Granted, there were a whole lot of movies that I didn't get to see for one reason or another (didn't have time, the local theater didn't show certain films, I didn't have it in the budget, I just didn't care, etc.) but what I have seen has been a little underwhelming, to say the least. There were a few I liked, a few I absolutely hated and others I just didn't really care about one way or another. So, instead of doing individual movie reviews for these flicks that I did see, I'm going to write up little mini-reviews to cover them. Partially so I can just get back to my normal blogging schedule as soon as possible, but also because I had previously attempted to write a full review for some of these stinkers but couldn't because they were so bland. There are literally only so many mediocre reviews I can do, people; give me a break.
So, let's get started.
The live-action Disney remake/reboot nobody asked for. I originally saw this movie back in August when it came out, and I hit a massive case of writer's block. The movie itself wasn't bad; the cinematography was nice, the animation was good, the acting was decent, and the chill Indie soundtrack was a little bit of a different choice considering the content of the film but it wasn't bad. But that's where it ends for me. This film has very little to do with the original aside from having a boy named Pete and a dragon named Elliot. The original took place in the 1900's and followed an orphan boy and his sometimes invisible dragon named Elliot as they travel from place to place to escape Pete's adopted and abusive hillbilly family. They arrive in a small fishing town called Passamaquoddy and eventually find a home with a lighthouse keeper and his daughter after a series of antics get them into some trouble among the townsfolk. There's also a traveling show-medicine man who comes into town and tries to catch Elliot to make a magic elixir out of him but that's really the worst of it. At the end of the movie, now that Pete has a family of his own he tells Elliot that he needs to go find another kid in trouble and help them out, and the two part ways. The original was a musical full of old-timey humor and storytelling and was chock-full of Disney whimsy. The 2016 version didn't have any of that. This Pete's Dragon takes place in the late 1970's, early 1980's and follows Pete, a boy who is left to fend for himself in the forest after his parents die in a car crash. He meets Elliot the dragon by chance, and the two live together for years alone in the woods before anyone finds Pete. When he is found, it's by a forest ranger played by Bryce Dallas Howard, and she takes Pete to the hospital for treatment, and eventually to her home. Elliot is sad that Pete is gone, the two try finding one another, but Elliot gets captured by Howard's boyfriend's brother because "reasons." Eventually Elliot is freed, Pete gets a family, and goes to see Elliot up in the mountains from time to time. Oh, and the other dragons Elliot lives with because apparently that's a thing. Really the movie itself is pretty harmless, but it wasn't anything I would ever watch again as it was predictable from beginning to end and honestly had a really slow pace. It was decent, but unless you or your family are fans of straight forward drama, it's one that you could probably skip and not miss anything.
I used to really enjoy the X-Men movies. And when I say "X-Men movies" I'm referring to the first two in the franchise because they were the only actual good ones. After X-Men: The Last Stand things just went to hell in a hand basket for Xavier and his uncanny X-Men, cinematically speaking, of course. After the train wreck that was X-Men Origins: Wolverine Fox has been trying really hard to get these films back to being successful again, especially with the success of other MCU giants like The Avengers and all of their subsequent solo-films, Guardians of the Galaxy, Ant-Man and the highly anticipated Doctor Strange. They had pretty good success with X-Men: First Class, but things have been slipping again, thanks to warped continuity between all of the films and just mediocre stories to tell. Apocalypse is no different. The film was long and drawn out, fairly predictable, still had conflicting continuity, and there was just no real threat or high stakes once the climax of the film finally rolled around. The one thing I enjoyed the most about the film was the introduction of Quicksilver (played by Evan Peters) because it was done in a humorous and clever way but really, that was it. Unfortunately one clever scene won't save a whole movie and that, for me, was the case with this film. Fox had hit with February's Deadpool- they should probably start taking notes on their success there and try a little harder next time.
While X-Men: Apocalypse just wasn't good, this movie was downright painful. The first Alice movie Tim Burton released back in 2010 had a lukewarm reception due to its confusing continuity (Is is a remake? A sequel? A reboot? What the actual hell is it?) but it gained moderate success as a cult classic among fans of the director's work, the style of animation used, the artistic direction the film took, fans of the original work of literature and, let's face it, Johnny Depp. While the first film was moderately confusing as to where it fell into contrast with the original book and Disney film, Through the Looking Glass had absolutely nothing to do with either the original Disney film, the previous film by Burton, or the original book. Hell, this movie isn't even directed by Burton, which I feel helps because I would literally have to drop him like a hot rock after this clusterfluff, but it also hurts the movie because it no longer has the draw of being a "Tim Burton" film to save it. In this film, the Mad Hatter (a.k.a. the film's cash cow) is even "madder" than normal because he believes his long-considered dead family is still alive and won't accept the fact that they are gone, and apparently that is literally killing him. Alice, being his best friend, goes to see Time (played by Sasha Baron Cohen) and steals his Chronosphere and travels through time to try and help the Hatter's family survive, but as with any time-travel plot she inadvertently exacerbates things and ends up causing more damage than not and almost destroys Time and actual time all together. All of the performances in this film were beyond forced, the story offered nothing new or original, and this is the first Johnny Depp performance that I can honestly say I thoroughly despised. I haven't been really impressed with a lot of his recent work with Disney (I'm looking at you Pirates of the Caribbean and The Lone Ranger) and this film really took the cake with it's awfulness. In short, both this film and franchise have seemed to have lost their muchness.
This film along with Suicide Squad was one of the most talked about and hyped films of the summer season, although not for the same reasons. Once the trailer for this film dropped there was instant hatred from people all over the interwebs; mainly because people are finally getting sick of classic films being shamelessly rebooted, and said shameless reboots being shamelessly redone to meet and address modern concerns; in this case, the feminist movement. Arguments ranged from misogynistic, to apathy, and all the way to feminists calling it out for trying to make a profit over an issue that is way bigger than putting butts in seats. And just like Suicide Squad, Ghostbusters had a mediocre reception. While the Ghostbusters are all played by some of the hottest and most hilarious female comedians currently, a lot of the humor was still sub-par. I can't help but feel that a lot of the humor was watered down compared to how it could have been if the script was a bit different as they seemed to play it safe (probably because of the inst-hate they generated). Having said that, I feel that it was a missed opportunity to not incorporate any or much improvisation or deviation from said script that these ladies could have come up with. I could be wrong, but that's how it came across to me. I did enjoy all of the women, however, and I also enjoyed seeing Chris Hemsworth in a comedic role. One thing I will gripe about though, is I was really hoping to see Melissa McCarthy break away from her typical typecasted roles that she seems to be saddled with in literally every single one of her movies. I knew she was still going to be comedic, of course, but I was hoping that if she played a scientist of sorts she wouldn't come across as the loud-mouth nut that she has played in every movie since Bridesmaids, but while she was more scientific and brainy, it wasn't enough to say it was different from her other roles. Luckily, with Kristen Wiig, Leslie Jones and Kate McKinnon in the mix it wasn't that big of an issue, but it's a gripe of mine none the less. Ultimately the movie itself wasn't nearly as bad as everyone made it out to be, and it wasn't nearly as good as the studios were hoping it would be.
Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children is based off of a book series of the same name. It tells the story of Jake, a teen boy who is having a hard time fitting in with others his age and his mother and father don't understand him. The only person he feels any connection with is his grandfather, but Jake has lost contact with him in recent years because of his grandfather's demensia. After Jake's grandfather is horrifically killed by a creature only Jake can see, he decides to take a trip to Wales to find an orphanage that his grandfather lived at for a time, and to meet Miss Peregrine, the woman who looks after all of the children in the home. Soon Jake discovers a world of wonder and magic when he meets Miss Peregrine and the children in her care who all have "peculiarities". However, something evil is trying to eliminate everyone at the home and it's up to Jake to save the day. I don't want to give away too much more of the story line as it really was kind of interesting to see and learn about. I wish more time had been devoted to the different children and their personal histories, but there is just not enough time in a movie to do that, but they did really well with what they had. I feel that while Burton definitely sticks to his typical tropes in this movie (sad protagonist who nobody understands), as well as his dark color schemes, he also returned to some of the things that made his earlier movies so enjoyable, like quirky humor, creating interesting characters and worlds, and having whimsy amidst the darkness. There was even good old fashioned stop-motion animation along with CGI- I was really impressed with that, may I say. While a lot of his movies have become popular fodder for Hot Topic sales, I feel this one is different from the rest. It's not his most memorable film, but it's definitely worth checking out.
This is one movie I was super stoked to see. Originally, the local theater didn't get this movie in, and I was afraid since the theater is run by conservative people and operates in a conservative town, a movie like Sausage Party wasn't going to come at all. But luckily it did, and man was I not disappointed. This movie follows Frank, a plucky hot dog (played by Seth Rogen) who dreams about the day he'll be "chosen" by the gods (a.k.a. shoppers) and be taken to the Great Beyond (a.k.a. be bought and taken home), and it's believed that once he gets to the Great Beyond, he'll be able to be "5 inches deep" in his hot dog bun love interest Brenda (Kristen Wiig). But soon Frank learns the truth about what happens to food once it leaves the grocery store so he goes on a quest to save all food items for horrible and painful deaths at the hands of humans. This movie was not only loaded with a lot of super hilarious food puns, but it was also surprisingly smart for how it took on the main topic of the film- religion. I had no idea that this movie would be all about theology but I was really impressed with how they handled it. The voice acting was on point, the jokes and humor were great, there were a lot of surprises and twists that I thought were awesome, and the animation was really good considering the budget for the movie. Sausage Party was made on a budget of $19,000,000 which is pretty small compared to many mainstream animated films. Even Foodfight, the literal worst animated movie ever made was created with a budget of $65,000,000. Let's compare the two, shall we?
The images on the top are all screen shots from Sausage Party while the ones on the bottom are from Foodfight- you don't have to be an expert to figure out which film had the better animation
In conclusion, there seemed to have been more mediocre movies this summer than there were good ones. Again, I wasn't able to catch every movie in theaters but I'm hoping my Netflix account will help me be able to catch up on what I missed. Of course, these are all just my opinions of these movies, and I do have a bias when it comes to what makes a movie good or not. I'm still one of those weirdos who believes that a movie isn't just for entertainment, it's a piece of art that can have a cultural impact on its audience, but I am probably in the minority on that view. Be that as it may, summer movies have always been all about blowing box office records and getting lots and lots of money, so I don't expect to see any legitimately "good" movies during a summer run. Not that they don't exist, but let's face it- they're few and far between.
But now we're creeping into fall and Oscar season, so there are bound to be more thought provoking films coming out soon that should be able to make a mark on the audience. Also, this is the time of year we'll see the contenders of animation pulling out all of the stops in order to clinch a "Best Animated Movie" award, and there have already been some great animated films out this year so it'll be interesting to see where things go.
