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The Marvels (2023)
You are not the target audience...but who is?
I watched all the Marvels films; the first, great, others and bad. Including all the way back to Blade. I enjoy a fantasy, sci-fi or action romp. Also I think it is important to go into every movie with a blank mind because else you will just see the same people, stories and setting over and over again.
The Marvels is clearly aimed at a different audience than 40 year olds (like me) who are still into comic stuff (not like me). So I am not surprised that those old dudes give it so much shade but come on...take a chill pill; Captain Marvel is not really the (comic) franchise to get upset about. Also like some comics, some movies are just aimed at a different audience. Would you get upset if they didn't portray Squirrel Girl correctly?
But then who is it aimed at? Well, clearly it is a Disney movie (even with singing...which was very cringy) and they are aiming it at a young, teen female audience.
Which could work, in a "mom takes her 12 year old comic-fan daughter to a cute popcorn, superhero flick" kind of way. Which is fine, of course...However, how many 12 year old comic-fan girls are there out there, really? Apparently, not enough according the number of movie go-ers and the few people in the theater I was in.
I did appreciate it though for it was; It was all very, very light-hearted but it definitely had its moments of well done fighting scenes and some odd-ball humor. Nothing tense with no real highs or challenging.
Just set your bar to Scoobydoo or Spy Kids the movie and take the kids.
Guillermo del Toro's Cabinet of Curiosities (2022)
Beauty over substance
Critiquing to me is not about hobbyism in writing, analysing or dismissing a series for you to watch. You should watch as many things of art or entertainment as you like without someone rambling on the evaluation!
However, if you love film, there are so so many productions. Time is too precious to find to sort through all of them to find the cinema that enriches your mind.
I love del Toro, don't get me wrong, especially giving other filmmakers a platform to show their directional work. Also his visual effects style is something to enjoy. However, with so many of his work, the stories his films are telling or the scares there are trying to evoke, are just not that effective.
The same goes for these series; they visuals, artwork and effects are gorgeous (and nasty of course) to see. Also these episodes and have this original reel quality about them that make it feel films instead of tv cam quality.
But the stories hardly get frightening, the characters are interesting but never evoke sympathy. The stories seem to have this weird, repetitive structure in them where the twist is being foreboded, the story is stretched out and when the potentially interesting climax of the story occurs, it is just done away with very quickly.
If you look for something with more substance, I would recommend;
- Masters of Horror
- Black Mirror
- Love, Death and Robots (season 1)
- Channel Zero
- The Twilight Zone
- The Outer Limits.
Sleep Has Her House (2017)
The misadventures of a depressed horse in the woods
I caught this film running on a loop at a friends place which I later on was able to watch alone. A warning; If you happen, as a movie go-er, to have any narrative expectations, don't bother. It is a series of slow moving clips without a direction and certainly doesn't deserve the high rating it has.
What I liked was the cinematography and sound. Chris Barley certainly has a great talent for it and I would be curious to see him collaborating with directors who can utilize this.
Yes, It depends how you want to express your art. If this rocks the filmmaker's boat and there are people who enjoy it, perfect. There are very few people left who are able to let their work be art.
However, cinema it is not. Cinema or movies do take people by the hand. It always offers them a narrative however strange and confusing it may be. Even David Lynch and Lars von Trier are aware of this.
The 'art' of cinema is to combine different forms (story, sound, music, image, acting, et cetera) under one creative vision.
Like I said, if the film is an expression of the filmmaker, fine. However, if the filmmaker is proposing to say; well, here is a series of slowly but beautiful moving clips, so what does it mean to you? It is a bit lazy and even a bit insulting for 1 and 1/2 hours.
This film would be wonderful as video art in a gallery. That would be definitely its niche. However, since it is on IMBD as a movie, I think the viewer deserve a small narrative which I placed as in the title of my review.
Nope (2022)
Decent classic, scary Sci-Fi romp
Not great, not bad but decent.
It is not Peele's greatest work but it doesn't deserve the vitriol of other reviewers or critics.
This is my perspective but I see that Peele was making a clear homage to the more simple, scary but original sci-fi flicks like in the 50s; It Came From Outer Space, Tarantula or Them.
A time where everything was coated in shiny wax. Of course, Peele likes to scratch that wax for extra shock value; the safe family sitcom, the midwestern sideshow or the disappointment in those 50s ideals.
In the end, it is just what it is; a scary, popcorn scifi where your date hides under your coat and delivers with some shocks and laughs.
I grew up with those films and I think that is what it makes it really endearing. I liked it!
So don't set your bar so high and enjoy the nostalgia.
Love, Death & Robots (2019)
Season 3: Littler Plot, More Beauty, Mostly Gore
Everyone agrees that season 1 was an amazing exercise in animation. Also everyone knows it wasn't always about storytelling but then it was certainly about art, and vica versa. Some had done both, creating jaw dropping pearls like Zima Blue.
However, like any piece of art comes into the world organically, this last season seems like an unrecognizable blurred copy of a copy where it feels like some self indulgent 80s producer walked in and said; "Don't mind the plot! Add more gore! Lots of gore!! That's what edgy kids like these days!!"
Don't get me wrong, the animators did an outstanding job again because the visuals are great. But the plot really takes the last seat in the bus, except perhaps for the hilarious three robots and Mason's rats. But those feel like kind of easy rehashes of the originals.
So in short, watch it with low expectations, absolutely don't compare them with the great first season and be warned: They contain scenes of senseless, extreme violence, even for the hardened.
October Faction (2020)
Like your mom dancing at your school play...cringeworthy
The series about two parents fighting vampires without their kids knowing could have been interesting but the production of this show totally misfired. Thinking how badly botched this series is, is actually way more interesing then the show itself.
Two of the most bland written characters trying to forcefully look cool by carrying lots of guns, talking about vampires and dropping words like 'instagram' just makes it worse. Their teenage kids, portrayed by what seems to be two 25 year olds, are constantly bugging the audience by speaking Japanese or quoting trivia at random moments to show how 'gifted' they are.
Sure enough the show slowly starts sliding downwards to silly effects only made worse by the class mates who are for no reason snobbish and Netflix's PC sauce.
Just skip. Plenty of series to watch on the tube.