Godzilla vs. Kong

Plot Synopsis: 

When Godzilla begins acting irrationally, a team of businesspeople and scientists try to find a key to potentially defeat him, believing Kong can lead them to it. Along the way, the two giant monsters begin engaging in battle. Meanwhile, Madison (Mille Bobby Brown reprising her role from Godzilla: King of the Monsters) is trying to find out exactly why Godzilla's behavior has changed.

Positives: 

So, the first thing I really liked about this movie is the action. That is kind of the main reason people are here for this movie, so it's important to get that aspect down, which I think this movie does. The special effects are pretty good too. There aren't really any moments I can point to that look particularly off to me. I also think that, for the most part, the human characters are handled much better in this movie than they have been in previous movies in this MonsterVerse. They aren't deep or anything. But, they are played by good actors, which really helps. The new characters that are tied to Kong's story are the characters I think work the best. I also like that there's a backstory for the rivalry between Godzilla and Kong. It generally works for me. 

Mixed Aspects:

I kind of have mixed feelings about the humor used in the movie. Some of it worked and actually felt pretty natural for me. But, some of the humor also felt really forced, and I just kind of had to shrug it off. While I really liked the action in the movie, there were points where I was worried I wasn't going to get enough of it. Thankfully, the climax kind of rectifies that for me. 

Negatives: 

When I was watching this movie, I kind of wondered if this would have benefitted from an extra movie in this universe. It kind of felt like we skipped a lot involving Kong. I don't know. Maybe we should have had one more Kong movie before this one. It's not a huge negative on my part. It also doesn't help that all of our new characters are pretty much given an exposition dump to introduce them.

Final Thoughts:

This is definitely a movie where the things I like really shine through, and flaws aren't huge. The most important takeaway I had from this movie was that it was fun. It's currently on HBO Max, so I do recommend it. 

My Rating:

Pretty Good

Zack Snyder's Justice League

Basic Introduction: 

I want to take a different approach to reviewing this movie, and it's something I want to apply to the reviews I write going forward. There will be a lot of comparison to the theatrical cut of Justice League from 2017. It's just kind of hard to avoid.  

What I Liked: 

First off, Zack Snyder's Justice League feels so much more fleshed out than the theatrical cut. The core cast gets a lot more to do. Looking back at the theatrical cut of the movie from 2017, I have to wonder why they cut all but the bare bones of Cyborg's backstory. Here, he doesn't feel like an afterthought. He feels like a character. The same can also be said of the movie's main villain, Steppenwolf. In the theatrical cut, he was just a generic villain who just wanted to rule the world. In this version, he has a clear master in Darkseid, and is working to get himself back in Darkseid's good graces. Already, the movie's main heavy has a backstory. He has a motivation. While he won't go down as one of my all time favorite villains, this movie offers him a much needed redemption. This movie's also pretty well paced. It was four hours long, and I was glued to all four hours of it. It moved at a pretty solid pace. There were plenty of moments I remembered liking from the theatrical cut, that just feel like they are improved upon here. I should also say that a lot of the fan service worked for me as well. It didn't reach a point for me where it felt too distracting, especially when it easily could have. Finally, the Snyder cut had something I feel was sorely missing from the 2017 version, a soul. This felt like a director's creative vision and a story he wanted to tell from the beginning, especially when compared to the theatrical cut (which I think can best be described as the cliff notes version of this movie). 

What I Didn't Like: 

So, my complaints are pretty minor, all things considered. But, I do still have some issues with this version of the movie. First off, there were a couple of lines here and there that I would have bet money Joss Whedon wrote when trying to give the film more humor, but they exist Zack Snyder's version, namely the line: "I am a black hole of snacks. I am a snack hole." Some of the CGI can look a little janky, though I can't harp on that too much because I think it's kind of amazing we even got this director's cut at all. Finally, let's address the elephant in the room: Amber Heard. Yes, I have my thoughts on her whole situation, and I am not a fan of who she is as a person. That is not why I'm talking about her in this section. I am talking about her in this section of my review because she was just bad in the movie. Fortunately, she's not in it very much. 

Final Thoughts: 

So yeah, I really liked Zack Snyder's Justice League. It got a much more emotional response out of me than the theatrical cut did. This version is on HBO Max, and is broken up into parts. If you have HBO Max, and you haven't already watched this, then just know I do have to recommend it.   

My Rating: 

Awesome

Mank

Seeing as Mank is a film directed by David Fincher, it shouldn't be any surprise this is a movie that comes together excellently from a technical perspective. It's very well directed and acted, something that I naturally come to expect from Fincher as a director. With that said, this is not a movie that's going to appeal to everyone. A small niche of people will probably enjoy it. For starters, Fincher makes a lot of call-backs to Citizen Kane. It makes sense because this movie is about Herman Mankiewicz as he writes Citizen Kane, and navigates 1930s Hollywood. One of the main criticisms I have seen levied against this movie is that the pacing often feels a bit too slow. This is something I have to agree with. As I have already hinted at, the performances really do deserve props. As usual actors like Gary Oldman and Charles Dance are in top form. Amanda Seyfried might at her best in this movie. The one person who doesn't entirely feel like they belong to me is Bill Nye as Upton Sinclair. He isn't awful, necessarily. But, Bill Nye also is not an actor by trade. However, I should note that he really isn't in the film very much. This is a film that was written by David Fincher's late father. Naturally, this film was a passion project for Fincher. Overall, as a fan of David Fincher's work, I am glad I saw this film. It's not one that I think will go down as one of his best, nor do I see this as one of Fincher's more rewatchable movies. I enjoyed my time with Mank, but won't need to seek it out multiple times in the long run.

7 / 10    

Artemis Fowl

 

"I'm Artemis Fowl, and I'm a criminal mastermind." I wanted to highlight this line from near the end of this movie. I want to highlight it because none of Artemis Fowl's actions really make this line feel earned. There were a lot of other things in this movie, very few of them being good. For example, the special effects are shoddy, at best. I have no idea what kind of performances Josh Gad and Judi Dench were giving. The action felt small scale. There were only a couple of locations in this movie, mainly Artemis's house. The villain has no dimension to her. She feels like a complete afterthought (probably because Artemis Fowl himself is the main antagonist of the book). The one character I actually did enjoy was the Holly Short character. She had a backstory that actually helped you to understand her drive, her motivations. The pacing is quite poor too. I feel like a lot of the film's plot beats are rushed, just so this movie can fit into an hour and a half time frame. Overall, there was very little about Artemis Fowl that worked for me, and I could honestly see why Disney dumped this onto their streaming service rather than delay its theatrical release. If you do happen to come across this movie on Disney+, just go ahead and skip it. 

2 / 10   

Girl

 

Girl stars Bella Thorne in the title role as a young woman who makes her way to a small town with a score to settle. It doesn't take long before she learns that not everything is what it seems. Going in to this, I only knew the basic plot. I had an idea of what I expected the movie to be. So, when the plot beat I saw coming happened within the first third, I had reached a point where I wasn't entirely sure how things were going to progress. That said, there were still some pretty predictable elements to the movie's plot. Some of the more obvious plot beats are kind of where I would like to start. These moments are the main issue I have with the movie, though they are few and far between. I knew right away who was going to be the villain as soon as the character was introduced, and not just because of the actor playing the role. The movie's greatest strength is the acting, particularly Bella Thorne in the lead. Initially, I was a little bit worried. Those worries were put to ease as the film went on. Overall, Girl works because of its performances, and some legitimately good tension. It isn't a movie I see going down as a modern classic or anything, but it did keep me invested as I watched it. 

7 / 10  

Jiu Jitsu

 Jiu Jitsu is about a group of fighters chosen to do battle by an alien from another world. So, I saw the trailer for this movie about a month ago, and thought it looked like it could be some dumb, trashy fun. Yeah, that's pretty much what I got out of this movie. The character development is pretty thin. Most of these characters don't have much to them beyond the most basic aspects you can give them. What helps these characters out is that I actually like a lot of the actors, even if some of them felt a bit underused (looking at you Nicolas Cage). There are some characters here and there that, at least to me, didn't end up feeling like they had a point being in the movie. The special effects are mostly pretty bad. However, the action is probably this movie's saving grace. The action is genuinely well shot and entertaining enough. In many ways, you could call this a rip-off of Predator. The DNA is definitely there. Overall, this is a movie that's decent enough for killing an hour and forty minutes. You can just watch it, and not think too hard. This movie isn't anything special, but I don't think it necessarily needed to be either.

6 / 10  

Once Upon a Time at Christmas

 Two serial killers dressed Santa and Mrs. Claus wreak havoc on a small town while the police try their best to stop the killers. So, I was warned going in that this was going to be bad. Maybe that's why it wasn't as bad as I was expecting. I mean, is it even fair to pick on a slasher movie for having subpar acting? Where this movie truly works for me is actually in the story. How the two killers work is actually kind of clever, and it legitimately took me a little while before I really understood where the story was going. Parts of it were predictable, of course. Aside from the acting, a lot of the dialogue is also pretty bad. The one actor I genuinely enjoy in this movie is the actor who plays "Santa." The man hams it up to just the right level for me. The characters are pretty thin. They aren't unlikable per se, but, most of them don't really do much to stand out for me. Yes, this movie is bad. But, I found it to be pretty enjoyably bad. If you are fan bad movies, and of off-kilter Christmas movies, there are honestly a lot worse you could go with. 

6 / 10