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Mission: Impossible - Fallout

7/26/2018

Release Date: July 26, 2018

What I Was Waiting For?

Update:
I saw the movie again and tried to relax instead of analyzing it as much as I could. The beginning of the movie gets a huge boost from me in a relaxed state, but story problems and weird writing still plague the movie. I also realized that there is even more footage missing than I originally thought from the trailer. I definitely had a better time on the second viewing and have updated the score. I'll probably will watch the movie again but wont leave another update.

Original:
This was the movie that I was looking forward to the most this year. A promise of a pedal to the metal stunt show that never stopped. The Super Bowl trailer did a lot to set those expectations really high. I believed in the vision of having a cinematic movie with crazy in-camera stunts. Mission: Impossible - Fallout delivers on that but also shoots itself in the leg.

The movie delivered amazing cinematography, color, and lighting that made the movie pop. It was exhilarating to watch Tom Cruise do all the crazy stunts without the help of CG work. The action punched hard making the movie surprise you with each blow. There is no doubt that this was a very strong showing for a franchise in its sixth entry. The problem then becomes almost everything else.

The first thing that threw me off was the edit of the movie. There were many unnecessary cuts. Whether it was to add inserts or juggle multiple events happening, it felt like the movie always cut right before it got to the apex of a shot. There were so many beautiful long single shots that cut too soon to a close-up. Or when it cuts from an intense action scene to one with no stakes. I do have to say that this movie has the most beautiful shot of Tom Cruise runng, and I'm not bringing it up as a joke either.

That leads me to another weird thing about this movie, it changed the trajectory of the franchise. Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol brought the series back, paying homage to the trilogy before. Directed by Brad Bird of The Incredibles fame, it was an action set piece that was still about spies. Rogue Nation then decided to get rid of a singular set piece in favor of many throughout the movie. It added a new character and introduced elements that seem to be forming the base for the rest of the franchise going forward. Fallout takes the growing team franchise and focuses it right back to Tom Cruise. There is almost no room for anyone else and I think its a weird choice. The character concessions they have to make, where many don't get any development at all. It leads to weird moments in the movie that just don't fit.

I'm talking weird dialogue, characters saying things that don't make sense at the moment. To try and stay true to being a Mission: Impossible movie, it adds comedic relief in weird places that mess with its flow. The identity of the franchise is fading. I wouldn't have minded a reimagining but what's going on here is an identity crisis. In an attempt to make the movie more action-packed, more cinematic, the director borrowed from other movies. I'm talking about Skyfall, Spectre, and The Dark Knight. There could be other movies it takes from but these were the most obvious for me. It blatantly takes story elements, set pieces, and tones from those movies. They jumped out at me because I recognized them so easily. The director also pulls a Speilberg and has a sequence with no music and relies on sounds. For all the good that the movie does, it falters in so many other ways.

A thing that really bothered me was tone and treating lore. The movie was trying to make a big deal about all of the things that happened in past movies. In this instance, I'm talking about the characters' relationships with each other. The movie pretends that its predecessors weren't light-hearted movies that still had you on the edge of your seat. It goes full seriousness but fails because it had to add the comedy in.

In total, this movie is good. When the movie does have music, it uses it really well. There are really great scenes and shots, they just aren't used to their highest potential. The story takes weird turns with some bad dialogue and probably is the weakest in the franchise story wise. It just needed to focus itself not on Tom Cruise, but the cast as a whole. The final things I want to mention are that there are no surprises in the movie. You have seen all the big action stunts in the trailer, there is nothing left for you to discover by seeing it. There are also a couple of shots and scenes not in the movie from the trailer. They looked pretty important so I wonder how different the final cut is from the original. And I hated the intro graphic. Usually, Mission: Impossible movies have a really cool CG intro graphic that's fun to watch. Here, they just show you scenes from the movie that happen all throughout. It actively spoils the movie for you. I'm sad to say that I like it less and less the more I think about it. The problem is I can't not recommend this movie. There is a great movie in the final cut somewhere and if you don't watch it on a huge screen, you're not going to get the maximum enjoyment from it.

7.5/10
I am going to see it again and will update

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The Equalizer 2 - Review

7/22/2018

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Release Date: July 20, 2018

Equals Trash

I went back to watch The Equalizer before going to see the sequel in theaters. To my surprise, I found it was not as good as I remembered it being. It was slow and the directing wasn't that great. I go to see The Equalizer 2 and I am surprised again. The action scenes we much better directed in this movie, but the pacing is still bad. The movie feels way too long and makes me wish I could have paused it to resume it the next day. It was so slow I wanted to fall asleep.

But back to the action. The opening of the movie has a short action sequence that takes one minute to complete. It acts as a throwback to the first movie, with the camera flying into Washington's eye and the lights flashing. This thankfully never happens again. The depiction of the action was good and actually helped the choreography look better. All the action scenes for the rest of the movie are satisfying and not super slow like in the first movie.

What is not better than the first movie is the story. The pacing is still slow, cutting between weird moments that don't flow together. This movie actually comes off worse because of the split in the story's focus. It tries to depict two lives crashing into each other. One about a man who is a guardian angel for the people around him, the other is about a man being hunted by Ex-CIA agents. One moment will be used to show the agents killing drug addicts and the movie will cut to Washington's character running after a boy from his apartment building. The movie is disjointed and has no sense of flow.

The biggest problem this movie has is its third act. It has a cool premise but is executed poorly. So many insert shots that take away from the tension. Weird camera placement that doesn't show off the actions taken by characters. It is just an overall mess.

Do not watch this movie in theaters if you can help it. Wait for it to go on a streaming service so you don't have to spend money on it.

5/10
That is a generous score

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Skyscraper - Review

7/13/2018

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Release Date: July 13, 2018

The Tallest... Failure

When the trailer for this movie came out, everyone thought it was just a rip-off of the original Die Hard. In reality, its actually Die Hard with the female antagonist from John Wick 2 and the building climbing scene from Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol. It's an attempt to modernize Die Hard for today's audience. A misguided attempt because today's Die Hard is still the original Die Hard. Pretending Skyscraper isn't an imitation, it's still not that great of a movie. It's exactly what you expect from the trailers, if not slightly better.

The first two-thirds of the movie are surprisingly moderate. A generic action movie with decent CGI, a step up from other Dwayne Johnson produced movies. There is nothing really egregious in this part of the movie which was a really big surprise for me. It suffers from problems that a lot of movies have today. Predictable plot, poorly directed action sequences, and ok acting. It is a way more solid movie than the trailers made you believe. The one main thing I can point to that was extraneous was the opening scene, it had no place in the movie.

The movie is noticeably worse in the last act. It suffers from bad story progression by having characters do things that don't make sense. It also has weird dialogue choices that make the movie cheesier than it needed to be. It tried being a family action movie but fails at both. There is little action and the bits shown aren't satisfying to watch. The over-reliance on family to push story is annoying. This is mostly due to the fact that I don't believe that Johnson's character cares for his family. You can feel the distance he has from his wife and the fake worry for his children.

You could go see this movie in a theater with the three other people that are going to be there. Or, you can rent it at home if you really want to watch it. If you don't need to see every Dwayne Johnson movie, then totally skip this one. Go back and watch the original Die Hard. I saw it recently and it instantly became one of my top three favorite movies. Skyscraper is just another mediocre action movie.

5/10
Dwayne Johnson delivers his usual

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Sorry to Bother You - review

7/13/2018

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Release Date: July 13, 2018

I Was Bothered

There are probably only two ways you know about this movie. Either from the ad campaign or people around you have mentioned it. It's shown off as a comedy with undertones of social commentary. The film itself does have these qualities but isn't really about that. Instead of a comedy movie that talks about social problems and brings them to light, Sorry to Bother You is a movie about finding your place in the world. The ever familiar problem of being lost, not knowing what to do with your life and grasping for meaning. At least, it could have been that if it was better.

The biggest compliment I can give the movie is the attempt to talk about social issues. A more well-done analogy for class warfare that isn't immediately obvious. How relationships falter when a person transitions from one class to the other. The cinematography was interesting and wasn't bland which was also nice. The main character actually changed in the movie, going through what could be considered an arc.

However, this isn't a movie I would recommend for someone to watch for fun. The movie is lost just like the main character. It doesn't know how to string plot lines and scenes together. There are useless plot points that don't impact the story, a weird montage, and other odd aspects to the movie. It all detracts from the smart commentary made about society and how we view people of different backgrounds. It doesn't help that the movie takes a nosedive after introducing half horse half human people.

With commentary about social issues, the looming dangers of a company like Amazon, and political incompetence, the movie has a lot to say. It's just not crafted very well to get the point across in the way that it thinks it does. There are too many detours and instances where it seems too far-fetched. Wait to watch the movie when it is available to rent.

5/10
Probably would have been better if it was a comedy

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Ant-Man and The Wasp - Review

7/6/2018

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Release Date: July 6, 2018

A Shrunken Sequel

I liked Ant-Man when it came out in 2015. It didn't fit into the Marvel timeline but was a fun standalone story. The only reason for introducing the character was so that he could get really big in Captain America: Civil War, literally. Ant-Man and the Wasp follow in that movie's footsteps in the same way. A movie out of sync with the rest of the Marvel movies to set up the next big installment. There is one huge difference though, and it's the fact that this movie sucks.

While Ant-Man was fun and creative, its sequel is derivative and slow. Marvel movies rely on a couple of things to make their fans happy. One of the main pillars is the comedy. This movie tries so hard to replicate the magic the first movie had. It tries to use the same bits and build off of them, but it all falls flat. There are so many jokes that don't land and a handful that do. I can see when displayed by themselves they do seem funny but in the context of the entire movie, they don't work. All of the comedy was derived from shock value, trying to elicit a reaction out of surprise but it was never surprising. The jokes that did land had to do with discomfort, or cringe comedy.

Another pillar of Marvel movies is action. Someone forgot to put that in this movie. Other than the short action scene towards the beginning, no action scenes happen until the very end. This wouldn't have been a problem if the movie didn't feel so slow. There is a lot of meandering in the middle of the movie. A lot of the momentum was lost due to failed jokes and weird pacing. When the action finally does come, it's just so boring. I'm never scared for the characters, never wowed by the action, or interested in the creative use of combat. It all felt like what I would have come up with if I was asked to manipulate the size of objects. Plus, the bad guys in this movie are nothing more than well-dressed street thugs. It makes you think how anyone from the movie could be in an Avengers movie.

Another pillar of Marvel movies is action. Someone forgot to put that in this movie. Other than the short action scene towards the beginning, no action scenes happen until the very end. This wouldn't have been a problem if the movie didn't feel so slow. There is a lot of meandering in the middle of the movie. A lot of the momentum was lost due to failed jokes and weird pacing. When the action finally does come, it's just so boring. I'm never scared for the characters, never wowed by the action, or interested in the creative use of combat. It all felt like what I would have come up with if I was asked to manipulate the size of objects. Plus, the bad guys in this movie are nothing more than well-dressed street thugs. It makes you think how anyone from the movie could be in an Avengers movie.

If you want to go see the movie, be my guest. If you are not a Marvel movie watcher and just want to see a movie, you could go see something else. There isn't anything specifically unredeemable or actively bad in the movie. It just sucks.

5.5/10
Michelle Pfeiffer was in the movie for 5 minutes

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Sicario: Day of the Soldado - Review

7/1/2018

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Release Date: June 29, 2018

An Unneeded Sequel

The only reason this movie got made in the first place has to do with what worked about the first movie. Sicario was medium in its storytelling but was heightened by the direction and Benicio Del Toro's acting. Since the director wouldn't be coming back for the sequel, that left Benicio as the main reason to make the movie. The movie comes close to giving viewers what they wanted but doesn't have the focus to do so. Simply put, not only is Sicario: Day of the Soldado holding back but it's not great.

The first thing that makes this movie inferior to the first has to do with editing. There is a considerable difference to how the ending and opening differ from the rest of the movie. While the movie itself is ok, the opening has too many insert shots that seem meaningless. There are cuts to random screens and landscapes that linger too long that serve no purpose. The ending suffers from weird music editing, blaring to scenes that have no consequence and repeating the same song. It was jarring to transition from the rest of the movie to these bookends.

It was also obvious that the new director tried to keep the style of the first movie with beautiful scene composition and framing. This never happens. There are some shots that do look good but the scenes they are in are inconsequential. When there is a scene that is supposed to affect the audience in some way, the direction is generic and doesn't stand out. The first movie is known for a scene where a convoy goes through a Mexican town. That scene was always a high point whenever someone talked about the movie. There is nothing even close to the quality of that sequence in this movie.

But maybe you just want to see Benicio be a badass. That doesn't happen. In a movie where a skilled killer is told that they have no restrictions to cause chaos, he doesn't do much. The movie likes to take its time and acts like a slow burn. The only problem with this is that nothing ever happens. There is no big finale, no payoff for making the audience wait. The movie tells you its about one thing then changes its mind and you get Logan lite. This wouldn't be a problem if it delivered but IT NEVER DOES.

I think that because both movies have the same screenwriter, it's easy to notice when the movie wants to do something. Whether that is to make the audience tense, clam, whatever it might be. But the direction gets in the way of creating those feelings. It also makes sense that there was never supposed to be a sequel for this movie. It does have some cool scenes and some cool ideas, but it lacked the focus to make it all come together. You could watch this on your TV in the middle of the week, no need to go to the theater.

5/10
I want my Mexican Batman movie done right

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Movies In RevIew

Mission: Impossible - Fallout

The Equalizer 2 - Review

Skyscraper - Review

Sorry to Bother You - review

Ant-Man and The Wasp - Review

Sicario: Day of the Soldado - Review

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