Summer Blockbuster Recap
This summer, I was doing my volunteer work on Fridays, and since I was out of the house anyway, I took any opportunity I could to catch some blockbusters on opening day. Most of these movies don’t invite much analysis, so this will be a really quick rundown of my thoughts.
Thunderbolts*
People are calling this a return to form for the struggling MCU, and while I do admire the story and how it deals with depression and mental health, I miss the flashier superpowers of the top-tier heroes. Assembling a team of sidekick-level characters really highlights the fact that their powers are weaker by design so as to not steal thunder from the stars.
Sinners
Undoubtedly original, and contains one of the best scenes in recent memory: a musical performance that travels through time. I have to admit though that I had trouble understanding the dialogue through the Southern accents, and I probably missed some of the subtleties. As a result, I thought the structure of the story was a bit choppy. Will probably benefit from a rewatch (with subtitles).
Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning
The plot is really quite stupid, with a mission that involves luring an evil AI program into a USB key, and then unplugging it at exactly the right moment so that it doesn’t escape. That’s not how computers work! But the climactic stunt sequence, involving Tom Cruise climbing on and hanging off a biplane in the air, is truly impressive. Thumbs up to that one scene, thumbs down to the rest of the movie.
Jurassic World Rebirth
The Jurassic movie series has always tried to one-up itself by introducing a new dinosaur species in each entry. The whole conceit centres around genetic engineering, so it does make logical sense that they can invent new creatures. But for me, this movie crossed a line: the design of the final boss monster doesn’t even look like a dinosaur anymore. Even though no human has ever seen a dinosaur, we as a society seem to drawn certain boundaries within which we can categorize an animal as “dinosaur-like,” and the “Distortus rex” in this movie somehow lands outside of those boundaries. It didn’t work for me, but having said that, I actually did enjoy the various action set pieces of the film.
Superman
One of the most cartoonish superhero movies, in a good way, I guess. Filled with weird, wacky stuff.
F1
The footage that they got of real cars going fast is certainly exhilarating, but I found the story repetitive. After a while, it’s just like car-car-car-crash-drive-drive-drive-crash-race-race-race-crash. And I wasn’t a fan of the attitude of Brad Pitt’s main character… you’re supposed to root for how he doesn’t play by the rules and doesn’t respect his opponents, but to me, it’s poor sportmanship.
The Fantastic Four: First Steps
Skipping the traditional superhero origin story is a double-edged sword. It’s true that audiences are probably tired of seeing it. On the other hand, by reducing the character introductions to a quick montage, this movie felt really choppy to me at the start. I’m somewhat familiar with the characters from cultural osmosis, but a total newcomer might find it disorienting. But once the movie settles in, I enjoyed it, especially the effects and animation for the villains, Silver Surfer and Galactus.
Weapons
The mysterious trailers and marketing make it this year’s Longlegs, but I think this is a much better horror film. I love the way the movie reveals its secrets bit-by-bit, by jumping between character perspectives. The way it mixes humour and horror is a lot of fun. Made a fan of Julia Garner out of me. I can’t wait to watch it again.
Ne Zha 2
I saw this on an IMAX screen, and it’s fittingly big and loud. I didn’t watch the first movie, and I’m also not very familiar with the underlying Chinese mythology, so I didn’t really understand the story. But as pure eye candy, it’s hard to beat.
