You are a good man, with a good heart. And it's hard for a good man to be a king.

Black Panther (2018)

7.9/10 on IMDb
97% on Rotten Tomatoes

Chloe's thoughts: A must see;
Watch it in cinemas;
I'm buying the DVD;
Low-energy entertainment

Watch it if you: Are a fan of Marvel movies;
Aren't really a fan of Marvel movies but want a cool action movie (since it works well as a standalone film);
Are a fan of sci-fi action with unique African mythos mixed in;
Want to see a Marvel movie with a really cool villain;
Want an action movie that's different (in a good way)

This was the first time ever that I saw an ad play before the movie to tell us what brand of cars were in the movie, because apparently pure product placement isn't enough.
But hey, it worked.
The cars were Lexus cars.
The city of Wakanda is nothing like anything we've seen in a Marvel movie, or even just in any movie.

It lies in the heart of Africa, secluded from the rest of the world. Its culture is deeply rooted in traditional African lore, yet it wields the most powerful technology unknown to mankind. As a result, Wakanda is a beautiful mix of longstanding cultural traditions and lore, mixed with new, modern, and even futuristic technology. It's vibrant, a lot of fun, and is stunning to look at. When you see it, it kind of makes you sad to think of what Africa could be with better technology and foreign aid, which is a theme that's also explored a lot in this film.

This was my favourite thing about watching the movie. Yes, it's a story centered around Black Panther, but Black Panther isn't the focus here. The focus is on the characters, and their intentions, and the deeper consequences of what this has on the city of Wakanda.

I loved the lore and mythos behind this city; it's got such a rich history, and there are so many things to explore in Wakanda. I get the feeling that what we see in the film is just scratching the surface of what Wakanda has to offer.

And the music and score in this film is so good here! It adds to this deep lore and tradition. It does so well in setting the tone, with its African-inspired, tribal drums beating away, making you all giddy looking at everything on the screen.

And in exploring this fictional African city and its peoples, we get to see a little bit into the minds of how Africans view both African Americans and Westerners in general, calling them "colonizers" and looking at them warily. Killmonger is technically one of them, but they constantly refer to him as an outsider because of his Western upbringing. He truly is someone who doesn't belong, either in Wakanda, or in America. After all, he was "a kid from Oakland walking around and believing in fairytales." The social commentary in this film isn't subtle, but it doesn't feel preachy either. It feels natural, and it feels like it genuinely comes from the characters' hearts.

But Michael B. Jordan does a great job at being a villain here. Usually, DC's villains and characterisations are way better than Marvel's, as Marvel villains always get a bad rep. But here, you really feel sorry for Killmonger, and you even completely understand his reasons for doing the things he did. More on him in my spoilers section, but you could tell the writers really thought this through, and they didn't rely on Marvel's fan base to write a cheap cop-out of a villain.

Another fun villain was Andy Serkis as Ulysses Klaue. I'd love to see him in more crazy real-life characters. I mean, he's a great motion capture actor but damn he needs to step out and do more things where we can see him! He's also surprisingly very tall and very built!

Speaking of, I loved the Bilbo x Gollum reunion and I really really really wanted Martin Freeman's character to ask Andy Serkis' character, "What's in my pockets?"

I saw this funny post somewhere about how the only two white guys in the movie were Bilbo and Gollum, but I loved how they got such a great African American/British cast! It just felt really different, and it's such a good change to all the downbeat African movies out there about slavery. Just again makes you really think about what it could be like if Africa had better technology.

Riddle me this: Where do you get your Vibranium from?
So here comes the part where I talk about the rest of the extensive cast of amazing actors in this film.

The cast truly is amazing, with Chadwick Boseman, Lupita Nyong'o, Forest Whitaker and Angela Bassett doing a great job here. Also, Angela Bassett rocking an amazing hairdo.

I was also really happy to see Daniel Kaluuya here as well. He's had a great year with Get Out (2017) and I love seeing new actors from Black Mirror appear in mainstream movies. It's also a Black Mirror reunion with Letitia Wright, the chick from the season 4 finale, playing Black Panther's younger sister.

She was the standout in this film, she was so funny and cute in this and she stole every scene she was in. The scene where she was showing T'Challa all the new gadgets she made was very James Bond-esque, and it was pretty cool even if some of the new tech wasn't utilised in the film.

Which also makes me super happy at how badass the women in this movie are. There's a lot of talk about how women are misrepresented in film, especially right now with the MeToo movement in the wake of the sexual assault allegations, but I think we're really starting to get on track these days. Mad Max Fury Road (2015) had an amazing cast of strong women, Wonder Woman (2017) showed a really strong superhero woman, and then this film depicts women as powerful warriors, strong characters, and there's even a badass teen female genius scientist.

It's cool because I think a lot of young girls will grow up looking up to these strong women and that's so exciting. Even the strongest warrior in Wakanda is a female, played by Danai Gurira. I haven't seen The Walking Dead, but she is really cool in this film and I'm starting to be a big fan of her. The part where she complains about wearing a wig and then chucks it at someone during a fight was hilarious and got a huge laugh out of me.
Not to mention, a lot of the award season films this year have strong female leads (e.g. Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri; All The Money in the World; The Post; Molly's Game; The Shape of Water; I, Tonya; Lady Bird; etc.)

But I digress.

Going back to Shuri, I loved seeing her dynamic with T'Challa. He's a king, thrust into this position that he is not ready for, under tragic circumstances. He is discovering how to be this great king, how to be this great Black Panther, and as a result he can be very stoic, and he needs to make a lot of difficult decisions. Yet at the same time, he's also an older brother to a fun, loveable sister who just wants to laugh at him. ("Delete that footage!")

Another stand out character of the film was M'Baku. He was really funny, I loved how his tribe kept making gorilla noises whenever they saw fit, and joking about feeding Agent Ross to his children, when he's actually a vegetarian. And then laughing at his own joke for a crazy long period of time.

^That's not M'Baku, I just needed to include a picture of this guy with his lip plate.
SPOILER TIME! Click to show/hide spoilers:

I actually really liked Killmonger as a villain. I loved how his plan played out throughout the film. From his perspective, he's the hero to his family. His father was murdered and abandoned. Yes, he was a criminal and yes he did turn his gun on Zuri, but in the end they abandoned him and his son in order to cover up a lie. It was really sad to see Killmonger's father stuck in the apartment that he was killed in, because he didn't have a proper burial. He's now isolated for all of eternity away from his people.

And so Killmonger seeks out revenge. To him, and to the rest of the world, the Wakandans are evil and selfish, sheltering their technology away from those who need it the most. It was interesting to see how his beliefs mirrored Nakia's believes, and it was cool to see that eventually T'Challa took these different viewpoints on board at the end. He was able to see the value in the villain's beliefs, and the tragedy of what sticking to his rigid tradition and culture has resulted in. In the end, he was able to find a compromise and carry out his rival's beliefs and plans, but in a more compromising and democratic way. A true leader is open to change, after all.

And this allows Infinity War to happen, since Black Panther and his tribe will now be helping out the Avengers and the rest of the world.

It also provides great social commentary, especially in today's trying times where it's evident that we need to all be working together, instead of having our countries divided against each other. The world would do so much better and progress so much further if we were all united.

The quote that Killmonger says as he dies, "Bury me in the ocean with my ancestors who jumped from ships, 'cause they knew death was better than bondage," was a pretty powerful quote, and it tied in well with all the other references to the hardships that Africans have faced over the years.

I was sad to see Erik die, and I was also very sad to see Klaue die as well! Two great villains gone in the same movie! It's a shame because both actors did great jobs at this.

I can go on a lot about the movie, and I'm very keen to re-watch it and buy the DVD, but I will say this: it did feel like I was rewatching The Lion King at times...

(Click to hide spoilers)

So this film was very visually appealing. The action is cool, with a particularly well-shot fight scene in South Korea (and the director does an amazing break-down explanation of this scene here, with spoilers of course), but the action isn't the reason why this film is so good. It's the look of how the traditional African culture adds a vibrance to the film when contrasted with the futuristic technology that the Vibranium brings. It's the futuristic designs of what could be, and it's the amazing costuming of both traditional garb and high-tech Black Panther vibranium suits (his purple outfit is amazing, and I'm not just saying that because I love purple).

The CGI isn't even what you watch this movie for. I mean, the CGI is good, but there are times when the bad CGI is really obvious. Especially in the last parts of the film (for example, fake green screen backgrounds or weird CGI when two characters are fighting while falling). The film still looks really beautiful, though, and they do spend more CGI efforts on the more salient and important things like the look of Wakanda and the technology.

But no, in the end you watch this movie for the stories and the characters that develop out of it. It's a long film, and some parts may feel like a bit of a drag, but it's still amazingly entertaining because it utilises the time to explore these characters, their motivations, and their intentions. And it comes to a very interesting and unique resolution that makes sense for the characters and also allows this movie to pave the way for Infinity War to happen.

Unable to perceive the shape of You, I find You all around me.

The Shape of Water (2017)

7.9/10 on IMDb
92% on Rotten Tomatoes

Chloe's thoughts: Signed, sealed, and recommended by Chloe;
Watch it in cinemas

Watch it if you: Are a fan of Guillermo del Toro;
Want to see a mysterious and dark modern day fairytale;
Are after a change in tone for movies and are looking for something different and unique;
Want to see a visually beautiful and artsy movie
A mute cleaning lady discovers a captive amphibian creature.

I fairly recently watched Pan's Labyrinth (2006) and thought it was a great film by Guillermo del Toro, so I was excited to see this film too. It looked like such a ridiculous and unique concept that I was really excited to see it even just after the first trailer. And del Toro does another great job, and no wonder it's deserving of so many awards.

Firstly, this entire movie has such an amazing, ethereal, fantasy-like feel to it. Right from the start, the beautiful opening shot leaves you mesmerised, since it looks really stunning and really wondrously mysterious and intriguing. It felt like a dark fairytale and I absolutely loved that. It sort of brings out the inner child in you because it creates this feeling of wonder and amazement at what you're seeing.

And this feeling of wonder is carried through the entire film through Sally Hawkins, who is the standout in this film. She is phenomenal in this, playing a mute woman who's able to express herself so perfectly. Her sense of wonder is so innocent and childlike, her sadness is so heartbreaking, and she doesn't even need to speak for you to understand every single thing she's thinking.

One thing, though, is that I really would have liked for them to explore more of the relationship between Eliza (the mute lady) and the amphibian man.

Don't get me wrong, the film is really good, but for the first half of the film, I thought it was going to possibly be my favourite film of the year. I thought, damn this is going to be a must see for everyone!

But as the film progressed, it went a little down hill, particularly towards the end.

I think it really would have helped if they didn't rush through Eliza and the amphibian man getting to know each other, it would have been a better film if we saw their relationship develop slowly, rather than really quickly and all at once like it did in the film.

I also think the film was kind of messy going from character to character. It made sense that the film would want to elaborate on each character so you understood their thought process and their intentions, but sometimes it just got messy.

Don't get me wrong, though, the entire cast was great.

I loved Michael Shannon in particular; he is a fantastic villainous actor. I loved him in Nocturnal Animals, and in this film he really brought it in every scene he was in. He was this evil corporate guy that really took matters into his own hands and didn't see this amphibian man as a living being at all.

The amphibian man himself was stunning. And it wasn't CGI. They actually got Doug Jones to cover himself in prosthetics and make up, and he actually looked so amazing. He looked very ethereal and magical, and it was stunning to watch him move and act along with Sally Hawkins, since they were both voiceless characters. You could really see how characters in this film would be entranced by this amphibious creature, even to the point of calling him 'beautiful'.

The way the film is done also makes you feel like you're actually underwater, mainly because of the dark, slightly green, colour palette throughout the film.

I also loved the score in this movie. Right at the beginning, it was so perfect in taking you out of the real world and placing you within this fantastical world. It was just the right touch of whimsical to make you feel like this was a fantasy, but it could have still happened in this world of ours.

I'm so glad this movie got so many Oscar nominations, and I'll be so happy if Sally Hawkins takes home Best Actress. The whole cast was great though, and the cinematography was really brilliant although I do hope Blade Runner 2049 (2017) gets Best Cinematography. The film does go downhill towards the end but it still is overall a really unique and wonderful film to watch. It's a great story about people who don't fit in to normal society, and about finding your humanity and sense of meaning in life. It's a magical fantasy that sometimes seems ridiculous but it's portrayed in such a real way that you can't help but feel a little wholesome watching it.

A few side notes:

• I loved how the colour palette was really dark and green, but Eliza slowly started introducing red into her wardrobe the happier and more fulfilled she became.
  
• That poem at the end, part of which is the title of this blog post, was so beautiful.
  

♪♪ 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

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.

I tried to start a revolution... but I didn't print enough pamphlets

Thor: Ragnarok (2017)

8.4/10 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 Thor and the Hulk;
Are a fan of the Guardians of the Galaxy;
Want a fun, action-packed, outerspace movie with a lighthearted 80s vibe

Since the events from Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015), Thor's search for the Infinity Stones leads him to a bizarre planet where he must contend in a gladiator-like contest. He finds himself needing to defeat the Hulk in order to survive, while also trying to find a way to prevent the prophetic doom of Asgard.

When the trailers for this film first came out, I was excited to see it have a lighter tone, similar to Guardians of the Galaxy (2014), but was a bit worried they would try too hard, similar to Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 (2017). Fortunately, I think they did a pretty good job this time around in balancing the superhero plot and the humour, and I had fun watching this film.

So firstly, this Guardians-esque tone was really refreshing, particularly considering the fact that the previous two Thor films (and even the Avengers and Captain America films) were very serious, dark and moody. At first, I thought they were trying too hard to be like Guardians, and I was getting concerned for the rest of the film (for example, at the very beginning there's a recurring joke that repeatedly breaks the tension created by an evil monologue, and it was getting tiring). However, I think the film picked up and the jokes started to land more and more, and it ended up being really enjoyable with some great laugh-out-loud moments.

Another thing that this film does differently is it kind of just gets your typical Thor stereotypes and turns it upside down. One small example that isn't a spoiler is cutting Thor's hair. The God of Thunder's luscious locks are gone, and so even just visually you can see that it's being set apart form other Thor movies.

While I think this may have been a cool thing for the director to do just so that it would make a refreshing Thor movie, I also think that the studio really wanted this film to bridge the very wide gap between The Avengers movies, the Doctor Strange movie, and The Guardians of the Galaxy movies. These three types of films all seem very, very, different, and when all these characters come together for the Infinity War movies later, it could be very jarring and it could be a complete disaster. There will be an overload of characters, different personalities, different tones, and just way too much witty banter.

Fortunately, this film does a great job at tying in the fact that Doctor Strange lives in the very same world that the Avengers live in, and the fact that Thor really does come from outer space, and from the same universe as the Guardians of the Galaxy. While we don't ever see Star Lord, we feel his presence through the tone of this film, so when we see them all come together for Infinity War, it's not going to be as jarring as it could have been. So I think they did a really good job at tying all these movies together. It's a big task, and there is a lot of room for a disaster to happen, but Marvel is handling it very well at this stage.

And that brings us to the characters. There was a great variety of characters in this film, and I quite enjoyed what they did with some character arcs. Chris Hemsworth and Tom Hiddleston as the on-again-off-again love/hate brothers were great as usual. As I said, they uproot a lot of what we know about Thor, and it gave a pretty cool, pretty badass, character arc for him.

They also expanded a lot more on the Hulk and Bruce Banner's relationship. I'm not too sure what to think of it at this stage but it brings up a lot of questions for what they will do with that character in future films. There was a lot more focus on the Hulk rather than Bruce Banner this time around, which again brought about an interesting character arc.

Then there's a bunch of other characters in this. Cate Blanchett as the goddess of death Hela was great. She was such a bad ass and dayum, when did she get so hot?! Galadriel, gurl, get it.

The only thing is that her villain's plot wasn't the best. They introduce her well but then she kind of just... doesn't do much. In terms of Marvel villains, though, she's better than a lot of other villains.

I also really loved Tessa Thompson as one of the Valkyries, it's great that we're seeing her in more roles (she was in Creed (2015) and Westworld (2016)).

Idris Elba is badass and cool as Heimdall, Karl Urban was in this, and there's even a Matt Damon cameo! Alongside Luke Hemsworth and Sam Neill, which I didn't even notice because I was so shocked and taken aback by Matt Damon.

There's also Jeff Goldblum and I feel like he was just playing himself honestly, because his character was so bizarre and whacky.

Click to show/hide spoilers:

Thor's hair is gone (and he screams like a baby when it gets cut), his right eye is gone (making him look more like his father), his hammer is gone, and his home realm is gone! Talk about uprooting everything we know and love about Thor. Interesting how they worked in the Thor helmet, but he's more Odin than Thor now.

Speaking of which, they had a great send off for Odin here. Anthony Hopkins has always given me the creeps since Silence of the Lambs (1991) (I kept thinking he was going to crazy in Westworld), but he's a very lovely old man in the Thor movies, and it was sweet what they did with his character. (Also, of course they made Odin hide out in Norway, since he's a Norse god.)

They also uprooted the Hulk character by firstly hardly having Mark Ruffalo in, then giving Hulk a personality and even making him talk. You find out he's a huge man/monster-child and it's confusing, it's bizarre, it's pretty great. The only thing is that Bruce Banner specifically states that if he turns into Hulk again, he won't come back as Bruce Banner. I'm glad they didn't do a cop out like oh-look-I-can-control-this-again-because-I'm-always-angry, and they made him stay as the Hulk at the end of the film, but I'm curious how this will play out in future movies. Will Bruce Banner die and will the Hulk remain? Will the Hulk die too so it won't be confusing?

Although I think one of my favourite scenes was when the Hulk was transforming back to Banner, after seeing the clip of Natasha. That was so heartbreaking and tragic, and it really showed how difficult it was for Banner to come out, because the Hulk really wanted to keep his own identity too.

I found it hilarious when we saw Thor's goofy smile when he was trying the lullaby on the Hulk. And then his constant massaging of Banner's shoulders while repeating, "Sun's getting low. Sun's going down."

Also, let's talk about Doctor Strange. Firstly I laughed at how similar 177b Bleecker Street sounds to 221B Baker Street, and the fact that Mister Benadryl Cucumberpatch is both Doctor Strange and Sherlock. I thought it was a nod to Sherlock at first, but it turns out it's just a strange (no pun intended) coincidence. It's almost too perfect, though.

But I loved how much magic he has learned since Doctor Strange. He's still super arrogant, and shows off all his crazy teleportation and portal abilities (I laughed so much at him teleporting and then us just seeing Thor rolling down the staircase), and he even makes Loki really confused about how he does all this stuff. I'm really excited to see his powers grow in the next film.

And was the mid-credits scene a lead up to Infinity War? I couldn't get past how part of the ship looked like it had the Transformers logo, but at first I thought it might be Thanos' ship. That would allow for Thor and the Guardians to meet, and then Thor could relay this to the Avengers so they'd all come together. But then I thought it might be weird for Thanos and Thor to meet like that, so perhaps it could have been Star Lord's ship?

Overall, I really enjoyed this film. I mean, it's kind of like a Mad Max/Gladiator in space movie, and it's like a crossover with Guardians, so what's not to love? Does the tone match a typical Thor movie? I don't know, probably not, but I enjoyed it and that's all that matters. The acting was great, the character arcs were interesting and refreshing, and I would recommend seeing it in cinemas. It's definitely a very enjoyable watch.

Oh, one final note: there's a mid-credits scene worth staying for, but the post-credits scene is definitely skipabble.

Like Tears in Rain redux

Blade Runner 2049 (2017)

8.6/10 on IMDb
88% on Rotten Tomatoes

Chloe's thoughts: Signed, sealed, and recommended by Chloe;
Watch it in cinemas

Watch it if you: Are a fan of the first movie (but you can watch this movie without liking the first);
Are a fan of either Ryan Gosling or Harrison Ford;
Are a fan of the director, Denis Villeneuve;
Like watching dystopian movies;
Want to watch a beautiful and intense film
A lot has happened since the year 2019. After the first Blade Runner (1982) film showed Replicants going rogue and wanting to live like humans, a newer model of Replicants is created. These Replicants, however, are programmed to obey.

I had high expectations for this film, being directed by Denis Villeneuve, the amazing director of Arrival (2016), Sicario (2015), and Prisoners (2013), all fantastic films that I love. I was worried about them turning this into a cash-grab franchise film, but with Denis Villeneuve behind the camera, I had faith. And the movie didn't disappoint!

When I first saw the original Blade Runner numerous times for English, I hated it. With a passion. I thought it was so slow and boring, the sound effects were terrible, it was so dark, and it was just not enjoyable. Some people would pass this off by saying it was an old film so you couldn't expect much, but I always had to point out the fact that Alien (1979) came out earlier and did a great job with effects and sound. So yeah, there wasn't much going for this film.

On the other hand, I really appreciated analysing such a theme-heavy film, and this is the first film where I realised that you could have a bad film with good themes in it. I realised I loved talking about the film, and its themes, and what it represented and meant to us, but watching it was just terrible, especially because we had to watch it so many times in class.

So with many traumatic memories to fall back on whenever someone mentioned Blade Runner, I was hesitant to rewatch it, but recently I finally did, and... it was actually alright. I think because I remembered all the themes and analysis of it, I finally was able to appreciate this film for what it was: a very slow, very dark, but very meaningful movie.

After seeing the trailers and interviews, I was excited for the new Blade Runner movie. What themes would they focus on next? What role is Harrison Ford going to play?

I watched the three short films that they released that served as prequels of the movie, and they were great. I loved the first one with Jared Leto, and it was cool to see Dave Bautista in the second one too. The third was an anime, with beautiful animation.

Needless to say, I was keen going in.

What blew me away in this film was the stunning cinematography. Every single shot looks like a beautiful poster or artwork, but it doesn't detract from the film because it either exemplifies how materialistic this society is, or else it depicts how derelict and dystopian the world in which such a society lives in. The result of our materialism is, ultimately, the degradation of the world.

And you can see how much they used the original film as inspiration, because they were able to emulate both the landscape and city designs, as well as the tone, of the first film. You have the overcrowded streets of a California that's hybrided itself with Tokyo, the aggressive advertising, the dark and bleak city landscape, and the discrimination against the Replicants, who are ultimately just trying to find their place in society.

While heavy inspiration from the first movie means it's an almost guarantee that this film will be slow, I actually found that a lot of the slow scenes were quite fascinating to watch. The film is able to make you either think so much you don't realise how slow the scene is on screen, or see so much that you don't have time to think about how slow it is.

But what I loved is that even though it drew on the first film and used many of its themes, it developed these themes even further and made it into its own film.

While the first film's question was, "What makes us human?", this film asks, "Does it even matter if we're human?" More about this in the spoilers section, but I thought it was great.

Apart from that, the film's score is overwhelmingly great. Not a surprise, since it's Hans Zimmer. That guy is a legend.

Ryan Gosling's performance is fantastic in this. It's probably his best performance; it was so intense, emotional, and raw. He has very little dialogue but his inner thoughts and feelings are so well portrayed through his facial movements and body language.

Harrison Ford also did a great job here. He is a living legend, and again I dont think I've seen him do so great a performance as he did here.

The film has a huge cast, and they all do a great job, but they only have very small roles. In fact, I actually liked Jared Leto's character more in the short film he was in, and I got to learn a lot more about Dave Bautista's character in that short too. You know what, I think I might just watch them again to appreciate some of the things that happened in the movie.

Okay... Spoiler Time!

Click to show/hide spoilers:

In the first film, the theme was, "What makes us human?"

Replicants were created to be "More Human Than Human"; genetically perfect in a society where genetic defects were running rampant. Yet despite their obvious superiority, these Replicants didn't get the same rights that humans got: to live. Both in the metaphorical sense, and in the sense that they were only alive for 4 years.

Then they created Replicants that didn't even know they were Replicants. They had false memories, or real memories of others, implanted in themselves. And the question of what makes us human becomes even more fuzzy. If someone was able to emulate human emotion, retrieve human memories, and feel human things, even if these were fake, what's to say they weren't actually human? If they were designed to be like a human, and truly believed they were a human, how could you say that they aren't one?

In this film, the theme shifts. It's obvious that Replicants are not humans, and this is accepted widely because these Replicants are obedient now. They aren't thinking of rising up against the humans because they want to be them. Instead, they've accepted that they are different to humans. Although physically superior, they remain their slaves. And they are content with that.

Or not.

No, they're probably not content.

Officer K carries himself as someone happy to just do his job: to retire Replicants. He's fine with this, because he was ordered to do it. But we see that all along, what he truly wants is to be human. So much so that his Joi eggs him on, encouraging him to believe that he is a human. He listens to her, forgetting that she was programmed to "say what he wants to hear" and "do what he wants to see".

Then he starts to believe that he is a human. That he has a soul.

His entire character changes. He starts to go against his authority. His test results are nowhere near baseline. He breaks away from the mould of a Replicant. He couldn't do this before, when he was a Replicant, but now with this new knowledge that he was born of a woman (and thus is now a Human), he can start to do all these things. He is no longer preprogrammed. He has autonomy. He now has a sense of purpose: to live. To be human.

But then... he's not human. He's nothing special. He's just another Replicant. Without a soul. Without meaning.

Until he remembers that what it means to be human is to have a choice in this. Replicants are created to follow orders. They don't have choice, but to choose to die for something worthy is to choose to be human. To him, being a human isn't to be birthed from a woman, it's to have a sense of meaning.

At first, I thought the movie was being so obvious. Right when he saw the numbers carved on the tree and he had a flashback, I was like, "Wow, he's a Human? He was born? So now they're going to have a big redemptive story? Doesn't that suck for all the other Replicants who aren't Human? That's a bit lame."

Then I thought, maybe they're trying to make it super obvious so that it's sort of like a dramatic irony where we know that he's a human and that makes it more interesting? Or maybe it's just more interesting that we know the plot twist earlier so we can read into his actions?

But then. PLOT TWIST. For real this time.

But I thought that was great, because you could see how tragic his character arc was, and you truly felt so devastated for him. Props again to Ryan Gosling. A beautiful human being.

And I think what can summarise the whole of this film is the off-handed joke that Harrison Ford makes in response to, "Is he real?" "I don't know, ask him."

That's pretty much the end to my spoilers section, but here are a few side notes:

• I was so mesmerised by the scene with Joi syncing with Mariette, the prostitute; amazing stuff
  
• The baseline test scenes were cool too INTERLINKED (INTERLINKED)
  
• Kite harpoon. Awesome.
  
• Lel, Pale Fire, come back to haunt me
  
• The CGI for Rachel was... holy cow amazing. It didn't even look off.
  
• In one scene, I think when K is in Deckard's hotel/house, the horse figurine makes a shadow that looks like a unicorn, which I thought was a cool nod to the Director's Cut version in 1992 (or whichever one it was that had the unicorn)
  
• I loved the final scene, where K stretches out his hand and feels the snowflakes, which totally juxtaposes the previous scene of Joi in the rain where the water droplets pass through her hand. Here, K is solid, he's not transparent like Joi (how cool was the light going through her, though). He feels things, they don't just pass through him. Human or not, he's real.
  
• This also juxtaposes Dr Stelline, real as ever, born from a woman, a Human Being, stuck in a dome unable to feel the real snow.
  

Overall, this film is a stunning movie. I'd definitely recommend watching it in the cinemas, for the big screen and the great sound system. The film is beautiful to watch, and it has beautiful themes and symbolism. Ryan Gosling and Harrison Ford give perfect performances, adding layers to this great, emotional, and intense film. Yes, it's long and yes, it's slow, but the film provides some really deep things to think about, and it builds on the original film really well.

Don't shoot, I've got your shoe.

Atomic Blonde (2017)

7.1/10 on IMDb
75% on Rotten Tomatoes

Chloe's thoughts: It's alright;
Watch it in cinemas;
Low-energy entertainment

Watch it if you: Want to see some amazing and violent action sequences;
Want an action spy film where the plot isn't amazing;
Are a fan of Charlize Theron

MI6 agent Lorraine Broughton is sent to Berlin to recover an important document now fallen into the hands of Russian enemies. With the Berlin wall about to fall, tensions in the city are high as she tries to navigate her way through the mission while trusting no one.

With her stunning looks and amazing action role in Mad Max: Fury Road (2015), I am a huge fan of Charlize Theron. So to have a movie where she is an absolute babe AND she kicks ass, was like hitting the jackpot.

Firstly, the film was sold on it's 80s/90s vibe through both the visuals and the soundtrack. I actually did really love this because not only was the soundtrack great, but the film as a whole looked really great. From Charlize's stylistic black and white wardrobe, to the neon colours and style of directing, this film was visually very pleasing and good to watch especially in cinemas.

Secondly, it was sold as an action film, and I have to say this is the part of the film that really, truly, delivers. The action scenes were fantastic here because they just seemed SO realistic. I don't really know what this word means, but I think it applies to this film: visceral. It feels like this film could be described as really visceral because of the fight sequences. Whenever someone gets hit, this movie doesn't play out like a Bond film where everyone dodges punches classily, still looks suave when delivering a hard-hitting suckerpunch, and a sexy lower lip cut is the most damage your opponent can inflict on you.

No, in Atomic Blonde, when you get hit, you really get hit.

If you're thrown against the wall, you're going to have problems getting back up to fight again, and if you hit your opponent on the head with a chair, your back is going to be really sore and your opponent is going to struggle to stand up straight again.

The action scenes are also filmed in really cool long takes, which just adds to the realism. I'd like to think that Fury Road played a part in Charlize Theron's producing of this film, and that she drew inspiration from those fight scenes for this movie. I'm so happy she's doing more action stuff, and look forward to her next action role.

But, alas, as with most blockbusters, the storyline wasn't the best. I wish they just kept it as a simple spy movie, but they just had to add in all these really complex and different elements to make it interesting, but for me it was really hard to follow even from the beginning. It also started to get a bit boring and felt like it was being dragged out, especially how the film had like 3 different endings à la Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003).

But just because the plot wasn't that great, doesn't mean the film was bad. It was still great eye candy because of Charlize Theron's fashion and fighting, it had a great soundtrack, and it was just a lot of fun to watch.

Survival is not fair.

Dunkirk (2017)

9.6/10 on IMDb
96% on Rotten Tomatoes

Chloe's thoughts: A must see;
Watch it in cinemas;
I'm buying the DVD

Watch it if you: Want to see an intense and suspenseful war drama;
Aren't expecting any action or combat sequences that you would associate with other war films;
Aren't expecting anything like what Christopher Nolan has previously done (in terms of mind-blow stuff);
But still want an amazing film!

Usually when I hear that Christopher Nolan is doing another movie, I'm immediately excited for it. But I didn't know it would be possible for me to be even more excited when I heard that Christopher Nolan was doing a war movie.

In WWII, 400,000 British troops are stranded on the beaches of Dunkirk. The film follows the experiences of three groups of troops: those on land, those in the sea, and those up in the air, as they await either their rescue, or their death.

I think I subconsciously built up a lot of pressure from this film, because after the film ended, I was legitimately so happy with what I had just seen!

Yup, Christopher Nolan has done it again! And this time, instead of another phantasmagorically complex mind-blow twist of a movie, this historical war drama is very different from what we typically see from Nolan, and even from other war films.

For a start, it's not a typical war drama. It's not a film where troops rush into battle, heroically fighting off their enemies. Nope, the Germans themselves are never to be seen, the troops almost never fire their weapons, and there's hardly any dialogue. Instead, the film is nearly two hours of intense suspension, where you anxiously wait in the shoes of the British troops. You feel a sliver of the amount of terror that they must have felt, you sit hopeless as you watch these men stand hopeless, waiting to be bombed on the beach or sunk in their ship or gunned down in the air. There's not much you can do, because there's just not much the characters themselves can do.

It's a dire situation, and it's nervewracking to see failed attempt after failed attempt of troops trying to board a ship and leave the beach of doom. But at the same time it's quite uplifting, even in the midst of the chaos. It's a huge relief when you see even just one German plane get gunned down, or just one British soldier get pulled up out of the water and onto a boat. It's uplifting to see how patriotic and selfless some can be even in the face of guaranteed death. It's heartwarming to see comrade aid comrade, even when all seems hopeless.

The soundtrack by Hans Zimmer is fantastic at setting the tones of these scenes. The ticking clock as the soldiers count down to their deaths, the tense and repetitive music as we sit on the edges of our seats, and sometimes even the deafening silence as a German plane approaches Dunkirk.

To be honest, I can't find any faults in this film. I think it was a perfect representation of the difficulties of war when combat isn't even in the picture. It's emotional, and it makes you question what you would do to survive. It was also pretty cool to see the events play out over different time spans (on land: one week; on sea: one day; in air: one hour). Watching some reviews of this film, I see that some critics don't really like the structure of this film, because of the different time spans, however I really did not see the issue with it. It wasn't confusing to me, it wasn't like the film was jumping back and forth through time points, it was just shifting perspectives, and I actually liked the way he did this.

Another critique I see other people talking about is the lack of background story for characters. I had no issue with this because to me the film was done so well that I didn't need to know what their family was like, who they had waiting at home, or what their hobbies were, for me to actually care about the tragic situation they were facing.

If I had to nitpick I'd say that the one flaw is it's probably not that rewatchable, but that's not really a flaw with the film, it's just a flaw with the subject matter.

The acting is nothing spectacular, but there was absolutely nothing wrong with it. Because it's an ensemble cast, there is a relatively equal spread of focus on characters. If you had to pick a main character, it would be Tommy, played by Fionn Whitehead, who is only 20 years old and for this to be his acting debut is amazing. Looking forward to seeing him in more films.

Speaking of acting debuts, Harry Styles is in this! I only heard about this the day before watching the film, and was slightly worried, but he did a good job too. I was worried he would try to overact or dramatise his role, but like all the other actors in this film, there was nothing over-the-top and it was quite realistic and believable, and he wasn't a distraction in the film. Also, his presence in the movie might explain the numerous groups of young, teen-looking girls who were in the cinema for the advanced screening of this film...

Tom Hardy as the pilot Farrier was great. There was even a scene which was reminiscent of Bane x Mad Max so that was awesome.

Mark Rylance's scenes were also decent, but again nothing overly special. Although he seems a lot taller (unintended BFG (2016) reference) than I remember him being in Bridge of Spies (2015), but perhaps that is because he was up next to Tom Hanks.

Also, I would have liked to have seen more of Kenneth Branagh and Cillian Murphy, but on the other hand any more scenes with them would have been unecessary so I understand the decision to let them only have brief appearances.

So while the acting was nothing Oscar-worthy, it was a strong enough cast to make the film believable and none of the actors overdid it, which meant we didn't have anything to distract us from the glorious directing and cinematography.

In the end I think this is a fantastic film that everyone needs to watch. While it is a war film, it's not action-packed liked Saving Private Ryan (1998) is. It's still a drama at the end of the day, and it's a really refreshing take on your typical Hollywood war film.