Review: Sherlock Holmes

(DVD) I have to say, of the three iterations of Sherlock Holmes I've seen, this is my third favorite. Not to say that it is terrible, no -- it is just that the others are better. Robert Downey Jr is many things, but British isn't one of them. He does convincingly play the I've-just-been-hit-in-the-head-and-am-rather-dazed role, though.

Review: The Hobbit -- The Battle Of The Five Armies (HFR-3D)

This movie made the rest of the trip worth while, but I'm not sure by how much. It can't stand alone as a singular work as it depends too much on what has gone on before. But what is there is well done, including sweeping, gorgeous action sequences showing large armies in action.

(Assuming you count the eagles as the fifth army.)

And yes, if you stand each of the six movies on its own and rate it only by itself, there is an argument that this movie exceeds Return Of The King and Two Towers. But these movies are ultimately trilogies, and the first trilogy is ultimately stronger.

HFR is a vastly more satisfying experience than is IMAX-3D, even if it is visually darker. I suspect this is due to the fact that each eye is only getting half the light that it would get in a standard frame-rate. But the detail and motion is gorgeous.

Now that it is done, I am torn as to whether or not The Hobbit is a good series. The first one had some moments, but the second one ultimately failed to deliver... well... much of anything. This third one is a triumphant cap that is a reward for sticking it out. I'm not sure I have the urge to see any of them again.

Review: The Black Hole

1979 was a long time ago, and this attempt at high-brow sci-fi still holds up fairly well. Follows the 2001 formula a little closely, not every movie needs an incomprehensible ending (even if this is Disney). I watch it every couple of years and I still enjoy it.

Review: Interstellar

That. Was. Awesome.

Very Clark/Kubric-esque, a real 2001-type vibe, right down to the incomprehensible ending although this one tried not to be incomprehensible. Gorgeous in IMAX. Sound was muddy in places, and although I wrote that off to the usual IMAX-sound-is-always-muddy-to-me problem, apparently this was a "creative choice" made by the film maker.

People complained about the relationship with the daughter although I think that you couldn't really do it any other way. Story is always about people, and people means relationships. No matter what else is going on around them, it is the relationships that matter.

But: Awesome.

Review: Big Hero 6

Good fun, even if it is a children's movie. Rough pacing in the beginning and the transition between acts 1 and 2 was a bit messy. The resident 7 year old really liked it.

I liked it more than this brief review implies.

Review: Dracula Untold

Tight at 90 minutes or so, no excessive fights or gore scenes; a reasonable story type story. The movie knows what it is and delivers capably. I was surprised.

Review: Into The Storm

I don't like watching "movies" shot by teenagers running around with steadicam cellphone cams. But it wasn't as terrible as it could have been. Jenn thinks all the "good" disaster porn shots were in the trailer -- and I think that yes, most of them were. So if you've seen the trailer, you've seen most of the movie already.

Review: Guardians Of The Galaxy

This movie lives up to its reputation, but not its hype. Now that's more because the hype was OMG BEST THING EVER and frankly nothing can live up to that.

(I also classify hype like Star Wars for a new generation as ridiculous hype that nothing can live up to. Star Wars was Star Wars because you were seven when you first saw it, and nothing can live up to the experience of a seven-year-old unsuspecting brain getting wowed by something they've never seen before, especially when you are trying to do it to a brain that's seen everything that's come since Star Wars. So stop trying to convince me that whatever you are hyping will do that, because I can guarantee you that it won't.)

But its reputation, it meets Marvel's standards for fun and entertainment. It sits in the comic book pantheon comfortably above such offerings as The Fantastic Four (either one) and possibly both of the Thor movies.

Review: Iron Man

OMG this movie is still awesome.

Review: Lucy

Part of the problem with marketing a movie as once genre and then delivering a different one is that when the clientele who arrive expecting the first don't like the second, they tend to go away disappointed and negative. As far as this particular movie goes, there's a joke somewhere in this about how this is 2001 without the monkeys, only with one monkey, and (a slightly) less incomprehensible ending. The USB thumbdrive at the end is kind of neat too. A little bloodier and more violent than I might like. So overall it was OK, but I don't think I'll be screaming off to see it again.

Review: Amazing Spider-Man

I'm pretty sure this movie wasn't good, being frustrated with a main character who doesn't understand the "secret" part of a "secret identity". However I'm not sure if my reluctance to classify it as a "bad" movie is more to do with the movie, or if the exposure to Transformers movies the month previous has lowered the bar for a "bad" movie.

Review: Spider-Man

Happy Canada Day, eh! What better way to kill time before the fireworks than to watch Spider-Man? Still an excellent movie. Sony will probably never give this franchise up, and since they are not screwing it up, I don't see why they'd want to.

Review: The Matrix

The Matrix movies were not science fiction, and when the third movie proved that it made a lot of people unhappy. The Matrix movies were Anime or Manga. Crazy technology, crazy fighting, and an incomprehensible ending.

See? Anime.

Review: Edge Of Tomorrow

Pretty good, better than some we've seen recently. Probably will get the video. Possibly not true to the original source, but North American viewers don't really go for the whole Manga thing (see also: The Matrix).

Review: Transformers 3 - Dark Of The Moon

So for years I went to see maybe one movie a year, and for the most part I never wanted to see anything else that was in the previews. I could pick out the one movie months in advance and have a pretty good idea that it would be a good movie.

Jenn and I have been going to movies monthly (or more frequently, last little while) and for whatever reason there seemed to be more movies in the previews I was wanting to see. And my question was: is exposure to the previews increasing the number of movies I am aware of, therefore increasing the number of movies I wanted to see -- or was exposure to the previews lowering my standards for what would constitute an acceptable movie?

This becomes relevant because the previews for Transformers 4 looked like it had the potential to be a good movie. And Jenn said not to get my hopes up because she'd been watching Transformers 2 on an airplane -- where it was free, available, and there was a lot of time that needed killing -- and despite all that, she'd still turned it off.

So in the run up to Transformers 4, Transformers 3 made it on to TV. To whet everyone's appetite or something. So we recorded it, because how bad could it really be?

And:

A) My god, this is terrible. I mean, not *terrible* terrible, but still terrible; and

B) Jenn says this is *better* than Transformers 2.

I was pre-disposed towards liking this movie. I wanted to like this movie. High tech robots clobbering everyone? Leonard Nimoy? My history of watching the original animated Transformers? All biases in favor of this movie. It created a very, very low bar to clear. And it failed to do so. Heck, it smashed through the barrier like it was a truck that couldn't jump.

There's so much wrong with this movie I don't know what to say. How about:

• none of the apollo missions went to "the dark side" of the moon;
  
• it isn't "the dark side"; you might call it "the far side" if you are earth-centric, but really the only thing you can call it is "the other side";
  
• some guy had a nice model of a Saturn-V rocket on his desk -- in 1961, before the rocket had been developed;
  
• none of the astronauts noticed the tracks around the crashed alien spaceship? There's no erosion on the moon to wear tracks like that away;
  
• when the Autobots go to the moon, there's a nice apollo lander sitting there -- including the part that should have left with the astronauts when they returned to the orbiter
  

...and that's enough for now.
The end orgy of violence in Chicago was incomprehensible to me. I could not follow who was doing what, let alone allegedly why.

I'm watching it for free and frankly I'm paying too much.

So now Transformers 4 is off the table for the theatre. I may give it a try on TV when it comes out, but based on what I recall of Transformers 1, Jenn's abandonment of Transformers 2, and… THIS… well I don't see how I can justify spending money on it.

Review: X-Men - Days Of Future Past

I guess if you are going to ret-con your entire universe, why not be blatant about it? Very fast and loose with the past-and-future-coexistence, but over all no worse than anything else we've enjoyed.

Review: Iron Man 3

So listed because we watched it front-to-back tonight on the Apple TV.

I think the second one was better, but this one is still pretty good. Definitely in the top half of the Marvel Superhero Franchise Universe movies.

Review: Enders Game

Hey, it was in the two-for-$10 bin at Walmart, so why not.

After watching it, I thought that since I knew the book I felt the pacing was awkward as it desperately tried to hit the beats from the book.

And I think that if I had not known the book in advance, it would have been incomprehensible.

Review: The Lego Movie

Courtesy of Nathan taking me out to a movie for my birthday. I don't think there is any way to criticize this movie without coming off as some kind of pretentious prick. So I think I liked it.

Review: Godzilla

Why do people even try to write reviews about movies like this? There are three things which will inevitably happen:

• the critics will say it is a typical, boring summer action movie;
  
• the fans will say it isn't a worthy successor to examples of the genre which have come before; and
  
• it will make gobs of money at the box office.
  

So never having seen one of these before(*), I think I can say I liked it. It was thin all around but the monsters were the circumstances of the movie, not the focus, and I think I liked that just fine. What do you want? It is a big lizard smashing things.

(*= Jenn has proven to me that I have seen the Broderick one, I have just blotted it out of my memory.)