The BFG

First its Sweet, Then it's Silly     2/5


Visual Treat
     The CGI and world here felt right at home with the tone.



     

Rotten Tomatos 73%       Cinemascore: A-



So here is a surprise, I actually enjoyed Tarzan more than the BFG. The BFG is so sweet sometimes you can't help smiling, but that third act...wow, this movie gets really silly. There is an appeal to it and it still maintains its charm but I have to admit a movie that would have sold me on its premise and tone lost me as soon as the Queen of England came into the picture (If you've seen the movie then you know I mean that literally).

Mark Rylance is charming as the BFG, and the motion capture work is great too. The little girl in this movie Sophie (Ruby Barnhill) is really cute, even though she comes across as a little too self aware for her age sometimes. The BFG is a movie that was always entended to be for kids and families so it will please them fine, I guess I shouldn't have expected to much more then that.

The Free State of Jones

Unfocused and Uninteresting          2/5


Set Design
     The South never looked so good


Great Performance
     "'He Died with Honor' 'No. He just Died'"

Rotten Tomatos: 43%         Cinemascore A-


You know, movies are meant to be a form of escapism but its not a good thing if you can't tell when a movie is going to end, hence my experience with The Free State of Jones. This movie is looooooooong, unforgivably long. And I'm not just talking about the run time (which is already nearly two and a half hours) but every shot, every interaction, it all seems to take an eternity in this movie. Worst of all the movie moves past its subject matter to continue the story of its main character Newton Knight (Mcconaughey) and present a larger commentary on Slavery and the sins of reconstruction era USA. It's not that reconstruction isn't interesting but when the title of the movie is "The Free State of Jones" and that only ends up being about 33% of your movie you might need to adjust your focus. It's a shame too because this movie is expertly acted, it looks beautiful, but by the hour and a half mark I was bored out of my mind and wondering desperately when it would all end.

The Legend of Tarzan

King of the Jungle, Lord of the Apes   2/5


ADVENTURE!
     Sam Jackson and Tarzan Traveling through the jungle is as fun as it sounds

Well Cast
     Skarsgård, Jackson, and Waltz all work and add to the movie

Original Song
     Better Love by Hozier...I really liked it 





Rotten Tomatos: 36%      Cinemascore A-



Damn I had a fun with The Legend of Tarzan! The plot is refreshing considering most adaptations would have sticked with the tried and true "origin story" sticking too a more conventional lord of the apes story. This one adapts its character in the context of the Belgian Genocide and sees Tarzan trying to reconnect with his roots. So how does it all come together? Well not as great as you think. Unfortunately for everything refreshing and fun there comes a boring flashback, or a sloppy action scene.

The films strongest moments are between the lead, Skarsgard, and the nearly always welcome Samuel Jackson. Jackson's character, Dr. Willson, and Tarzan each are experienced men in their own ways, but where as Tarzan is more in his element in the Jungle and Willson is not. The two are quick to work with one another making for a duo that's easily to root for. There is also Christoph Waltz, another favorite of mine, who makes an otherwise bland villain more enjoyable and sinister even if he doesn't end up amounting to much. The film at its best is a solid adventure film with the backdrop of the African Congo, and there is to plenty enjoy in that regard.

Where the adventure was enough to sell me the set pieces were enough to turn me off. They're really not that good; the action is either poorly cut or just a cluster of slow-mo shots. The CGI is barely passable, with many of the apes coming across as plastic in some shots. There are several plot inconstancies too, in some scene Tarzan's apes seem only to grasp absolutes making them difficult to communicate to, but by the end of the film Tarzan's adopted brother comes across just as intelligent as him. Finally the cinematography flipped between exceptional too piss pour frequently, making the film look as inconsistent as the plot sometimes.

The Legend of Tarzan is not a bad film it's just a poorly edited one. All the problems I had with the film seem to be choices that were made in post production which I guess excuses the Director, David Yates, since he began filming Fantastic Beasts before this movie was finished. I really enjoyed Tarzan, just not enough to recomend it in the future.

Independence Day: Resurgence

Their Back...               (2/5)

Accolades Incude

Nostalgia Bomb!
(Get ready to see some familiar faces)

Destruction Porn
"They Love To Hit the Landmarks"

I would be lying if I said I didn't have fun watching Indepencene Day: Resurgence, the followup to Emmerich's flawed yet beloved disaster movie of the mid 90s, but pull back the shiny first layer and the film is hiding some big problems. The characters are bland (I don't think I remember anybody's name), the plot is exactly what you think (and when they try to do something new they telegraph exactly whats going to happen), and plotholes...don't even get me started on the plotholes. Couple that with some bad acting and a dead script and this movie starts to fall apart. By the end of the film I got my Humans vs Aliens fix but thats all this movie seems to offer and the studio is already set to shove a sequel down our throats.

This movie I think is doomed to live in the shadow of the original and will probably go the way of Terminator Genysis before it: a Sci-fi sequel trying to capture the original's magic but leaving all of the first's genius and commentary behind (except Independence Day: Resurgence lacks the charisma and heart). Independence Day"Resurgence won't let you down if you want to see earths second war against the locus but don't be begging for any more than that.

New Rating System, And Why Im Using It

This post is a bit of a long one but I wanted to covey how I want to review movies going forward.
Ok Let's Start:

Indulge Me for a moment if you will:
You go to the movie with two of your friends. The opening credits start and already your friends are digging it. As the movie goes on it seems your enjoying the experience less and less but your friends are experiencing the opposite. They're laughing and getting wrapped up into the action but your just getting bored. When the film wraps up you ask your friends what they though and unsurprisingly they say they liked it, in some cases you can sympathize why. However when you convey your feelings of the movie your friends they stare at you perplexed and confused, you just saw the same film they did yet they had a completely different experience.

This scenario is in no way suppose to reflect any particular experience I had, nor is it meant to stir me into a rant, but I did want it to mirror how we experience movies as a community. Movies are never unanimously loved, and you can always find somebody with a different opinion then yours, yet, if there is one thing I have learned over the last year from seeing more and more movies, its that movies in design are made to be loved. No studio sets out to make a bad movie, yet a majority of flicks that come out in a given year tend to score unfavorably on critics sites like Rotten Tomatoes (If you talked to me in person then you know how much I bring up RT). Ultimately though these movies are seen by tons of people and working as the guy who sells the tickets I can tell you its rare to here somebody doesn't like a movie.

So here's the dilemma, is there really such a thing as a bad movie? Well no, just as there such thing as a perfect movie either; this ideology is consistent though all mediums of art: novels, paintings, video games, anything that is created to elicit and emotional response. There are plenty of movies I dislike but I still want to give them their due if they made me laugh or I enjoyed my self. I want to be able to say that I didn't like a movie but here is where it stood out to me; comedies for examples never seem to make a good movie for me but if it made me laugh it should get some credit, it is a comedy after all.

Long Overdue Update

Wow its been a long time since I posted anything, I still have been watching movies but I kinda fell off the map for taking care of the blog. Im going to see Independence Day: Resurgence later tonight but here's everything I've seen so far scored:

Zootopia (3/5)
Allegiant (2/5)
Batman v Superman (2/5)
My Big Fat Greek Weeding 2 (2/5)
The Jungle Book (4/5)
Keanu (3/5)
Captain America Civil War (5/5) *Probably My Favorite so Far this Year
The Angry Birds Movie (2/5)
Neighbors 2 (2/5)
Nice Guys (4/5)
Alice Through The Looking Glass (1/5)
X-Men Apocalypse (4/5)
Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping (4/5)
TMNT: Out of the Shadows (2/5)
Warcraft (2/5)
Central Intelligence (2/5)
Finding Dory (3/5)

Anyway those are the movies I have seen since my last post and my rough scores of them. I think I'm going to forgo my "out of five" rating system. I might keep it around but I have been thinking about changing up my rating system a little bit where I can award movies accolades based on certain areas (I put up another post about that later today). Thanks for checking in and I'll try to keep the post coming.