movie

Recap 2017 Movies

Julie Gilbert Fantasy, Movie Reviews, Recommended Products, scifi, Star Wars, Young Adult , , , , , , , , ,

Introduction:

I didn’t do as well as I usually do keeping all the movie stubs this year, but I’ll look at a list of 2017 movies and let you know what I got to see. These mini-reviews are as spoiler-free as I can get them, but no absolute promises something won’t slip by.

 

Rogue One

Dates Seen: 1/2/17, 1/3/17, 1/4/17, 1/10/17 (and another 4 times in 2016)
Rating: 5/5 stars
Comments: Okay, so anybody looking at those dates would see that I really enjoyed Rogue One. Hadn’t planned to see it 3 consecutive days, but I remember the one on the 2nd was because I wanted it to be the first movie I saw in 2017, the Tuesday one happened because the theater had $5 tickets on Tuesday, and the Wednesday one happened because I had AMC credit and wanted to see what the hype was about the Dolby digital sound.

Rogue One: A Star Wars Story satisfied most of the fan base. It brought to light the grittier side of the Rebellion against the evil Empire. War is messy. I also think it did a nice job with fleshing out some of the political maneuvering going on as moffs tried to please the emperor. The rather large cast of new characters integrated well with the old favorites.

 

Lego Batman

Date Seen: 2/20/17

Rating: 4/5 stars

Comments: A decent Lego movie that didn’t hesitate to poke fun at the long and varied history of Batman movies. Surprisingly, it also showed some character growth for our dark knight. I did end up seeing it again as a dvd, but it’s not the sort of movie I could take on loop.

Logan

Date Seen: 4/10/17

Rating: 4/5 stars

Comments: I had some time to kill in New York City, so I caught this movie I’d intended to see but hadn’t gotten to before. It’s enjoyable. There’s decent action. I liked the new kid and her story. They integrated the program thing well. I’m sort of a sucker for this type of secret government experiments scifi.

 

Born in China

Date Seen: 4/22/17

Rating: 3.5/5 stars

Comments: Beautiful music. Nice for a nature oriented documentary. Not sure it’s one that needs to be seen on a big screen, but it’s worth watching.

 

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2

Date Seen: 5/6/17

Rating: 4/5 stars

Comments: One of those rare sequels that comes off just as enjoyable as the first. The first may still be slightly better, but this one had all the same hallmarks: snarky humor, cool fights, weird scifi.

 

Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales

Date Seen: 5/27/17

Rating: 4/5 stars

Comments: A worthy successor to the Pirates saga. Like any 4th or 5th (this is the 5th right?) movie, it’s not quite as good as the first. The first movie was downright awesome, but the sequels have always fallen short of it. This particular one takes place a long time after the first few, so it’s sort of a reboot of the series. Disney’s trying to breathe new life into the franchise, and they mostly succeed.

Wonder Woman:

Dates Seen: June-ish 2017 (pretty sure I saw this one twice)

Rating: 4.5/5 stars

Comments: I thoroughly enjoyed this movie. It’s one I’d consider adding to a personal dvd/bluray collection. I haven’t yet, but maybe someday I’ll remember that at an opportune time. The movie has quite a bit of setup, but I enjoyed all that because I’m not familiar with the Wonder Woman lore. They even managed to throw in some character development, some humor, and a heck of a lot of action.

 

Spider-Man Homecoming:

Date Seen: June-ish 2017

Rating: 4/5 stars

Comments: Think I missed one of the reboot series for Spiderman. I don’t think I saw the ones with Andrew Garfield in the red tights. Anyway, this reboot works. I pity the poor props person who had to rebuild the Death Star they had to drop in the movie. The movie focused on Peter Parker trying to muddle his way through high school and being a superhero. Mr. Stark treats him like a kid, which has him terribly frustrated.

 

Dunkirk

Date Seen: July-ish 2017

Rating: 4/5 stars

Comments: This is definitely a movie enhanced by seeing on a big screen. There are very few lines of dialogue throughout this whole movie. It does a decent job showing the struggle to survive, and the desperation of the moment. War is messy.

Star Wars: The Last Jedi

Dates Seen: 12/15/17, 12/17/17, 12/28/17

Rating: 4.5/5 stars

Comments: As the middle of a trilogy, it’s probably going to have the least closure of the new Star Wars movies. When people asked how many times I will see it, I’ve been answering that it’s likely to fall in between Rogue One (8) and The Force Awakens (14). The Last Jedi will likely stay in theaters longer than Rogue One, but I doubt I’ll be inclined to see this one 14 times in theaters.

I’ll definitely buy the dvd and watch it a few more times, but it doesn’t have quite as much closure as I like in stories. Note, this is the same reason Empire was never my favorite. That shocks a lot of hard core Star Wars fans. The porgs are useless but amazingly cute. The story development is intriguing. It’s definitely a Disneyfied version of Star Wars, but it’s still very good.

 

Conclusion:

I feel like the year’s movie selection held a good number of gems. Did you see any of these? What did you think?


Movie Review: 4/5 Dunkirk

Julie Gilbert Movie Reviews , , , ,

Note: I don’t own the rights to the picture. Pretty sure it’s just one of a dozen different versions of the movie’s promo posters.

Summary:

You know what happens. It’s kind of like watching Titantic in that you have a general gist of the story. The taglines are pretty cool. There are a few very sentimental and moving parts, but by and large, I think they missed several opportunities to humanize the film.

Additional Comments:

  • It’s visually stunning and as gorgeous as a war movie can get. Lots of explosions, but nothing gory.
  • While on the short side, the movie is like watching one giant, long battle scene.
  • The way they chose to edit it made certain parts choppy. Nighttime, daytime, nighttime, and so forth.
  • I really wish I knew all of the character’s names. In the beginning, they did little lettered parts telling you the obvious like you’re now watching the air battle or the sea battle. How hard would it have been to add like 8 letters telling us some of the guys’ names?
  • I’m okay with there being little dialogue. The middle of a firefight is hardly the getting to know you time, but even a well-placed flashback would have sufficed to give the viewer more of a reason to care about these people and their fate.

Aside: Hearing British accents again was kind of fun for me since I’d just gotten back from a 10-day trip.

If you want to check out that series, go here.

Conclusion:

It’s a beautiful movie that’s well-worth seeing at least once in your life. I’m not sure if it’s a buy the blue ray and play repeatedly sort of good, but it’s definitely good. Certain elements would have made it better, but overall, it’s a solid war film.

Check out the Soundtrack


Movie Review: 4/5 Stars Pirates of the Caribbean Dead Men Tell No Tales – Surprisingly Good

Julie Gilbert Movie Reviews , , , ,

Introduction:

The fifth installment of Pirates of the Caribbean, Dead Men Tell No Tales, follows in same footsteps as the first few. It’s weird. It’s loud. It’s got a gorgeous soundtrack. They were never the “serious” tales. Overall, I enjoyed this one much more than 2-4. It suffers from being a sequel, but that’s to be expected. As a story, it has quite a few “convenient” moments, but it’s pretty standard fare action/adventure/humor with quite a bit of Disney’s touch upon the tale.

I’ll try to keep this relatively spoiler free. No promises though.

Additional Comments:

  • Casting worked out very well. I thought the guy who played Captain Sullivan would annoy me because his voice is super annoying in the trailer. It’s the same voice in the movie but thankfully, his speaking parts are limited and most of the time he’s just stomping about shouting. The young man they got to play Henry Turner and the young woman they got to play, Carina (sorry, dunno if it’s supposed to be K or C), did nice jobs with their roles. Depp is his usual oddball self as Captain Jack Sparrow.
  • The opening scene in St. Martin sets the tone for what you’re going to get. It’s pretty funny among other things.
  • There’s no real sense of danger for our heroes and heroine during any of the times they’re on the land. You know they’re going to escape. It’s just a matter of how.
  • The banter between Henry and Carina is not always funny, but they do innocent charm decently well.
  • Although I think this movie’s world’s better than 2-4, it also makes more sense if you’ve seen them, especially the 2nd movie.

Conclusion:

I don’t think it’s a see-8-times in theaters movie, but it’s certainly well-worth watching. I was entertained. I’ll probably end up buying the soundtrack. As usual, it’s a beautiful score that mixes the old and the new. Not bad for something inspired by a ride at Disney World.

 


Movie Review: 4.5/5 Guardians of the Galaxy Spoiler Free Version

Julie Gilbert Movie Reviews, scifi , , ,

 

Introduction:

I know a lot of movie review sites use a 4 star system, but I’m too well-trained by Amazon reviews to adhere to it. Just saw Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2. As I didn’t know much besides what I’d seen in the first movie, I shall leave this spoiler-free for now.

Summary and First Impressions:

Crude humor and well-placed jokes punctuate the movie in all the right places and a few oddball ones. Still, there’s a surprisingly deep and touching story to be found if you really dig through the crassness. It probably won’t be on my must-buy and watch 80x list, but I’m glad I saw the movie. Most people will think it pales compared to the first in the series. While it suffers a tad from being a sequel, the makers took the story in a cool direction.

Fun Stuff:

Guardians of the Galaxy would never fall under “serious” movies, but I love how much fun they had with it. Things like “Taser Face,” the Sovereign golden people fighting with video game like drones, repeated “I am Groots” all over the credits, and so forth.

How many “I am groots” did you come up with in the credits?

I found 9, but I may have missed a few. Marvel does a stellar job of making you want to watch the credits. There’s so much going on in the sides.

Conclusion:

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2 lives up to the ridiculous tone set by the first movie while also moving the story along. (It doesn’t come off as a “gee, we just want to cash in another payday” sort of movie.) Go see it!