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Reviews
Avengers: Infinity War (2018)
The pinnacle of Marvel
This is a 10/10 purely because Thanos is so compelling to watch as a villian. The huge number of cameos and interactions between all the different heroes also make this film great.
I felt like the action dragged on a bit at the end, but this is in basically every marvel film, and the ending was so good that it makes up for it.
Captain America: Civil War (2016)
Amazing
This film has lots of cameos from the wider MCU and incorporates them in such a fun way. Without spoiling, there are some moments that are iconic for the series.
Also the funnest part of this film is the whole Iron Man vs Captain America split and seeing which heroes take each side. The film starts off great, but has some minor pacing issues in the middle and slightly underdeveloped ending that take away from an otherwise 10/10.
Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015)
Mediocre
For me the film was action heavy without any substance. There were lots of cool ideas being thrown around, but none of them properly developed. The ensemble of the avengers is great as always but this film added nothing new to the formula that the first film didn't have.
Iron Man (2008)
The best hollywood superhero movie
This film is just so damn enjoyable. Particularly Robert Downey Jr's performance, he makes every scene with him in fun. This is helped by the quick paced script and chemistry with supporting cast who play off him well.
The only part that dragged were some of the action sequences, including the lengthy climactic battle that I got bored of because it lacked any stakes, but I see this problem across all hollywood superhero movies.
Overall its the best hollywood superhero movie I've seen and so it deserved a 10.
Captain America: The First Avenger (2011)
Average film with awesome backstory
The first hour of the film was great, especially the backstory of the hero being a determined underdog that nobody believed in. However past that first hour the action drags and the film falls into mediocrity.
Cloverfield (2008)
Shaky camera made me feel nauseous
The greatest thing about disaster films is being able to see the visual spectacle of buildings being torn apart, gigantic monsters or natural disasters and interesting action set pieces.
The worst thing about handheld footage films is that you can't see what's going on clearly, the camera is often chaotic, jumpy and not visually stimulating. This can be great to create a sense of chaos and disorientation in horror or make the audience feel like it could be a real event, making it all that more spooky.
However, handheld footage really doesn't improve a disaster film, it only weakens interesting visuals. Maybe when it was released it was a novel idea, but I didn't get anything out of this one and felt nauseous the whole time due to rapid camera movement.
La La Land (2016)
The most cliche story ever made told in the most interesting way possible
La La Land has moments of greatness such as the finale, but if you remove the musical elements, there isn't a compelling story.
The story of two people falling in love with each other is extremely cliché as is, but here it is the absolute bare bones of that outline.
Can great actors performances and a great soundtrack make up for that? To some degree. The film also has lots of character, and its worth watching just for the 3rd act alone.
Bronenosets Potyomkin (1925)
Captures a moment in the crowd
The Battleship Potemkin is not a watch for everyone. But for those looking for something different it is hugely unique.
It is not only black and white, but also a silent film. If this weren't enough, the film has no clear main character.
So why should you watch it?
The film follows the crowd with mob-like mentality. They are possessed by emotion together, happiness, sadness. It is comradery, a sense of belonging, what it means to be part of one of those historical events that go down in legend.
Spider-Man: Far from Home (2019)
Has the same charm as #1 but missed potential
The film is more smoothly put together than the 1st, but repeatedly ruining a somewhat sympathetic villain via comedy ruins the edge this film could have had over its predecessor.
Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021)
Weaker script but lots of enjoyment factor
My two issue with Spider-Man: No Way Home were:
1. The setup for the movie felt forced
2. The jarring sudden dips into tragedy throughout the film, clashing with the light hearted, goofy fun we have come to love from Spider-Man movies.
However, viewers will love this for the fun provided by all the cameos on top of these films usual charm.
Moonlight (2016)
Average but had potential
Moonlight is successfully gritty and realistic, but the overarching themes of the story are messy and at times incoherent.
Is it a film about accepting being gay? Is it a film about crime and aggression being inevitable due to upbringing?
The 3rd part of the story fails to tie these two central ideas together in a meaningful way and as a result it goes nowhere. Additionally the story can drag at times. 7/10.
Cobra Kai: Mercy (2018)
Finale delivers
Although I liked the 1st season of Cobra Kai, I felt that at times the pacing lagged. However the season finale, Mercy, is a non-stop rollercoaster of emotions and example of what this show can deliver when its at its best.
The greatest part of the episode is to see the Cobra Kai students change from innocent and impressionable youngsters, to ruthless monsters. It is believable because it has gradually been developing over the whole season.
The climactic fight is perfect, and although Johnny should have everything he ever wanted he is not seen celebrating, there is a moment of what monster have I created? As there is a moment of hollowness in victory for Miguel when he realises Sam has left because of his ruthless attitude. Meanwhile, despite losing the fight Robbie has gained the emotional support of Daniel, he is a victor in the ways that Miguel has lost and vise versa. It is poetic.
Conor McGregor: Notorious (2017)
Fascinating character study but not for everyone
For me this documentary gets a 10 because it is a raw, unedited insight into one of the most controversial and so interesting sports personalities of modern times.
We see him interact with coaches, sparring partners, spouse, friends, competitors. He seems like a normal dude, humble, funny, charismatic towards the camera. But then there are the moments where his egotistic persona shines through, he is shamelessly boastful about his skills, excessively focused on wealth and his temper can snap in a moment.
The final minute of the documentary, a title screen showing text to say McGregor has lost to Mayweather, no clips have been included. It foreshadows the coming downfall of his career. That his ego has consumed him for the worse. He is flawed. Loveable. Hateable. One of the greats.
Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017)
Highly entertaining and anybody can enjoy!
I have to preface this that I don't watch many superhero movies, but I really enjoyed this one.
Positives:
The main standout was the character of Peter Parker. Goofy, innocent and clumsy but with the right intentions. Really fun to watch, and a breath of fresh air from the more serious superheroes.
Another great part of the film is Tony Stark and Peter Parker's relationship as a mentor, I think it was really well executed. Peter's friend Ned is also a highlight and great source of comedy. The humour is also excellent and felt effortless.
Downsides:
OK, I may not have seen many superhero movies but I can still tell you that the story is cliche as they come. Generic storybeats for superhero film. However I personally don't see this as a problem, because the journey through the film was so fun.
Lastly, the reason this didn't get a 10 just from enjoyment factor alone was the film dragging towards the end. The last 20-30 minutes lacked any meaningful emotional story beats unlike the rest of the film, and so it was just mindless action (Which is fine but drags if its 30mins). I would've given a 10 otherwise.
Also a minor nit-pick, the final 10minutes of tying up loose ends felt a bit of a chore rather than enjoyable.
Overall a solid 9/10 with wide appeal. Definitely check it out!
Fantastic Mr. Fox (2009)
Stylish, but loses focus in the 3rd act
From its charming aesthetic, snappy dialogue and endearing characterisation, Fantastic Mr. Fox succeeds greatly in being easy and enjoyable to watch.
However while the narrative touches on the theme of identity in an interesting way through both Mr. Fox and son Ash (What happens when somebody can't live up to the expectations placed on them?), the 3rd act provides no answer, instead removing the idea that Mr. Fox had to decide between what was best for him versus best for his family, and removing the self-acceptance of son Ash being un-athletic by allowing him to suddenly become athletic.
Overall it was still largely enjoyable, especially good film if you have kids watching!
Sex Education (2019)
Good up until Season 3
Sex education initially was very inventive, in that it focused on school stereotypes and deconstructed them in an interesting way. It had a catchy episodic premise, where students of the school came and consulted the main character (Otis) about their sex problems. Usually solving the problem would reveal some knowledge that could also be applied to the main character's personal issues.
Season 2 of the show somewhat changed this concept, with Otis taking a back seat to a wider cast, and abandoning the strict episodic student comes to ask for help into more of a TV soap tone focusing on the dynamic between its characters.
While I really enjoyed Season 2, I think in retrospective it was the start of the issues for the show. Come Season 3 and these issues are readily apparent and could be summarized as:
1. Bloated cast: There are simply too many storylines for any of them to be meaningfully developed, as a result in my opinion only 4 storylines were executed properly: Ruby's, Adam's, Maeve's and Eric's.
Now here is a list of 13 other characters that the writers attempted to give a storyline (Made more than a minor appearance): Jackson, Cal, Vivienne, Hope, Otis, Isaac, Amy, Lily, Ola, Groff, Maureen, Jakob, Jean.
Over the course of 8 episodes, this simply isn't do-able. As a result, a lot of the character arcs felt un-fleshed out and generic or flat out boring.
2. Structure has dissolved: Without the episodic student asking Otis for help, the series struggles. Simply because the only thing it can throw at the audience is more melodrama about relationships between different characters. And this would be fine if not for point 3-
3. Telling rather than showing: While Otis' role as an advice giving therapist worked really well, it was done with a correct amount of nuance. He wasn't always right and some people didn't want to listen. That was interesting. However every character in Sex Education season 3 now has the power to therapize whoever they're talking to. Not only is this incredibly tedious, it makes the melodrama of the new format seem hugely unrealistic about since all it usually ends in is people "talking it out". I get that the TV show writers want to portray a positive message on how to act for young teens, but this is just so boring and uninspired.
Lady Bird (2017)
Offbeat masterpiece
Hugely relatable to the mass audience, Lady Bird separates itself from similar coming of age stories by being tunnel focused on how messy growing up is. It is both hopeful and realistic at tackling the plentiful difficulties of growing up, while I find other coming of age films lack the realism.
Because the script is so true to life it makes the story so relatable, and it makes the actors job so natural. Speaking of the actors their performances are fantastic, and the story has great pace to it. The ending also subverts the expected cheesy overly-neat Hollywood ending which earns it a bonus point. I'm going to give Lady Bird a 10 because it is exceptional, and rather than a 9/10 film, I don't think there's anything that could be improved about it.
The most poignant part of the story for me, was for how all of her personality, there really is nothing special about Lady Bird as a person. She seems like the most average person, going through the most average things in life, yet it is still very beautiful to watch because of the attention to details.
I honestly find it terrifying that I see so much of my own life in lady bird because it undermines what I have thought as making me unique. I'm still trying to process that but if a film can get you thinking, to me, it's a sign of how good it is.
Palm Springs (2020)
Not unique or the best of the genre
Sadly I thought that this film is outclassed by most other time loop films I've seen.
The real weakness of the film is a lack of focus. It is part philosophical, part comedy, part drama and part romance story, however it ended up being a jack of all trades that didn't succeed as a result.
It tends to get quite vulgar beyond what I think the large modern audience is looking for, butI think it is still an entertaining movie.
Steven Universe (2013)
Above average show (Ending gets more hate than it deserves)
No spoilers until my last point:
One of the main reasons I put off watching this show was actually due to seeing the rapid amount of hate that fans gave the finale. Many said that it ruined the show, others simply that it was rushed or unbelievable. Anyway I came across a clip of "Stronger than you" which is a musical number from the show and I instantly fell in love with it and decided I would binge watch the series come what may, and yeah I think it's great.
The first thing I would say is that the show definitely has two demographics, as it is something that could be watched by kids or adults alike. What I'm going to be nit-picking about probably isn't something that the children audience would care about, while the strengths are enjoyed by both.
Strengths:
Light-hearted/wholesome adventure series
Good all ages comedy
Interesting world building & fantasy elements with the gems. I particularly love how these elements are introduced gradually so they don't overwhelm the viewer.
Sends a good core message that its OK to be different
Steven is a beacon of positivity as a hero & the main 3 crystal gems are awesome.
Good musical numbers
Weaknesses:
Sometimes it feels like two shows - one with the gems and one with the towns people.
In my opinion the episodes focused around the towns people are rather uninteresting. My main complaints were episodes where Steven being a gem wasn't even relevant to the plot. Towns people gem crossover episodes are quite fun but the balance needs to be right and arguably if the towns people episodes have been reduced by 33% I don't think anyone would have minded.
Lack of focus/development
I feel like a lot of the development in the show goes into the wrong places. For instance, the diamonds are incredibly interesting and I thought they were one of the coolest part of the show, however their screen time is minimal and they are in desperate need of fleshing out, something I'll return to later in the review. Another interesting idea was fusion, and all the different combinations felt like something that could have been explored but saved some of the most interesting ones to only appear once in the finale rather than spreading them across the series. Lastly there were other gems that felt like half-baked ideas, and the cast being as big as it was inevitably led to their development being limited. This even applies to a main character such as Pearl, who in season 1 was a strong presence and by season 5 has disappeared into the background. Essentially, I would have preferred less characters and more focus on the characters that existed.
Lack of pacing/stakes
I would argue that the tension peaks somewhere around the end of season 1 of Steven universe and that it never truly recovers after that. The show fails to make the viewer feel as if Steven can really lose and that there are consequences. However this isn't actually as big of a criticism as it may sound because this helps keep the series light hearted and I quite liked that, however I thought it was still worth outlining in the review.
Storytelling loses its subtlety
This was actually one of the most jarring things when watching, while the storytelling is initially quite subtle it ends up going from "Showing" to "Telling" somewhere around season 2 and the trend increases from there. A key example of this would be Steven being generally helpful in early episodes and helping people through their problems by simply being a beacon of positivity ("Showing" method) versus the latest seasons where he goes out of his way to therapize everyone he meets and wants them all to talk about their feelings which magically fixes the problem ("Telling" method). Additionally, some story beats felt melodramatic simply for the sake of being melodramatic, such as when the beacon of positivity that is Steven does a 180 and regrets one of his plans/starts blaming himself. Steven acting melodramatic became an increasing trend and I think it undermined part of what made him such a great character.
Main themes feel unclear in areas SPOILERS INCOMING:
The core message of the show is "It's OK to be different" but it leaves a lot of the areas surrounding this unclear. Gems conform to the wishes of the Diamonds that create them, but the motives of the diamonds for doing so is never truly explored. In the context of the ending this is why it has been bashed so hard, it feels like the creators were either too stumped to explore this area or too rushed.
I personally found that BD/YD being convinced by Steven was very believable given that they had 5000 years to ponder over PD's disappearance and the error of their ways. Additionally, it's made clear that they are held accountable to being "perfect" by WD.
However, WD's obsession for being "perfect" is never really explained, despite her claiming "I have to be perfect" the viewer can't think of any tangible reason why. If the show is intending to reflect real life, the answer would almost certainly be that the diamonds (or leaders) feel that they need to be perfect because that expectation is put on them by their followers. This is how the writers could have humanised WD, by essentially saying she believed what she was doing was in the best interests of everybody, that she fixated on making everybody "perfect" because she genuinely believed she had to, that the world would collapse if she didn't and that she would be leading her followers into a dark world and letting them down if there wasn't "perfection". With the context of this motivation, the ending makes sense, it is essentially the moment in "The emperor's new coat" where the boy points out the emperor is naked and he realises the error of his mistakes. In other words all I think that was missing from the finale was a few lines of dialogue that would have explained her motivation.
The Irishman (2019)
A great classic - Especially within its genre
What makes the Irishman such a good movie is the slow unfolding of the very simple tale it tells. Scorsese leisurely takes us through three hours of character and world building, aided with the leisurely attitudes of Robert DeNiro's Frank and Joe Pesci's Russel. Both are measured in how they act, charming, quietly confidence and are almost reserved compared to many of the other explosive and bombastic personalities of the mobsters around them.
They become familiar friends to the audience, and their calmer attitudes humanise the violent actions that come with the life of a mobster and make the film engaging. It is easy for the audience to put themselves in these characters shoes, and all the more crushing third act as a result. Al Pacino's performance is also excellent. The final scenes of the film gets its power from the death of the mob and gangster films in general, as well as it being a swan song for the main trio.
Arrival (2016)
Pretentious and overhyped
I think the reason that Arrival has received such high praise is because it is a breath of fresh air to the sci-fi genre, it provides a unique take on first contact with aliens and focuses more on atmosphere rather than action.
However, any meaningful introspection or interesting scenes of dialogue is lacking that typically make slow films like this great. The main character had a shocking lack of personal stake in the conflict and her personality simply moulded to what the scene needed. The dialogue was so sparse that I quickly became bored and lost investment. I was at no point emotionally invested.
For the record the atmosphere was really interesting, and those looking more for a visual/audio experience from their films may really enjoy this one. I used the term "Pretentious and overhyped" because people seem to be linking the great atmosphere to this film being the pinnacle of recent moviemaking. But like I said I just found this film so incredibly boring that I have to disagree.
The film has one clever plot twist which I actually thoroughly enjoyed despite my low rating, and in my opinion this gave the last 15 minutes of the film some weight. However I really wouldn't justify slogging through the first hour and 45 minutes just to see that.
Bonding (2018)
"Good" but not "Great"
Initially I was drawn to this title for its outrageous premise. While I think the setting delivers and provides some interesting insights into BDSM lifestyles, the story lacked the focus it would need to deliver anything more interesting than average. On the one hand I really enjoyed Pete's story and was satisfied with its conclusion in season 2, however I really struggled to relate to Tiff and I think her character was assassinated the hardest by the sheer amount of melodrama in the story.
My biggest problem was that she wasn't endearing and yet everyone seemed to be bending over backwards for her (Doug & Pete), while I think this was the right direction for Pete's character there ended up being not enough foil to Tiff that could challenge her beliefs or at times toxic behaviour. The story tries to fix this by "redeeming" Tiff's character, sort of apologising to everyone, but I would've much preferred if she embraced a mean identity unapologetically, which in my mind is what being a Dominatrix is all about. For comparison I found Josh a much more interesting "dominant" character, he's charming and charismatic and you can see why Pete who feels insecure would attach to him very easily.
In an attempt to humanise Tiff being a dominatrix I feel like they lost this charming and charismatic qualities that would explain why people are bending over backwards for her and that would have been a much more gripping narrative in my opinion. There are still some really powerful moments, usually monologues, Frank's speech in season 2 was in my mind phenomenal, and so was Carter's in the S2 finale to Tiff, but these are only masterful in the context of those moments and not the wider show. It also does a good job at normalising a lot of things that we think of as outrageous and I think that's a good thing. Would I recommend it? Not urgently, but I think you very quickly see if it's something you like or not so why not try it.