Shaz 'em!

Apparently each DC movie is better than the last, so this post is redundant.

To be honest, it's been a few days since I saw this, and already it's starting to fade. Which isn't to say this is a bad movie, but I can't recall more than the basics of the plot, kid gets superpowers, fights another guy who didn't but has different powers, only it's a lot more about family than it is about the fighting.

As mentioned above, people are claiming this is the best DC movie, better than Wonder Woman and Aquaman. And this movie certainly is... the latest. It doesn't get gloomy, it isn't dark (as in visually, you can actually see the characters!) and it romps along well enough.

Just that... this is an origin story, and I don't feel like I need another origin story. A lot of people won't know about Captain Marvel/Shazam, so we need an origin, but this runs through the basics so nothing really is a surprise. You can see the character arc (kid becomes a superhero, needs to learn how to be a hero) coming a mile away, and you can call the beats as they happen. At least the villain is played by Mark Strong (who's previous DC villain role was Sinestro), and I always like his performances.

But at least I found out some useful information about how to act at movie theaters. Did you know that it is now acceptable etiquette to take, and tweet out, selfies during the movie? And that when they say things like "turn off your phones", that doesn't apply to Apple watches? The more you know...

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Oos

Yep, there is Get Out and now there is this. I'm in, let's check it out!

A family goes to a beach house where the mother rather a rather traumatic experience... and now there is a mirror family that is after them. (I don't really want to say more, and this is what is in the trailer, so, yeah.)

I know I watch a lot of films in fast mode, so that might have an impact, but... this movie felt really slow. Like I got what was happening quite quickly, so have the scenes just play them out slowly just felt like it was taking too much time to get on with it.

And then when we get what is going on... I get that as well. I still have questions, but I guessed the twist at the beginning, so was waiting to see which way they were going to go with it, and while some things make sense, a lot doesn't.

Good? There could be more done with it, I felt.

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The Wand or Ring Earth

Big budget Chinese movie that, from the trailer, looks reminiscent of 2012.

With the sun dying, the people of earth decide to leave, so gather together to install large engines on the equator and smaller engines on one side, and push the earth into orbit around a different star. However, as they get close to Jupiter, some issues occur that puts that plan in jeopardy. We follow a brother and sister as they first go joyriding, but then get caught up in the race to save the planet, at whatever the cost.

So family based drama, and global catastrophe. In that way, like 2012 check. In terms of a story that actually brings you in, and has you invested in whether or not they survive, this beats 2012 in spades. Not to say there aren't overly emotional moments, but they actually help the story to move on and not just one selfish guy trying to get his family to safety to spite everyone else.

But the physics... oh, the physics. Whenever they said 'the engines do this' or 'the earth does that', I was like 'nope, physics don't work that way'. I get they needed to for story purposes, but even so, I couldn't hang my disbelief that much.

Well, considering the number of big budget pictures fired at the Chinese market, about time we had something come back the other way. Although since it would involve reading, I can see this not being successful in the USA... BOO-YAH!

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The Preposession of Hannar Grace

Another exorcism movie? No, not really. But a horror movie certainly.

Hannah Grace was possessed and they tried an exorcism... and she straight kills the priests. Well, that's different. Cut to later, a police officer is now a morgue attendant on night shift, and one body that is delivered is one Hannah Grace. However, she's not quite as dead as it seems, and as she kills, she gets better. But who would believe that?

So... this is actually quite a good horror movie. Although the dark night time morgue is an easy set, it is well used, and this has one of the key components that I love: atmosphere. This sets it up, plays with it in ways that is inkeeping with the universe, namely motion activated lights, so it gets creepy and effectively.

And people aren't stupid. They call for security when weird things are happening, and there is better reasonable doubt than "I can't believe this for the plot to go forward".

This all said, this isn't some big budget production piece. But it is quite effective with what it has. Definitely check it out if you have the chance.

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Enconter

It's a movie with a Hemsworth name attached to it! And that's about the biggest point going for it. Too bad it's a lesser Hemsworth.

A space pod falls from space. Rather than turn anyone into a plant that wants to take over the world, or give out space tech, it helps a cripple man walk again and relive memories of his ex-wife and dead child. Fortunately, the FBI are aware of these things (they seem to be dropping all over the place) so send out two not very good agents to track the new one down. But in the end, all the seed wants it to take a piece of everyone, and be loved.

Wow, this was rubbish. I'm sure in someone's mind there was great sweeping character moments, but what we get is just pablum and hogwash. And the FBI agents couldn't agent their way out of a paper bag.

(Not to mention that what happens at the end is that they are minus one character and plus another character, and you know the government ain't just gonna let that ride.)

No-one in this is acting in a believable way, but that's okay because none of the actors bother to commit to their parts, clearly realising they are just in this for a paycheck. The movie looks terrible, and if this was done over a weekend, I wouldn't be surprised.

No doubt they are relying on the Hemsworth name to get some recognition, but it's not worth it.

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Captan Mar-Vell

Yeah, it's the latest movie. Most likely a lot of you have already seen it, and otherwise have made decisions to see it or not, so don't let me stop you.

However, rather than talk about the plot, I'm just going to get into it. I will need to discuss one or two elements, but nothing that spoilery, but feel free to skip if you want to. And the fact that this is a female lead movie isn't a problem, although it may lie at the heart of the issue.

The main issue I have with this movie is that... at no time did I get the sense that Captain Marvel was in any real danger. She just acted competently at every moment and always seemed in command of what was going on, that the threat level of the scenes were way down. Even when she just turns up on earth, and has to deal with our backward environment after having been raised Kree, and with Kree technology, and no point is there anything that's hard for her to deal with. (You can excuse that by saying she was trained to deal with all sorts of things, but even to the extent of being able to randomly adapt bits of previously unknown earth electronic components?)

And so while we have big set pieces and such, and yes there were 'punch in the air' moments, but I didn't really feel like any of them mattered. She just ramps up her abilities to deal with whatever, so... I wasn't bored or anything, but this movie didn't feel like it really had anything to say or do, it was just generic.

Coming back to the female part, was this because Marvel, in an attempt to correct for not having a female lead, swerved into having her be too competent? It didn't feel like her gender mattered at all, so this could have been any person in the role and it would have been just the same. Not that, off the top of my head, I can think of any particularly feminine things that should matter to the plot, but again this is just so generic that why did they bother with this as their female lead movie when nothing else about it stands out?

As said, you've either seen, or made up your mind about this. I'm not saying this is a bad movie, or that this is the downfall of Marvel, and certainly not saying that female lead movie is a bomb, just that... there's nothing particularly noteworthy to this movie aside from that female lead that makes it worth watching.

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Leg End of Hollow Weenie Jack

I really should not watch Andrew Jones' movies. Although I don't realise they are by Andrew Jones until it's too late. Such as with this one.

The movie opening titles starts with clips from far better movies, such as Nosferato, Night of the Living Dead, Dracula, etc., as if to say "hey, this movie is going to be as epic as those ones were". Not even slightly. A man accused of murder has his case thrown out of court because of bad procedures, so a group of townies decide to take matters into their own hands, and kill him, after first dressing him up to look like a scarecrow because... we need a costume for the bad guy. One year later, one of the guilt ridden members kills himself over the grave and up comes the dead guy, now with supernatural powers of not being noticed, despite being in a stupid costume, and being able to keep his clothes clean despite the death he causes. Slip into standard 'killer hunts them down' fodder, and we're done.

Was this movie shot over the weekend? It looks like it was shot over the weekend. If they aren't all first takes, I'd like to know what happened that they had to reshoot, maybe someone tripped over something. And the sound mixer gets his own credit... when the sound mixing is terrible! That may seem like an odd thing to call out, but I had to continually adjust the volume up during the too quiet talking scenes, then get my ears blasted as we switched to a music club.

This guy is prolific, so good that he's living his dream. I just need to stop getting caught up in them.

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