Everyone keeps suggesting there is a paradox concerning the 5D future humans and their ability to save humanity in the past. It's really not a paradox at all. Everyone assumes humanity survived to ascend to the 5th dimension but how could humanity exist in the future if not for the actions of Cooper.. who was guided by future humans (begin endless loop).
Did anyone ever consider the other important character in the movie? Amelia Brand carried on with the rest of her mission (thanks to Cooper). I postulate that Brand used the human seeds as intended and set up a colony. A colony that would thrive and eventually evolve beyond human. Thus Earth is of little importance, and may have indeed died. These colonists, and the generations that followed, would have been told the story of a great man (Cooper) who saved them from extinction. With the ability to manipulate space-time, they would pay homage to their hero "God" by helping him in the past so he may fulfill the mission most important to him, to once again see his daughter. Plan B worked beautifully. But the 5d humans, having the power to bend space-time, decided there's no reason why Plan A had to fail.
Denis Villeneuve is the man!
There’s only one word that came into my mind after watching it: finally.
Finally, a blockbuster that isn’t afraid to be primarily driven by drama and tension, and doesn’t undercut its own tone by throwing in a joke every 30 seconds.
Finally, a blockbuster that puts actual effort in its cinematography, and doesn’t have a bland or calculated colour palette.
Finally, a blockbuster with a story that has actual substance and themes, and doesn’t rely on intertextual references or nostalgia to create a fake sheen of depth.
Finally, a blockbuster that doesn’t pander to China by having big, loud and overblown action sequences, but relies on practical and grounded spectacle instead (it has big sand worms, you really don’t need to throw anything at the screen besides that).
Finally, a blockbuster that actually feels big, because it isn’t primarily shot in close ups, or on a sound stage.
And of course: finally, a blockbuster that isn’t a fucking prequel, sequel, or connected to an already established IP somehow.
(Yeah, I know Tenet did those things as well, but I couldn’t get into that because the characters were so flat and uninteresting).
This just checks all the boxes. An engaging story with subtext, very well set up characters, great acting (like James Gunn, Villeneuve's great at accentuating the strengths of limited actors like Dave Bautista and Jason Momoa), spectecular visuals and art design (desaturated but not in an ugly washed out way), pacing (slow but it never drags), directing, one of Hans Zimmer’s best scores: it’s all here.
I only have one real criticism: there’s too much exposition, especially in the first half.
It can occasionally hold your hand by referencing things that have already been established previously, and some scenes of characters explaining stuff to each other could’ve been conveyed more visually.
Other than that, it’s easily one of the best films of the year.
I’ve seen some people critiquing it for being incomplete, which is true, but this isn’t just a set up for a future film.
It feels like a whole meal, there are pay offs in this, and the characters progress (even if, yes, their arcs are still incomplete).
8.5/10
Funniest movie I have seen in years. There is no way Dr Strange In the Multiverse of Madness is going to do multiverse better.
Yeah, there's plot holes. But the movie is so damned funny you just don't care. When they first explained how the multiverse thing worked my reaction was "Really? Is that all?". But it just got better and better and better.
There's periods of the movie you're struggling to breathe you're laughing so hard, and others that are just slow, deep, and sad. It's heartbreaking and hilarious. Slow and a thousand miles per hour. Nothing happening and more happening than you can possibly keep track of at once.
This movie is, without a doubt, brilliant.
Everything I wanted it to be and more. Perfectly cast and excellent soundtrack by Hans Zimmer. Epic Sci-Fi at its best.
This is one of Marvel Studios’ riskier projects, the hyperlink structure combined with the villain being the main character immediately makes it stand out in the genre. It’s because of those two aspects that the film works as well as it does. Thanos is a great character with an interesting motivation. The animation is so detailed and lifelike that it never fails to bring out the emotion, in fact I’d argue that the scenes between him and Gamora have the most emotional punch (courtesy of Zoe Saldana and Josh Brolin, who both put in a really solid performance). The balancing of all the different plot lines is also quite well done as there’s a relevancy to each one, nor does the tone feel too disjointed at any point. Some transitions or the sudden pop culture riffing during serious scenes can be awkward, but it’s handled about as well as it could. The exposition is handled tastefully and kept to a minimum, it instead chooses to focus on unexpected interactions between characters from different branches of the Marvel universe, which is the more exciting part. I’m less into the action and filmmaking, however. Not a lot about the camerawork or score jumps out to me, I feel like what little vision the Russos brought to their previous MCU projects is completely lost here. The washed out colour palette (which for some reason is slightly more vibrant during scenes in space) and obvious music embellishments don’t evoke all that much. The staging and editing of the action is a little too quick for my liking, the moments that are meant to be memorable don’t leave much of an impression because the editing doesn’t take its time to punctuate the stunts properly. Some of the CGI also feels a little weightless, for example Stark’s suit looks and feels like its made from paper. The resulting scenes, such as the final battle on Titan, feel more like small scale, digital mush than the big epic scenes they’re aiming for. Once the film decides to slow down for the dramatic conclusion, I find its intent to be manipulative and disingenuous. I felt that way after watching it the first time in the cinema, and after every ‘death’ in this movie having been retconned in one way or another, it turns out I was right. Even in its riskier films, Marvel will find ways to take most of the edges off. Overall, it’s still decent but it’s lost a lot of its flavour for me over the years.
6/10
Solid movie. A perfect balance of levity and psych thriller. I didn’t come away feeling 100% satisfied, but it was very enjoyable nonetheless.
This is an excellent movie that has completely surpassed my expectations. It has lots of amazing action and great comedy and wonderful performances from all the actors involved. The movie reminds me of Kill Bill.
World Premiere Review: Sam Raimi, you legend. This was one of, if not the most, fun MCU movie yet. It's very Evil Dead inspired visually, particularly the camera work. The character arcs here are fantastic, the action is wonderfully violent (the multiverse gives so much opportunity to kill off characters without impacting the main timeline too much), and the pacing is great, just go see it.
The action sequences were solid, particularly the martial arts, and the casting and acting were also fine but the script is a mess, the pacing is off, and the second half feels goofy and disjointed from the first half. The second half action was difficult to follow and felt like a DC cluster f--- aimed at the Chinese market. HOWEVER, I am looking forward to seeing Shang-Chi utilized in the future films.
Really great performances, but the movie is pretty messy. It genuinely felt like I was watching a movie trailer that was almost 3 hours long.
This was a huge step down from the previous film. I thought the first act was straight-up bad and not at all enjoyable. The COVID mentions felt dated and overly forced, and this film only just came out. That doesn't bode well for how this film will age. However, once the film gets going it gets better and is enjoyable, and they drop the COVID stuff, which in turn, actually makes the COVID mentions at the beginning feel even worse and more pointless than they had felt initially.
I thought that the plot felt far more simple and extremely predictable compared to the first film. I also thought that the characters (aside from Blanc), were largely much worse - both in writing, and performances given by the cast.
Daniel Craig and Benoit Blanc is just as good as he was in the first film, and he absolutely steals the show every time he's on screen. I also found Janelle Monáe as both Andi and Helen to be decent. Edward Norton's billionaire character, Miles Bron, was a mixed bag, and although he started out quite interesting with some potential, I found his character to inevitably be overly shallow and poorly written.
As far as the rest of the cast went? It wasn't so good. Most of them, such as Whiskey, were simply bland and forgettable. But others were downright awful characters that were overly shallow and just plain annoying. Kate Hudson's 'Birdie' was probably the worst offender here, and I found that her character lowered the quality of every scene she appeared in.
I realise that this review has been largely negative, but what I will say is that Glass Onion is still a mostly fun and entertaining experience for the majority of its runtime. I had a lot of fun watching it (aside from the first twenty minutes or so), and I don't regret it at all. I'd recommend watching it if you enjoyed the original film, but I just don't think it's anywhere close to being anything great like its predecessor was.
Sam Raimi brings us Evil Dead for the Marvel Universe.
Possibly Shinkai's best work so far, and as a massive fan of both 5cm and Garden of Words I do not say that lightly. The animation is breathtaking as always but some scenes go beyond mere visual splendor and are just mesmerizing. The characters are so fun to be around and you'll find yourself rooting for them and hoping it all works out. I was slightly concerned when I saw the "boob fondling" scene in the trailer but even that becomes a genuinely charming gag throughout the movie, believe it or not!
As to be expected of Shinkai, the film also takes you on a roller coaster of emotional highs and lows and keeps you guessing how it will end until pretty much the last minute.
I cannot recommend this enough.
I believe that RLM in their review of the last one compared these movies to Taco Bell.
Everything has the same 5 ingredients, just placed in a different order.
It’s hard to argue with that after seeing this film.
It’s plagued by the exact same problem as the Terminator franchise; the creatives behind it are clueless on how to expand the franchise beyond the lore of the classics.
As a result, you get these rinse and repeat movies that are high on the nostalgia bait and devoid of anything interesting.
This somehow manages to be the worst one of the trilogy, I’d say it’s about on par with something like Jurassic Park III.
It’s somehow the dumbest Jurassic film (no, I haven’t forgotten about the military subplots in the previous 2, but this one literally introduces a new dinosaur nicknamed the ‘Giga’ and an evil company called ‘Biosyn’) with some of the cringiest dialogue and acting I’ve seen in a long time, none of which is embraced by the filmmakers. I think it’d play much better if this material was treated like a spoof, or at the very least more tongue in cheek (could’ve used more hallucinations of a dinosaur screaming “ALAN!”). It’s trying so hard to be sincere and Spielbergian, but it doesn’t work.
Moreover, the new characters are still either boring clichés or annoying, it looks too glossy, it’s way too long given how little’s going on, action’s alright but nothing that’s truly impressive or visceral; it’s just a bland mush of forgettable nothingness, and Jeff Goldblum’s charisma can’t save any of it.
3/10
I've seen worse. But it's not good, and it doesn't remotely resemble the source material. It's a PG-13 comfortably dumb movie and it suffers from its shackles. Carnage is hammy and goofy rather than sadistic and maniacal. Not recommended.
The most corporate movie I’ve seen in a while.
2 hours of pure unadulterated cringe.
The funniest thing about it is the performance by Chris Diamantopoulous (the “this guy fucks” dude from Silicon Valley), whose acting kept reminding me of Eddie Redmayne in Jupiter Ascending.
3/10
You don’t really need to watch what if to understand this but it’ll help. You really do need to see Wanda vision though, you don’t have to but it would be incredibly confusing if you don’t understand wandas motivations as she is the main antagonist
Well, I do not even know where to start! The Grand Budapest Hotel was one of my most anticipated films this year. My expectations were very high and I can say it exceeded everything I was expecting.
Wes Anderson is a very peculiar and original director, there is no one like him and his style is unmistakable. With an interesting filmography is great to see his improvement over the years. This film is a good example of that. All his usual filming techniques, color palette, the history, quirky characters and scenarios always full of details keep getting better with each film. I would like to give the main highlight for the set design that will get you literally gaping!
Wes Anderson wrote this film based on the books of a writer named Stefan Zweig and the entire universe that he created around this story is absolutely fabulous! The Grand Budapest Hotel is a famous hotel in the fictional Republic of Zubrowka in the European Alps. In it we follow the adventures of the important concierge Gustave H. and his recent apprentice Zero Moustafa, who go far beyond the Grand Budapest. Gustave H. has the particularity to like seducing older and wealthy hotel guests. After years of involvement with one of these ladies, she is murdered and Gustave is the prime suspect of her murder. Then it starts all this great, crazy and hilarious mess!
Ralph Fiennes shines in this film, his performance is magnificent as the concierge Gustave H. In each scene he enters he steals the show! His performance is the one with the most spotlight but he is always supported by a whole cast that play their roles genially. The young and recent actor Tony Revolori is also very good and all the scenes between him and Ralph Fiennes are wonderful, the two had a great chemistry and that is transmited beyond the screen. Big names like F. Murray Abraham, Bill Murray, Jeff Goldblum, Edward Norton, Tilda Swinton, Harvey Keitel, Tom Wilkinson and many others are all excellent in their small roles and sometimes we wished to see this talented names have a little more time on screen but each one has its importance in history.
Fun, colorful, with great dialogues and hilarious scenes, also leaving an important message about loyalty and friendship. Wes Anderson now elevates the bar very high, after this brilliant The Grand Budapest Hotel we are waiting to see what this great and unique filmmaker will do next. I think I can say that this happens to be my favorite film of him, because I think it is definitely his best and will also certainly be one of my favorites this year.
I had heard good things going in, and I was still thoroughly impressed. This is definitely my favorite movie I've seen this year, and quite possibly in the past few. While he is at some of his best in the movie, very little of that has to do with Nicolas Cage.
There is way more substance than the trailer gives you clues to. Outside of the rich narrative, the film is a masterclass in "less is more" to illustrate complex subjects through well executed inference. Michael Sarnoski's writing and directorial debut demonstrates some of the best storytelling skills I've seen in a long time. This will be a piece I point to for a while on effective filmmaking.
Underneath the novel premise of the movie is deep subject matter and one of the more mature explorations of grief and purpose in life. I wouldn't call this a feel good movie, but rather one that lays out a difficult but healthy and necessary path to dealing with tragedy and loss. I called Manchester by the Sea on of the best movies on grief ever made, because it showed how broken it can make people. Pig is an answer to it that shows the health of acceptance and recognizing the value in what we chose to spend our time doing.
Watched this in the theatre. The person left to me was browsing on his phone, and the one on the right fell asleep. It’s a bit slow at moments and I was happy it was over.
I think it was fair, it had a few funny moments. Enjoyable for 1 time.
It felt like it was an epic campaign your friend played, but it sounds a lot less interesting when your friend was retelling the story. :person_shrugging:
This is a very polarizing film and for good reason. The book is one of the greatest of all time and there are enormous expectations for any Dune adaptation, yet it's worth noting that Dune is 800 pages long so turning the book into a single, 2.5 hour movie is incredibly difficult. It's apparent that there is a drop in quality about half way through the movie, this is because Lynch's budget and time frame weren't matching up with what the studio allowed for him. This unfortunately led to a rushed and fairly low quality ending to Dune. However, the Intro to this movie with Princess Irulan explaining the universe in space is my favorite of all time and the first half in general is excellent. All in all Lynch did all he could to save this movie and it is still enjoyable but the task was too big even for an excellent director like David Lynch
In honour of Isle of Dogs, a haiku:
A film about dogs
Played and directed by gods
Don't eat yellow snow
Beauty, poetry, and charm. Isle of Dogs is Wes Anderson at his best.
I don't care what people say... I liked this movie! Sure some bits where predictable but I laughed most of the movie! Just like Baywatch... Don't think to much and just enjoy the movie
The plot is what you would expect from such a movie. And, as usual in American productions, it is imbued of annoying and childish American moralism, that makes the viewing bothersome. Children deserve really deeper plots and topics, something Japanese (who are probably not that satisfied of how one of their flagship characters have been used) are perfectly aware of but Americans are not.
They drained the wondrous world of Artemis Fowl of all its charm, wit, and heart. It fell flat on its face, and it never got back up.
It’s a lot like the first one.
It’s kinda trashy and childish, and it’ll probably make you cringe at least a few times, but it can’t help to be fun occasionally.
Tom Hardy clearly enjoyed himself making it, Woody Harrelson is fine.
The action is alright, but the production value is awful, the whole visual look is dated and cheap.
Like, this was shot by Quentin Tarantino’s DP, but you’ll never be able to tell that because of the production choices made by Sony.
The plot itself is very thin, uninspired and mostly forgettable.
Everything about it is extremely disposable, and the whole thing just screams ‘streaming movie’ to me.
You really don’t need to waste your money on this by watching it on a premium format.
4/10
Sick, twisted, intense, and scary good. A brilliant concept brilliantly done. Though "horror predictable" during some bits, this movie had me on the edge of my seat for the entire ride as I quite literally held my own breath, fearing with and for the protagonists. A must-see for anyone who loves thrillers.
The German nihilists, the feminist artist, the porn manager, the crazy phedophile, the crippled fake business tycoon, the Vietnam-war obsessed psycho and off course the Dude: a lazy deadbeat lowlife. The Big Lebowski sure has a lot of colourful personages which in my opinion is one of the reasons this movie is one of the best i have ever seen.
This is one of the many masterpieces from the Coen brothers, i wish i could congratulate them myself because they are geniuses. The music, the script and the cast are beyond fantastic. This is a masterpiece that only comes along in movies a few times in a decade. This is one of those movies that is and always will be a cult classic. I cannot say that this is the best movie that the Coen brothers ever made, but only because they made so many exceptional movies. But its definitely high up the list.
My favorite part is Gutterballs, when the Dude has some kind of hallucination. The music was just perfect together with the show Jeff Bridges and Julianne Moore put on. I can't tell you how often i saw that part, that was just awesome.
Anyone should see this movie at least once in his lifetime. But once you've seen it i can guarantee you that you want to see it again.
It’s the 70s and kids are in peril! The kids in this are great, and they do a good job of making some of them likable in a very short amount of time, making the tragedy hit harder. Ethan Hawke is great and this movie outside of some small passing hints doesn’t try to over explain the grabber, we stay with the kids which is a great choice, and the payoffs work
