♪♪ Remember me. ♪♪

Coco (2017)

8.8/10 on IMDb
97% on Rotten Tomatoes

Chloe's thoughts: Signed, sealed, and recommended by Chloe;
Watch it in cinemas;
I'm buying the DVD

Watch it if you: Are a fan of Pixar movies;
Disliked the last 3 Pixar movies and want to see Pixar doing good movies again;
Want a fun movie that kids would enjoy;
Want a deep and mature story that adults can also really enjoy;
Want to see some great colourful animation
Miguel comes from a long line of music-hating shoemakers, yet wishes he could pursue a life of music despite his family's prejudice. One day, he accidentally enters the Land of the Dead, where he must explore his familial roots before he can go back to the Land of the Living.

I saw a teaser trailer for this ages ago and then proceeded to forget what it was really about, but knew I wanted to watch it. Lately, though, I noticed there's hardly any marketing for this movie, I haven't even seen a single trailer for this when watching any movie in the cinemas, and sure that might be because I haven't seen any kids' movies, but I've seen some comedies and family-centred movies (like Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle (2017)), and still didn't see any trailers. I've also spoken to a few people who haven't even heard of this movie.

Having said that, I'm really sad that the marketing for this isn't that great, because it is a great movie! It's your typical Pixar movie with a heartwrenching story, great music and beautiful animation.

Before I start my review on this movie, I will mention two things that aren't about the actual movie:

1. I was at first annoyed there was no Pixar short film that played in front of this film, since there's always a short film played. But then I later read that apparently there was some 22 minute Frozen short revolving around Olaf (the most annoying character of Frozen tbh) which was so long and annoying that people kept complaining and all cinemas (across the world I think) ended up not playing it anymore. I'm super glad I didn't have to sit through a 22 minute Frozen short.
   
2. There's an animated movie called The Book of Life (2014) that apparently people were worried this movie would be too similar to, since they both deal with someone in Mexico entering the Land of the Dead. I haven't seen The Book of Life, but people who have seen both have stated that they aren't similar at all except for involving the Land of the Dead.
   

Okay, having said all that, the thing that took my breath away in this movie was its stunning animation. It's no news to us that Pixar is amazing, but seriously the animation here was beautiful, and managed to capture that wonderful essence of magic.

In fact, the Land of the Dead looked way more lively than the Land of the Living! The animation here is so vibrant and colourful, when you first see it, it honestly blows you away. One thing that I read online was that the Land of the Dead, which has cities being built on top of each other, start off with pyramids at the base, then colonial architecture, and then it continues all the way up until there are modern buildings, and it's still undergoing construction. It's such a cool concept!

And apparently Mexico and Mexican culture related to the Day of the Dead is represented really well in this film. It's so nice looking at other cultures in a Hollywood movie, and it's nice to not be getting crappy diversity movies just for the sake of having diversity movies. Here, the Mexican tradition is not just a setting, but it's a huge plot driver, and adds to the overall message of the movie as well.

And as to the message, there are so many feels here as well, typical of a Pixar movie. It's a great message for kids, and there is a plot twist here that I won't say too much about, but I really did not expect that plot twist at all. (Covering this as a spoiler because if someone knows it's unexpected, they might actually end up guessing the plot twist when watching the movie because in hindsight I guess it's not that unexpected.)

Lastly, the songs are not the best, but they are made really nice because of the lyrics in them, and because of the meaning and emotion behind the words.

Overall, this movie was really touching. It's great to see Pixar return to form with this after mediocres such as The Good Dinosaur (2015) and (oh dear) Cars 3. With this great story on family ties, Pixar is bringing back it's heartwrenching stories with beautiful animation that we all fell in love with. It's a great movie for kids but it's also very mature and deep, so it's enjoyable for adults as well.

A few (spoilery) side notes:

• Alzheimer's sucks yo!
  
• I didn't notice this before but Héctor has a gold tooth, and Ernesto's guitar also has a gold tooth coloured in on it

I’m still an old fat guy, right?

Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle (2017)

7.2/10 on IMDb
77% on Rotten Tomatoes

Chloe's thoughts: Signed, sealed, and recommended by Chloe;
Low energy entertainment

Watch it if you: Want to watch a movie that doesn't take itself too seriously because it know what it is;
Want a fun, entertaining movie that plays off the strengths of its actors;
Want a good laugh
Four high schoolers undergoing a Breakfast Club (1985) styled detention discover an old video game console and are sucked into the game, Tron (1982) styled. Inside the game, they need to get used to their character avatar bodies while figuring out the way to save Jumanji and leave the game.

When I first heard of this movie, I couldn't help but think, "Really? Does this really need a sequel?" The answer is a hard no. But you know what, they did it anyway, and I have to concede: I was very pleasantly surprised.

I actually enjoyed this movie! It was really funny and very entertaining!

I liked the things they did in this movie specific to video games, like the characters seeing cut scenes, and non-playing characters only repeating set lines. These things were really interesting and it would have been cool if they expanded on the way video games are experienced when played.

But for what they did, it was really interesting. I also really like how a lot of the humour was derived from the specific actors playing them.

All the actors are playing against their character tropes, and this is where the best part of the movie comes from.

For example, Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson's actual character is some scrawny nerd, so he gets to do funny things like react to his newfound strong body with the largest arms he's ever seen.

Jack Black's character is an insta-obsessed pretty and popular girl, and so he does a lot of amazing things in this movie that made me actually see him as a teenage girl. I kind of forgot that it was Jack Black, and I was honestly watching a teenage girl inside Jack Black's unfortunate body. He is fantastic and steals every scene that he's in.

Karen Gillan is a babe but the young girl that plays her character is this awkward and socially isolated girl who doesn't know what to do with her midriff and her short shorts. There is one scene in this movie that focuses on her and it is so hilarious, the whole cinema was in stitches watching her.

Then, there's Kevin Hart.

And I actually like Kevin Hart and he was really funny in this movie as a jock who's not used to being a short, slow, and weak character. But his was the only character where I felt he didn't at all connect to his high school character, who was originally very quiet and almost stoic-like. Then he becomes Kevin Hart and he's suddenly cracking hilarious jokes and being really animated. I don't think I would have wanted Kevin Hart to change the way he acted (in the end, Kevin Hart playing himself is still enjoyable), but they could have written his teenage counterpart differently so it wouldn't seem so disjointed.

There aren't many down sides to this movie because it was entertainment through and through, but some things I can get nitpicky on are:

• The villain was very mediocre. In video games there's usually a huge emphasis on the villain and there's a huge boss fight but it was pretty underwhelming here.
  
• I felt like Dwayne Johnson had most of the things to do here. The other characters' special abilities help but they weren't written very well enough to have everyone do an equal amount of things.
  
• I really liked when they did the cut scenes joke for the exposition parts of the movie, but they did this once and never again, despite having a lot of cut scenes in this movie.
  
• On that note, it would have been funny to see all the characters lazing around while our main protagonists were off somewhere else, completing a prior level of the game. Then once they progress to the next level it would have been funny to wait for that level to load while all the characters take their place. Chris Stuckmann says something similar in his review and I was actually thinking, while watching the movie, that it was odd to have the villain do things behind the scenes if it weren't a cut scene that our main characters can see.
  
• Nick Jonas is decent in this too. I've always thought he was the cutest Jonas brother and had a crush on him in high school so he is welcome eye candy in this movie. But one thing that bothered me was: There's no way his character is 'the missing piece' they needed to find, since his character was meant to start the game at the same time that the other characters started. At first I thought the characters were making it up to make him feel better, but as they kept repeating it, I got the feeling that they actually believed he was the missing piece.

Overall, I really was not expecting to actually like this movie. It was fun, and entertaining, and it's just a good ole mindless film to laugh about and not think too much about. I like that they didn't try to unnecessarily add in character complexity to the point where they were trying to be more serious than they actually were. Of course, there's a bit of character conflict and drama, but it's just enough to get by, I never felt really bored by it. Jack Black is a living legend, and he steals the movie, but Dwayne Johnson and Karen Gillan are amazing in this too. Kevin Hart is the same old Kevin Hart and there's nothing wrong with that, he was a source of great laughs too. An all round fun movie.

Our two children are dying in the other room, but yes, I can make you mashed potatoes tomorrow.

The Killing of a Sacred Deer (2017)

7.4/10 on IMDb
79% on Rotten Tomatoes

Chloe's thoughts: It's alright;
Proceed at your own risk

Watch it if you: Want to watch a weird, artsy, and philosophical movie;
Are a fan of psychological thrillers and suspension of belief

Cardiovascular surgeon Dr. Steven Murphy becomes a father figure to a young teenage boy, Martin, hoping to take him under his wing. However, Martin's presence brings out a deep tension in the Murphy household, which climaxes in an intense family tragedy.

I knew absolutely nothing about this film going in, except that it had very divisive reactions and it starred Colin Farrell and Nicole Kidman. The start of this film was pretty weird, but in a very interesting way, and by the time I walked out of the theatre, my heart was racing. It's an intriguing film, but definitely not for everyone.

It's really hard to review this film without going into spoilers, so my spoiler-free section is going to be pretty short.

My overall impression of this movie is that it has a really weird tone to it, and that's not something that everyone would like. I quite enjoyed the tone because it was mesmerising and really captivated me, but to others I think it could be seen as really strange, and boring.

This can be because of all the characters speaking in a really monotone and flat way, which may make it seem like the actors (even Nicole Kidman) aren't really trying, but to me it just added to the bizareness of this world, a world that seems like our real world but has enough peculiarity in it to make it very different from our own world. In this world, people talk very robotically and very formally, and so relationships between friends, colleagues, and even family, do not seem natural or loving in the way they should be.

There's also a lot of silence in this movie, and a lot of... space (for lack of a better word). There's awkward silences between characters, there's long nothingness shots of characters not really doing anything, and there's lots of scenes where there isn't much happening, but there's an eerie sort of emptiness to the film that somehow unsettles you. The soundtrack is also extremely creepy and really made me shiver at times, it did a great job at setting this tone that made you keep fearfully anticipating what was going to go wrong. This, coupled with those slow, nothingness panning shots, really brings out the underlying sinister tone of the film.

Another thing is that it's actually really easy to laugh in this film. Like it was really bizarre, but at the same time there was humour within the bizareness. Particularly at the beginning of the film, where you're not quite used to the unnatural way the characters talk to each other.

I haven't seen any of the director's (Yorgos Lanthimos) films, although I've heard that The Lobster (2015) is amazing. After having seen this film, I am really really keen to see The Lobster because I do think he has a really unique way of directing that can't be ignored.

Spoiler time.

Click to show/hide spoilers:

So apparently this film is a modern retelling of the Greek tragedy Iphigenia in Aulis, written by Euripides. In this tragic play, Agamemnon has to make a decision to sacrifice his daughter, Iphigenia, to please the goddess Artemis.

Likewise, here Dr. Murphy needs to decide on which of his family members he needs to sacrifice in order to please the very supernaturally powerful Martin. His son comes close to dying when he decides that fate would be the ultimate decider. And fate chooses to kill his son anyway.

Firstly, I think the biggest thing everyone was thinking was just, "Why can't he just shoot himself?!" It would have been a cleaner and easier resolution if he just shot himself. However, we don't know if this would actually resolve anything. His two children might die anyway, followed by his wife.

But besides that, I think the point of this movie was to try and show human selfishness. Here, Dr. Murphy is seen to be extremely selfish, not wanting to reveal his previous fatal mistake of drinking while on the job, wanting to hold Martin hostage until he reversed his curse upon the family, and also choosing to murder one of his own family over himself.

However, he's not the only one that's selfish here. Martin is selfish for putting this curse on the doctor because he wants to seek out his own vengeance, and he also wants his mother to get with Dr. Murphy despite his very evident unwillingness to (and I love how this scene just shows that Alicia Silverstone is still being as clueless as ever when it comes to reading men; I also loved the actor for Martin, the same boy from Dunkirk).

Then we see the rest of the Murphy family. Anna, Dr. Murphy's wife played by Nicole Kidman, is also extremely selfish, saying that the only logical thing is to kill one of the children because they could always have another child together. Then she lays down in bed naked trying to seduce him to remind him what he will miss if he kills her.

The children, too, try to bargain for their lives, with the son cutting his hair like his father wanted him to, and saying how he wants to be a cardiovascular surgeon to rub his father's ego. His daughter tried to tell him how much she loves the family, and tells him to kill her off in an attempt at reverse psychology. Heck, the father even goes to their school to see which of his children are better and, terribly, which one deserves to live more.

And yet none of this matters because he ties them up and shoots them at random. How many rounds was he willing to do before he finally shot someone? We will never know, because on the third shot, he kills his own son. It's a sad scene, but it's also kind of a relief, for both Dr. Murphy and the audience. We as the audience are put in this terrible fly-on-the-wall position with an intense roller coaster ride of emotions, and when it's over, it's a big sigh of relief.

But I would have liked to have seen him spinning around a third time, and then hear the sound of a gunshot just as the screen goes black, and the credits start to roll. I would have liked that idea of not knowing who was actually murdered, and whether a murder actually did appease Martin. But as the movie did, it continued, and we saw the long stare off between the family and Martin in the diner.

I think I left a bit unsatisfied not at the way the movie was directed, but more at the premise of it. We've seen movies before where our protagonists had to make tough choices related to their families. One example that I can think of (and probably not the best one) is The Box (2009), where a married couple is given the choice to receive a million dollars if they press a button that kills someone they don't know. The couple make a decision, and have to live with the consequences of their decision.

Moral dilemmas are not new to cinema. In fact they are pretty much just 2 hour long elaborations on the classic "Would You Rather" schoolyard games that we played. But it's interesting to have a moral dilemma because there are pros and cons to each option. Here, there's not really any option. We are not made to believe that anything can be done about the situation. It's a shitty situation, but it's one that the protagonist has to ride. There is no stopping Martin and his curse of the Murphys. The only option you're left with is who to kill.

And that can be a bit boring in retrospect. It definitely wasn't boring watching the movie, but after leaving and thinking about the movie, I was like, "Oh. That wasn't actually anything too special." And to me, it wasn't special because there wasn't much hope left in the audience for how things would end. Also, the ending itself is a bit mediocre, because even though they have to live with Dr. Murphy killing his own son, you almost feel like none of the characters have really developed or changed after the events of the movie.

Why? Because we've already seen how selfish they are. And how accepting they are of their situation. Sure, they try to fight back a little, but in the end they're all pretty accepting of the fact that someone has to die. So accepting, in fact, that they try to bargain for their lives instead of sacrificing their own. And so, because of that, having one of them die doesn't really seem like enough of a punishment for them. They seem to have accepted this as their fate, and if anything it seems like they're all a little bit relieved at the end of that cafe scene. Almost like how relieved Agamemnon was, because the sacrifice of his daughter meant he could lead his troops to Troy to fight in the Trojan War. The Murphy family is upset, of course, but they're relieved that they can keep on living.

In saying all that, I did enjoy this movie. It's not a film I would recommend to many people, though, because it is very weird and I don't think I know many who would actually take well to it. There are a lot of questions leaving this film, particularly because there seemed to be a lot of small storylines happening that didn't lead anywhere. But this all added to the confusion and creepiness of the film. It was a very tense movie, and that is props to the directing, acting, camerawork, and music of the film.

I need to show my ass to sell this picture!

The Disaster Artist (2017)

8.1/10 on IMDb
92% on Rotten Tomatoes

Chloe's thoughts: Signed, sealed, and recommended by Chloe;
Low-energy entertainment

Watch it if you: Have seen The Room (you don't need to, but I think it's honestly better if you have);
Want to see a funny yet endearing movie about the makings of a really terrible movie
The Disaster Artist depicts the beautifully bizarre making of cult-classic film The Room (2003).

A little background on The Room: I had the pleasure of watching it twice at The Hayden Orpheum and it is honestly one of the greatest movie experiences ever. The Room is frequently described as one of the best worst movies, or "The Citizen Kane of bad movies", but what distinguishes this disasterpiece from other really crappy movies is that fact that Tommy Wiseau (the director, writer, producer, and star of the movie), honestly had no idea how bad it was. He invested $6 million into this terrible movie and paid to keep the movie in one cinema for 2 weeks to make it eligible for nomination for The Academy Awards (The Oscars). Several scenes are out of focus and several lines are badly dubbed/unsynced in scenes but that is nothing compared to the terrible acting, directing and writing. It is a horrible experience if you were watching this alone at home, but it is a wonderful experience watching it at any cult screening, such as the one that The Hayden Orpheum holds every first Friday night of the month. Here, you get to fulfil all your dreams of heckling and being rowdy, and you even get to throw spoons at the screen!

So how does someone go about making a movie so bad that it becomes an international phenomenon? Well, Greg Sestero, the second lead actor in The Room, wrote a book detailing it all, and this is the movie that explores all that.

I'll keep this review short, but I really enjoyed this movie. It was definitely not what I expected, though. I went in thinking it would be some straight up parody of Tommy Wiseau. There are honestly some theories out there that Tommy is an alien and he's trying to disguise himself as a human, and all of the things he does in The Room are his interpretation of what humans are like. This is actually the best explanation I have heard for any of Tommy's behaviours, because he really does not seem human at all.

So I thought the film was just a straight up mockery of him, but it turns out it's actually quite factual and presents the making of The Room not as something that means we should make fun of Tommy, but more like something that shows us just how passionate Tommy was about the film industry.

Yes, it's a pretty factual movie (a lot of it was close to the book apparently, and Tommy even said he approved 99.99% of the movie), and the facts are funny, so you can't help but laugh, but it's definitely not a mockery of Tommy. You start off laughing at him, but along the way you realise just how much he cares for acting and making a movie. And I think that's a testament to all the real life actors of The Room: they took huge risks in making this movie, they really wanted it to work out well, and unfortunately it just didn't. But at least they tried.

As to the actors of this movie, I really enjoyed the acting all round.

James Franco honestly disappears as Tommy, with the way he looked, the way he acted, and the way he talked. He would stay in character with Tommy's accent whenever he directed this movie, and the actors couldn't take him seriously, but he told them that they'd get used to it.

And sure enough, even we as an audience get used to his accent. I sometimes would forget I'm watching James Franco and not Tommy Wiseau.

And then it's a little Franco brothers party in this movie because Dave Franco plays Greg Sestero (the second lead in The Room, and the author of the book The Disaster Artist). Dave was really good too as the good friend who's relatable to us and yet somehow manages to understand and (try to) rein in Tommy at his weirdest.

Seth Rogen also plays the script supervisor, Alison Brie is Greg's love interest, and there's a bunch of other small cameos and roles by celebrities we're familiar with.

Overall, I really enjoyed this movie. I don't know what it'd be like to watch it without having seen The Room, though, and I think it would be a bit weird, but for fans of The Room it's a must see. It's not absolutely amazing, like it's not going to win awards or anything but I can see why some people want James Franco to be at least nominated for a Golden Globe. It is a fun time, and it's great at showing the passion that new actors have for the industry. It will make me look at The Room a bit differently the next time I see it, and maybe I won't even laugh as much as I would normally. Or maybe I will, it's a pretty terrible movie after all.

The greatest teacher, failure is.

Star Wars: The Last Jedi (2017)

8.0/10 on IMDb
93% on Rotten Tomatoes

Chloe's thoughts: It's alright;
Watch it in cinemas

Watch it if you: Have seen the original Star Wars movies;
Don't have your expectations tooooo high in terms of plot;
Want to see something that's quite different to a typical Star Wars movie;
Want to see some really cool fight scenes and action sequences;
Want a really amazing-looking movie with great cinematography;
Are okay with perhaps needing a second viewing to fully appreciate the movie
The eighth installment in the main Star Wars series starts right after the literal cliffhanger that was the end of The Force Awakens (2015). Rey learns more about herself and the Force while Luke, who now resides on an Adidas-shoe-shaped-island, must come to terms with his past. On the other side of the galaxy, Finn and Poe, together with the rest of the Resistance, must find a way to escape the encroaching First Order and establish a new rebel base.

Against my better judgement, I really hyped myself up for this movie, and while it was really entertaining, it was a bit disappointing. I think I'm still processing it though, and upon a second viewing I might enjoy it more. It's hard to pinpoint what exactly was so underwhelming about this movie, particularly since I didn't go in really expecting anything in terms of plot or even character arc, but it still turned out to be not what I expected. It's still a fun and enjoyable watch, but I do think that if you have only seen The Force Awakens and you haven't seen the other Star Wars films, then you might get a bit lost and confused with some of the lore.

I'll start off with my major gripe: this movie is unnecessarily long.

Its runtime is 2 hours and 30 minutes and honestly, it could easily have been 30 minutes shorter.

Why? Because Finn and Rose's plotline was not needed. In fact this was the worst part of the whole movie.

Right when their subplot starts, I thought, "Oh geez, is this a movie, or a video game?" It seemed like something so out of the blue, I couldn't help but think of those cheesy sidequest missions that always pop up whenever I watch my brother play a video game. It didn't feel like it belonged in a Star Wars movie, and this, more so than anything else in the movie, made it very clear that Star Wars is now under Disney.

In fact it felt like the writers of this film wrote a complete story, and then realised, "Oh crap! We forgot about Finn!" and then hastily shoved him back in to the story. It's not like his storyline doesn't affect the ending of the story, but all of Finn's scenes felt very shoehorned in.

So Finn's storyline was very underwhelming, but it wasn't the only thing I was underwhelmed with. I don't even want to mention what I was underwhelmed with until my spoilers section though, because even a generic line is going to give away so much.

I think what strikes me the most is it doesn't feel like you're watching a Star Wars movie. In fact, it's written and directed very differently to any other Star Wars movie we've seen, and perhaps that is why I was disappointed in the film. I understand why director Rian Johnston made it like this, though, and I do commend him on taking this risk, but as I said before I think a second viewing is needed for me to really understand how I feel about this movie.

But yeh, I can see why they felt that it was necessary to make it different. I mean, after all this is the 8th movie in this series, and The Force Awakens was pretty much a rehash of A New Hope (1977). So they really needed to differentiate The Last Jedi from Empire Strikes Back (1980). But I just think the way they did it was not the best. Like adding all these unnecessary scenes to give a different tone to the film when they could have just written a better plot.

I will say, though, that the movie does a really great job at subverting your expectations. As I said, I didn't even really have many expectations on what characters would do and how the plot would go, and yet it still seemed to subvert my expectations. More about this in the spoilers though.

Another great thing about the movie is the action scenes. I know I'm kind of hating on this movie but I actually really enjoyed both the acting and the action sequences. The movie does seem to have a lot more evident CGI in this, but after you get used to it, you can't help but agree the action is very good here. The sequences looked so amazing, we got to see some great choreography and cinematography during these scenes, and we got to see some cool costume designs and cool new weapons. There is also one scene towards the end that is such a good wallpaper, it honestly takes your breath away when you see it!

The new planet Crait was also really cool, I loved seeing all the red dust/salt getting kicked up because the stark contrast between the red and the white was awesome.

As to the characters, I felt a bit off about some things that they did. I'll speak about this more in the spoilers section, but I really did not agree with what they did with Leia. Although there is a moment where Luke says to Leia, "No one is really gone", and my goodness that broke my heart thinking about Carrie Fisher's passing.

But the acting in here is great. Daisy Ridley is fantastic as usual, Adam Driver is great as Kylo Ren and I felt like I understood his turmoil and conflict much better here than I did in The Force Awakens. Mark Hamill also does some of his best work in this movie. Domnhall Gleeson is also so amazing as usual, and even if Hux is really annoying, I still love that Domnhall!

One last thing I will say about this before spoiler territory is that I think the movie explores a lot more lore than we're used to in the Star Wars, and I have mixed reactions to this. I think it was interesting but there was a lot of unexplained things that I think if someone did not see the original trilogy, or even maybe the prequels, they might get a bit lost in. I haven't spoken to anyone who has only seen The Force Awakens about this movie, though, so I'm not sure but I have a feeling it would be hard to understand without knowing the other films. I'm not saying I'm the biggest fan of Star Wars (I don't know a lot about the lore and stuff), but even I was a bit confused at how this movie portrays what can or cannot be done with the Force.

Click to show/hide spoilers:

So when I said I felt underwhelmed, I was underwhelmed by a few characters. Snoke felt underwhelming, Captain Phasma's return was really really underwhelming, the end "battle" was not even a real battle, and Poe and Leia's roles in here were also very underwhelming.

With Leia, I felt like they could have given her a really nice send off when she appeared to die in space. It was so nice, it was honourable and treated her with respect while also giving us the time to mourn her. But then her fingers tingled, her eyes twitched, and she Marry Poppins'd through space.

Um, what?

And then they kept her alive at the end of the film, which makes me really curious about what they will do for the next movie. I was reading the Reddit discussion thread and a good point someone made was it would have been great if Leia was the one who sacrificed herself to do the kamikaze warping. That would have been an excellent send off because while it was nice to have Holdo do it, it felt like she kind of deserved it because she didn't tell Poe her plans and that resulted in a lot of unnecessary subplots. I really hate the movie trope where the whole movie could have been avoided if characters just TALKED to each other! Why didn't you just tell him your plan, Holdo! If you just told him, then Finn and Rose wouldn't have to go through that stupid side quest, Benecio del Toro wouldn't betray them and alert them to the small Rebel ships, and they wouldn't have lost so many people!!! Also that hyperdrive scene was AWESOME and it would have been even more awesome if it was a lovable character doing it like Leia, not this Holdo chick we only met 10 minutes ago. And if Holdo survived into the next movie, she could have been developed as a character and could have been the Rebels' new leader.

Another comment in the Reddit thread was that they could have gotten rid of the tracking-through-lightspeed MacGuffin and just made it that someone was a mole on the ship. Then that would explain why they couldn't warp again and why she couldn't tell Poe her plans.

BUT, I think the film really subverted everyone's expectations. Someone was asking me if the plot twists were any good, and I didn't know how to answer that. Mainly because on one hand, the plot twists were underwhelming (sorry, but that word is just going to be the theme of today's blog). All the fan theories about Snoke? Out the window. Even his appearances and death was pretty anticlimactic. This superbly disfigured and powerful being does pretty much nothing and then dies quickly (although it was really cool how he could use the force through the hologram transmission thing with Hux). And then all the theories about Rey? Out the window. Her parents are nobodies. And they're dead.

But in having a plot twist that is super underwhelming, they are actually pretty good plot twists. Like they knew all the hype and expectations that audiences had, and they managed to give us a plot twist by showing us there wasn't really any plot twist at all! That's kind of smart actually. Especially since they were conditioning us to expect these plot twists, like paralleling Rey and Ben's connection with Leia and Luke's.

But now I am concerned over how they will do the next movie. Who will be the super villain? Kylo Ren is evil, but he's far from being the super powerful being that was Snoke. And what will Leia be doing? Of course they can just use CGI, I mean they did alright with it in Rogue One, but I just think out of respect to Carrie Fisher they shouldn't do anything else with her character...

They also had this consistent theme of learning through failure, and while I understand why they wanted to show this message, it just made the film seem very anticlimactic when character after character, subplot after subplot, kept failing. Rey failed at turning Ben over to the light side, Kylo Ren failed at turning Rey over to the dark side, Luke failed at getting over his past failures, Finn and Rose failed massively in their side quest, and Poe failed in his attempts at a mutiny too.

Everyone fails in this movie. At the end of it they're much much worse than they were at the end of The Force Awakens. There's literally, what, like ten people in the Resistance left??

It's a movie about failure, and getting over the past, and how we keep persisting to grow and to welcome the future despite our previous failings, but it's still just weird and leaves you a bit disappointed that our heroes dont get much of a break.

But in this it was good because it made itself different from other Star Wars films. So many times we see heroes being so close to failure because a billion different people have to get everything just right at just the right time and somehow by an act of God they all line up and save the day. Here, Finn and Rose needed to disable the tracker and get back to the ship within 6 minutes. While this is happening, Poe needed to cause a successful mutiny, get Finn and Rose on board, and then warp to lightspeed within those specific 6 minutes that the tracker is disabled. In real life, that sort of sheer luck does not happen (I'm sure C-3PO can give you the odds on that happening), but in many films, everything works at the very last second, the heroes escape, and everyone's all fine and dandy. I'm glad they didn't do that, but it just made it feel like every single person's plot was completely unnecessary.

A few side notes:

• The Kylo and Rey fight scene was so cool, I loved that weapon that one of the Elite Praetorian Guards had that locks on to the lightsaber and the guy could reel in Rey towards him.
  
• The salt planet with the red dust was soooo amazing, even if there wasn't even a fight. I loved the scene with the ships kicking up the lines of red dust.
  
• That scene with Kylo Ren and Luke was amazing, that was so wallpaper-worthy.
  
• I was so weirded out about Luke defending all those blaster shots and then just shrugging it off easily, and then you realise that he wasn't being a badass, he just literally was not there at all and was just a massive troll.
  
• So is that how the Force works now? You can die in space, then use the Force to fly back to your ship? You can also use the Force to physically (not holographically) project yourself halfway across the galaxy?
  
• Also loved how that one guy needed to taste it and tell us it was salt, and not snow. But to be fair if they didn't clarify it I would have been like, "Why does the snow planet look so weird?" But maybe they could have just described it when they were talking about the planet.
  
• That beautiful cinematography with Luke looking at the binary sunset as he dies. So heartbreaking and touching.
  

So I still need time to digest this movie, but all in all I think it's very enjoyable. I was initially quite disappointed but that was mainly at the decisions they made in terms of characters and plot. The action sequences were very enjoyable, and if you watch this just wanting a cool action sci-fi/fantasy movie, it's great entertainment. But I think this film is very divisive and needs a second viewing to fully appreciate it. I think I would find it to be much better upon rewatching, so that the initial shock of the plot isn't there anymore and I can really look at what the director is trying to tell us. But as I said there is a lot of lore in here that I don't know would make sense for someone who has not watched the other Star Wars movies.

You can’t blend in when you were born to stand out.

Wonder (2017)

8.1/10 on IMDb
85% on Rotten Tomatoes

Chloe's thoughts: A must see

Watch it if you: Want an endearing, sweet film with a good message;
Want to watch a movie that's great for kids, teens, and adults;
Want a nice, heartfelt, family movie;
Want to cry a lot (but still feel great at the end)
Due to a rare genetic disorder, August "Auggie" Pullman is a young boy born with facial deformities. As his parents decide it is time for him to stop being home-schooled and instead start middle school (i.e. 5th grade), Auggie and his family must navigate the challenges that come with such a drastic life change.

I had seen the trailer for this a few times and didn't really think much of the movie, I thought it was the type of movie that I'd be okay with renting but not really watching in cinemas, but the reviews were amazing so I went and saw it and I basically cried throughout the entire movie! I don't think I've ever cried this much. Just ten minutes in I was already shedding tears, and me and the lady next to my mum had to keep blowing our noses throughout the entire movie. It was definitely... an experience.

What I loved about this movie is how all-rounded it was. It didn't just show Auggie's struggles, but it showed his parents' struggles, his sister's and how other characters were affected by Auggie's experiences too. And it showed that not everything was black and white, and that sometimes the reasons behind people doing or acting certain ways was complicated, because people are complex creatures even without the struggle of growing up and trying to fit in.

I also loved the acting in this. The kids were fantastic... there's Jacob Tremblay from Room (2015) and Noah Jupe who I loved in Suburbicon (2017) this year. I'm so glad to see these kids acting in more stuff! They actually did a really good job.

Owen Wilson was also very good as the father, but Julia Roberts steals the show here. It's no doubt that she's amazing, but I just love how subtle her acting is in this. In the first ten minutes, just seeing her eyes alone was enough to start the waterworks. She doesn't need to say a word, you just follow her eyes, look at her facial expressions, how her lips quiver ever so slightly, and her body language, and you can tell exactly what her character is thinking.

And as I said, I was crying throughout the whole movie. Ultimately I think it was such a great, endearing, and heartwrenching story. It's got a great message for kids and I think kids really need to see this because of the life lesson and moral it teaches us. And yet it's also fantastic for teens, who are also struggling so hard to fit in, as well as adults, who will just feel so much for these characters and what they're going through.

"What are your superpowers again?" "I'm rich."

Justice League (2017)

7.2/10 on IMDb
41% on Rotten Tomatoes

Chloe's thoughts: It's alright;
Low-energy entertainment

Watch it if you: Are a fan of DC;
Want some mindless action with a few laughs;
Aren't expecting a really great, cohesive, character-focused superhero movie

Following the events of Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016), Bruce Wayne (Batman) and Diana Prince (Wonder Woman) must recruit others to form a superhero team to stand against an apocalyptic new threat.

Reviews for this movie have been very meh, so I wasn't rushing out to see this film, but I found it to be entertaining. I had low expectations, given DC's track record lately (except Wonder Woman (2017)), and this movie is skippable, but it was definitely not trash, it was still enjoyable to watch.

First off the bat though, I have to say my very first impression of this film is: CGI. There is SO MUCH CGI in this it becomes distracting. From fight scenes, to backdrops, to costumes, even to characters' faces! It was aesthetically very weird to watch.

Secondly, I didn't realise this but Zack Snyder had to step down from this movie early this year because his daughter suicided, and they hired Joss Whedon to finish it off (although Snyder is listed as the only director for the film). If I heard about this before watching the movie, I would have been concerned that the movie would be really disjointed. After all, I'm not really a fan of Zack Snyder's style, but I am a fan of Joss Whedon's. In the end I didn't even realise there were two directors for this film. I actually thought it was pretty consistent, and if anything funnier and more light hearted than I expected it to be, which is probably props to Joss Whedon.

However, in saying that the film was consistent, the film was still a little bit of a let down. Apparently Warner Bros wanted the film to be no longer than 2 hours, so a lot of Snyder's material was cut and re-edited, and in that sense the movie did feel a bit rushed.

The thing is, when we first saw The Avengers back in 2012, Marvel had already given us movies on a lot of the team, so we didn't need that much character development in the actual Avengers movie. They could instead focus on the arc of the team as a whole, from their conflicts and differing personalities to how they would end up working as a team.

But here, we've only gotten a bit of Batman from Batman v Superman, and Wonder Woman from earlier this year. We got snippet cameos or teasers of the rest of the characters, Aquaman, The Flash, and Cyborg, but for people like me who aren't fans of the original comics or the TV shows, we ultimately don't know these characters at all. So it was really hard to understand and feel for these characters and to even see why they were necessary in this film, since they are pretty lame.

In fact, it felt like Wonder Woman was the only one who really did anything, and even still, she doesn't really do much here. Batman, who is usually any movie's big seller, the one that everyone loves, does even less and is pretty useless in this. I mean, they even throw around a lot of jokes about how his only super is being rich, but you watch this movie and the truth of that statement is very obvious.

I quite liked The Flash. I mean, they made his character really goofy and I don't know enough about the original character to know if they stuck to his original personality, but I'm not sure if they needed him to be so awkward. Although Ezra Miller is great and was actually really funny. There is one great scene where his shocked face, and his eyeballs alone, made me laugh so hard. That scene was absolutely priceless and even in the rest of the film he was generally the comic relief.

Then there was Cyborg who was a bit confusing for me. They explain his character a little bit but I think they could have delved more into his armour and his powers and things like that. We were meant to feel sorry for him but in the end I didn't care about him because there was like no backstory and I didn't really understand what he was going through. It also seemed like he could have been really really powerful, but in the end he just was like... hacking things? And that's it? He was just a hacker? I'm pretty sure he would have done more in the comics, right...?

And goodness me, I thought I was finished with the characters of Justice League but I looked at the poster again and completely forgot: Aquaman is a part of this movie too! Firstly, it is so weird seeing Khal Drogo speak English. It was almost unsettling. It was also pretty funny because Khal Drogo and the Dothraki are terrified of the sea, and the only sea they would go near is the Dothraki Sea, which is actually just a huge region of grassy plains.

Anyway, back to Aquaman: he doesn't do anything! At one point they have to force in a water scene just to make him useful, and even then he does something for like 2 seconds and that's it. Then for the rest of the film he's just like... really strong? I guess?

So basically I was a bit disappointed in the characters. When they band together and fight it doesn't seem like they're all necessary to the story. The fight scenes also seem very chaotic. I don't know why, but the DCEU just can't seem to get it right, from Man of Steel (2013) to Batman v Superman, and even some parts of Wonder Woman's action scenes, they just seem really really weird. They just don't look as aesthetically pleasing as I think the studio thinks they do.

There is one section though that they're talking about the history of the villain, and that was pretty cool. There was even a Green Lantern cameo.

Anyway, that's pretty much all my comments on the films. There's a lot of other things to discuss, but these are the things that stayed in my mind after watching it.

I do have a mini spoiler section though, so just quickly, Click to show/hide spoilers:

So, Superman came back to life. Was that a spoiler? I don't actually remember the trailer so I'm not sure, but I thought that at the end of Batman v Superman, there was a shot of Superman's grave and the soil lifted up or something to hint that he would return (although this wasn't even used in the movie), so maybe it was obvious. Regardless, it's a spoiler for people who watch this without knowing much beforehand.

Anyway, I actually did think he looked really weird, and I didn't actually know what it was (I thought it was just overuse of the CGI), but it turns out apparently Henry Cavill needed to have a moustache for another role when he was filming his reshoots, and so they had to CGI out his moustache which made him look funny. Oh and yeah, I guess since they had reports on this, his return was not a spoiler.

Anyway, Superman's return was really meh. It wasn't as epic as I think they wanted it to be, but him fighting the rest of the team was probably one of the best parts of the movie and even better than them fighting the main villain I think, mainly because once Superman enters, the fight gets really easy.

My favourite scene was when the Flash was trying to get to Superman at lightning speed and Superman slowly turns his eyes and his head and Ezra Miller has the most bewildered look on his face. That's where Ezra Miller's almost-too-comical awkwardness really pays off. Still, no one can beat the Quicksilver scene from Days of Future Past...

Ultimately, this was an enjoyable movie. Is it a must see? Definitely not, but if you watch it, it won't be terrible. It's actually quite forgettable, I saw it a few days ago and I'm already starting to forget a lot of details. But if you're a fan of the comics I guess you'd enjoy it, and if you just want some mindless action and a movie that makes you laugh a bit, then it's a decent watch.