes almost no part in them being primarily an observer (apart from falling in love a couple of times). The stories themselves aren't particularly interesting nor do they have any characters that really capture your attention. If they are supposed to be tails that Tilda learns from we don't really see it in her, just some sorrow at the Djinn's suffering.
Inevitably the film has its fair share of woke. Sheba (the most beautiful woman ever) is black rather than middle eastern, and Solomon come to her rather than the other way around. Another character we meet is an extremely intelligent girl who is seemingly enslaved by her marriage to an old white man... who strangely has a small harem of women wearing Burqa's. When the Djinn falls in love with this girl she berates him for trying to enslave her in love! Finally back in London Tilda's neighbors are two cartoonishly racist old white women who serve absolutely no plot purpose.
The film kept hinting that it was supposed to be a cautionary tail about having wishes but when the twist came it completely failed to serve this purpose. And if the film was supposed to be a morality tail about how the single life is no substitute for a happy relationship that failed to. Tilda ends up single and happy (apart from the occasional visit from the Djinn). I would recommend Nick Cage's The Family Man as a much better way of approaching the subject of how shallow a single life can be. In the End the story just seemed utterly pointless.
The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power (2022)
Beautiful but empty
After having watched the first two episodes (2 hrs of TV), I find that I have no investment in any of the characters in the show...
The visuals of the show are excellent and I particularly liked the way Khazad-dûm was presented, but I guess that is what you get with a budget as large as this show had. The music is OK but nothing special, and there was at least one point where I felt it didn't match what was happening on screen, but no major complaints.
Where this show really falls down is in the writing. After 2 hours we don't seem to have had any interesting progress. This is not because the show has been doing a lot of world building, most of that was done in the prolog. Instead its because it's started multiple story lines at a glacially slow place. That might be alright if they were building up characters but the dialogue writing has been so spectacularly bad the characters are either paper thin or just weird. Indeed several times I found myself laughing at just how bad the dialogue was.
Finally I should mention our main protagonist. Galadriel is yet another example of a heroic character written to be so unlikable I think I'm going to end up rooting for Sauron. She is antagonistic, self righteous and entitled. She doesn't have any care for anybody around her and has zero charm or screen presence. She bears absolutely no resemblance to the Galadriel of Lord of the Rings. To be fair to the actress this is mostly the fault of the writing not her acting (although that's not great either). In fact the acting in general is very mediocre.
This show needs to get better quick or its going to fail spectacularly.
Prey (2022)
Mediocre action movie
This film is not good but not terrible either. The premise is an interesting one... how would a tribe of Native Americans deal with a Predator, but the film fails to make anything new out of this.
Perhaps the main thing lacking in this film is any tension, sure it seems next to impossible for our heroine to defeat the killing machine but she never seems to show that. I should give Hollywood some credit as compared to many female protagonists of recent years she's a marked improvement. She does fail, she does learn and she's not being given over the top compliments. Unfortunately she's also very bland, managing to express considerably less emotion than Schwarzenegger does in the first film.
The other characters don't fair much better as they all kind of lack presence and something to distinguish them. I never really felt like I cared about any of their fates.
The dialogue is also kind of off as it feels just too modern, but that doesn't bother you too much as there is so little of it. That also goes some way to explain why the characters feel so bland... they barely have anything to say.
Obviously this is a female empowerment story but its not shoved in your face too much. Yes she's told she can't be a hunter and proves herself to be the best hunter, but the film doesn't rub your nose in it. There are a couple of places where the film seems kind of ridiculous. The tomahawk with a string on it behaves unrealistically, the CGI animals are poor, the way the predator dies is just bad, and I can't see why they made her War Chief at the end when she has shown zero leadership skills.
The Gray Man (2022)
Good action not much else
This is an above average action movie that deliveries a series of well put together action sequences in interesting variety of locations, and as such it is certainly enjoyable. The characters are interesting and the movie breezes along at a good pace not getting bogged down in overly long scenes.
However, that is about all this film offers. There is very little in character development and the plot is a paper thin McGuffin chase. The actors all played there roles well although Ana de Armas seems stuck playing a character with none of the charm or sensuality we have seen in her roles before. This is no fault of the actress simply the fact that if her character had been played by a man it would have been identical. Sadly no repeat of the kind of character she had in No Time to Die (where she stole the film).
In summary an enjoyable action film, worth a watch, but nothing amazing.
On - drakon (2015)
A beautiful tale
What a beautiful tale this is of a love between two people told through the allegory of fantasy. A film that leaves you with that heart felt joy of having watched an inspiring story. Both lead characters start off as flawed and grow as individuals to reach a heady climax. How sad it is that Hollywood now seems completely incapable of creating a film such as this but the Russians without our hangups can manage it.
Note: I watched this film on Amazon which is a dubbed version but I have to say the dubbing was well done and not a distraction.
Farmlands (2018)
Brilliant and Disturbing
This documentary is both brilliant and disturbing. Lauren Southern shines a light on the plight of the white racial minority in South Africa, a community under increasing threat as racial tension grow, particular around the subject of land rights. While the documentary admittedly only looks at one side of the issue it does show, in disturbing detail, the justified fear under which these communities are living. This is an issue that is far to ignored by the main stream media and this film does a great deal to help raise awareness and is recommended to anybody with even a passing interest in the subject.
Wind River (2017)
Film ruined by poor rediculous ending
The first 3/4 of this film were really quite good (sure there was a few moments of eye rolling social commentary but nothing too bad). The dynamic of the of the out of town FBI agent and the local Hunter worked particularly well, the setting was also spectacular and set the scene for an interesting and unusual crime mystery.
Note: major spoilers ahead. Unfortunately all this setup was ruined by a rediculous final chapter. The film seems to want to be taken seriously but then turns into a comic book western at the end. In a turn of events that surprises precisely nobody the villains of the film turn out to be crass working class straight white men... who are so unable to control their lust that they beat their colleague to death and gang rape his girlfriend. Is this what the writer really thinks men are like! If that wasn't bad enough enough they are then prepared to have a shot out with law enforcement, when they arrive, as if they could get away with their crimes if they kill a load of police!!!! What makes all this more intellectually insulting is that at the beginning of the film we have a the line suggesting this is based on real events. However, none of the events depicted happened and this claim seems to be based purely on the fact that an unknown number of native American women go missing every year. The writers conclusion is that they must be getting raped and murdered by white men... rather than something less likely such as they have run away!!!
Star Wars: Episode VIII - The Last Jedi (2017)
Better than the Force Awakens
But then I would only give the Force Awakens 1 out of 10. This film has some truly hilarious moments in it... in the shaking my head laughing at the stupidity of the film. Some epic moments:
The film start with a telephone joke from Po. Its actually a well done gag but its totally immersion breaking for a film that is expecting its plot to be take seriously.
If Leia didn't want Po attacking the Dreadnought why did she allow the bombers to follow him in... were they all disobeying orders.. is Leia that bad a leader.
How does Leia get back from space when surely opening the door would have caused all the air to rush out (instead it appeared to rush in)
Why can't some of the First Order fleet jump in front of the fleeing resistance.
How can Finn leave the fleet and come back while its being pursued but the First order ships can't do similar.
Why is Po mutiny necessary, if she had just told him the plan.
Why is Po forgiven for his mutiny, didn't somebody get shot during it.
Can the first order really not detect a fleet of transport craft leaving the Cruiser... does that mean they couldn't detect fighters flying at them as well.
I'm sure there are more that slip my mind.
Terrible characters (the SJW is strong in this one):
Finn achieves nothing for another whole film just like he did in TFA... his side plot was ultimately pointless.
Hux is just a bad joke (have you noticed how the first order is lead entirely by white men)
The leaders of the resistance are terrible at doing there job... they can't lead or communicate (the good guys are lead by women... but if this is supposed to be an advert for female leadership it fails)
Po's character is attacked several times (presumably for being too male), belittling one of your hero's is a good choice by the writers. Then he has his mutiny and gets instantly forgiven for it (over the course of the film Leia treats him like a misbehaving child).
Snook's character is not developed or any background explained and he dies in a pathetic anti-climax.
Ray was improved from TFA where she was a total Mary Sue but she still turns Kylo (he can't kill Ray or Leia but Han was no problem), and of course she doesn't actually need Luke's help.
Kylo remains the worst antagonist ever... losing pretty much every encounter he has (I almost found myself routing for him the poor love).
As for Luke... you could really cry the way they ruined his legacy. How pathetic was he and even his grand entrance to save the day turned out to be an illusion that achieved next to nothing... excused with a poor plot point of delaying the attack on the base.
The Man from U.N.C.L.E. (2015)
Pure Entertainment
I really don't know why this film didn't do a lot better. This is a film that has style and character in abundance. The plot is nothing clever but it does work (which can't be said for a lot of stories in action films). Where this film really scores points is with the 3 main characters and how they interact with each other.
When I was watching this I couldn't help thinking that this is what is so lacking in modern James Bond films, which have become generic action flicks. Napoleon Solo does Bond better than Bond! a character with real style and both attractive and floored qualities. Indeed this is why all the characters work so well they all have strengths and weaknesses which makes them work as a team. We also have the rare inclusion of a female antagonist whose just plain bad without any excuse being given for her behaviour.
In short this film is bags of entertainment and enjoyment and is a worthwhile way to spend an evening, and you can't say much better than that.
Maleficent (2014)
The irony is strong in this one
To be fair to this film it is well directed and.. well that's it really.
The irony is that this film seems to be a response to claims of sexism directed at previous Disney films but in response they have produced the most sexist film you are ever likely to see. Simply put all the men in this film are portrayed in an unremittingly bad way except for the 'happy slave', because good men do whatever they are told. There is not one good character in this film.
The film tries to forgive the actions of the 'evil Maleficent' and this is certainly what the audience is supposed to feel. Her terrible actions are justified by being in response to what is clearly a date rape. But how can her actions be justified when she takes revenge on the child of her attacker? As for the princess herself, she is a paper thin character who seems to forgive Maleficent far too easily after discovering that her father (predictably) doesn't show any love for her (the same father that hid every spinning wheel in the country).
The final message of this film is that the only 'true' love is between two women as men are clearly incapable of love even when that is between a father and his daughter. Whatever you do don't get this film for your sons and daughters its 'moral' messages are all bad.
Doctor Strange (2016)
Enough with origin stories?
This is not terrible film but its not good either. Maybe I am just getting bored of origin films but I certainly found myself getting bored with this film. Most of it has been done before, not that long ago, and many times better.
The film makes a big mistake early on by introducing the antagonist with a fight that he is losing, this is just poor story telling as its hard to see the antagonist as much of a challenge after this. Cumberbatch does a reasonable job as the hero but a lot of the jokes fail to land (something that is even lamp-shaded). Tilda Swinton is completely unconvincing in the mentor role. Her performance reminded me of Gabriel in Constantine and whilst it worked brilliantly in that role she just felt paper thin in this role (to be fair it might be the writing not the performance).
Where this film really loses the plot is with the effects, I'm not against CGI but good effects should be there to enhance the story and immerse us in the world. In this case however the effects are often jarring and confusing. Its hard to follow a fight scene when the world is shifting all the time in the background. Finally I have to question why they put time manipulation in the film, I thought it was because this was the main power of the comic book character but apparently not. The trouble with time travelling and time manipulation is that its incredibly hard to do well, it often robs the story of gravity because of the lack of consequences of your actions when you can just rewind or go back in time. This film fell into that trap with both feet and the final 'showdown' was completely unrewarding as a result.
The Red Pill (2016)
A great film about important issues
The Red Pill is a fascinating movie that follows feminist film maker Cassie Jaye exploring the men's rights movement. Whilst she is expecting to find a movement of hidden misogyny what she find is nothing like that. Not only are the members of the movement reasonable people interested in gender equality, but their arguments that men currently suffer a great deal of disadvantages seem all too reasonable. The movie explores many of these arguments and the data that supports them without having the time to go into the issues in detail. As the film progresses we see Cassie questioning many of her previously firmly held beliefs, and the emotional journey this takes her on.
This film really is what the best documentaries should be, not just something that confirms the modern zeitgeist but a film that challenges the viewing to think about the world in a different way. Could it really be that we now live in a world where men are more disadvantaged than women, this is a film that will leave many believing that. In short this is simply the must see film of the year, if not the last few years.