King Arthur: Legend of the Sword Review

A new long waited Guy Ritchie film, which wasn't that well marketed came out just in May, and I didn't have time to check it out until now, so here is my thoughts on it. 

I am always excited about new Guy Ritchie projects, like Spielberg's or Nolan's. He, like some other great directors, has this personality, which is bigger than movies he does. And I think, that King Arthur suffered because of that in the first place. The style, brought by Ritchie didn't help to tell the story, it was bigger than the movie, and that only created a mess, in my opinion. Maybe, the biopic didn't work for many people, but we know that Ritchie can make good movies, and tell stories. The style definitely helped him with Sherlock Holmes and The Man from U.N.C.L.E., not even speaking of his first movies, that kicked of his career. But now it is time to admit, that this time it didn't work. Usual people didn't dislike King Arthur as much as critics did. And I am not saying, that this is a bad film, it has some goodness in it, that is why it's not trash, and also a good part of the audience liked it. 

Everybody has got a bad part of their careers, and I hope that for Guy Ritchie this is the lowest level possible he can fall ever. The movie itself is a story, the british legend about the legendary sword and King Arthur. And I am not sure about magic part of that story, but the fictional part of it might have been the reason why the style didn't match the tone, with which this movie could have worked. You can tell that, just looking on other the movies Guy Ritchie made, and there was no magic in them, so it was al least interesting, how it could have matched this particular story, but apparently the first time didn't pan out to be a good one. 

The film starts with the betrayal of the King's brother Vortigern, played by Jude Law, who was one of the bright sides to the movie. The magical part blends very well with his character, this time the magic actually works really well to bring drama to the character and make him complete. The kingdom as it was, fell, and the only person who survived the purge was the King's son. The narrative was so rapid at first, that in 20 minutes the story was already focused on an adult version of Arthur, played by Charlie Hunnam. And he did a good job playing this character. I thought he was the second good thing about this movie. Arthur had character development, but the way the he was written, made him dull at times. And I think Hunnam did the best version possible of King Arthur, mostly ignoring the flaws of the narrative in this movie. That is one of the biggest issues of mine with this movie - it has a floppy narrative. I couldn't understand anything, what was going on, it was paced so abruptly. Ritchie's quick cuts made this movie a big disappointment. Not that it is a bad movie overall, but this style and tone the director goes for all the time in his movies, just didn't work for this story. It was a good idea, but the execution wasn't great.

And then the whole movie is focused on adult Arthur, who was raised by the lower classes. He have become a commoner on the streets. While the sword reveled itself, the movie already becomes some sort of a huge "exiled-and-returned" cliche. Vortigern of cause wants to kill Arthur to gain the power of a true ruler and the Excalibur's might. But the "true ruler' can't even use the sword, he is resisting the sword. So, that Arthur with his forgettable friends, finds himself for the whole movie, trying to maintain the power oh the sword. I found this journey incredibly boring, and even worse, when the movie ended the way, I knew it would end. A mix of magic, legends and terrible demons have not worked for this movie, it is unwatchable and sometimes unpleasant.

But Ritchie, turning Arthur in a street lad, has created so much oddities filled with the image of a new take on the legend of King Arthur, that I think the audience was not ready to see such an excessive departure from the traditional vision of cinematography.  

Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales (2017): Movie Review.

It has been six years since the last, fourth, Pirates. Even though, this new film is in great demand, interest in those movies has not faded in six years that much. This time, Captain Jack Sparrow must again find the ancient artifact, the Trident of Poseidon, to save his own skin, again. All it looks like one story over and over again. And it doesn't necessarily have fresh take on it, all that magical abracadabra with Poseidon, and screenwriters trying to explain everything with science, even making one of the main heroins a scientist of a great mind, which actually reminds of a dump way of "celebrating" sexism, condemning it of cause, but reminding of a terrible treatment of women too often for it to bother on the fifth time them saying "witch" in the movie.

So what happened with Pirates new installment? Despite the prayers for a better film, the fifth one didn't become any better, but worse as a motion picture. And I am a little disappointed not only with that, but with the lack of that stylish Pirates tone that was in first two movies. Of cause Captain Jack is yet again funny and entertaining, but even though in first two he was a cherry on the top of a cake, not the cake itself. Now he is the main reason these movies are being made. And it is the first major problem with Dead Men Tell no Tales - it is imitating what was very best about "The Curse of the Black Pearl" and transfers it into the much worse script with no special Captain Jack Sparrow "plan", because he is morally done in the film and gives up on everything. Which leads to the second thing I didn't like. It is the characters treatment. Giving the fans all they want is not the way to make a good story, especially when screenwriters try to make us care about some of the characters we haven't seen for ten years like Will Turner. His curse of being Dutchman's Captain is one of the main reasons driving the story in the film, and there is no much connection, emotional at least with the two last Pirates movies. The story picks up forgetting to set up that emotional connection, pretending that we already must care, because "why all other four flicks were made for?". And the third and last is that this movie completely lacked any respect to at least first three films in the franchise. Many details about characters and events, that took place before in Pirates universe, that I know, were changed to serve the story better, which destroys the lore. The last nail in the coffin of redeeming the franchise.

The new movie completely stopped the franchise from being what it was, there are no way, that it can step on the right trail again and follow greatness of first two movies. Johnny Depp is now older and older to play Captain Jack Sparrow, and those movies will be made only if he is back to play his famous role.

There are good things too to be mentioned about Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales. The movie has its flaws but it is more or less enjoyable, for other people, rather then me. I criticize it too much, because I know the difference between the good "Pirates" movie and the bad. It is not necessarily must be a huge-scale action movie with unexplainable magic stuff. Instead, it can be something more practical, with no wasted money on needless CGI effects. I never asked for a new bad movie just for the sake of seeing more from those characters I love. A good film would have changed a lot in this franchise.

Anyway, the story is quite solid, despite the fact, that the screenplay didn't create needed emotional connection. The story threats already known characters poorly, but it sets up all the reasons, why the action is happening, well. I can say the reasons, why this script is bad, but there are good jokes and character development on the surface. There have been only three of all the characters, who were in all five films. They are, of cause Captain Jack Sparrow, Joshua Gibbs, Jack's loyal first-made and Captain Barbossa, played by Jeffrey Rush. His character was always a hidden jewel of this franchise. Of cause he was just for a couple of seconds in the second film, but he did appear in all movies in the franchise. I write it, because he has been given a lot more depth then ever. He was always just a bad person, a pirate, and now, suddenly we learn about his past. And in the perspective of the whole franchise, it seemed a little out of place for this character, he was absolutely great without any depth, except his great love for the "Pearl". And yet again, it is the way, where the story in the fifth movie goes, and how it treats already known characters. It worked exactly 50/50 in this film, sometimes violating the essence of the characters, but giving them some development instead.

The new main leads played by Brenton Thwaites and Kaya Scodelario are a recreation of whom Will Turner and Elizabeth Swann were for the first movies. But it looks more like a wrong decision, because they didn't have even near that depth and character build as previous generation. And the story and the screenplay for the first movie was way better then in "Dead Men Tell No Tales". And as for the villain. Javier Bardem was really good. But what else you would have expected from an Oscar-winning actor. Overall, the image of this movie is even more blur than even the previous film had. It overreacted about fanservice and totally took a wrong direction to lead the whole franchise into darkness. There are already ways for another movie, but if it's going to be as this one then there is a problem of not seeing the situation clearly, that the health of the franchise depends on good quality of the movie at first. 

Alien: Covenant (2017): Movie Review

In 2017 there are so many different movies, from horror to comedies, even horror comedies. But, Ridley Scott brings a classical Alien on screen again, and it is special. We haven't seen a traditional Alien movie for a very long time. Since the Resurrection, Alien didn't appear in any standalones, and it was 20 years for now. There were crossovers with the Predator, but this is the very first standalone Alien film with actual alien in it since 1997.  

Prometheus, which came out in 2015, was the first prequel to the Alien (1979). In that movie Ridley Scott explained the origin of life and Xenomorphs' existence. Alien: Covenant is the second prequel, which actually called "Alien" this time. And as trailers and every poster says, it has an Alien in it. Watching little prolog videos which are a part of the marketing campaign for this movie is really helpful, they explain some parts of the movie and help to get into the story as quick as possible without spoiling anything. 

The story of a crew members on a spaceship Covenant, which takes a huge colony on a decent for life and colonisation planet. But the ship crashed and crew members woke up from the cryosleep. During the repairs, one of the pilots intercepted a message sent by a human. The planet from which this message was sent seemed even more pleasant for colonisation and the captain decided to check it out and find the source of the signal. 

The movie very much discovers the origin of Xenomorphs. Ridley Scott really thought up a great explanation and the story is quite interesting. This movie doesn't lack the connection with the events which happened in the Prometheus. Without spoiling, I might say that the Xenomorph is not the only alien in this movie. Traditional Alien is some sort of an ancestor to another monstrous creature. That is why this film is not exactly an Alien movie.  It has one in it, but it wasn't a cliche from 1979, some parts remind of that movie, but in Alien: Covenant Xenomorph is not the one and only threat, so it mostly looks like a fight between the whole spaceship crew and different alien creatures, and the Xenomorph appears only at the end. 

This film is worth watching. Horror element is very strong, but it wasn't that much scary. The plot is exciting, there are no huge negatives with the story. There are no big issues with the decisions of the characters, it all seemed organic and natural. Michael Fassbender has done it again and crushed it with his roles in the movie, as well as Danny McBride and Katherine Waterston. 

One of Ridley Scott's most notable mistakes, again (just like in Prometheus), is the absence of the same atmosphere as in the original film, when prior to the meeting with Xenomorph, none of the members died, and there was more time to speculate and build up the mystery of the alien. And all that brings up the biggest issue with the movie - its pacing. The movie is slow at the beginning, quite moving during action scenes, but very slow and even boring between them. I have to say, that everything would have been better at a pace, if the film had been one hour longer. If you show all the details, don't cut out the big parts of the movie to get to the boiling point, in which people start dying. It seemed more like the script was originally meant to be at least twice as long, especially in the ending. To put it mildly, Alien: Covenant may not be such a good film, not to mention a good film about Alien. 

But it's still worth watching. It's visually stunning, and the origin of the Xenomorph is finally very well explained. The story itself is good, there are some great plot twists, which I personally saw a mile ago, but still, you might not. And the predictability didn't ruin any pleasure from suspense and the reveal. 

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2: Movie Review.

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2. The sequel to the great and already classic first Guardians of the Galaxy which became absolutely one of the best in its genre. James Gunn also written and directed the second movie, as he did with the first one. Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldana, Dave Bautista, Michael Rooker, Bradley Cooper, Vin Diesel and Karen Gillan reprising their roles along side with Kurt Russell (Ego), Sylvester Stallone (Stakar Ogord), Pom Klementieff (Mantis) and Elizabeth Debicki (Ayesha). 

This film is a continuation of the first Guardians of the Galaxy story line, in which guardians are mercenaries, who work for money or something else of value. The came back to what they all know how to do, but now they have a name and their services are special. 

The Sovereign had their home planet attacked by an Abilisk that was wreaking havoc on the world and trying to eat the planet's power source. Believing it to be beneath them to fight it themselves, their leader Ayesha hired the Guardians of the Galaxy to kill the beast in exchange for Nebula, who was captured by the Sovereign attempting to steal Anulax Batteries. 

The action in this movie moves the story very well, as after the job well done Rocket steals those batteries and all the Sovereign fleet is on their tail. Then they go to an asteroid field, so far it is more looks like an Empire Strikes Back narration, but even some posters are very much Star Warsish so to have at least a couple similarities in the movie. Indeed, this movie has similarities with Star Wars in pace and a little in its storytelling. Great that all that fleet of autopilot Sovereign ships are destroyed by one mysterious man who appeared from nowhere just after Quill's ship was about to be destroyed. 

Many great dialogs, a great premise of funniness and smart talk from Drax, or Rocket, interacting with Baby Groot, voiced by Vin Diesel, the humor is entertaining and hooking, it is built up by many good dialogs after which all the jokes make sense. From the start the atmosphere is the same just as in the first movie, but the scenes are showed with more advanced technology in cinematography which made the beginning a little new, more looking like higher budget film already. More attention is focused on Baby Groot, his new personality, what he is right now and how cute he might be. There are a lot of CGI and visual effects in this film, sometimes more than it was required. And one of the biggest differences from the first movie is that everything seems so expensive in the second one. To the end it felt like required for that terrain and circumstances CGI was overused. Vol. 2 lost in atmosphere to be more relying on fun and entertainment. But after all the movie still feels like the original Guardians. 

Exploring Quill's parentage appeared to very fun, his father is a very complicated dude, there is a lot to be explored about him and the whole history of his origin in the movie. Peter and Gamora are still unsure about their relationship with each other, it is also explored in the film. One of the biggest parts of the movie is the ravagers, their code, which Yondu broke by kidnapping children. There are many clans of ravagers, it is a one big family led by Sylvester Stallone's Stakar Ogord. His role is more like a cameo, looking on what little screen time he had, he still made it fun and had a couple cool lines. This how James Gunn explores the Marvel Cosmic Universe, it became more big and wide-ranged, many more things are to be explored next. Some characters had such a wonderful development. Yondu is such an interesting character. He raised little Peter for good. Nebula is a great character as well. How it is to be raised by Thanos, more terrible details about that and her relationship with Gamora. A lot of emotional feelings to all those stories we have seen or heard about in those two movies, as James Gunn makes it all connected and actually also brings his great storytelling with his hidden philosophy just as he did in the first one, where he had drama, action, comedy and space-opera in one movie with many issues that he addresses to massive audience. 

The second film does it all, but the pacing was a little bit more rough, some advantages of the first movie were sacrificed to bring more jokes and crazy good moments. The villain is not disappointing, but pretty much like Ronan The Accuser, very serious, but also to be made fun of sometimes. And really ,Guardians always make fun of their villains, but this one will be too powerful to be actually funny, while destroying the Galaxy. Ronan was funny, with his too over-the-top serious lines, maybe because he was too serious he was beaten, but this villain, in GOTG Vol. 2 is not. Not to spoil anything, but there are more, than was shown in the trailers, much more, so can't talk about villains a lot in this movie. But this one is horrifying in its convictions. 

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 of cause has a beautiful soundtrack. Peter Quill is that motor that aggregates common jokes, referencing to some older TV shows or singers from Earth. Overall, this whole thing is about saving the Galaxy again, but also about family and friendship, brotherhood. The second instalment isn't as good as the original, but still has the same greatness in its core. 

Get Out (2017): Movie Review

This movie made a lot of buzz, having 99 percent on rotten tomatoes and making a lot of money for Blumhouse Productions and Universal. It became some kind of phenomena. It is now the movie, which is called original, fresh and absolutely creative. The idea behind this script is innovative and new. The story drives smoothly, but the filmmaking by Jordan Peele seems usual. It is an easy-watching film, even though it is a horror. And the horror is more connected to the story, not jump-scares. There are almost no jump-scares, the whole idea of this movie being terrifying is based completely on you experience watching the film. 

Jordan Peele makes you care for the characters. They are not just some puppets to play with, they are people to care for, to one point in the movie, I can't tell, because of the non-spoiler review, but there is a twist, in which everything changes. It wasn't spoiled in the trailer, so even the marketing did play a good hand for this movie to be successful. 

So, basically the main character is Chris (Daniel Kaluuya), who is dating Rose (Allison Williams). They are in love, so their relationship comes to the point, when they go to meet her parents in their residence. Ever since they go on this little journey, strange things start to happen. The whole plot is not revealed very quick, Jordan Peele keeps us wondering about what actually might be happening, and if you pay attention, you might estimate some plot twists, but Peele goes deeper, beyond my, for instance, imagination and brings some really crazy ideas, which are mind-blowing good, very original. And that anticipation of the reveal comes after the characters are developed and well presented by some good dialogs and very well directed scenes. This whole movie is actually so well directed, it is very enjoyable to watch. 

You might find the ending to be disturbing, but it doesn't contain any nasty surprises. This movie hooks and doesn't let go until the end; very well made movie. 

The Fate of the Furious: Movie Review

The Fate of the Furious. Who can top that? Car chases and action, rare gun shots and mostly hand combat battles, low budget and a lot of unknown actors. This is how this franchise started back in 2001. Now, looking back, Fast and Furious looks so different in style and everything else. Budget is 250 million dollars just for production. I bet the marketing was another hundred million. Dom Toretto (Vin Diesel) and his crew made this far from a Point Break remake to the one of the biggest movies of all time. It will do extremely good at the box office. After this one, there will be another 8 coming out in the near future with space battles and races on The Moon. I mean they won't do that in the next 5 or 6 movies, but who knows, maybe the crew will change, and already Dom's and other's children will do all that crazy stuff. 

Firstly this movie started with something very familiar for Fast and Furious fans. Cuba, an atmosphere of a holiday, great cars, beautiful women. Classical race of two on some crazy cars with absolutely insane action for each one's car. Dom raced some local tough guy. 

Him and Letty (Michelle Rodriguez) got married and everything goes good, the family is happy and save. His honeymoon is going well. Exactly at that point Dom meets a lady, Cipher (Charlize Theron), who shows him something, that makes him go against his family. His motivation is unclear, but we all know Dom. He would never turn his back on family, if there wasn't a good reason. Because of Dom's betrayal, Hobbs got into prison, where he meets Deckard (Jason Statham) - his enemy form Fast 7. They face each other, swearing and scolding. After their escape they must work together to find Dom and Cipher.  

Humor is everywhere in this movie. Whether it's Hobbs and Deckard or Roman with his stupid comic relief with horrible jokes in JarJar style. This film is full simple one-liners and gesture jokes. Epic and over-the-top phrases don't ruin anything. The movie has that happy atmosphere. But drama doesn't lack in it either. Some moments are tragic. On a scale of superaction this film beats every other F&F combined, it is laughable, how zombie cars drive in New York or a nuclear submarine drugraces a Lamborghini. I laughed a lot. Some moments didn't match with my perception of life. And there are very unnatural moments, that really mess up with the physics. 

However, F8's party-holiday atmosphere and comic relief jokes from Roman create a feeling of this movie being a big pop-film with every directorial move based on following mass audience desire to turn their brains off. It is not bad, but knowing how to do that, F. Gary Grey makes this movie work. Power of onscreen chemistry between "The Rock" and Jason Statham is one of the best parts of this installment of F&F. 

Thus, this movie looks good, but still only follows the ridiculousness of the previous ones. It is irrelevant to talk about artistic value of the film. It delivers fun and ludicrous action, and if you enjoy one-uping each other Hobbs and Deckard - this movie is for you. Entertainment value this movie has. 

The Proposal (2009) Movie Review

Synopsis: A pushy boss forces her young assistant to marry her in order to keep her visa status in the U.S. and avoid deportation to Canada.

The Proposal starring Ryan Reynolds and Sandra Bullock and directed by Anne Fletcher (Step Up). This movie is quite old, eight years, but sometimes I am in the mood of watching older films to see not only the difference in my favorite actors back in time, but to see a movie, that intrigued me by its idea and cast. Ryan Reynolds already was a star, and of cause Sandra Bullock, not yet winning her first Oscar, but already being a legendary actress. The chemistry between two of them made this movie good and fair to call above average in this genre. 

This movie didn't necessarily stick to the formula of most romantic comedies, it had its own route, on which it had flaws, but the acting talent of both two leads created a wall that kept all the negatives from my sight. In terms of being funny this film also gets to the point when it doesn't do well sometimes, but jokes were decent and told very funny at times. 

The most positive point in this movie is the chemistry between Ryan Reynolds and Sandra Bullock's characters, they are both top actors and did their job very well. This is what I call good acting ,when nobody even tries to act, but it is good anyway. 

Ghost in the Shell (2017) Movie Review

Synopsis: In the near future, Major is the first of her kind: A human saved from a terrible crash, who is cyber-enhanced to be a perfect soldier devoted to stopping the world's most dangerous criminals.

I was waiting for this movie for quite a while, not that I knew and liked the source material, but the trailers got me by their weirdness and difference, from what I have seen before. I love Matrix(1999), and this movie looked a lot like it - familiar, but different at the same time so I just was sold on this film. Scarlett Johansson is a great action star, her talents were perfectly used in such films as: The Avengers (2012) or Lucy (2014), so she perfectly fits the character of Major, who can fight and needs a great actress to play her right. Major is very complex, her body is synthetic, but the consciousness is taken form another person, who almost died. She was created in a lab, so she could be a terminator for the government stopping the most dangerous terrorists. 

This movie has a unique style. The world looks beautiful, the film is visually stunning. The atmosphere, generated by the visual look and deep, magnificent soundtrack already makes this film worth watching. I really enjoyed the entourage of that gorgeous city, in which this movie takes place. Everything looked fresh and great. I think, that the CGI was well put in the wide shots, the city looked very impressive, especially at night with all those huge moving commercials, it felt absolutely great. 

This film is more about character development and style, with which this movie is made. Scarlett Johansson is great as a mostly robot-hero, having also her memories from the past. The mystery behind her past life is explored more and more until the end. There are some longer scenes of maybe boring dialogs about important things, and those dialogs are not necessarily the best, so overall it looked slow paced, and some plot devices, that were purposed to connect the parts into one, were not well used, leaving the taste of a bad storytelling at times.

I think, that there is nothing horribly wrong with this movie, it is different and good in its own way, but understandably so, this is not the best directorial work by Rupert Sanders, and it didn't appeal to a lot of people. However, the cinematography was great and some characters were very interesting, so I thought, that the story was better than the way it was moved by some obscure plot devises. Obviously, this movie will be forgotten very fast, but I really saw something in it, even though I understand, that this movie is not successful.

"Beauty and the Beast" 2017 movie review.

A remake of a 1991 classic animated musical Beauty and the Beast opened in March. The story of the remake is completely same. 

Synopsis: A young prince, imprisoned in the form of a beast, can be freed only by true love. What may be his only opportunity arrives when he meets Belle, the only human girl to ever visit the castle since it was enchanted.

Belle played by Emma Watson sings and dances, colors are still bright and the atmosphere is magical. This movie has a good storytelling, the very first scene of the enchanting is original as some other things in this film that aren't same as in the 1991 version. 

Very good job by Dan Stevens as the Beast. Interactions between him and Belle were my favorite part of the movie which I actually not surprisingly liked a lot even though a lot of critics dislike it for being rather cliched and destroying the original classic one that we all love. Surely will watch 1991 version as soon as possible, thanks for this remake that was so beautiful that Emma Watson looked normal for the environment and didn't stun, but she did anyway. And her voice was highly above expectations. Usually I like musicals, recent La La Land is one of my favorites of 2016 and this live action musical was very good even though I can't use to dances and songs in the first hour of those films but I really enjoyed them all.  

This whole movie is magical, it keeps up with the classic one and almost copies it. As for me I didn't remember the 1991 version very well so this movie was refreshing and new to me. But for many other people who are the biggest Disney's Beauty and the Beast fans this movie might seem boring and too similar. Anyway this movie takes the greatness of the 1991 animated film and translates it into live action with the same great storytelling and songs. 

Power Rangers Movie Review.

Synopsis: A group of high-school students, who are infused with unique superpowers,harness their abilities in order to save the world.

Everybody says it is really fun movie. Power Rangers TV show was always fun and very goofy but it was enjoyable. This movie is more realistic and settled for a more gritty tone. It has good actors in it, more realistic action and a good feel of a descent superhero movie. Nice interactions between the characters and funny humor are the basis of this film's success. It is successful in achieving it's goal - being funny, entertaining, not super serious and visually great.  

Power Rangers is a big teenage flick, it does have a high school feel, the way people talk reminds of some sitcoms but it is still a good acting from that cast. The mythology was pretty good and well explained, the story is very simple - a cliched superhero plot and all in that manner. But this movie had a strategy of being fun and entertaining so the bad side of this film isn't noticeable that much. 

Well done movie, but it had problems in pacing and the story. The biggest problem I had with this movie is that Power Rangers couldn't suit up for the whole movie and did it just at the end. After all, it felt like a Power Rangers TV show so with that the director did a good job. And visually this movie looks great - a good time in the movie theater.