Tag Archives: Film Review

Review: X-Men: Days of Future Past

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X-Men: Days of Future Past is the best X-Men film in over a decade and one of the biggest and most ambitious film events since The Avengers.  It’s technically the seventh film in the series, including the original trilogy, two Wolverine spin offs and one prequel/reboot, and it pulls from all of those films to create a complex, interesting conglomeration featuring almost every actor who’s ever had anything to do with X-Men in any way.  It’s based on one of the most popular stories from the comics, and it borrows heavily from films like The Terminator and Back to the Future.  And while Days of Future Past is generally a success, it tries to include so much that it often loses focus and isn’t as compelling as those first X-Men films years ago.  It’s great to see so many familiar faces, and the film has moments of brilliance, but I couldn’t help feeling while I watched it like I would have preferred something different.

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Review: The Grand Budapest Hotel

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I’ve been trying to write a review of The Grand Budapest Hotel for over a month, but it’s given me an unusual amount of trouble.  It has made me curious about what this very specific writer’s block means in terms of my opinion of the film.  I certainly enjoyed it, as I’ve enjoyed all Wes Anderson films, but it seems like I just don’t have much to say about it.  My overriding opinion from a review standpoint is that if you like Wes Anderson’s other movies, you’ll like The Grand Budapest Hotel, if you dislike them then you’ll want to skip it, and if you’re indifferent it’s worth checking out but probably not as worthy of attention as some of Anderson’s other works.

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Review: Captain America: The Winter Soldier

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I have to say that I wasn’t particularly thrilled by Captain America: The First Avenger.  As the last film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe to be released before The Avengers, it felt like just one more piece in the puzzle rather than a compelling story in its own right.  That’s not to say that I disliked the film, or that it was particularly bad (still a big step ahead of Iron Man 2), it just wasn’t as interesting to me as Thor or Iron Man.  It was another solid origin story, with a strong cast and a fun setting, but the end result of the film seemed to just serve as setup for The Avengers.  (In a recent rewatch of that film, I’ve realized that I might have judged it a little too harshly upon my first viewing.)  Three years and four movies later we now have Captain America: The Winter Soldier, which might be the most complex and interesting film Marvel has made to date, not to mention one of the most entertaining, and it’s a game-changer for the universe its predecessor helped to create. Continue reading →

Review: Divergent

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To the casual observer, Divergent might seem like an attempt to cash in on the success of The Hunger Games, especially when you consider the number of similarly themed previews that showed before Divergent.  It seems like “young adult” (hate that term) post-apocalyptic stories are “in” these days, and those who haven’t read the Divergent books might be tempted to write the film adaptation off as just another clone.  However, to do so would be a mistake, as the Divergent series has a lot to offer, even if this first film is perhaps not everything we might have hoped it would be.  The books are filled with interesting ideas and compelling characters and I hope the remaining books are adapted for the screen, because the story covered in the two remaining books is interesting and unconventional, and would make for movies very different than we’re used to.

Divergent tells the story of Beatrice Prior, who was born in a ruined, future version of Chicago, where the citizens are divided into five factions, each of which embodies a certain desirable trait and fulfills a certain role in society.  Continue reading →

Review: Muppets Most Wanted

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2011’s The Muppets was hilarious, heartfelt, emotional, nostalgic, zany and inventive, and it brought the Muppets back to the level of success and relevance they deserve.  Muppets Most Wanted is all of those things as well, but to a somewhat lesser degree.  The Muppets was such a revelation and a revitalization that it would be impossible for Muppets Most Wanted to match, but this new film wisely strikes out on its own path, taking things on the road and steering well clear of recycling the story from the last movie.  And in the end, no matter how the rest of the film plays out, it’s always good to see the Muppets together again.

Muppets Most Wanted picks up literally right where The Muppets left off, replicating the final shot of that film.  Continue reading →

Review/Analysis: After the Dark (aka The Philosophers)

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I had come to believe that I’d never get to see The Philosophers.  The trailer came out almost a year ago and I quickly became obsessed with it, but it seemed like the film itself would never materialize.  It made the film festival rounds in 2013 but after that I heard no more about it.  On a whim last week I decided to dig through the internet to see if there was any news about the movie and discovered two surprising pieces of information.  First, The Philosophers had received a new name and was now called After the Dark.  Second, After the Dark had actually received a limited release in theaters last month and was right this second available on demand on my TV.  Needless to say, I jumped at the opportunity to watch the film that had hung steadily at the back of my mind for a year, like an itch I couldn’t scratch, and what I found was something unique and beautiful, that both lived up to my every expectation while subverting them at the same time.

After the Dark tells the story of a philosophy class at an international school in Jakarta, on the seniors’ last day before heading to college.  Continue reading →

Review: The Lego Movie

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Emmet is an ordinary guy.  There’s nothing distinctive about him at all, in fact.  He gets up in the morning, does his exercises, watches the popular shows on TV, drops his laundry off at the cleaners, buys overpriced coffee, and goes to work at his construction job, all while listening to the most popular song on the radio, “Everything Is Awesome!!!”.  He lives his life by following the instructions, quite literally in this case as he’s a Lego man (minifigure).  His whole life is about following the instructions provided by President Business, whose corporation controls the entire city of Bricksburg, whether they’re instructions on how to make friends and fit in or on how to demolish anything “weird” at his construction job and build bland and “perfect” office buildings in their place.

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Review: The Monuments Men

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The Monuments Men had a bit of a rocky road to the theaters.  The film, produced, written and directed by George Clooney and featuring an all-star cast, was set for release at the height of Oscar-bait season in mid-December, and audiences had begun to expect big things from it.  Then, news broke that it was being pushed back to a February release, due to difficulty finding the right balance of tone in the editing room (or, depending on who you ask, because they needed more time for the visual effects).  Making a PG-13 World War II movie that focuses not on the war directly but on countless works of art that most audiences have never heard of was always a dicey prospect, and from that perspective The Monuments Men is definitely a success, if perhaps not as much as might have been hoped.

In 1943, as the Allies advance into Europe and the Germans retreat it becomes clear to Frank Stokes (George Clooney) that the cost of the war will be greater than the loss of millions of lives.  Continue reading →

Review: Saving Mr. Banks

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Mary Poppins is a legendary figure in 20th century pop culture.  From the eight books written by P. L. Travers to the 1964 Disney musical (and the 1984 Soviet version), to the 2004 stage version, to the 30 Mary Poppins’ who showed up at the 2012 London Olympics to vanquish the villains of British literature, there are probably very few people who are not at least familiar with the famous nanny.  But while Travers’ books were famous decades beforehand, most people probably know Mary Poppins through the Disney film, which is one of the most famous and successful films of its time, garnering 13 Oscar nominations (and 5 wins), launching the film career of Julie Andrews, and filling our heads with memorable music.  In fact, I would guess that these days far more people have seen the film than have read the books, and those who have read them most likely did so after seeing the movie.  But what most people probably don’t know, and what Saving Mr. Banks sets out to tell, is the story of how the film was made, and the struggle of Walt Disney and P. L. Travers to find a way to understand each other.

It’s 1961 and Mrs. Travers (as she likes to be called) is having some financial difficulties.  Continue reading →

Review: The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug

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The Two Towers is my favorite film of the Lord of the Rings trilogy.  While most people either preferred the pitch-perfect styling of the first film, or the epic conclusion of the third, for me I thought the middle chapter stood out in an interesting way.  I feel like a lot of the film’s success owed itself to how writer/director Peter Jackson was able to take a book in which little happens and craft it into a satisfying story arc which fit perfectly into the trilogy but also stood alone as a unique accomplishment.  He took the handful of major events in the story and fleshed them out, allowing him to focus much more on character and drama and less on sticking to the detail of the text, and it really showed off his (and his team’s) writing skills.  I had high hopes that The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug, the second film of Jackson’s Hobbit trilogy would follow in the footsteps of The Two Towers, and while it’s definitely an excellent film, it lacks the creativity and emotion of his previous middle movie.

The Desolation of Smaug picks up right where An Unexpected Journey left off.  Continue reading →