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.

Downsizing is about saving yourself.

Downsizing (2017)

5.8/10 on IMDb
50% on Rotten Tomatoes

Chloe's thoughts: Low-energy entertainment;
Proceed at your own risk

Watch it if you: Just want something to put on in the background when you do something else;
Just want a simple comedy that isn't as philosophical as it advertises itself to be
Attempting to cure the world of overpopulation and its resulting climate change effects, scientists discover how to permanently shrink people down to about 5 inches tall, literally reducing people's carbon footprints.

I was so excited for this movie when I saw the first trailer. It looked like a Black Mirror episode, except fun. It looked interesting, they didn't give away much of the plot, and I was really keen. Then I saw the second trailer for it (not deliberately, but it was shown in front of a movie I was watching), and I was like, oh... that's what it's about?! The second trailer kind of spoiled it for me, and I might not have watched this movie so soon if it weren't for a friend wanting to watch it with me.

Because of my low expectations though, I thought the film was not... terrible. But it was still... not very good. There are moments that are entertaining but there is definitely a lot more potential that the film could have reached, particularly because the premise is so interesting. In the end, it's a big disappointment.

Firstly, there will be mild spoilers in this blog. Nothing too spoilery, but I will be discussing the same things that the second trailer reveals. In fairness though, I think that if you want to see this movie, you need to know what you're getting yourself into.

So for the rest of this blog, be warned.

Sigh... so the first trailer shows us Matt Damon and Kristen Wiig as a married couple thinking of downsizing to relieve a lot of the financial pressure they are facing. Their money in the normal 'big' world can be translated to roughly 12 million dollars in the small world, meaning they can live a work-free life of luxury in a huge mansion for the rest of their lives.

Except, in the second trailer we find out that Kristen Wiig gets cold feet and decides to no longer undergo the downsizing procedure, leaving Matt Damon permanently small and without a wife. This is when the movie starts to go downhill, as it becomes a movie of self discovery.

And you know what? Movies of self discovery are fine. Heck, there are a lot of good self-discovery movies out there.

But this movie is so long because it's trying to handle the issue of downsizing, with the issue of climate change, with a whole lot of other social issues, all while going through Matt Damon's mid-life crisis. It's too much, it drags out, the movie seems unfocused and lacks a serious sense of direction. And the story line they choose to go with is the one least relevant to downsizing: it's Matt Damon's self discovery.

So they took this great premise of humanity killing the planet and people opting to downsize, and yet went nowhere with it. There are complications in this movie that fuel the plot that have nothing to do with downsizing, and sometimes you just forget that they're even small to begin with. It just seems like a normal movie about normal-sized people! Especially when there are things like small TVs and small mobile phones all built to scale so it doesn't even seem like they're not living in the real world. This whole film could have happened without them actually downsizing, honestly.

It would have been great if they brought in some large scale issue that actually affected small people because they were small. Something bigger than Matt Damon's self esteem blow needed to happen for this movie to be good.

And they actually tried to do this... they tried to show human nature not really changing even when small, they tried to show the effects of climate change on the human race, they tried to show the effects of corrupt politicians in developing countries, the struggles that refugees face, and they even tried to show us the effects of poverty. There's a lot of social issues happening but these don't really go anywhere. It's weird that I feel like these things were both 1) very preachy, and 2) not expanded on enough. I think it's because it felt like they had too many wild ideas floating around their minds, that they couldn't decide which idea to go with, so they all sort of crammed everything in to this movie. Which is what makes it long and lacking direction and focus.

As to the acting. Matt Damon is fine but he doesn't really stand out in this film. It's actually interesting all his movies in the last two years have been flops, I really hope his next few movies are a lot better.

However, Christoph Waltz is amazing in this. He is a fantastic actor, and I think he mentioned his character was actually written for a young actor, but he convinced the director to cast him, and he does a really great job. He is so funny and really steals the scene a lot of the time.

However, the person who steals the entire show has to go to Hong Chau. It was so nice seeing an Asian woman have so much screen time, and Hong Chau did a really good job at being both really funny, with great comedic timing, as well as being a really good dramatic actor. The only thing is that it was really unfortunate that her character and her actions were really a big caricature of a Vietnamese immigrant. Her accent was insane and very stereotypical, although I am guilty of laughing at the way she said things (and I now want to rewatch Anjelah Johnson's nail salon stand up).

Overall, this movie was disappointing because it has a really great premise but they didn't make full use of it. There is too much social commentary happening, and the main plotline doesn't even need to happen to someone who downsized. It seemed interesting at the start but then it becomes a movie where they forget downsizing even really exists in that world. The acting is decent but it's not enough to make up for the film's flaws.

A few side notes:

• As if they were the first couple to have gotten cold feet? As if there isn't a thing where if one half of a couple gets cold feet, then they wouldn't continue doing the procedure with the other person?
  
• Also why are children getting downsized? They should be at least 21 years old before they get to choose to downsize. You can't just force your already 10 year old kid... what if they never wanted it and they're stuck small forever???

So how's it all going in the nigger-torturing business, Dixon? It's 'Persons of color'-torturing business, these days, if you want to know.

Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri (2017)

8.4/10 on IMDb
93% on Rotten Tomatoes

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

Watch it if you: Are a fan of Frances McDormand;
Are a fan of Sam Rockwell;
Want to enjoy a foul-mouthed comedy that has surprising heart in it
Months ago, Mildred Hayes' teenage daughter was raped and murdered, and police have hardly progressed on the case. Taking matters into her own hands, Mildred paints over three billboards outside the town, pointing the finger at Chief Police Officer Willoughy.

I was fortunate to see an advanced screening of this some weeks ago, with an interview with David and Margaret (the duo from At The Movies), and Margaret had put this movie as her favourite of 2017, so I was pretty excited for it. Since it's been a few weeks, my memory isn't the greatest, but I do remember really enjoying this film.

The great thing about this film is that it's really funny, but then it can go from 0 to 100 real quick and suddenly turn a bit dark and depressing. It's a great dark comedy, but it's also a really interesting drama as well.

The writing in this case was done really well, since it was able to realistically be really funny and yet really heartbreaking all at the same time. And it was able to subvert a lot of your expectations in many scenes, making heartbreaking scenes turn out to be funny, funny scenes turn out to be emotional, et cetera, et cetera.

And Frances McDormand is great in this because she was able to work with those crazy tonal shifts, and she did such a great job at being a psycho bitch one second, and then a loving and caring motherly figure the next second. It was great to see her portray this damaged woman who we first feel sorry for, then we start getting a little freaked out because of how psychopathic she is, and then we go back to feeling sorry for her because we realise that despite her craziness, she is still a sad and broken creature.

A lot of awards buzz for her, and she even nabbed the Golden Globe the other night. She definitely deserves it and she's a strong contender for the Oscar (but I haven't seen many of the other awards films this year, so I can't say who my pick would be yet).

But the rest of the cast was great too. Firstly, it was nice to see Lucas Hedges (the kid from Manchester by the Sea (2016)) here, even if he didn't have much to do. But I really liked seeing Caleb Landry Jones here. He did a good job in Get Out (2017) and American Made (2017), and he was really good in this so he's having a great year this year.

The stand out for me, though, was Sam Rockwell as Officer Dixon. He did an amazing job, I was so blown away by him and I'm so happy he got the Golden Globe because he completely deserved it! He does such a great job at being this imbecile of a policeman, and to see how his character ends up was really satisfactory. In fact all of the character arcs that happen in this movie feel very natural and real for each individual character, which is again a nod at how great the writing was.

Woody Harrelson also did a great job, which is good because I didn't really like him in War for the Planet of the Apes (2017). But here, his character's storyline is a bit tragic, and you get that he's a really great and fun guy despite being pestered by these billboards that Mildred's put up. There is one scene in particular that he does with Frances McDormand and that is when it goes from witty banter to serious shock real quick, and that was such a memorable scene. The actors in this movie honestly did such a great job, all round.

Overall, this was a really fun movie to watch with surprising heart and emotion in it. You go in wanting to munch on popcorn while seeing these insane characters do crazy things, but you end up really caring for them, and each character has a unique character arc. It's a fun time, with some witty banter that will make you chuckle, and it's got some great writing and fantastic acting in it.

A few side notes:

There is one scene with a deer, and the CGI for it was so offputting, but I don't know if that's just because they were deliberately trying to make it seem unrealistic. But yeh, that was the only super weird part for me

Also, Peter Dinklage is in this, and rocking a mullet!

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.

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.

"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.

You know what they call arranged marriage in Pakistan? "Marriage."

The Big Sick (2017)

7.7/10 on IMDb
98% on Rotten Tomatoes

Chloe's thoughts: Signed, sealed, and recommended by Chloe;
I'm buying the DVD;
Low-energy entertainment

Watch it if you: Want to watch a wholesome romantic comedy;
Want a romcom that isn't your typical cheesy B-flick;
Want something to laugh at but are okay with it being very heartfelt and endearing too;
Are a fan of Kumail Nanjiani
Based on the real story of when Kumail, a Pakistani living in America, begins a relationship with an American girl named Emily. Having very traditional Muslim parents, Kumail becomes concerned of how his family will react to their relationship. If that weren't enough, one day Emily is put into a medically-induced coma, and Kumail ends up meeting Emily's parents while visiting the hospital.

I recently became a fan of Kumail Nanjiani through watching Silicon Valley and his interviews on talk shows, so I really regretted not seeing this movie in cinemas when it came out. At the time, I had heard a few things about it but the movie didn't really interest me because I don't usually watch romcoms in the theatre. But after having heard the amazing reviews for this movie and becoming a fan of him, I've been waiting for this movie to come out on DVD so I could watch it. I ended up watching it on the plane (my flight was the day before this movie was released on DVD), and I'm so happy I watched it because this film did not disappoint!

I expected it to be a hilarious comedy, and while it was really funny, it was surprisingly very, very endearing as well. I actually cried a bit towards the end.

What I love about this is that the dialogue and the acting felt very organic, and the chemistry between Kumail Nanjiani and Zoe Kazan makes it hard to believe that Kumail is married to anyone else. They did a very good job in making a romcom very believable and realistic.

Ray Romano and Holly Hunter were also great as Emily's parents. I haven't seen Ray Romano do any dramatic acting, and while there is a hilarious scene he does in the hospital cafeteria, I was really pleasantly surprised at how well his acting chops were. Holly Hunter was fantastic in this and just listening to her voice is making me so excited for Incredibles 2!

But back to this movie.

What I loved about the acting was that even when it was dramatic, they didn't do anything over the top, it was all very subtle and seemed very natural, which you don't really get in typical romcoms.

The way the story is written is also really well done. You have Kumail's family who seem like antagonists but you also have Kumail understanding their cultures and not wanting to really villainise them. And then you have issues with Kumail's relationship with Emily and his relationship with Emily's parents, but none of it seems too dramatised. I think they managed to balance the drama and the reality really well in this.

So in the end, I think this film was really well done. I'm so happy for Kumail, he's a great comedian, and he managed to do an excellent job in both writing and starring in this movie. It's a romcom so it's romantic and funny, but it's not as cheesy as typical romcoms are, and it's actually very heartfelt and endearing to watch.

Manners Maketh Man redux

Kingsman 2 (2017)

7.4/10 on IMDb
50% on Rotten Tomatoes

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

Watch it if you: Are a fan of the first Kingsman

When the Kingsman headquarters are destroyed in a mass terror attack, the Kingsmen resort to getting help from their US ally, Statesman.

I loved Kingsman: The Secret Service (2014), and really wanted to love this sequel, but it was a bit disappointing. While it was enjoyable, it tried too hard to be like its original, without actually being anywhere near it.

Ahh yes, we've got another ridiculously crazy save-the-world situation happening. What made the first Kingsman so great was that it was nothing like what we expected. The movie swept us off our feet unexpectedly and we had no choice but to just go along for the ride, loving it all the while.

Unfortunately, this has set a precedent for The Golden Circle, because we expect another weird, whacky, hilarious, and gory movie that's at least just as good as the first. And knowing that, Matthew Vaughn, the director, as well as the producers/studio have all tried to deliver an even crazier and even more action-packed film. And while this paid off in some respects, this film definitely does not live up to its predecessor.

The first half in particular was not that great, and it was obvious that a lot of elements that were happening were put in purely to try to outdo the craziness of the first film. They were just trying too hard, particularly with some of the directing and the camerawork.

After we all loved the impressive tracking shot of the crazy church sequence from the first movie, they must have thought it would be a good idea to do a lot more of that, even if the scene itself didn't call for it. So, especially in the beginning, some of the fight scenes looked really artificial and weird to watch. They spent too much time trying to make everything look cool and smooth, so much so that it had a really unrealistic and digital look to it.

And I think this is where most of my issues with this film lie. They constantly try to add things in for the sake of "people liked it in the first movie, so let's do it AGAIN!" They were never actually adding things in because it made sense to add them in.

For example, they tried to recreate an iconic scene from the first movie and it just did not work. I'll talk about this more in the spoiler section, but it was so ridiculous and illogical to incorporate that in except to have a fun fight scene that also serves as a throwback to the first film. The fight itself was cool because of the choreography, but the reason the fight started in the first place was so silly!

Another thing is that the soundtrack is also super loud and quite distracting. I don't know why I had a gripe against this, though, because I enjoyed when they did this in the first film. For some reason, it just seemed really distracting when they would blare up a song during a fight scene.

But it did get better towards the end, when it got back to being ridiculously badass with all the weapons they were using in the epic fight scene.

However, in the middle there seemed to be just a lot of a waste of characters and actors, and there were certain scenes where you just didn't believe the characters were in any danger at all. More about this in the spoilers.

One thing I did like was how they sort of tied every element together in the final fight scene. Throughout the movie there seemed to be a lot of unnecessary things being shown through the movie, but they do all pay off towards the end.

However, I think the message of the film was a bit... odd. Again, it's hard to discuss this in a non-spoiler way but where the first movie focused on climate change, this movie focused on the war on drugs. And I just don't think they did a very good job at making a stance on the topic of drugs, maybe because the studio wanted to keep it safe. But when your films depict violent and gory fight scenes (which include people being cut in half or having their heads explode colourfully), or even when your film unapologetically makes recurring jokes about anal sex or fingering someone, I don't think a safe stance on a heated societal debate is really the way to go.

So most of the issues come down to the directing, pacing, and writing of the film. The cast itself is great though.

The very handsome Taron Egerton is back as Eggsy, our favourite kid-off-the-streets-turned-gentleman-spy. He did a great job in the first film and was still able to hold his own alongside the very impressive cast of this sequel.

Colin Firth returns (not a spoiler, it was in trailers and on posters), and he does a great job in this. I actually quite like what they did with his character, although I do have some gripes about his arc which I will leave to the spoiler section of this review.

Julianne Moore also plays the villain, and she looks so great in this film! She also looks like she really enjoyed herself, but her villain character was a bit too whacky and comical for my liking. I get that there is an element of suspension of belief here, but it just felt too parodic, even for a Kingsman film.

There's also Jeff Bridges and Channing Tatum in this, but I felt like their characters could have done so much more. The marketing for this film implied they would have a really big role, but unfortunately they don't do all that much and it seems like a waste of casting.

However, Pedro Pascal is great in this film, and I loved it whenever they showed him using his whip and lasso. I actually really liked the idea of the classy Kingsmen having these country-bumpkin-like Statesmen as their cousins. It allowed them to show us some new styles of uniform and weaponry, and was a good contrast to the idea of the gentleman spy that we're used to.

So before I start my spoilers section, I think in the end there are just too many things happening in this movie that the film feels like a mess. It's a very fun and very enjoyable mess, but most of the things here are unnecessary call backs to the first film, or unnecessary sequences specifically made to try and outdo the first film. There are a lot of whacky characters and crazily far-fetched plot devices, but when we loved these in the first film, it's a bit cringey and unrealistic in this film. So while the movie is really fun and enjoyable, and I would still definitely watch another sequel, I probably won't watch this film again. If I wanted to watch another Kingsman movie, I'd just watch the original again.

--------------
Okay, so this is the start of my spoilers section. I was going to incorporate spoilers throughout my points, but there are just way too many things I want to talk about.

Click to show/hide spoilers:

(A word of warning: this spoiler section is a bit all over the place and is mostly me just ranting and nitpicking.)

So the biggest thing that was running through my mind was: I know they killed Roxy, Eggsy's friend Brandon, his dog JB, and the entire Kingsman headquarters and staff homes to raise the stakes, but to me it sort of reinforced the idea that no matter what happens, our beloved Eggsy would still be safe.

This also branches out into a heap of issues I had with the film:

1. Why did Roxy have to die? She did jack all in the first movie, I was excited to see her do so much more here. Also there wasn't really any emotional weight to Roxy's death even though her and Eggsy were such great friends.
   
2. Why was it so easy for Brandon to see all the guns and weaponry in Eggsy's room? Surely they would have better security measures than that?
   
3. I loved how Eggsy put up his own newspaper clippings on the wall, that was very sweet.
   
4. Why did Merlin have to die? I thought they specifically gave Eggsy a minesweeper? Correct me if I'm wrong but I thought the whole point of a minesweeper is to make sure no one dies from a mine?!
   
5. You honestly want me to believe that when you put two people into the equivalent of a free-falling human salad spinner, they would come out unscathed? I mean, if you don't want to kill them, then at least injure them or something! Even just having a shoulder dislocate and then making a scene out of them popping it back in or something, I dunno! Anything! They literally just walked away from that debacle.

Okay let's talk the bar fight scene. They were obviously trying to do a throwback to the first movie, but there was almost no logic behind that fight.

Firstly, the guy at the bar was listening in on their conversation, but he didn't realise like holy shit they're talking about hacking and showing each other crazy spy gadgets, maybe they're SPIES?!

Secondly, his reason for picking a fight with them was so ridiculous, it was just, "You're British, get out of here, I have no foundings for my feelings of anger towards you."

Thirdly, it's so out of character for Harry to start fighting them over that. That is not very gentlemanly. In the first film, he was about to walk away until they personally insulted him, and only then did he start fighting them. And the only reason he started killing these people violently was because he heard that his colleague Lancelot had died and he needed to "let off a bit of steam". I understand, though that perhaps he just wanted to fight again after spending such a long time not fighting since he was amnesic, but still the whole thing seemed really forced. It made more sense for Whiskey to step in and have fun with them, but I think it would have been better for the redneck to pick the fight with Whiskey in the first place.

Speaking of Harry, how on earth did he suddenly improve his coordination? They show him accidentally stunning a computer instead of the security guard, then he doesn't really do any more fighting except throwing a freeze bomb at people and shooting Whiskey (who is right in front of him and would have been hard to miss), and then he can suddenly take on all of Poppy's goons? Almost as if his near-death never happened?



As to some things on the characters:

• Channing Tatum was a huge waste in this film. All he did was one small fight scene, and then a scene where he danced a bit and they didn't even get him to dance very well! They could have at least asked him to pull off some sick moves
  
• Also Jeff Bridges hardly did anything at all! Elton John did more than Jeff Bridges!
  
• Speaking of, at first I was not keen on the Elton John cameos. I liked them and I found them funny, but just thought there were too many of them and they were overdoing it. However it did pay off at the end though, especially when he just intercepted the robot dogs eating Harry (ELTON JOHN DETECTED - FRIEND)
  
• Also Halle Berry's character could really have been played by anyone but I guess they're just trying to set up a sequel with Channing Tatum and Halle Berry
  
• I was surprised to see that Princess Tilde and Eggsy were so committed. It was nice to see that (especially the asking-for-permission scene) because it was so different to the James Bond spy movies we're used to (and the first movie made it a point to show they were different to James Bond movies). I also think they tried to make Tilde look younger than she did in the first movie so that it wouldn't look too weird that she was dating Eggsy.
  
• I think Charlie was a better character in this film than the last one. His shaved head made him look more menacing, he wasn't being a whiny pompous brat, and I liked his upgrades. The only thing was that it made it ridiculous to see Eggsy fight him. He literally casually chucked a bowling ball through layers of walls, and yet when he throws Eggsy around, his suit doesn't even get scuffed by the teensiest bit. Sigh, I miss Gazelle I wish she didn't die.
  

Nearly finished, I promise.

Do you think they went a bit too far with the fingering joke? I mean, it was funny, but there was an entire like 10 minutes dedicated to that joke. There was seriously no other way to track someone? It was such a lengthy gag.

Also, they put down cannabis and ecstasy in the same class as meth and heroin? Like, really? This was the point I was trying to make about the film trying to not really make a stance on the war on drugs. On one hand, they have Poppy say that sugar is more addictive and deadly than drugs, and they have the President's employee say that people who do drugs aren't bad and sometimes it even helps them function properly at work. Then on the other hand, they have people saying to their friends, "I told you not to use that stuff!" or even "Maybe you should stick to booze!" It just seemed so weird, almost like the studio wanted them to go against drugs just because they were concerned about regulation...

And with that, that's the last of my spoilers points! Congrats on making it to the end.

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.

If you're nothing without the suit, then you shouldn't have it.

Spiderman: Homecoming (2017)

8.2/10 on IMDb
93% on Rotten Tomatoes

Chloe's thoughts: Signed, sealed, and recommended by Chloe;
Watch it in cinemas;
I'm buying the DVD (to complete the collection of course);
Low-energy entertainment

Watch it if you: Were disappointed by the Amazing Spiderman movies;
Want to see a fun and entertaining Spiderman;
Don't mind the emphasis on Peter Parker's high school experience;
Have seen a few Avengers films and want to see the next installment in the MCU;
Want to see what Spiderman would look like now that he's in the know with the Avengers

Here we are with another Spiderman origins movie, yet this time, Peter Parker has just come back home from his first experience with the Avengers. Living off the thrill of the events from Captain America: Civil War (2016), he struggles to balance his lifestyle as he tries to prove himself to this superhero team when he learns of the underground works of the Vulture.

I had pretty high hopes for this film, and while it was enjoyable and entertaining, I think it's hard to wholly love it when it's the third Spiderman we've seen. Don't get me wrong, though, I do think it's the best Spiderman, and I really enjoyed some of the new takes they put on his origin story, but it did feel a bit long as the film shows many things that we've already seen on the big screen under the Spiderman name.

Yup, we've seen it before, over and over again, we know that Peter Parker is nerdy, awkward, and we know how he's like around the girls that he crushes on. So seeing this again makes the movie feel very long, and I think even if we hadn't seen the previous two lots of Spiderman, there's still a lot of focus on Peter Parker's high school experience. This can be refreshing, and it can make the characters feel very genuine and relatable, but at the same time, you go in wanting to see really cool Spiderman action sequences.

Having said that, though, the action scenes were still very entertaining and good. They weren't anything epic, but they were decent.

One example is with the scene of the ship splitting in two. When we watch the trailers, it's very reminiscent of the Spiderman 2 (2004) train scene, but in the actual movie, it's nowhere near as riveting or suspenseful as the train. The scene feels rushed, and really chaotic, with too many things going on. It also doesn't feel like there's as much at stake, and the whole scene ends fairly quickly. So the scene was good, but it wasn't anything amazing.

And I think the rest of the film can be summarised as that too: good, but nothing amazing. I was surprised at the 94% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, but the average rating is actually a 7.7/10, which seems more reasonable.

I actually really love this shot because Zendaya's character really reminded me of that weird chick from The Breakfast Club (1985), it was a great nod to it.
What I liked about this is that it was very entertaining. It was funny, and the focus on the high school made Peter Parker seem very genuine.

It also helps that Tom Holland is actually the right age to play Peter Parker, and he's also very cute. Tobey Maguire was 27 years old when the first Spiderman (2002) was released, and he looks like a goofball. Andrew Garfield was 29 when The Amazing Spiderman (2012) came out, and while he looks young, he also looks very weird (like his head is too narrow?). So I was really happy with Tom Holland, the cutest and youngest Spiderman.

The film was also entertaining through its tie-ins with the Avengers universe. It's great that Spiderman is finally being able to be used in Marvel films, which means we can see what it means that Tony Stark, Iron Man himself, is mentoring Spiderman. This brings great implications for what Spiderman's suit is like, what sort of activities Spiderman does, whether Spiderman will be fighting alongside Avengers members, and even what Spiderman's motives for crime-fighting are. I think this brought a different spin on the story we all know too well and it was refreshing to see how Spiderman's actions and thoughts changed because of the Avengers being involved in the film.

Of course what this means is that it's harder to enjoy this movie as a standalone film. Someone who has not seen the other films, specifically the Avengers and Civil War, would find it hard to follow along. This problem is more prominent in the beginning, and the rest of the film can be a bit of a standalone, but there's still a really strong link to the rest of the MCU.

Of course, though, as a fan of the franchise, I enjoyed these Marvel tie-ins. Seeing Robert Downey Jr, and even the Stark and Avengers buildings, were great.

Michael Keaton was also great, and his character was pretty interesting and very cool. He's a very resourceful villain, and they made his backstory a bit more believable, which is surprising because usually Marvel villains are terribly written! You actually kind of feel sorry for him because he wasn't really doing anything large-scale diabolical like in other MCU films.

It's been a few days since I saw the film, and months since I saw the trailer, but I still can't get over the fact that Michael Keaton is actually playing Birdman. And considering that Birdman is a self-aware characterisation of Michael Keaton's Batman, and that the Avengers movie was shown in Birdman (2014) itself, there are so many levels of meta, I love it.

I also really liked Ned, who is Peter Parker's best friend. He was great as the comedic sidekick buddy.

Zendaya was also surprisingly good, but they make a decision with her character at the end that I'm not too sure about. It seemed out of character and not in keeping with the original Spiderman storylines, but we'll see how it goes I suppose.

I really liked the ending of this film, I thought it was great that Spiderman was finally taking up the MAN part of his name. He's been Spiderman for a while, but he's finally no longer a boy, and he's making very adult and mature decisions, and that helps him to be recognised and acknowledged for it.

So all in all, this was a great Spiderman film, possibly the best ever although I don't know if I'm just saying that because I haven't seen the Tobey Maguire ones in a while. Some of it wasn't as intense as the Tobey Maguire films, and the film seemed very long, but it was still very fun and entertaining. Tom Holland and Michael Keaton are great, and I really liked how they put a different spin on Spiderman's origin story. I'm very keen to see Spiderman fight alongside the Avengers in the upcoming films, and keen to see more of Tom Holland in Hollywood.

A few side notes:

Good to see the little Indian kid from the Grand Budapest Hotel (2014) here!

Also found it interesting how everyone who bullies Peter Parker is actually within his friend group, i.e. the academic decathlon team

There is one mid-credits scene and one end-credits scene; not going to spoil them but I was entertained by them

And Tom Holland's American accent is on point! I didn't realise he was British until I saw interviews of him