Review: John Wick: Chapter 3 - Parabellum

The John Wick franchise has been a total breathe of fresh air for the action genre for the past five years.

With many of the head crew members being known for their stunt work in the past, it kind of makes sense that we should expect high-quality action that is not afraid to push the boundary on its level of violence.
That fine mix of brutality and artistry has not only made the action genre not just some silly over-the-top brainless watch, but it has also made Keane Reeves cool again.

I was pretty excited to see this as not only both of its predecessor were good fun, but we were left on a bit of an intriguing cliffhanger.

I loved that the film got right into the action and already gave us some pretty memorable actions set-pieces that will live long in the memory.
The story moves along nicely, a lot of our favourite characters are still being well developed in their various archs and we're being introduced to new ones that do not fall out of place with the main story.

The action is pretty non-stop. In fact, it is so non-stop that dare I say it does get a bit exhausting. With our main protagonist being so unstoppable, the stakes do get gradually lower as you just know that we won't see them tested or at their lowest. One scene does redeem that flaw to an extent. But enough to totally retract my main negative about the film.

That being said, it still captures the spirit of the John Wick films. The action remains of a high-quality with a lot of imagination in using its surroundings for various sequences. Also, the way it's shot is gorgeous as ever. I love that they just pan the camera out and let the action do the talking as they don't need to go further in and make numerous cuts to makes us believe that they can do these scenes. Reeves is well known for his love of the martial arts and you can tell that him and the rest of the cast are or have been well trained.
I really enjoyed where the story went and how are characters were developed and ended up. I'm definitely up for another one as there are very few action films around that can give us this level of hand-to-hand combat. Plus, it's fairly likely we'll get another one as there was plenty left in the open to follow-up on in a fourth installment.
If I had to rank it, I would say better slightly better than Chapter 2. But the first one is still top of my list.

Rating: 7/10

Review: The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part

I think like many, I had low expectations for the first Lego Movie. I just assumed it would be a shameless way to promote the product.

But with directors and writers Phil Lord and Christopher Miller at the helm, they once again proved me wrong with another one of their projects. The Lego Movie ended up being one of my favourite films of 2014.

Now only as writers for the sequel, I was pretty excited for the second installment. The Lego franchise has pretty good up to this point as I really enjoyed The Lego Batman Movie and The Lego Ninjago Movie was solid with a healthy amount of laughs.

While I think the novelty of the Lego concept somewhat wore off in this sequel, it was still a good time with many of its strengths that I liked in the original show up again in its follow-up.

The story moves along nicely, introduced many new characters without losing tempo and never making the viewer feel taken out by this crazy world of building. What was nice addition was a musical aspect to the story and the songs ended up being my biggest positive about the film. Much like the humor, the songs all have many self-referential lyrics and all of them I was wanting to listen to them again straight away, because they are very catchy. If you'll have seen the film, you'll that some songs are literally catchy.

Not much to mention on the voice performances as they all performed as well as they did in the first one. However, Chris Pratt was given more to do and coped with that well and showed noticeable range in his voice work.

The visual effects are still pleasing to the eye and the colour pallet is as striking as ever. I also still love the way the characters and objects move about as if it was done in stop-motion.

While I don't feel there are major negatives to speak of, there were aspects that only had me giving a good rating rather than a great one. The gags were hitting as high as before, the story did not feel as executed as well as it could've been as I think it sounds better on paper. But as said, these are just minor flaws.

On the whole, I thought this was a good fun time with enough laughs and a well developed story that felt worthy of making a sequel. I might not be wanting to re-watch as instantly as most previous Lego movies. But it is definitely a welcomed addition to the franchise.

Rating: 7/10

Review: Pokemon Detective Pikachu

My Pokemon memories are pretty strong as I was probably at the perfect age when this became popular in the UK.

I remember having the whole trading cards, playing the video games, watching the TV show and even seeing watching the first film.
But in terms going beyond the original Pokemon, my knowledge is non-existent.

When I first heard about this film, the choice in story confused and worried me. Doing something called Detective Pikachu sounded more like an April Fool's joke then a genuine film project. The initial trailer had me more worried with some of the decisions being made that they showed in the teaser. However, the buzz seemed strong and the later trailer were beginning to turn me expectations as I could feel a good vibe around it.

This managed to be a super fun ride and may well be one of the most fun films of the year.
It lays the ground work well for a detective story which is a refreshing site to see as it's a genre that is rarely shown on screen these days, especially for a major mainstream release. A lot of it had a similar vibe to Who Framed Roger Rabbit and I'm happy if this was this generations version of this type of story.
Then it manages to explain itself well for some of the decisions made that were shown in the trailer that I was most skeptical about. It made good enough sense for me and it left me to enjoy the rest of the story, and I did in the best way possible.
There was plenty of comedic moments that made great use of some of the Pokemon abilities and made for a satisfying final act.

I know a lot of people feel Pokemon is a bit of nice pop culture. Bit the way they execute the story and Pokemon lore and mythology does enough to explain to novices whilst also not patronising the hardcore fans that makes it feel more like a tutorial. On paper, that sounds like a tough task. But props to director Rob Letterman, his large writing team and the rest of the crew for making that aspect work so so well.

As for the performances, they did a perfectly fine job that fitted the tone perfectly. I was really pleased to see Justice Smith not only give a good performance, but hold the film throughout. I did not like what he was given to do in Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom at all. So I was so happy to see his talent shine through and become a memorable part of the film. His chemistry with Ryan Reynolds worked and was consistently entertaining. Reynolds' performance may be almost identical to his Deadpool character, but it is more of a PG friendly version that the whole family can enjoy.
Don't really have much to say about the other performances. Kathryn Newton and Bill Nighy may have been integral characters. But they were just fine, nothing more than that.

I was not expecting the writing to make to be one of the films biggest positive. But it did. It moves the story along nicely, it develops many characters with solid story-archs and the comedic moments are strong and constant.
Other notable positives were the production design and visual effects. The general look of the film was amazingly not to different to Blade Runner. The neo lights that light up the night and the almost grungy look had me thinking of nothing else, which really surprised me.
As the visual effects, they felt pretty seamless with the live-action which was another comparison to Who Framed Roger Rabbit. I was pleased at how the designs of the Pokemon looked in the finished product and blended so well with everything else.

There was negative to say about the film. but I think the narrative wasn't particularly strong or original. It's definitely a story we've seen plenty of times.
But I think the solid execution of this familiar structure prevented it from being a major negative.

This ended up being so much better than I expected and could be one of the surprises of the year for me. It may move along to something you can kind of predict. But it executes all those regular tropes to an entertaining level that makes it instantly re-watchable.
The characters are engaging, the pacing is pretty swift, there are plenty of laughs, there is enough of a spectacle vibe about it and the imagery is pleasing to the eye.

Whether you know Pokemon or not, I feel you can still enough enjoyment out of this to have a fun viewing experience.
As a Pokemon fan myself, I must mention that the first half of the end credits were great to not only watch but listen as they play a piece of music that certainly brought back some memories.

Rating: 7/10

Review: Aladdin (2019)

Another Disney re-make, and quite possibly the one I have been most fearing.

My fear was probably due to the fact that this was the one for me that if it went wrong, it could go horribly wrong in many aspects.

But despite going in with the lowest of expectations, I as usual remained open-minded and hoping this could be up there with the great Disney live-action re-makes like The Jungle Book, Cinderella and Christopher Robin.

The first act pretty much went as expected. They were hitting the same bits as the animated original, but the execution felt very hollow and I was feeling nothing towards it. Then amazingly, it was the arrival of Will Smith as The Genie that totally changed the beat, and I was really getting into the story. From that moment and through a couple of songs, that whole sequence was brilliant. After that, I felt I was in for the ride, the remainder of the film was good solid fun and I could enough of the magic that I remember experience from the 1992 original.

Unbelievably from an acting perspective, Will Smith managed to be the best part of the film. He managed to have that perfect mix of keeping the Genie character that we know and love whilst still bringing his own style to it. Me and pretty much everyone else thought that he was doomed from the start. But I love being proved wrong, and Smith certainly did that.
Mena Massoud as the titular character I thought was fine but not memorable if I was being cruel. Like for the most of the film, it wasn't until after the first act when I started get invested and Massoud was exactly the same.
Naomi Scott continues to showcase her talent well. After showing great promise in Power Rangers, Scott did a good job as Princess Jasmine. With her character being given plenty of additional content to work with in the re-make, her portrayal made her character more of a role model that was executed rather well. It was great seeing Navid Negahban be cast as the Sultan. After first seeing him in 12 Strong in a pretty memorable performance, I was excited to see more of him. So I was pleased to see him get more roles in wide release films.
I also have to mention that while the character of Iago did not have a true speaking role, the way he was used was most noticeable.
Sadly I could not get into Marwan Kenzari's portrayal of Jafar or regretably Billy Magnussen's character. Kenzari never felt threatening or imposing as you would expect for one of Disney's most fearful antagonists. He just felt whiny, wet and weak. As for Magnussen, while I loved his character in Game Night last year, the character that he either felt annoying or massively out-of-place with the tone.
Also, I was really disappointed with the characters of Abu and Carpet. They missed that personality that made us fall in love with them in the original, and were also massively under-used in this version. It was a shame to see that.

I really liked the imagery, most of the production design, the striking costumes and of course the songs. The portrayal of most of the songs were well done and re-creating enough magic that reminded why you still love these songs. The added dance sequences enhanced the songs as well as the costumes really well. Also, unlike Beauty And The Beast, the new songs seemed to fit in well and never felt like they were stopping the film to showcase their entry in Best Original Song category for the next Oscars.

As for the negative from the technical side, along with the entire sub-standard first act, some of the designs of the locations lacked that glamour that the original had.

So despite the numerous problems I had with it, I thought this was a solid fun time that re-captured some of the magic that was there before.
With these Disney live-action re-makes, I always end with the question of, 'Did this need to be re-made?' My answer, kind of. I could see the themes they were introducing to this story to make it different and more topical for today's audience and some additions made for certain character felt worthy enough.
It was good to look at, the performances on the whole were solid, Will Smith proved me wrong and the feel-good adventure vibe does eventually arrive and make it a solid enough pay-off to have you falling in love with the story and songs all over again.

Rating: 7/10

Review: Pet Sematary (2019)

I was hoping to have seen the 1989 original before checking this out. Sadly my limited free-time preventing me from doing this.

So I went in with nothing to compare it with and having no knowledge of the original story.

What I got what I felt was a pretty decent horror flick. Our main characters set-up certainly on certain horror tropes. But I felt the execution of them made them perfectly fine to invest with.

It was not afraid to portray the strangeness of the location of the laws and mythology surrounding it. Hearing them be explained certainly had me thinking where we're going with this story in terms of themes and the story developed them well and made it worthy watch.

While the acting wasn't exceptional, it never down-graded the film. Kid actor Jete Laurence did a pretty good job for a film where her character is required to have a lot of screen-time and dialogue that was essential to move the story along.
Despite Jason Clarke not doing anything wrong, I just felt he was mis-cast in this. It didn't seem the type of role for him and I feel someone else could have made that role a bit more memorable.
It was great seeing John Lithgow in this, as not only does he come out as a great guy in interviews, he is a very accomplished actor that you struggle to think of a bad role.

I felt the films strongest aspects was the production design, and the gruesome make-up for both human and animal actors. The story is pretty solid and it moves along at a pleasant pace and it did one very shocking moment that I felt was very well executed.

However, it certainly has its slower moments that can drag it down and the scares weren't that effective as they were supposed to be for the most part.

It's certainly a passable film. But I can't see myself watching it again. It has however made me want to see what the original, as it's 1989 release has me suspecting that the tone and vibe might be a little bit more playful and thrilling when you compare it to other horrors that came out around that time.

Rating: 7/10

Review: Vox Lux

This project began life on the festival circuit, and now several months later, this film is now making a theatrical release.

I had heard some interesting thoughts and views on this film. The general consensus seemed to be either one of the best films of the year or a thought provoking hot mess.

Now that I've seen it, I am more towards the latter. But I can definitely where both sides are coming from.

It opens up fairly well putting the foundations of its themes in place, which showed similarities to Gus Van Sant's cult-hit 'Elephant'. I was also seeing topical themes of how people become famous of being famous, and the extremes of being a celebrity.
The structure intrigued when it moved into its second half, and for me that's where I feel the film divide people. In the end, I admired it despite the execution not feeling seamless.

One reason for the parts of the second half that did work, was Natalie Portman. I've always loved Portman's work, and this is definitely one that would associate with a Oscar-winning performance. It has everything you expect in an award-winning performance. But sadly I think the small distribution the film is having, I feel it will go unnoticed.
Another actor that I am loving their work with, is youngster Raffey Cassidy. She stole the show for me in Tomorrowland: A World Beyond, was noticeably strong in The Killing Of A Scared Deer and does a great job in this in multiple roles.
Cassidy lays the ground work in the first half and supports Portman pretty well in the second. I would strongly keep an eye on her, and I see her a major star in the making.
While he may not have been on screen for long, I felt Jude Law's contribution had to get a mention as his characters motivation for me enhanced Portman to deliver her most memorable scenes.

There is certainly plenty of things going for it, but there are problems that prevents me from going nuts for it. It's shot really well, the themes is going for should be commended and its execution certainly made me think, the acting is very good on the whole and there is pretty memorable final scene. However, the transition from the first half to the second does make it detach itself as the tone manages to separate itself from one another despite trying to be part of one story.

A lot is to be admired here. But it does not quite come together. It's still worth watching if you're up for something different. Just be prepared to potentially be disappointed.

Rating: 7/10

Review: Avengers: Endgame

The past decade has belonged to the franchises, and we have come to the end of an era for probably the biggest and most successful franchise of modern times.

For many people, the Marvel Cinematic Universe has brought joy to not just comic book fans who have waited decades for this. But also people of different cultures and ages since since its first installment in 2008 with Iron Man.

While I may have never got into the comics, my TV and film history of superhero viewing has been around for pretty much my whole life. My childhood saw me regularly watch the Christopher Reeve Superman films, the Tim Burton and Joel Schmuacher Batman films as well as the Spider-Man, X-Men and Batman animated TV series from the early-mid 90's.

Then 2000 is when the current era of superhero films began with the X-Men franchise, the first of many attempted Spider-Man franchises and so on. I remember being interested, but not excited by Iron Man as I was only aware of the character and net brought up by him. It surprised me and I really enjoyed it. Then I enjoyed The Incredible Hulk. It took me a while to watch Thor and Captain America: The First Avenger as it wasn't doing enough for me to go and see them. Despite not seeing them going into Avengers Assemble, the film still managed to get me into these characters and love it as much as the people that did watch those two films beforehand.
After that, I knew I had to see every future MCU film.

While a lot of people were loving everything they were making, I just thought they were solid fun after Avengers Assemble. Then came some exceptions like the brilliant Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Guardians Of The Galaxy and Captain America: Civil War.
It wasn't until Spider-Man: Homecoming in the summer of 2017 when I felt Marvel were making hit after hit including Thor: Ragnarok, Black Panther, Avengers: Infinity War and even Ant-Man And The Wasp.

Eleven years and twenty-one films later, we have come to the conclusion of the vision of Marvel Studios president Kevin Fiege. It's been quite a ride and if it wasn't for this franchise, I honestly think cinema box office numbers would be at an all-time low.

This obviously follows on from the events of Infinity War, which became not only my new favourite MCU film, but any Marvel film ever made. So to follow that was going to be quite a task for directors Anthony and Joe Russo, as well as concluding many characters story-archs.

Obviously I'm not going to spoil it, so here we go. It had a pretty ballsy start. So I felt pretty confident that many peoples predictions went out the window early on. Then a further brave move just had my jaw-dropped thinking where are they going with this.
The first was a surprisingly sombre start, which I fully appreciated and respected the crew for going down this route.
Then as we got to realise where this film intentions were in concluding this story, my excitement levels just kept going up and up and never stopped. I was loving that no matter how many more layers kept going on top of the story, it maintained course. I noticed that it pretty connected all of the previous MCU films which for me just enhanced the importance of them. That was a cool move. There was definitely one MCU film that I will look in a totally different way despite it being universally seen as one of the weaker ones of the franchise.
Then the final act was just pure cinematic spectacle and even channeled The Lord Of The Rings: The Return Of The King for the most of that finale.

That feeling of relief and satisfaction was so strong when coming out of the screening. My biggest worry was how my favourite Avengers character would end up. I obviously won't say who, but emotions were running high by the end and I loved how this particular characters story-arch concluded.

Now onto the performances, and there are a lot to get through. Robert Downey Jnr. was great as always and despite being the character of Tony Stark for so long, he managed to a lot more emotional range then in previous outings and made him a stand-out in this one.
Chris Evans continues to show why he was born to play Captain America. That natural leader feel in his acting worked so well once again and certainly made me understand why he had a lack of screen-time in Infinity War.
Chris Hemsworth gave us a different type of Thor. But the end results were still the same. Lots of laughs and kick-ass psychical acting. But like Downey Jnr. there was a bit more emotional range.
A few others that upped their dramatic game were Jeremy Renner and Karen Gillan who stole the show at times during this 3hr epic.
I obviously have to commend Josh Brolin, who does it again and show why his character could well be the best film villain at least in this decade and possibly this century.
Also have to give props to Paul Rudd and Zoe Saldana whose contribution in this film were particularly notable in several scenes.

Everything from the technical side was tip-top as always with a Marvel film. They always spare no expense in this department, and this team is the reason why the end credits take pretty much 10 mins to get through. The visual effect makes everything come alive and the final act was glorious in its look. All thanks to the CGI. I felt the editing was noticeable, as with so many things happening in many locations, it was cut at the right times.

The 3hr run-time went by so quickly and it was just so great seeing mainstream cinemagoers not make a peep and never go to a toilet break. That is pure ecstasy for film fan.

I am going to have to temporarily bust this bubble of positivity as there was one gripe that I had with the film. It happened towards the very end and I felt this moment felt forced, unrealistic and felt like they to basically stop the film to show something that is currently on topic in society. They did something similar in Infinity War and that was executed much better and felt more realistic and how we got to that point.

But I think it's safe to say that I really enjoyed this and this was such a fitting conclusion for many parts of the world consisting of so many stories. The last two Avengers films have done something that few blockbusters have done in the past decade, and this is feel like a proper blockbuster.
That means that while it may have the spectacle and grandeur, it creates many memorable characters and exciting stories that have you highly entertained and wanting to watch again and never get tired of it. It's been worth the eleven years of building up to this moment. Well done to everyone involved. This film could quite possibly break box-office records. Watch out Avatar.

Now, where to rank it? After one viewing, I don't think it's better than Infinity War. It's pretty close. But I think the frenetic pace of it and my feelings at the ending of its predecessor is what is giving it the edge over Endgame. Maybe I'll change my mind after more viewings.
That being said, it is a brilliant final chapter to this era of the MCU. We already have another installment coming up later this summer. I will be intrigued to see what hints they'll be giving us into where this franchise is heading to now.

In terms of credits scenes, it was fitting that there were no scenes to speak of. There is however is sneaky bit of audio at the very end that bookends this era of the MCU rather well. Also, the first part of the credits is great to watch and a wonderful way of sending off various characters.

Rating: 8/10