Friday, September 04, 2015

My Reviewing Style

Now that I've sorted all my entertainment blogs here, I thought I'd babble a bit about my reviewing style. I'm hoping to get in the habit of posting more often, even if it's just a few sentences about the most recent movie I've seen.

I think I'm a generally optimistic reviewer, at least compared to the rest of the internet. People these days are overly critical, IMO, or maybe only the most jaded opinions are loud enough to be heard. For me, the worst thing a movie can be is boring. Beyond that, I don't get overly judgmental about hard-to-swallow plots, bad dialogue, or unrealistic science.

Also, some people demand every movie to be a blockbuster. TV shows can have filler episodes, but theatrical movies are expected to knock your socks off with every installment. I don't feel that way. Some movies are just meant to be enjoyable popcorn munchers. I'm fine with some movies being smart and subdued, while others are mindless and energetic. I like bad movies as much as good movies, as long as they're entertaining. And I've explained in previous blogs why I don't share society‘s disdain for remakes, reboots, and sequels.

Now... all that said, that doesn't mean all my posts are going to be glowing reviews. I might like ten movies for every one I hate, but sometimes only the bad one inspires me to write a blog about it. But only sometimes. Overall, I think my reviews have been pretty positive.

Reviled movies I Like

Just for fun, here's some movies other people hated that I liked.

Jurassic Park 3: Like I said above, not everything needs to be a blockbuster. JP3 is a perfectly fun action movie that takes place in the JP universe. It has an Excuse Plot that probably took ten minutes to write; all they had to do was think of a reason to drop these characters onto the island so they could try to escape. It doesn't move the series forward, and overall it feels less like a movie and more like an episode of "Jurassic Park The Series". And that's fine with me. It's never boring, it has good special effects (though maybe dated now), and let's face it, I'm just a sucker for dinosaurs.

Green Lantern: This wasn't a great movie, but it was good campy fun. An enjoyable outing that didn't deserve all the hate it got.

Fantastic Four (2005): Same as above. Fun and cheesy, and really captures the family dynamic the group is supposed to have. I don't WANT them to make a serious movie about characters with these goofy powers. That would miss the point entirely, and I think 2015's terrible reboot just might be proof of that.

Catwoman: Okay, this really wasn't very good, and I have no desire to see it again. But I did like it more than I thought I would. This is one of those movies that had more bad reviews than it actually had viewers, and that's just unfair. People already reviewed it in their minds before it even came out, when they first released photos of Halle Berry in her costume. And while it was not a great film by any means, it was not even remotely as bad as people wanted it to be.

Star Wars prequels and Special Editions: It feels a little odd to defend a franchise that made so much money, but Star Wars has been such a big part of my life that I hate to see it endure unfair criticism. Episode I was a bit boring in spots, Episodes 2 & 3 have Hayden's wooden acting and a bland love story, but all movies have flaws. I still think people are holding these movies up to impossible standards, and they would have been better received if not for the expectations that (used to) come with STAR WARS. Regarding the Special Editions, the updated scenes in the theatrical versions were a bit jarring, but once they remastered them for DVD they got much better.

Beloved movies I Hate

But just to show I have unpopular opinions in both directions, here's some movies a lot of people seem to love, but that I dislike:

Most Quentin Tarantino films: I'm not against violent films. But Tarantino's films (at least those that I've seen) are violent in a way that just doesn't hold my interest. It's all bad people doing bad things to other bad people, and it's just not the reason I watch movies.

Most Westerns: I'm really not much into historical fiction in the first place, as I prefer settings with futuristic technology or magical fantasy lands. But Westerns in particular annoy me more than most other time periods. They're the essence of male fantasy, where all the men are macho, and the women are mostly MacGuffins. There have been a few Westerns I liked, but they're usually deconstructions of the genre.

The Bourne Identity series: I find this series so bland and repetitive, I just don't know how it got made into multiple movies.

Hated movies I Hate

And just to show that I don't always pick the opposite of whatever everybody else is doing, here's some movies most people hate that I also dislike:

Cool World: This one is significant to me, because it was one of the few times I've seen a movie in the theater by myself, and therefore formed an opinion with no chance of being influenced by those around me. Although there was one point late in the film when a young girl stood up and yelled, "This movie sucks!" (which was more entertaining than anything on the screen), but I can't call her influential because I'd already formed my opinion by then. I spent most of the movie thinking, ”They've got Street Fighter II in the lobby...”

Wayne's World 2: We walked out halfway through. 'nuff said.

Batman & Robin: Of course everyone blames this one for killing that series, but in some circles it's starting to make a comeback as a "so bad it's good" movie. I'll still watch it if it's on TV, and it's great fodder for Rifftrax. But good? No.

Alien 3: Alien is one of my favorite horror movies of all time. Aliens is one of my favorite action movies of all time. Alien 3 is one of my least favorite movies of all time.  I could rant for hours on the reasons I hate Alien 3. Some other time maybe.

Polarizing movies

And for the heck of it, here's some movies that people love or hate:

Twister: I love this movie. It's terrible, but it's awesome. In my house it is quoted constantly.

Independence Day: Honestly I'm not even sure if this movie is popular. I know it made an impact on Hollywood, but I also hear a lot of people thought it was dumb.  Depending on who you ask, it's either a great homage to classic sci-fi, or it rips off a lot of classic sci-fi.  Actually, I've found that for most people, the difference between an homage and a rip-off is whether they enjoyed it. Like, Airplane! is a parody/homage to lots of classic disaster movies, but Disaster Movie is just a rip-off.  Anyway, I like ID4. 

Titanic: It made gazillions of dollars and got stellar reviews, and yet every time anyone speaks of it, it's to say how much they hated it. Though to be fair, it's mostly the hype they hated.  I try to avoid judging a movie on its hype.

Obscure movies

And last but not least, a bad movie I like that you've never heard of.

Undercover Blues: Sometimes people latch on to movies without even knowing why. Undercover Blues is a harmless, forgettable comedy about a married couple of semi-retired secret agents. For some reason my wife and I love this movie, we've watched it dozens of times, and we quote it every bit as much as the Princess Bride. We've yet to meet anyone else who has even heard of it. Note that this is not a recommendation; I'm serious when I say you'll probably find it forgettable. I try not to show this one to people because, well, it's kind of fun having a movie that's just ours.

Tuesday, September 01, 2015

Like, Ant-Man and Stuff

Ant-man was exactly as good as I thought it would be. Not a blockbuster, but more of a low-key entry into the MCU. It might have been better suited for an arc on Agents of SHIELD than for a theatrical movie. But that's okay. I think it's too much to expect that every marvel movie is going to just explode from the screen and knock our socks off. As long as they're not outright boring, I'll probably still enjoy them.

I liked that it was something of a "Superhero comedy", even if I didn't really connect with a lot of the film's humor. Too many super hero movies feel like the same movie with a different skin, so I like that they're playing with the formula. I hope they play with it even more. I don't like "Super Hero" being a genre in itself, and I think there's plenty of room for super hero movies that are also comedy, horror, romance, or whatever. Overall, the movie didn't do a lot for me. We'll still buy the blu-ray for our collection, but I doubt we'll watch it over and over like we did with some of the other Avengers movies.

There's been a few disappointments lately. I didn't bother seeing Fantastic Four or Pixels after all their reviews, which is too bad because both of them could have been really interesting with the right direction. we started to watch Jupiter Ascending on Netflix, but only made it through the first 45 minutes or so. The special effects were nice,'but it just wasn't giving us enough exposition fast enough, and we got bored. But I didn't have high hopes for that one anyway.

Speaking of Netflix, we finally got around to binge-watching Daredevil. That was totally worth it. It's a bit on the bloody side, so you'll be covering your eyes a lot if you're as squeamish as KJ. But it's well written and does a good job of making you want to see what happens next.

I'm anxiously awaiting all the new super hero movies and TV shows, but I am worried that they're overdoing it. Eventually people will get sick of them, or there will be enough bad ones that it makes the whole genre look bad, and the market for super heros will crash. But I'm going to enjoy it as long as it lasts.