5.5/10 - I was so hyped for this but unfortunately it was quite a letdown... :(
The CGI, cinematography, and audio/sound is nice but I didn't like the writing (at all!). I was expecting a cool Sci-Fi movie about AI with interesting concepts but IMO this is fantasy and not Sci-Fi as it lacked any science (I really cannot remember anything technical/scientific - I guess the highlights were "off", "standby", and "coding error"...). I also didn't find any meaningful deeper meaning and couldn't really relate to any of the characters. I only remember one (IMO) bad AI movie (Chappie) as I really love AI based movies but this was really meh (I don't hate it but I don't like it either - it basically left me emotionless - nice visuals, cool sounds, but a dull story, unfortunately). IMO the story was as full of plot holes than a Swiss cheese :(
I watched this movie in the cinema and don't remember any reactions apart from 1-2 laughs at cheap jokes (like the "I just switched it off"). I just sat there after the movie, watching the end credits and trying to think about deeper meanings, the story, etc. but the only thing that came to mind were the visuals and audio.
It makes me a bit sad that the budget was wasted on a story that felt way too cheap. Even without interesting Sci-Fi concepts it could've been better by focusing more on fantasy world building (like some recent Star Wars shows (apart from the main movies!)) or comedy (like Marvel movies/shows). I was also annoyed that many kinda important characters died - there was so much death in this that I quickly stopped caring about it as it simply became the norm or a least a theme...
It even ended with a boring (IMO) open end (and I do not hate open ends in general!).
Anyway, IMO the story is quite meaningless and contains too many plot holes.
Oh, wow, this is difficult to rate. It's technically very good but I don't really like it. So I'll go with a 7/10.
The good stuff:
The bad stuff:
So in the end it was an interesting movie but I don't really feel good after watching it. The drama is kinda fine because it's basically there from the beginning to the end so I didn't start to really care about any of the characters anyway (which is normally a bad thing but in this case I prefer that). The thing that get's me though is that it shows how much we humans don't know and unfortunately that's very true (so my thoughts signifficantly amplify that). We could even be living in a simulation. We basically don't know what living/existance is. We can observe our environment and create models for how things work and use that to predict the future but we don't know how the universe was created, if there's only one, how long our universe will last, etc. And that makes me question the meaning of life. I like living but does it even matter in any way at the end? Will humanity have a lasting impact or will we just be some dumb virus in our galaxy that tried to spread but failed.
Quite scary to think about such stuff... So I'll better end this review now :)
6.5/10 - Lots of action and CGI but little story.
The intro started off well. Those sounds don't get boring :D The scenes at Cybertron are very cool, especially due to the flying ships. I still remember how cool that was when watching it at the cinema in 3D <3 For some reason especially that last scene when "The Ark" got shot down but that cool missile(s).
It's also interesting how Optimus described their race as "mechanical beings". That seems quite oversimplified (something like cybernetic beings would seem more appropriate - mechanical stuff doesn't get far...).
The most interesting part of the story was that alternative motivation for the race to the moon. It could kinda make sense.
However, Sam's new girlfriend (Carly) is a really boring/stupid character IMO. It looks like they just wanted her to be hot (and I don't even find her hot for some reason). She kinda feels like a blonde barbie doll: Beautiful but dull (ok, maybe that reference is inappropriate - no offence intended). Anyway, she feels neither smart nor tough so I'm not interested (apart from the British accent of the actress). That story about the breakup with Mikaela feels also like real bullshit... (but I guess there's no real alternative - other than letting her die at least).
Sentinel prime was a cool character for a bit. The smart "technologies inventor". However, him turning didn't quite feel right (his behaviour feels to inconsistent).
Chinese guy was fun for a bit btw. But then they took it way too far...
It also sucks that many transformers died in a frustrating way. Ironhide getting shot in the back by Sentinel Prime and Que dying unnecessarily as a prisoner at war.
I loved "Monsters" (Paramore) during the end credits though :)
Huh, somehow it seems like they cannot come up with a good story anymore. There are many scenes and elements that I love but overall the concept feels lacking. My main issue is that some things feel just "stupidly silly". I'm not quite sure how to describe it but it kinda makes me feel stupid when watching it. It also feels a bit too all over the place...
Anyway, there's one very good thing and that are the animations. It feels like the previous movies had better ones but overall they're sill great. Of course they're "silly" to but the good kind of silly. They're really funny and also feel creative(/intelligent) - but there are exceptions of course. I love those animators for making such things happen.
IIRC the first two movies are the best. The third movie introduced Erica and her father and I dislike both, unfortunately. At least Erica became acceptable in this movie.
Tbh at this point I might just be watching Hotel Transylvania movies because of the animations and Selena Gomez (I miss having her as an actress in movies [0] so it's nice to at least have her voice acting - there are of course other good voices and voice performances as well).
Edit: Oh, LOL, Ninja was a voice actor for this?!? Interesting choice, I guess :) I'm not gaming anymore and it's too long ago that I watched a few of his videos so I didn't recognized his voice but I imagine it would've been quite funny if I did :D (E.g. I find John Oliver very funny as a voice actor for similar reasons.)
[0]: Edit2: If I think about it they probably weren't as good as I remember them. There was always something annoying but IIRC I usually liked Selena's performance (in the few select movies that I watched).
9.5/10 - What a treat! I already had pretty high expectations but this was so much better :)
Lots of fun and action, cool gaming "memes"/moments, and a nice love story (in both worlds :D).
IMO it's just such an awesome and original story (which is kinda rare these days).
I also like the AI (AGI) part were gaming NPCs become so complex that they become "sentient". Guy passed the Turing test in such a cool way. Millie's reaction was just priceless :D
I also appreciated all of the gaming references and "inside jokes". Especially towards the end they really went for it and even got permission to play the soundtrack from The Avengers and Star Wars. That was an unexpected but totally awesome surprise.
Maybe I should even rate it 10/10.
7.5/10 - I thought this would be boring to rewatch but luckily it isn't :) The 4K version on Amazon Prime video tempted me to rewatch all of the movies again. It doesn't really look like 4K (not sharp enough, too dark, too much film grain, etc.) and the intense camera shaking at the beginning is annoying but other than that the quality is fine (it's already 10 years old so obviously it cannot compete with current movies).
Anyway, IIRC this movie made the battle royale genre(?) really take off.
It's nice to have an intro film about the Hunger Games inside this movie :D
That hand gesture really gives this meaning (it's just much more powerful than applause).
Haymitch is a cool character. He starts of as a drunk mentor that is through with life and doesn't care about anything but then he really gets invested and does a good job helping them.
Cinna is super nice - since the beginning. He really seems to be a big exception form the other people of the capitol.
Kinda funny that usually no one seems to care about district 12 but they get the penthouse :D
"Make sure they remember you."
They definitely did and now everyone does :D
The slowly starting relationship between Katniss and Peeta is nice but it sucks that there's Gale as well (and he's a nice guy too).
"Well that's bad luck."
Quite unbelievable that Katniss survived being out for a couple of days while Rue cared for her - Katniss surprisingly didn't look really shocked that she was out for that long.
The "funeral" that Katniss made for Rue was really quite something! <3
Katniss and Peeta did indeed show them up at the end but WTF did they think?!? You cannot introduce that rule and then simply revoke it at the end... :o :D That was a dumb move! Sure, they only wanted to give them hope and didn't intend for both of them to survive but then they should've either scripted or rather manipulated things better or accept their failure.
PS: Caesar is also fun/entertaining.
Two victor rule revoked, wtf?!?
Showed them up
Wow, quite brutal at times, but a good movie tbh.
That shooting at the beginning was so unexpected and brutal. Really shows the horror of such a situation! I was expecting something bad to happen but not that there would be such a mass shooting. It started so suddenly and resulted in immediate chaos.
They both should've ran though. Their chances would've been so much better than when looking/searching for one another during the shooting. I hope love doesn't make one so shortsighted. I'd definitely fear surviving alone though - that would suck. But it would still be the right/best decision to run.
That scene of the physicist in the trunk, the gasoline, and the cigarette was "funny" (horrible but kind funny in a stupid way).
Not as funny as the fake manual shifting in that automatic Alfa Rome though xD That was quite amusing somehow :)
Annika shooting herself like that (wow!) was just dumb. She might want to die first but she could've at least taken down the bad guy first. But then again that would've been an abrupt ending of the movie :D
I did like the ending. I really enjoyed the concept of letting the bomb explode (which is cool/fasciniating - as long as it isn't real) without the casualties (or at lest very few or just minor injuries).
But the explosion didn't seem that realistic (especially the implosion at the beginning - shouldn't that be at the end after the explosion?). Anyway, still fascinating!
The last scene was consing though. I guess he's undercover there? I didn't get the message of it. I guess he's fighting "bad guys" in general now?
I've read comments on IMDB that this is poor writing, a poor execution etc.
Then I saw the beginning and wanted to defend this movie as it simply looks like a low-budget production / indie movie.
However, after a few minutes I kinda really wanted to abort watching it. I hate aborting movies though and it was just good and short enough to give it a chance.
Normally, I'd give this a 4.5/10 (between a waste of time and just ok) but given that this surely has to be a low-budget production (it shows in many places - script/writing, sound effects, props, acting, and even CGI) I'd give it a 6/10.
I also assume/hope that the target audience are children (<= 12 years old; maybe up to 14 or 16 years in some cases but I doubt it's really enjoyable for adults). For that audience this movie might even deserve 7 or 8 out of 10.
Anyway, I'm an adult (mid 20s) and still like teen movies and even some kids movies (plus family movies like from Dreamworks and Illumination Entertainment) but here is my brutally honest review: It's just too silly and makes very little sense.
A few minutes in I thought "Oh dear... :o". It's cheap, full of plot holes, the two kids have it easy going (everything works out for them despite very bad planning), etc. As a result if felt silly (and cheesy at times) and was occasionally a bit painful to watch (luckily I could also laugh about some silly moments).
According to the story Captain Nova is only physically young again but she doesn't act like a 37 years old woman at all... She's shy (despite having that AI drone and a gun), she's naive, not that intelligent (she could be a lot more convincing but she isn't gut at arguing/communicating either), etc.
Anyway, might be fun for kids (I might've even enjoyed it as a kid) but I cannot recommend it for adults (but it's probably fine for parents).
6.5/10 - I don't really like it. Compared to the previous movie it has more action but IMO less meaning and almost no heart. I think it's simply too dark for me and that makes it uninteresting as I don't really care much about anything. Rewatching it was boring but maybe I liked it more when I watched it for the fist time (I just remember that I was pretty scared of Twoface back then - at least IIRC).
I like The Punisher. It's quite brutal, and normally I avoid those movies as I prefer to see nice things (apart from, e.g., Cyberpunk). But IMO The Punisher has still much more heart and I can relate to his character much more.
In this movie Bruce is basically gone. The billionaire playboy isn't interesting anymore (we already saw that during the last movie) and Batman is badass but there isn't much new to it either. The other characters I care about are Alfred, Fox, Gordon, and Rachel. IMO we saw too few of them though. And Rachel even died, which quite sucked for me (but not that much as she was much less interesting/important in this movie). Gordon's death also sucked but luckily it wasn't permanent :)
One of the big parts of this movie is The Joker. Unfortunately, I don't like his character. AFAIK many people like him but I'm not really getting it. I liked some of his jokes, acting, and lines but overall he was just a maniac to me.
I also find this movie too "silly". I wasn't sure about the reasons but thought it was primarily because it was too unrealistically dark (so much that it became silly instead of just unrealistic). But then it came to me that I do like the Cyberpunk genre even though it is dark. I guess my main issue with this movie is that it is too painfully unrealistic for my taste. Compared to Cyberpunk the world is still fine (at least I assume so and didn't see otherwise) - it's just Gotham that's suffering too much from criminality and corruption. In that case I'd just leave the city as an ordinary citizen. And the crime bosses should just switch cities too instead of giving half of their money to The Joker. That would solve their problem with The Batman as he cannot be at multiple places at once. Sure, it'd take effort to gain control over different cities but that still seems like the lesser pain/problem. And IRL we obviously don't have a Gotham either. Some cities have more problems with crime and corruptions and some less but there isn't an extreme anomaly like Gotham (where all hope is pretty much lost).
In the end this movie has it's moments and a lot of action but I find it too dark and too painfully/annoyingly unrealistic (which makes it feel silly).
Better than expected :) It's not something to take seriously but it was quite funny :D
Apart from the badass woman as main character I had not idea what to expect but that was already intriguing enough tbh.
The whole time I was sad that Justin died and hoping that he would somehow be still alive. While watching the ending my wish obviously changed. At least it isn't sad anymore that he did actually die so maybe it's a good thing in the end (even for Lindy).
The actions scenes where pretty good but the story wasn't that interesting or engaging. The characters weren't that bad but lacked depth and got increasingly uninteresting towards the end. For a movie that seems to focus on comedy / some funny moments that seems fair though.
The ending was way too insane/overkill IMO. It seems like they want to keep the story open for a second movie but I'm not sure if that would be a good idea (it could certainly be good but after that ending I didn't really care about any of the characters anymore so that might require some extra work).
Edit: I was surprised that so many here mentioned Kate Beckinsale. Her performance was nice and she also looks good but I only remembered her from Total Recall and thought there would be many other woman who'd fit the role as well. However, I totally forgot that she also played Selene in Underworld (IIRC I surprisingly quite liked those movies due to her action scenes and cool character). I guess I should watchlist more of her movies.
8.5/10 - This is my favorite one of the three movies. Usually I like the first movie / origin story the most but this movie brings a big change to the story/world. Story-weise I still like the first movie the most but this one shifts the setting to post-cyberpunk and introduces a lot of interesting concepts to think about and also shows lots of cool Sci-Fi technology.
The post-atomic-war setting with the few human oases is nice to begin with. Then there's cool technology like the plasma globes, personal recon/guardian drones, transport drones/ships, cloaking technology, etc. Then there's the surveillance technology which brings up interesting ethical questions (as does the whole human experiment of course). Genetic modification is also an interesting Cyberpunk topic that I like and that raises a lot of important ethical questions. It's also something that's quite relevant as I believe that we're pretty close to making this a reality (maybe 25-100 years? AFAIK we're already quite far with cloning and IIRC there was already a human experiment in China to genetically modify the eye color of a baby).
Also: Unsurprisingly Peter turned again and unfortunately he still doesn't quite get what he deserves (but that'll likely change). I'd really like to see how this story ends. It sucks that the forth movie was cancelled...
They should blame the MIT for everything! :D
Peter should've really called them to reconsider.
Anyway, I'd claim that this is the MCU movie I like the least. It was funny at times but IMO the story is horrible. I'm having my issues with the MCU since Infinity War, when everything escalated / got too big, then Endgame ruined it even more by introducing time travel (the movie was funny and good but the introduction of time traveling ruins the MCU for me as it makes everything meaningless), and now they ruin it even more by bringing in multiverses as well (plus the powerful magic spells that alter the reality for (almost) everyone also ruin the experience for me).
I really loved the MCU but now I just don't care about the events anymore as everything can be altered at any time which makes the story/events pointless for me.
I also hate that this made everything worse for Peter Parker and basically also everyone else with the exception of the villains (and perhaps the Peters) from the other universes.
Oh, what a beautiful movie! <3 Also quite sad/lonely but the ending got my eyes wet and lifted the mood.
It was such a mix of sadness, loneliness, joy while often being funny and sweet.
I really liked the message of the movie. It's so relevant as it's so easy to get lost in dreams - especially today with all of the digital entertainment (games, movies, TV shows, social media, etc.). Personally, I often need to remember myself not too life too much in the digital world - it can be amazing but it isn't and shouldn't be everything :)
I also really liked this quote from Nemo (/ her dad): "Schools are basically prisons. They keep kids locked up physically and mentally, prepare them for jobs that are also basically prisons, until they retire and go to a nursing home. Their final prison."
Let's don't get stuck in any prisons and live our lives :)
6.5/10 - RIP Primrose. Her death really sucked and makes me angry. Sure, that's what it's intended for but I'm more angry/annoyed by the writers as I find it too dark. The last three of the movies developed Prim as such a nice, kind, and smart character just to sacrifice herself at the very end for the story. And it makes everything feel quite meaningless as it feels like all of Katniss' efforts were for nothing. That's definitely not true and Prim's death probably wasn't for nothing as Katniss probably only shot President Coin due to it but it still feels like it as everything started with Katniss volunteering for Prim to save her life.
So yeah, it's powerful and emotional but it's also super dark... :o
And RIP Boggs. That man died a real hero! I liked his character from the beginning but he really got on another level in his final moments. He really did care about everything and especially Katniss.
8.5/10 - Things are really taking off now! :)
The first movie was basically an introduction and shows that status quo while this movie starts the story of the revolution (which makes it much more interesting - I especially like the breakout from the Hunger Games dome/"prison").
I like how this movie directly builds upon the last movie but focuses on the emotions, PTSD, and helplessness / power of the Capitol.
We get to see the Victor's Village, more of the Sci-Fi technology of the Capitol (which I really like), the Mockingjay is slowly introduced as the symbol of the resistance, the military forces of the Capitol are shown, and the bigger picture becomes more clear (the last movie focused on the small part that the Tributes got to see and didn't show much of what's going on behind the scenes).
The idea of the third quarter quell and selecting the tributes from the pool of victors is interesting. It really shows the hopelessness/emotions, makes it possible to show another Hunger Game, and yet makes it something completely new with a big twist at the end.
Just a bit unbelievable that they managed to protect Katniss that well without her knowing but I guess it would be doable with some luck.
What a massive cliffhanger at the end though! "This is the revolution and you're the Mockingjay" and "District 12 is gone".
6.5/10 - A feel-good movie with funny and romantic moments. I just found it a bit boring at times and there were a few too silly moments but it was worth a watch.
Tbh I mainly watched it because of Victoria Justice. I think it's around 10 years that I last seen her in TV shows / movies so I was curious what she's like now. I don't think I'd've recognized her. She seems like a different person from what I remember (both from her personality and looks - not better or worse, just different).
Anyway, back to the movie. A few final notes:
Cool action and lots of girl power but unfortunately not a good story IMO. It's just to unbelievable/silly/ridiculous. It's not like I expected it or any other movie to be realistic but this one is of the in your face unrealistic kind that makes me feel stupid when watching it.
Some notes:
90 minutes response time (Seal team) seems bad. Ok, it's in the middle of nowere so that might be about right if there's no aircraft carrier nearby but I'd hope they have faster means than helicopers... :o AFAIK the US army has both planes and jets that can hover (VTOLs).
LOL that Ninja dude that blew the hatch open with an SMG, then had a pistol, and still lost the fight...
Sure Beaver had to be a bad guy too...
A Chris Hemsworth cameo <3
The enemies are sometimes as unkillable as zombies...
That scene with Cpt. Collins' dad was so cruel :o I was so relieved when they killed him instead of torturing him to death (the latter would've made much more sense to break her). I was still so mad that she lost everything though!!! Which is why I was super relieved at the end that her dad is still alive (I guess I should even rate it 6.5/10 for that) <3 That made the ending much better (although I'm still angry about Rahul).
Not protecitng Cpt. Collin's dad was a major ops fuckup by those guys in washington... I'm pretty sure there would be protocols in place to secure all close relatives.
That sinking / self-destruction protocol (I forgot the name :o) seems just stupid. Why would one have it (we're talking about intercepter rockets here) and why would they be unable to cancel it (seems like a bad design IMO - but by far not the only technical issue...)
Firing all 15 missiles while the intercepter platform is still somewhat operational is a really bad idea... Why not wait just a bit longer?!?
I wonder how intercepting nukes works IRL. I guess the nukes would explode in the process, otherwise they could just intercept them on land as well. And if the nukes explode in the stratosphere, they should act like a huge EMP. So the interceptor platform might be offline after that if the explosion was to near.
A mid credits scene :D
Seems like Cpt. Collin's is even stronger than Captain America (which is way too unbelivable as she isn't artificially enhanced).
The crew at the white house isn't really helping at all...
Anyway, Elsa Pataky did some nice acting (it was at least decent / the best part of this movie) but the story was just lacking.
7.5/10 - IIRC this was my favorite F&F movie - even though it's kinda a spinoff. But after rewatching all movies from the beginning I might actually like the first movie more (but this one is still better than the second movie). I really like the concept of this movie but some aspects didn't feel as good as it could've been.
The begining was lime. They used to have this cool music and animations during the intro but this time they kept the standard intro, left out the F&F animations, and I didn't like the music during the opening scene.
But then comes one of the best scenes. The one that ends with Sean and his wrench :D But I don't remember the "got your back" of the rich guy's friends being so very quiet (IIRC that was louder in the German version and made it clear that they won't be of much help).
Unfortunately though, Sean is an idiot. He cannot drive but thinks he's cool and doesn't seem to really care about anything. And why would he even ask "Where is my car?" at the police station? You idiot totalled it. I'm convinced it's so badly damaged that it isn't even worth to repair it.
He does have a funny accent though :D
Twinkie is quite funny - and his ride as well :D
Neela is of course the best female character. She can drive, is hot/cute/attractive, and also fierce/determined at times. Would be nice if she was even more powerful but she's cool nonetheless.
And Han is my favorite male character. He's much cooler than Sean and yet so chilled :D It really sucks that he died... :o
I love the drifting. IMO it fits the F&F movies well and makes the scenes less ridiculous (as drifting isn't about speed / it's slower than racing).
And this is the first F&F movie with heel-and-toe downshifting scenes :) (But I didn't really hear the revs go up.)
"Life's simple, you make choices and you don't look back." - I wish it was that simple :) (But I guess it could be.) Anyway, I liked that scene!
And the best scene of the whole movie was of course the group drifting scene at night with Neela. So lovely and calming :)
And that quote about "just the moment".
And a bit later Han died. RIP, that sucked! How dare you? Don't the writers know that car's don't explode? :P
At least Sean was lucky enough to be saved by his dad.
Anyway, nice to see Dom at the end! And that "Han was family" quote of course <3
I just hope that Brian, Dom, and Mia will be back together in the next movie (that's still the best combination so far!).
Not great but it has it's moments. I love the concept but unfortunately the niveau is decreasing and way too low now. It's a the point where it's concerning. And I'm especially unsure if it was a good idea to have this suicide scene in it. That's not something to joke about and might be dangerous for some viewers. It might be fine but IMO they should've made it clearer that this isn't a good idea / fun and that one needs to get help.
Anyway, most of the jokes are pretty flat IMO but I had to laugh a few times.
PS: The outtakes are confusing me. Are they still keeping the act up when a take fails or are they really a bit like those characters?!? :o :D
7.5/10 - The Jaegers are freaking awesome! :D
Seriously, the Jaegers are super cool :) I like their designs/engineering and size/mass. And the quote about them being able to fight a hurricane.
Scientifically they don't make a lot of sense (e.g., it would seem smarter to pilot them remotely and they don't seem like cost effective weapons at all) but they're simply cool to watch.
My favorite scene was the one where they dropped down inside the Jaeger's head to connect to the body. I just like such mechanical rail/elevator constructions and find it fascinating to watch (cool CGI combined with cool sound effects and animations).
When the intro talked about the aliens coming from below I immediately had to think of the Crysis game franchise. Until that portal/breach got mentioned right after that which makes it a bit different.
And of course there's the soundtrack! The main theme is just epic <3
And the main characters are pretty fun. Becket and Mori are lovely together, Geiszer and Gottlieb are entertaining, Pentecost is the boss, and Chau is just badass (I'm glad that he isn't dead :D).
The beginning was really good but I got quite a bit bored during all of the fighting in the second half (I'm not interested in the Kaiju and it doesn't show that much of the cool abilities of the Jaegers - or maybe I'm just bored because it lacks depth/meaning).
7.5/10 - Nice, this was quite good :) The story isn't that meaningful but it is entertaining and has cool CGI. I especially liked the time jets (duh :D).
Ryan Reynolds is quite entertaining/charming and Mark Ruffalo is great as always (I was so happy when I heard his voice - he's so sweet and cool).
But the biggest surprise was young Adam. He was great! And especially the three of them together are so funny :)
And it was quite funny how older Maya Sorian unintentionally killed her younger self :D It was just a bit unfortunate that her younger self wasn't that evil yet. RIP... "And you never understood the science."
I don't usually like time traveling movies because they rarely make sense (nothing is impossible, e.g., I can imagine how to program something like this if we're living in a simulation) but in this case it didn't matter because it wasn't serious anyway. It was an entertaining feel-good movie and I like it for that.
6.5/10 - It wasn't bad but I didn't really like it either. It had it's moments but overall it failed to get me invested enough into the story. I also didn't really like the ending... It was an unexpected twist but kinda annoying and very questionable (but it also explained a few things). But I was already wondering how this would end and none of the options I could come up with are really satisfying. It was a cool idea, had some funny moments (but overall I found it a bit to silly), some good action moments, and some surprises but the overall story just didn't feel good enough (I'm not quite sure why but it just wasn't enough for me).
7.5/10 - Huh, quite good actually. I really liked the beginning but IMO it became boring towards the second half and the ending wasn't that beautiful (letting all his friends think that he's dead but basically revealing everything after some time...).
Catwoman is badass, which is really cool, but I don't like her character. IMO she's portrayed too selfish.
Bane's voice was cool but it got less interesting after a while. And apart from his voice I don't find him interesting. IMO he's a boring villain.
The twist with Miranda Tate got me a second time but I find it more annoying/frustrating than cool/surprising. She was such a lovely character...
At least John Blake was a cool new character and most importantly: We got many scenes with Fox and Gordon.
And I'd say the coolest part is definitely the new tech (that super cool electric motorcycle and "The Bat").
8.5/10 - IMO this is by far the best Batman movie of them all :)
I guess a big reason for that is that I always like origin stories the most. It all kinda fits well together and they didn't overdo it that much (not to the point where it's becoming too silly/annoying).
And of course it has great characters and cast: Bruce/Batman (Christian Bale), Alfred, Fox (Morgan Freeman!), Rachel, Gordon, and Ra's al Ghul (Liam Neeson!). It's so cool to see Morgan Freeman in a movie again! His voice is epic and as an actor he's great too (especially in this role as Fox). And I didn't even remember that Liam Neeson was in this movie. I also really like him but I'm not sure if I'd recognized him with that mustache :D But his voice is obviously immediately recognizable :) (maybe I didn't remember him because I haven't watched the original/English version before?)
I also like the way the story was told (the back and forth between flashbacks and now). Bruce's journey to the mountain with the blue flower and his training was quite cool. Bruce had also such nice parents. We didn't see that much about his mother but it's cool that she runs the company (instead of his father). And his father seems to be intelligent, caring, and decent (plus not afraid to get his hands dirty, e.g., to rescue Bruce after his fall). Of course all of that and the circumstances make the death of his parrents even the more horrible.
Rachel is very badass and dedicated. The way she knows the citiy, how she isn't afraid of making that detour with her car to the lower levels / poor districts, and how she's very grounded and drives a normal car. And of course how she just slaps Bruce and then even proceeds with telling him that his father would be ashamed of him (true but she wen't quite far).
The moment where Bruce was stealing from Wayne Enterprise reminded me of Tron Legacy :D
Then Bruce quits at the final challenge, rescues his mentor, and returns from the dead (:D) after seven years. His return remindes me of Oliver Queen in Arrow.
Bruce conquers his fear, climbs back down the hole, and discovers this convenient bat cave.
Then Fox comes in. He's a great character and his conversations with Bruce are so funny <3. His department (applied sciences) is of course very nice too (all those cool prototypes). And it's nice that he knew Bruce's father and helped him build the train. And last but not least: The Tumbler is of course an epic car!
Alfred's surprisingly fine with Bruce's plan (vs. thinking that he's insane). Maybe that's because Alfred is so loyal and never looses hope for Bruce.
gordon
train degraded
rachel
rachel doesnt know
good boss shot in the back
finders keepers
far from the tree
Bruce?
Also: Lots of nice quotes (TODO):
fall quote
wife taken
spelunking
does it come in black?
i'm batman
you start pretending to have fun
didnt you get the memo?
its what you do that defines you
Oh, wow, this is quite instrumental to understanding the backstory to the Cobra Kai TV show! A lot of things are clearer now / make much more sense :)
It's cool that "Cobra Kai" kept the song from the intro of this movie. It's a cool song and the modern version that is sped up is even better. I'm not quite sure if that song was also in the first two parts.
I was then a bit confused by the beginning for a moment but it quickly made sense once I realized that it started with some flashbacks (and that was quite useful since this third movie wasn't available on Netflix for a while...). And that Kreese vs. Mr. Miyagi fight is definitely something worth watching twice :) ("Honk" :D)
Lots of really nice quotes in this move, e.g., about forgiveness. Especially Mr. Miyagi has lots of funny and meaningful quotes, e.g.:
And now I also know what happened with Kumiko and who Terry Silver (Kreese's war friend) is.
Mr. Silver really has quite some dedication! I obviously don't like him but I gotta admit that he really planned that well... :o But man, that effort it took...
It's also no wonder that Daniel ends up becoming a car salesman. The way he "sold" Mr. Miyagi that store (how it's a good idea and how he visions everything) and that energy. It's just perfect :) Mr. Miyagi certainly must've seen his potential for becoming a salesman. And it was so sweet when Mr. Miyagi offered him a partnership.
After that it became kinda really frustrating as I could only stand by and watch how they started bullying Daniel. And they couldn't even leave Mr. Miyagi and Jessica alone... At least Mr. Miyagi could keep his balance/zen (singing happily because the bonsais are safe at their home and going fishing after realizing they've been stolen - what a legend! :D) and Jessica didn't get hurt as much as I feared.
At least we got to see Mr. Miyagi beat Terry and Kreese in a fight <3
After that final fight it is no wonder at all that Cobra Kai was banned permanently from the All Valley Tournaments. I'm just glad that Johnny Lawrence wasn't part of that Cobra Kai anymore. This also really explains how Daniel is so triggered by Johnny reopening Cobra Kai. And Johnny probably doesn't even know about that last part so it's no wonder how he doesn't get why Daniel is so out of balance due to it.
Btw: I find Daniel's walking, acting, and energy really familiar from the older Daniel in Kobra Kai :D It's so cool that they kept the original actors <3. The actor (Ralph Macchio) looks quite different now but there are also so many similarities / things to recognize.
PS: The older Daniel seemed ashamed of the fact that he temporarily joined Cobra Kai and thankful that Mr. Miyagi took him back. It's understandable that he isn't proud of that but he also doesn't have to be ashamed of it (but maybe he just made it a bigger deal for making his point that people can change). He was basically bullied into joining Cobra Kai and then he was a bit of a stupid idiot (or just too desperate). But he didn't feel hungry for power and he even burned that letter. So I wouldn't say that he was weak and gave in too easily.
Haha, nice, well done! They brought in quite a few new elements so it didn't get boring. Funnily enough Eddie (as himself / the grandpa) is now my favorite character.
Bethany (that Instagram girl :D) is so recognizable. But she didn't take a selfie and didn't post the picture publicly so I'm quite impressed! :)
Martha has a nose ring now?!? I didn't see that one coming :D Maybe she wanted to look a little bit less like "just" a smart girl or something like that?
Danny DeVito as grandpa Eddie is so funny to watch! He just has to go up a ladder and it's already funny xD So good <3
Eddie: "It's all downhill from here." - Unfortunately I can kinda relate. Luckily I'm still very fit and healthy so I shouldn't complain but I doubt it'll get better. But it certainly could and hopefully will :)
Milo: "You going somewhere?" - Eddie and Milo are also so funny together.
Fridge: "You think?!?" :D
Eddie's quote "Getting old ... is a gift. I forget that sometimes. But it is." is a really good way to wrap things up in a beautiful way <3
And I like the open ending. I guess there will be a third movie? Could be very interesting :)
A cool movie, I really like the idea/concept and it was quite entertaining.
Those for characters (kinda misfits :D) are so funny together. It's cool how they've been introduced IRL and the story then continues in the gaming world where they play different characters with different traits/stats.
On a side note: I'd really like the ability to play a different character in a gaming world ("Ready Player One" style). I imagine it'd be so cool to explore different personalities, ages, and even a different gender. The possibilities could be limitless.
Anyway, it's nice how this movie merges gaming with a classical adventure story. And we have that meta story (their friendship/relationships) that makes it meaningful.
There are also a few quite good (funny) lines/dialogues <3
PS:
Gotta admit: The main thing I remembered from this movie and the main reason to rewatch it is Alicia Vikander... :D She's just so fine looking (her face is a thing of beauty), badass, and Heather Lee is a cool character in general (only the ending sucked a bit). Anyway, enough simping :o :D
Some cool/fun "nerd" stuff:
The demo at the beginning that really escalated was very well done! It was an awesome setting for those action scenes. Darkness, fire (Molotov cocktails), Police, flashlights, etc.
Scenes in London and Berlin <3
That bad guy really likes to shoot people in the back! It's efficient but damn dude... :o
And it ended with the right song :)
One question: Why? :o :D It has action and some fun but there isn't really much besides that. I mean, it's not that bad, but it didn't feal meaningful at all. It kinda was just frustrating and embarrassing to watch as it shows humanity from such a bad side and it doesn't even feel that far fetched. Sure lots of things were just stupid but it's not totally unimaginable, unfortunately...
Anyway, this time even the intro (opening credits) was boring. Why did they stop using those sounds? At least the space ship scene that came right after that was kinda cool.
The biggest improvement seemed that the camera shots at daytime looked much better. At least on Netflix this isn't available in 4K but the scenes with enough natural light looked sharp and beautiful. The scenes at night do unfortunately look worse than they should (I mean, the cameras couldn't've been that bad at that time, right?!?).
And then the bad story of the last movie repeated itself. Bad humans do bad things. Some crazy black ops that no one seems to care about. Lukas died (that sucked... :o he was one of my favorite characters... and his little car (Mini) was cool :D but at least he was the one who called the cops).
Optimus Prime looked like complete shit. Then he was suddenly able to fight and a bit after that he transformed into his old self and suddenly looked like new. WTF?!? And why didn't he try to hide by transforming into something else while they were chased by the cops?
Some new types of transformers. A chopper, dinosaurs, dogs, etc. And then there are those Transformers 2.0 that the humans created. It feels like they should be basically unkillable (they don't have a spark, can transform into anything, out of nothing) but somehow they still are.
Some very poor gun aim, IIRC.
"Aliens would never do that to people."
And at that point it started to feel a bit like crap... :o
Then "The Creators" were mentioned. That seems interesting but we didn't really learn much(/anything) about them.
And last but not least we got to see mechanical dinosaurs in a Transformers movie. At that point I found the beautiful landscape more interesting though (lots of bright green nature, a waterfall, rocks, etc. - looked quite cool/nice).
PS: And the whole time I was super unsure if I've even seen this movie before. A few things felt familiar but mostly at the beginning (so it could be from the trailer). I probably wasn't paying attention back then, was too tired, or it was just too boring, etc. I basically didn't know what would happen next at all...
Not the best story but quite a lot of action and really good (although brutal) fight choreographies.
That fighting stickmen intro was very cool, well done! I also loved the beautiful aerial shots at the beginning. So beautiful in 4K <3 I didn't expect it to start at daytime / an assassination happening in the middle of the day but those scenes are so crisp/sharp, which is quite nice. But of course I still prefer the night scenes with neon lights, reflections, etc.
It's nice that Woody Harrelson is in this movie - his voice is so great :D It's also nice that Kate simply calls him V (reminds me of Cyberpunk 2077 xD).
That car with all of that lighting was quite funny but of course an unfortunate choice. The car chase scenes were very interesting. The speed was way too fast and even the physics looked unrealistic but I assume that's how it's intended (they probably did it pretty much entirely with CGI in an artistic way). It's fake but it looks cool / is quite interesting.
That radiation poisoning was very mean and really sucked. It's kinda frustrating the first few minutes make it clear that the protagonist will die. At least I didn't get attached to her that way so I guess it's still better then letting her die unexpectedly.
I still find those high pitched chinese songs strange btw :D But the girl band was quite good - I liked that!
Lot's of empty magazines in this movie :D Both inside and outside guns... Those fighting choreographies are really amazing. Especially those with the knives. Also quite raw/brutal though :o I'm quite surprised that this is rated 16. I mean they even decapitated that guy ("businessman" :D) at the end! WTF?!? :D
Random fun fact: There was an ad/sign for "Frozen 2" in the background of one shot.
That kid is so strange but also pretty funny. As was the scene where Kate said "Buh", that guy fell over in horror/panic, and all of the other guys just started laughing... :D Plus that scene where that kid /little girl acted like she had a gun but Kate was doing the shooting.
Anyway, at least Kate got one last boom boom lemon before she died :D And she got to make V's death personal (shooting him in the gut like he taught her). And she got to die infront of that cute neon light cat :D
The "twists" at the end weren't really surprising but that seems intended and I'm perfectly fine with it. They slowly raised the suspicions that V isn't the "good guy" and of course it wouldn't make sense for Kate to shoot Kijima (that guy really has style btw!).
I didn't knew Mary Elizabeth Winstead before this movie and was a bit concerned when I saw her in the first shot but she did really well. She was quite badass and those fight choreographies and stunts were really good!
