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Us (2019)
Suspenseful, Scary, Silly...
I spent much of this film writhing around in my chair, and even had to close my eyes at a couple of points. Peele is a fantastically talented director, and the film starts off with plenty of promise, I was enraptured for the first 40 minutes. However, the next hour drags on, and while the rhythm of suspense - jumpscare - suspense - jumpscare has a brilliantly brooding creepiness to it, it just gets a bit tiresome after a while, and for the last half hour I was waiting for it to hurry up and get it over with.
Get Out is definitely deeper and stronger as a film, this is all just a bit confused and fumbling. Nevertheless, it is very well crafted, so worth a watch if you fancy raising your heartbeat for a couple of hours.
Suspiria (2018)
Very promising first half that collapses into a frustrating mess
The Good:
-Stylistically radically different to the original (which is a classic!). This makes it easier to view free from comparisons (though some are inevitable). I am a firm believer in striving to judge remakes/sequels on their own merits as much as possible, and this version carved out its own niche, being virtually an entirely different genre of film that happened to have some vague plot similarities.
-The dance and sympathetic magic aspects were brilliant. They were superbly executed, and brought a unique feel to the film. As someone who has an interest in those particular subjects, they were great food for contemplation and really reeled me in to the experience.
-There were some great comical moments, a few nice shots, some compelling body-horror.
OK:
-Acting and technical aspects. Tilda was strong, the others were ok, the directing style etc was great in parts and not-so-great in others.
-Score. I am a Radiohead fan, and this is a decent score that kinda fits the film, but this is one arena its almost impossible not to compare to Goblin's original masterwork.
The Bad:
-Bloated sidestory. The old psychologist was interesting for a short while but had far, far too much screentime, and his story was practically irrelevant in the grand scheme of things. Besides the fact that he was silly enough to be almost-comic-relief, his screen-time and storyline should have been cut down by 80%.
Also the political Berlin stuff was helpful for creating an entirely new backdrop but did seem slightly overdone given how unnecessary it was to the story.
-Messy/confused second half. After a strong and enticing first half, the story gradually loses its way and ends up a complete mess. Seemed it was trying to be too clever for its own good with the "twist" surrounding Suzie (which could have been fine if they executed it better over the 2.5 hr period).
This film was so frustratingly close to being really great, but seriously drops the ball when it counts the most.
I feel a 45-minute-shorter fan edit could make for a something worth rewatching... but as it stands its a bit of a mess. but ultimately this is the most frustrating film of 2018... though is probably worth giving a shot if it intrigues you as it seems to have pleased a lot of people (unless you're one of the auto-hate-remake crowd in which case don't bother as you've already made up your mind).
Mad Max: Fury Road (2015)
Pure Action at its Finest
Action films don't get much better than this.
Beautiful, exciting, styllistically original, this is high-calibre action in a dystopian world.
There's not much to say about this film as the plot is simple, and the characters straightforward. I often find movies that are 80% action get dull, but this was strong from start to end.
Star Wars: Episode VIII - The Last Jedi (2017)
A Wasted Opportunity
Never have I left the cinema with so many mixed feelings... this film reminded me of the Matrix sequels in that - I desperately wanted to explore and enjoy the universe, but the vapid, clunky plot and unspeakably tedious, ludicrous, overdrawn action sequences left me almost forcing myself to try and enjoy what was unfolding in front of my eyes. That being said - while I can understand the hateful backlash from thousands of Star Wars fans, it still has redeeming qualities.
PROS:
-Nostalgia. While I also fundamentally disagree with the way they treated the chartacter of Luke, it was still exhilirating to see him back in action, and Mark Hamill did a great job of executing his poorly written character. And I got a tear welling up when he meets Laia.
-Rey - Kylo relationship. I have mixed feelings about both these characters, but the development of their relationship was one of the strongest aspects of the movie.
-Technical execution. TLJ has a weaker plot than the prequels, but it is unquestionably superior in terms of effects, cinenatography etc. There are a fair few visually impressive moments, such as the red/white planet at the end.
-Red Guard fight. A decent fight scene, not a classic, but it was one of the stronger moments.
-Snoke's sparkly dressing gown. Yes this did turn the previously mysterious arch-villain into borderline-comic-relief.. but amidst the 10,000 poor attempts at jokes this was the one thing in the whole movie that actually made me laugh...
CONS:
-The Middle Finger to the Original Trilogy & TFA.
I can understand the hate from the hardcore fans, there was something about this movie that was deeply offensive to the original trilogy, and even to TFA.
I could go on at length about this movie's inherent disrespect to the original trilogy... making the force far too free & easy, the heavy-handed application of what was once a mysterious power, the obscene trivliasation of the whole concept of Jedi's in the first place...
Perhaps even more significantly, is its trashing of the TFA. All the interesting plot-threads set-up in TFA get whimsically brushed away. I had little issue with TFA being a reboot of ANH, but most of the characters that were kinda interesting in TFA became irritating and dull in TLJ, which leads me to...
-Jedi Training Island. This constantly perked my excitement whenever it came on-screen, especially as the space-chase & meaningless side-plots were so boring and drawn-out. There was huge potential here, but it was constantly poorly executed. The backstory behind Luke's cynicism is incredibly weak, he comes across as about as naive as he is at the start of ANH. The whole "the jedi must end" thing made absolutely no sense. I enjoyed some aspects, but its hard to see why such a crucial aspect of the story was dealt with in such a sloppy manner.
-Finn & Rose. Finn started off as an interesting character in TFA, but he is barely developed beyond that. Fine if he is to be a one-dimensional character, but if that's what he's going to be, he doesn't need anywhere near as much screen-time. The casino trip was boring, Rose saving Finn at the end was possibly the stupidest moment in star wars history.
-The Plot. There's not much . Even the prequels easily out-do TLJ in terms of plot. Clever Surprises are good, but TLJ mostly prefers to indulge in endless CHEAP "twists".
Respect the Universe you're working with, cut-down the incessantly boring/unnecessary non-Jedi plot by an hour, put some more thought into developing the Luke-Rey-Kylo stuff so that it stands up to more than 5 seconds of critical analysis and does justice to the Force & the Jedi, and this could be a halfway decent movie (oh and cull that weak slapstick humour, almost as insufferable as Jar-Jar).