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kirataelIt was a Good Week for movies these past seven days (we'll leave aside the fact that I am now behind on cleaning for the New Year because I've been riveted to the couch with my knitting).
Gifted - I saw the previews for this last year, but had to wait for it to come out on DVD and then for me to be in the right mood to watch it. Running out of MCU movies, however, and figuring I might as well dive down the Chris Evans rabbit hole.
I ended up really enjoying it, beyond the expected "I need something interesting to rest my eyeballs on while knitting". I appreciate a movie with a custody drama that doesn't have people physically attacking each other in the courtroom or making improbable pleas to the judge and jury (which is...uh, not a thing in custody cases). The questions asked by the attorneys, the judge's attitude, the deals offered, all hit my procedural kink. I also appreciated that Frank's attorney (who is Black) and his neighbor (played by Octavia Spencer) both have their eyes wide open to the fact that The Court Will Take Your Kid If The Court Thinks There’s Something Wrong With You, with “wrong” being synonymous with “poor” and “carrying on in a lifestyle unfamiliar to the court due to race/religion/culture.”
Evans and Duncan do an excellent job as family members that love and miss each other just a little bit, but are also low key “I will fucking stab you if you don’t cut this bullshit out.” Makenna Grace did an excellent job even with her face being all swollen up with tears for half the movie.
(2017 movie, 2018 viewing, movie obtained from the public library.)
Skyscraper - this was surprisingly disappointing. I went in with very low standards; I mean, I was hoping for San Andreas minus the earthquake, plus fire, or maybe Die Hard with better villain accents. The set up looked good: the Rock is a disabled vet working as a security consultant for a Very Tall building about to open in Hong Kong, his wife is an age-appropriate former (?) Navy surgeon Neve Campbell, there are tiny-adorable-brave children to be rescued, Chin Han as the building's owner, and several other potentially interesting characters in the form of a police inspector and his deputy.
And then it didn't gel. The danger was way too high stakes and everyone was way too good at their jobs. A half hour into the movie Johnson climbs 100 stories into the air on the outside of a construction crane and jumps from it to the burning building. Now, that kind of thing might work as the climax to an action movie, but this is the first half hour! He needs to get into the building to save his family! I'm not worried that he's going to fall to his death, is what I'm saying. Johnson does something similarly ridiculous in San Andreas, rescuing his movie wife from the top of a building while LA crumbles around his helicopter, but you find yourself thinking, shit, is she going to make it? Or is her tragic death going to push him through the rest of the movie, even more determined to save his daughter? In Skyscraper, it was too easy to figure out who was going to live.
The minor characters were completely underdeveloped. Zhao, the building owner, and Okeke, his bodyguard, came close, but not quite. Same for Inspector Wu and his deputy. They really could have added some dramatic or comedic beats to the movie, but were left to just say their lines and move the plot along. The villains were entirely unmemorable.
(2018 movie, 2018 viewing, movie obtained from the public library.)
Ant-man and the Wasp - the surprise hit of the week. I got this one because of my completionist tendencies and the appearance of a Certain Character in the Avengers 4 trailer. I fucking hate ants to the point of phobia and a 'Why I Hate Ants' Tragic Backstory. Watching the first movie was almost impossible and I don't really want to think about the part where they introduced the different species of ants. Thankfully, for whatever reason, there were fewer ants in the sequel by a magnitude of ten.
I loved this. If you watched Ant-Man and thought what the movie needed was fewer ants, Evangeline Lilly kicking ass, Paul Rudd and Michael Peña being funny, and a car chase through San Francisco where one of the cars is the size of a Hot Wheels, you'll appreciate Ant-man and the Wasp. I watched it to check it off my list and ended up re-watching my favorite bits twice and the car chase scene three times. Lilly's fight scenes were excellent, well choreographed to take advantage of the switch between tiny and regular, and frankly, her being the awesome butt-kicker freed Paul Rudd up to be better comedic relief. Laurence Fishbourne is a must-watch for me, so there's that, too.
Honestly, what I really appreciate Ant-man and this sequel for is the comedy. The situations are still high-stake, the dangers are real, but (okay, except for the villains) everyone is just so dang reasonable. People do the "okay, let's stop and think about this" thing, nobody dies for dramatic effect, Scott's family continues to be a delight (have I mentioned that I like it when step-parents get along with birth parents and the kids are safe and loved? I like that), the FBI and the villains are equally bumbling and ineffectual. I do dearly love the more dramatic MCU movies, but my favorite comics and manga have always been funny as well as intense.
With this, the only MCU movies I haven't seen are Thor: The Dark World and Guardians of the Galaxy 2. At this moment in time, I don't see myself desperately seeking either of those out.
(2018 movie, 2018 viewing, rented from iTunes because I forgot to check the public library.)
Spider-man: Into the Spider-verse - my favorite of the movies I saw in the past week, but also the one I'm least coherent about. All I have are big feelings about the beauty and sheer cool factor of the animation style, the music, the humor, and the plot. I saw it the day it came out after work, in the big fancy theater, as a Christmas present to myself. Totally worth it.
(2018 movie, 2018 viewing, saw in the theater.)
Gifted - I saw the previews for this last year, but had to wait for it to come out on DVD and then for me to be in the right mood to watch it. Running out of MCU movies, however, and figuring I might as well dive down the Chris Evans rabbit hole.
I ended up really enjoying it, beyond the expected "I need something interesting to rest my eyeballs on while knitting". I appreciate a movie with a custody drama that doesn't have people physically attacking each other in the courtroom or making improbable pleas to the judge and jury (which is...uh, not a thing in custody cases). The questions asked by the attorneys, the judge's attitude, the deals offered, all hit my procedural kink. I also appreciated that Frank's attorney (who is Black) and his neighbor (played by Octavia Spencer) both have their eyes wide open to the fact that The Court Will Take Your Kid If The Court Thinks There’s Something Wrong With You, with “wrong” being synonymous with “poor” and “carrying on in a lifestyle unfamiliar to the court due to race/religion/culture.”
Evans and Duncan do an excellent job as family members that love and miss each other just a little bit, but are also low key “I will fucking stab you if you don’t cut this bullshit out.” Makenna Grace did an excellent job even with her face being all swollen up with tears for half the movie.
(2017 movie, 2018 viewing, movie obtained from the public library.)
Skyscraper - this was surprisingly disappointing. I went in with very low standards; I mean, I was hoping for San Andreas minus the earthquake, plus fire, or maybe Die Hard with better villain accents. The set up looked good: the Rock is a disabled vet working as a security consultant for a Very Tall building about to open in Hong Kong, his wife is an age-appropriate former (?) Navy surgeon Neve Campbell, there are tiny-adorable-brave children to be rescued, Chin Han as the building's owner, and several other potentially interesting characters in the form of a police inspector and his deputy.
And then it didn't gel. The danger was way too high stakes and everyone was way too good at their jobs. A half hour into the movie Johnson climbs 100 stories into the air on the outside of a construction crane and jumps from it to the burning building. Now, that kind of thing might work as the climax to an action movie, but this is the first half hour! He needs to get into the building to save his family! I'm not worried that he's going to fall to his death, is what I'm saying. Johnson does something similarly ridiculous in San Andreas, rescuing his movie wife from the top of a building while LA crumbles around his helicopter, but you find yourself thinking, shit, is she going to make it? Or is her tragic death going to push him through the rest of the movie, even more determined to save his daughter? In Skyscraper, it was too easy to figure out who was going to live.
The minor characters were completely underdeveloped. Zhao, the building owner, and Okeke, his bodyguard, came close, but not quite. Same for Inspector Wu and his deputy. They really could have added some dramatic or comedic beats to the movie, but were left to just say their lines and move the plot along. The villains were entirely unmemorable.
(2018 movie, 2018 viewing, movie obtained from the public library.)
Ant-man and the Wasp - the surprise hit of the week. I got this one because of my completionist tendencies and the appearance of a Certain Character in the Avengers 4 trailer. I fucking hate ants to the point of phobia and a 'Why I Hate Ants' Tragic Backstory. Watching the first movie was almost impossible and I don't really want to think about the part where they introduced the different species of ants. Thankfully, for whatever reason, there were fewer ants in the sequel by a magnitude of ten.
I loved this. If you watched Ant-Man and thought what the movie needed was fewer ants, Evangeline Lilly kicking ass, Paul Rudd and Michael Peña being funny, and a car chase through San Francisco where one of the cars is the size of a Hot Wheels, you'll appreciate Ant-man and the Wasp. I watched it to check it off my list and ended up re-watching my favorite bits twice and the car chase scene three times. Lilly's fight scenes were excellent, well choreographed to take advantage of the switch between tiny and regular, and frankly, her being the awesome butt-kicker freed Paul Rudd up to be better comedic relief. Laurence Fishbourne is a must-watch for me, so there's that, too.
Honestly, what I really appreciate Ant-man and this sequel for is the comedy. The situations are still high-stake, the dangers are real, but (okay, except for the villains) everyone is just so dang reasonable. People do the "okay, let's stop and think about this" thing, nobody dies for dramatic effect, Scott's family continues to be a delight (have I mentioned that I like it when step-parents get along with birth parents and the kids are safe and loved? I like that), the FBI and the villains are equally bumbling and ineffectual. I do dearly love the more dramatic MCU movies, but my favorite comics and manga have always been funny as well as intense.
With this, the only MCU movies I haven't seen are Thor: The Dark World and Guardians of the Galaxy 2. At this moment in time, I don't see myself desperately seeking either of those out.
(2018 movie, 2018 viewing, rented from iTunes because I forgot to check the public library.)
Spider-man: Into the Spider-verse - my favorite of the movies I saw in the past week, but also the one I'm least coherent about. All I have are big feelings about the beauty and sheer cool factor of the animation style, the music, the humor, and the plot. I saw it the day it came out after work, in the big fancy theater, as a Christmas present to myself. Totally worth it.
(2018 movie, 2018 viewing, saw in the theater.)