Beauty and the Beast

Assuming some of you read this blog regularly you may remember that Cinderella was the first film I ever reviewed here. I didn't really like it.

This, I loved. One might argue that it's cheap to make a film that counts on the young adults feeling nostalgic seeing it, but I think this is how you should make a live action film based on animation. It stayed true to the original and the things it added helped to fix up some of the plot holes people have long been wondering about. Questions like: "Who is Belle's mother and why doesn't anyone remember there used to be a prince living in a castle or wonder about what happened to the royal family? Is all the furniture in the castle alive?" are wittily answered.

I liked the add-on of the fact that if the last petal of the rose falls the enhanced servants would all turn into things forever. Inanimate objects. That being said, I think the reason as to why the servants ever deserved to be cursed was never very well given, the movie tried to offer something there too, but I don't think it was convincing.

I didn't grow up with the Beauty and The Beast animated film, I simply had the classic Disney-style book of it, but even I somehow knew these classic sings by now and I'm so glad they kept them! The songs were great. The new added songs were cool too, although I preferred the old ones. They haunted me for days. The added bits, like Belle being an inventor ,were cool too. Gaston was so perfectly cast! The casting was good all-in-all, but man, Gaston! He looks like he jumped out of that animation.

The visuals were gorgeous. I especially liked Lumiere's design. Then again I always liked him in the original too.

Logan

I had great expectations for this film. I had heard that it was the best of the Wolverine movies and while I hadn't managed to see any of those I have at least seen all of the main X-men movies and liked them if not loved them.

I could see why this film was said to be different from the rest. It really stood up from the rest of the X-men franchise and I sat in the cinema hall wondering if that was a good or a bad thing. By the end of the screening I decided that it wasn't or at least that I didn't like it.

While I applaud Marvel's effort to do something different, something that doesn't come off as a regular super hero film, in this case they didn't pull it off. They tried so hard to make a realistic drama that was still a superhero film that in my opinion they managed neither very well.

From this point on there are major spoilers ahead! Read at your own risk!



I liked the first half of the movie just fine. There was a lot of gore, but it still seemed the film was on to something. There were good domestic scenes, interesting storyline. Then everything turned into a pretty awful bloodbath.

Dear film industry, please get over the notion that the more death and sadness you put into a film the more artistic it gets. It's not just an issue this film has, but this film certainly has it. I personally thought the ending was crap. Was the death of Logan and Charles unexpected of a superhero movie? Yes. Did it make it a good film? No. In fact it ruined it. You killed all of the likeable characters. At the end of the film you have a bunch of kids whose only redeeming quality is that they are children. Most of them we haven't met until 30 minutes ago and as characters, they are undeveloped and I'd quite possible not care at all if most of them dropped dead.
It wasn't a terrible movie, but the more I thought about it the less I liked it.

Lego Batman

I saw this film as a bit of a rebellious act against some people that I've recently spoken to and who were very strongly against seeing any sort of mainstream films due to them only re-enforcing stereotypes and being rubbish. So I sort of felt the need to see something screamingly mainstream.

I was very positively surprised by this film. I didn't have any expectations for it. I hadn't heard anything of it, positive or negative and I thought it was lovely. A nice proper bit of parody, similar to Deadpool in a way, but there was a lot less fourth-wall breaking and a lot more references to pop culture. If you like that sort of references and even, one might say, crossovers, this is the film for you. The jokes are funny and quite witty, it's a children's movie, but the jokes rarely resort to any sort of low humour, no farts or poops, which is always good. If you can, see it in English, I had to see it in Estonian dub and I feel like some of the humour was lost even if it was a good film.

I'm not sure if things happening in the lego universe add much to the plot or anything to the movie. I suppose it helps with the way the ending works out and makes animating easier. It's fun, lovely, clever and certainly worth a watch.

Fifty shades darker

I thought I would start this blog entry with some sarcastic condescending comment about how I'll try and give a proper review to something that can't even be called a movie, but - you know what? It wasn't that bad.

Just as some films are terribly overhyped others are overly put down and trampled on. It was an okay movie. By no means was it a cinematic masterpiece, but I went in expecting very little and feeling very critical and I came out thinking that - yeah, I could see the third movie too.

Ana's and Christian's relationship gets bashed a lot too and admittedly Mr. Grey deserves some of the critique he gets, that being said, his love for Ana does seem genuine and not as selfish in comparison to the last movie. He tries to take Ana's feelings into account and show her the depth of his feelings in more meaningful ways than flaunting around his dollar-bills. (Although he does some of that too, it seems). Besides, if you compare Grey to all of the absolute perverts who surround Ana, in this universe were all men are pigs, he becomes strangely likeable. It might not excuse him completely, but it does make you root for her.

Ana comes off as strangely empowering in this world of absolute weird bastards. She kicks one of them in the balls and doesn't let herself taken advantage of her as easily as she did in the first movie. I think. She's intelligent and sweet, understanding and forgiving, whether or not she is too much so, is up to your interpretation.

In conclusion - I wouldn't have gone to see it myself, but it was not by far the worst film I've seen. I love that it's so unashamedly an erotic love story (Yes, I think they love each other). It doesn't try to be art. Of course. Why would I even suggest that it does? Because so many other films that come far closer to being mindless porn than Fifty Shades Darker ever does, try to claim that they are artistic. That the sick twisted sex scenes have a deeper meaning and if you don't think they do you're too stupid as an audience member to get it. I'm looking at you Lars Von Trier. This movie is what it is. It knows that it's mainstream and I think it does a pretty good job.

Oh and the soundtrack is amazing. The sex scenes do get a little repetitive after a while. There is only so much you can show in a Hollywood film. Not a lot apparently. It doesn't get gross or repulsive, just a little annoying and boring.

Passengers

Recently someone who was studying scriptwriting was giving a talk in my class and thy told us how writing for a movie was different than writing in books, because in film you can't show character's inner thoughts and struggles. It all has to be dialogue and can't all be very deeply psychological.

Now I'd like to shove this film into their faces and ask how the hell is it possible then? It is a brilliant masterpiece. Touching, deep, well-written, well-acted, well paced. I am honestly having trouble pointing out any grand faults with it. There were things that bothered me, but overall the piece is stunning.

So Jim wakes up on a space ship. All seems well until it becomes clear that he is the only one away and there are almost a hundred years still left to travel...

A big chunk of the story is told with only one human character. A difficult task indeed, made somewhat easier by the appearance of a human-like robot. The said robot, Arthur, is actually possibly my favorite character despite being a plot device for a large part. He doesn't really feel like an easy cop out either, because as a robot - well, he only seems like a slightly improved Siri. He is fun to be around, friendly and likeable, just like Siri is in my opinion. But no matter how long you talk to Siri you never really forget that in the end you are just talking to your phone. Arthur is adorable, but does never really feel too human and I love that. The acting here is also one worthy of an Academy Award.

So we are still left with only one main character for a while and his inner struggles and thoughts and feelings are so brilliantly portrayed - without any narration!

Now to the stuff that did bother me. There are 3 human characters in this film and one of them is a plot device. Honestly I can't even remember his name anymore, because all he was was a plot device. Not a badly written one, but you can tell that he was only ever needed to advance the story in ways in which just having Aurora and Jim there couldn't have happened.

Another question that rises is - why don't they return to Earth? Some answer is given to this, but it sounds like a very unbelievable one. They say it would get as long to get back as it does to go forward and add something about the time it takes to turn the ship around, but that does not seem logical. It is a small thing, but one that has stuck with me.

All in all the film is truly brilliant. The characters and their struggles feel realistic, the acting is fantastic, the story is really fantastically told. It is hard to tell a story with just two people and for the most part this film manages it.

Allied

Era-specific films are an odd thing for me. There are certain eras that don't appeal to me and then there are some like the Victorian era and World War II that usually interest me. I don't care for films with a lot of the actual fighting done on the line of fire, but human relationships and society are the parts that I find fascinating.

I like this film, there's fairly little of the actual war and fighting shown, but everything is still connected to it. As far as the film itself goes I think it's well done. The viewer isn't told too much right away. It's exciting. We know what the main character knows and therefore we remain unsure whether or not his wife is a spy throughout the movie. Just as things seem clear and the viewer thinks they can relax a new piece of information comes up, leaving us unsure and confused once more.

The settings and scenery are beautiful. The ending is a bit too much for my taste, it seems keen on wanting to squeeze tears out of the viewer and needlessly sugarcoats the sad ending to give it that Hollywood Happy Ending taste. I don't like that bit, but otherwise it's a film worth watching.

Fantastic Beasts and where to find them

It was a good film. Very good and I liked it for the most part, but for some reason I just can't get as into the Harry Potter universe as I can get into Doctor Who and Sherlock and Doctor Strange. 

I like it a lot, but I'm not as amazed as everyone else have been. I really liked Newt. I liked his value system and what he believed in as a person and the way he thought American laws were stupid. I think he was a really great character and I think the actor had very interesting facial features and good body language. He reminded me of The Doctor a bit. He could have been the Doctor. There was all this righteousness and - it was cool. I liked him.

I didn't like the way Queenie and Jacob played out. I feel like that sends a terrible message. Their love is forbidden, but instead of defying a stupid law and simply hiding him which could have been done so easily, they just sort of give up and go:"Oh well, it's the right thing to do." After already rebelling so much and doing what they feel like is right they just give up for no apparent reason. Sure, it would have been difficult and dangerous, but much more inspiring than it was now. 

My only hope is that there will be a better solution in the following films. Otherwise  I really enjoyed Queenie's character otherwise. She was not only pretty, but clever, kind and had interesting personality. 

Tina and Newt had a bit of an odd relationship too - it's feels like there might be a romance there, but then there sort of isn't. It doesn't feel like a friendship either. It feels like a tense romance, they're not really at ease with each other, but nothing really happens there by the end either.  Those two clearly also need a sequel rather badly.All in all, I'm still glad there are more of these films to come. It seems like there is more to tell.