This is another of those high school movies that I might not be able to recommend seeing more than once… but it’s just interesting enough to warrant writing about.
I won’t be giving everything away but I’ll go into most of the key points.
It has a pretty good soundtrack- some songs from the mid 2010s I remember hearing in other contexts. But it’s mildly disappointing that the Stevie Nicks song serving as this movie’s namesake doesn’t make a single appearance.
Also- I’ve always interpreted that song as a more dramatic version of “I am 16 going on 17” so the fact the main character is already 17 makes the title a double liar… unless the whole point is that she’s 17 and a little rough around the edges.
The whole genre of teen angst high school is a little over and done by this point… but this is probably one of the more honest looks at what that means.
The protagonist Nadine, played really well by Hailee Steinfeld, develop a huge dislike for her more outgoing classmates (and all things popular) at a young age. The types of people who attract success anywhere they try and her brother is major representation of that. Between the two of them, he always got the better grades and more popularity whereas she was outcast and bullied for being the opposite.
She finds solace from this in her new best friend and for their whole lives, they’d been two peas in a pod.
But things change when her friend starts dating her brother and through him, gets into better social circles and she feels left behind. Plus betrayed because they used to share a mutual dislike of him. As far as big brothers go, he’s not the most obnoxious (definitely not to the point of Bill Paxton in weird science) but it’s easy to be put off by some of his actions.
I can understand her frustration to a point. I know I’ve lost friends or felt left out because they got into social circles I didn’t feel welcome to join. Or I just wasn’t welcome at all. But there are points where I’ll admit she takes her anger about this betrayal a little too far— how long can you hold a grudge until you get over it and move on?
Then there’s the fact she was daddy’s little girl and he died of a heart attack a few years earlier and the family is still navigating the grief of that loss. (There was one funny punchline where she uses her dad’s death as an excuse for not doing her homework and her teacher says that excuse expired after the first year… it was 4 years ago).
But as much as she feels like the world is against her, she comes to realize she’s not alone and just maybe she’d been wrong about the people in her life because she didn’t consider their perspective.
It sort of blew my mind later on when her brother came out saying he works so hard to be perfect to keep their family together. Their mom works hard to provide for them and she and Nadine fight so much. He feels compelled to go to a local college when he could easily have made Ivy League to make sure he’s there in case he’s needed.
And just maybe, he likes hanging out with her friend because she helps keep him grounded like she had in their friendship.
Most high school movies have that one teacher character. This one was tailor made for woody harrelson and his wry sense of humor. In fact, he makes this whole movie. Not just because he matches her wit tit for tat but he’s extremely supportive when stuff in her life spirals out and she feels she has no other confidants.
She also makes a new friend who takes part in an indie film festival at the end of the movie… won’t spoil his animated short but it is super cute. Then when she comes over to his place, she learns his family is actually pretty wealthy yet he’s very unassuming about it. Not crazy rich Asian rich (although he is Korean) but definitely richer than most of her classmates. My jaw dropped when I saw the house— but I’m a sucker for a good Victorian style house.
Nadine is very outspoken and gets in trouble a few times because of this. One moment particularly when her lack of impulse control gets the better of her. She’s not the first teenager to make this mistake but that doesn’t make it any less cringe worthy to see how it plays out.
She talks a few times through the movie how she’d fantasized about this one classmate who works at a pet store. Then she texts all these errant thoughts to him (a lot of weird sexual stuff I always wonder how teenagers know about them cuz I sure as hell didn’t at that age) by accident and he’s interested.
Then she awkwardly realizes as it’s happening that she didn’t really mean what she said and he’s super bent out of shape for the mixed signals. It sort of reminded me of a situation I got into in college where a guy I met on Facebook asked if I’d ever kissed and suggested when we watch American idol together as planned we try. Somehow that got misinterpreted and he wanted to turn the entire show into a make-out session. To his credit he backed off when he saw how uncomfortable I was about it… but yeah… be careful what you say to the opposite sex online. Don’t put out the wrong message so they don’t get the wrong idea.
Luckily she had her teacher for an exit strategy and she gets to learn a bit more about his life while spending him at his house to decompress from everything.
I’ll say it again- Woody Harrelson totally makes this movie.
Showing posts with label Woody Harrelson. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Woody Harrelson. Show all posts
Sunday, July 6, 2025
Saturday, June 9, 2018
Theatrical Review: Solo- A Star Wars Story
Date: Sunday June 3 2018
Location: Cinemark Theater at Stroud Mall
Time: 11:35am
Party: 3 (my mom, sister and I)
Director: Ron Howard
Writers: Jonathan and Lawrence Kasdan
Composer: John Williams
Notable Cast:
Han Solo- Alden Ehrenreich
Kira (ok, it's spelled Qi'ra officially, but I don't care)- Emilia Clarke
Chewbacca- Joonas Suotomo
Tobias Beckett- Woody Harrelson
Lando Calrissian- Donald Glover
Dryden Vos- Paul Bettany
L3-37- Phoebe Waller-Bridge (she'd never forgive me if I left her out- you'll see why later)
Duration: 135 minutes (+ 7 trailers... that seems to be a common thing now, 7 trailers at this place..)
Opening Remarks:
Two weeks after this movie came out (and the day after we saw it), the local DJ rejoiced "Star Wars is dead!"... stating how poorly this movie did at the box office and drawing attention in particular to the sharp decline from the first to the second weekend... The first weekend it only made around 90 million and the following week, it was closer to 30.
I'll start in saying this movie wasn't THAT BAD. And box office numbers aren't everything. It's just that not as many people are going to the movies anymore, whether they'd rather just stream or wait for it come on cable or they're just sick of movies in general... unless of course they're from the Marvel universe or Deadpool :P
It was the second week and there weren't many people in the theater. Maybe a dozen... and we were there early enough to get good choice of seats.
Trailers:
:sigh: almost all of these were the same trailers at the Avengers movie... so that annoyed me from the get-go. It's hard to be excited about new movies if it's the same trailers all the time.
Venom, Jurassic World, The Incredibles 2 and Ant-Man I'd already commented so, so I won't add anything more to that.
Mile 22 was a Mark Wahlberg movie and I think it's about a deadly weapon that gets stolen and needs to be retrieved... I don't remember much about it, but it's not my type of movie anyway
Mowgli, I don't know if it connects to the Jungle Book live action movie. Although they do have Cate Blanchett voicing the snake again, so I think they are connected. And he's living with man, but is also trying to figure out his identity and place in the world. It looks kind of intense for something based on an animated Disney film, but it also looks impressive.
Then there's a Queen/Freddie Mercury biopic called (what else) "Bohemian Rhapsody"... now that looks impressive. I've already heard some good things about it in passing and how the guy playing Freddie Mercury really nailed it.
...it also makes me hope that they never do this with Prince... he already did a biopic, it's called "Purple Rain"... ok, it's semi-autobiographical and the people in it are only one side of the personalities of those people in real life. Even Prince is playing a version of himself, but not being completely himself. The story itself has some truth to it, but the actual events that happened in the movie didn't actually happen in real life... yeah it's complicated, just no biopics for Prince, please, he deserves better...
The Main Event:
As one could expect, this is a prequel and origin story of sorts.
We find out how Han Solo got his name (well, his last name anyway), we get early glimpses of himself inability to follow orders and so on. Pretty much everything we know and love about our favorite scruffy looking nerfherder.
There's also a love story arc, but it doesn't go quite the way we expect. Like with a lot of this movie, I don't want to go into full details because you should probably experience it for yourself.
We also find out how Han met Chewbecca... and it's not the way I personally pictured it. I think my mom said in the book series that talks about the characters that Han rescued Chewbecca when he was young. I'm not entirely sure about this, I'm sure she'll correct me once she reads this.
As a whole, the movie started out as very relaxing for me. Which is a weird thing to say about an adventure film. But the fact is that we know Han Solo would survive this no matter what happens had me just hanging back and enjoying everything at face value.
The highlight is Han Solo himself. I'm not as in love with Harrison Ford or the character like my mom is, but I do like the guy. And there was no mistaking this was the same character. It's hard to explain, but this guy just has a certain swagger and self-assuredness that was very easy to like... even when he goes against the flow no matter who he's working with. That guy is just such a natural leader that it's difficult for him to follow anyone's orders other than his own. Heck, he even says to Leia in the first movie "I only take orders from one person: me"
His childhood friend/love interest Kira is an interesting piece of work herself... you never really know what's going on with her. They're both on this planet at the start where runaways are forced into slavery and they're trying to get off the planet. He gets off and she doesn't and he's trying to get back to her. But in the midst of his newest gig, working with Tobias Beckett (Woody Harrelson pretty much being the typical Woody- but he instills early on how you can never trust anyone and if you expect everyone you know to betray you, you'll never be disappointed... and boy does that become true later on...), he finds her in the quarters of their employer, Dryden Vos (his voice sounded so familiar that it took me a while to figure out it was Jarvis from the Iron-Man movies... of course I also know he was in movies like A Knight's Tale and A Beautiful Mind).
So Kira did get off that planet, but she doesn't seem to be completely free either. And she also comes with Han and Beckett to complete a job. They need to find some valuable raw material and make the Kessel Run in fewer than 20 parsecs to get it somewhere to be refined so it doesn't explode. In order to do that, they need a fast ship and Lando is the one who has it.
Then there's the end of the movie where you don't know where anyone stands... everyone is betraying everyone and all of it seems to be self-motivated... there's also a cameo in the movie and Kira is talking to him via intercom... this movie is supposed to take place 10 years before A New Hope and this guy died at the end of the Phantom Menace... so I'm a little confused about that... reading the trivia, it sounds like he survived the Phantom Menace.
Maybe this will come to fruition in some sequel in the future, but based on this movie's box office numbers, I'm not sure how much of a possibility that is now.
This movie also dwells into some social commentary... almost a little too much for my tastes...
there's a story arc with this droid L3-37 that works with Lando and she's very into droid rights... there's a scene where she's decrying droid fighting and it made me think about Battle Bots and what it'd be like if these robots actually had thoughts and feelings of their own. She also talks about Lando having feelings for her that she could never return, but also subtly hints that sex is possible between humans and droids... the Internet lost its mind when the people on the movie announced that Lando was pansexual. I'm not saying that I don't want different sexualities explored in movies, but I don't like it when they're doing it to fulfill an agenda.
I will say, though, that the scene where she frees all of the droids, that was pretty epic.
There's also a heavy theme about slavery. How runaways are enslaved on that planet Han and Kira are from. The thing with the droids. But Wookies as well. Chewbecca was a prisoner when Han met him and the two of them escape together and their lifelong friendship formed from that.
As for the Kessel Run... there was talk about it in passing in the first Star Wars movie where Han is asked if his ship is fast and he says "it's the ship that made the Kessel run in less than 12 parsecs"... it was kinda cool seeing how that claim came to light.
And also how the Millennium Falcon got to be called a piece of junk by everyone to lay eyes on it throughout the series :P there was actually a point where it looked gorgeous. Then Han got to drive it and he did kinda ding it up a bit.
And true to form as well, Han won the ship from Lando in a card game... but it isn't necessarily the first game the two of them play. Let's just say that Han learns a thing or two from the scoundrels he hangs out with.
Also- it took me until the credits to find that Kira was played by Daenerys from Game of Thrones... I just don't recognize her without that wig :P I'd also only seen Game of Thrones a handful of times... my whole family is really into it, even my dad who isn't really into this stuff... I think I've seen 3 episodes EVER...
Grade: B
Location: Cinemark Theater at Stroud Mall
Time: 11:35am
Party: 3 (my mom, sister and I)
Director: Ron Howard
Writers: Jonathan and Lawrence Kasdan
Composer: John Williams
Notable Cast:
Han Solo- Alden Ehrenreich
Kira (ok, it's spelled Qi'ra officially, but I don't care)- Emilia Clarke
Chewbacca- Joonas Suotomo
Tobias Beckett- Woody Harrelson
Lando Calrissian- Donald Glover
Dryden Vos- Paul Bettany
L3-37- Phoebe Waller-Bridge (she'd never forgive me if I left her out- you'll see why later)
Duration: 135 minutes (+ 7 trailers... that seems to be a common thing now, 7 trailers at this place..)
Opening Remarks:
Two weeks after this movie came out (and the day after we saw it), the local DJ rejoiced "Star Wars is dead!"... stating how poorly this movie did at the box office and drawing attention in particular to the sharp decline from the first to the second weekend... The first weekend it only made around 90 million and the following week, it was closer to 30.
I'll start in saying this movie wasn't THAT BAD. And box office numbers aren't everything. It's just that not as many people are going to the movies anymore, whether they'd rather just stream or wait for it come on cable or they're just sick of movies in general... unless of course they're from the Marvel universe or Deadpool :P
It was the second week and there weren't many people in the theater. Maybe a dozen... and we were there early enough to get good choice of seats.
Trailers:
:sigh: almost all of these were the same trailers at the Avengers movie... so that annoyed me from the get-go. It's hard to be excited about new movies if it's the same trailers all the time.
Venom, Jurassic World, The Incredibles 2 and Ant-Man I'd already commented so, so I won't add anything more to that.
Mile 22 was a Mark Wahlberg movie and I think it's about a deadly weapon that gets stolen and needs to be retrieved... I don't remember much about it, but it's not my type of movie anyway
Mowgli, I don't know if it connects to the Jungle Book live action movie. Although they do have Cate Blanchett voicing the snake again, so I think they are connected. And he's living with man, but is also trying to figure out his identity and place in the world. It looks kind of intense for something based on an animated Disney film, but it also looks impressive.
Then there's a Queen/Freddie Mercury biopic called (what else) "Bohemian Rhapsody"... now that looks impressive. I've already heard some good things about it in passing and how the guy playing Freddie Mercury really nailed it.
...it also makes me hope that they never do this with Prince... he already did a biopic, it's called "Purple Rain"... ok, it's semi-autobiographical and the people in it are only one side of the personalities of those people in real life. Even Prince is playing a version of himself, but not being completely himself. The story itself has some truth to it, but the actual events that happened in the movie didn't actually happen in real life... yeah it's complicated, just no biopics for Prince, please, he deserves better...
The Main Event:
As one could expect, this is a prequel and origin story of sorts.
We find out how Han Solo got his name (well, his last name anyway), we get early glimpses of himself inability to follow orders and so on. Pretty much everything we know and love about our favorite scruffy looking nerfherder.
There's also a love story arc, but it doesn't go quite the way we expect. Like with a lot of this movie, I don't want to go into full details because you should probably experience it for yourself.
We also find out how Han met Chewbecca... and it's not the way I personally pictured it. I think my mom said in the book series that talks about the characters that Han rescued Chewbecca when he was young. I'm not entirely sure about this, I'm sure she'll correct me once she reads this.
As a whole, the movie started out as very relaxing for me. Which is a weird thing to say about an adventure film. But the fact is that we know Han Solo would survive this no matter what happens had me just hanging back and enjoying everything at face value.
The highlight is Han Solo himself. I'm not as in love with Harrison Ford or the character like my mom is, but I do like the guy. And there was no mistaking this was the same character. It's hard to explain, but this guy just has a certain swagger and self-assuredness that was very easy to like... even when he goes against the flow no matter who he's working with. That guy is just such a natural leader that it's difficult for him to follow anyone's orders other than his own. Heck, he even says to Leia in the first movie "I only take orders from one person: me"
His childhood friend/love interest Kira is an interesting piece of work herself... you never really know what's going on with her. They're both on this planet at the start where runaways are forced into slavery and they're trying to get off the planet. He gets off and she doesn't and he's trying to get back to her. But in the midst of his newest gig, working with Tobias Beckett (Woody Harrelson pretty much being the typical Woody- but he instills early on how you can never trust anyone and if you expect everyone you know to betray you, you'll never be disappointed... and boy does that become true later on...), he finds her in the quarters of their employer, Dryden Vos (his voice sounded so familiar that it took me a while to figure out it was Jarvis from the Iron-Man movies... of course I also know he was in movies like A Knight's Tale and A Beautiful Mind).
So Kira did get off that planet, but she doesn't seem to be completely free either. And she also comes with Han and Beckett to complete a job. They need to find some valuable raw material and make the Kessel Run in fewer than 20 parsecs to get it somewhere to be refined so it doesn't explode. In order to do that, they need a fast ship and Lando is the one who has it.
Then there's the end of the movie where you don't know where anyone stands... everyone is betraying everyone and all of it seems to be self-motivated... there's also a cameo in the movie and Kira is talking to him via intercom... this movie is supposed to take place 10 years before A New Hope and this guy died at the end of the Phantom Menace... so I'm a little confused about that... reading the trivia, it sounds like he survived the Phantom Menace.
Maybe this will come to fruition in some sequel in the future, but based on this movie's box office numbers, I'm not sure how much of a possibility that is now.
This movie also dwells into some social commentary... almost a little too much for my tastes...
there's a story arc with this droid L3-37 that works with Lando and she's very into droid rights... there's a scene where she's decrying droid fighting and it made me think about Battle Bots and what it'd be like if these robots actually had thoughts and feelings of their own. She also talks about Lando having feelings for her that she could never return, but also subtly hints that sex is possible between humans and droids... the Internet lost its mind when the people on the movie announced that Lando was pansexual. I'm not saying that I don't want different sexualities explored in movies, but I don't like it when they're doing it to fulfill an agenda.
I will say, though, that the scene where she frees all of the droids, that was pretty epic.
There's also a heavy theme about slavery. How runaways are enslaved on that planet Han and Kira are from. The thing with the droids. But Wookies as well. Chewbecca was a prisoner when Han met him and the two of them escape together and their lifelong friendship formed from that.
As for the Kessel Run... there was talk about it in passing in the first Star Wars movie where Han is asked if his ship is fast and he says "it's the ship that made the Kessel run in less than 12 parsecs"... it was kinda cool seeing how that claim came to light.
And also how the Millennium Falcon got to be called a piece of junk by everyone to lay eyes on it throughout the series :P there was actually a point where it looked gorgeous. Then Han got to drive it and he did kinda ding it up a bit.
And true to form as well, Han won the ship from Lando in a card game... but it isn't necessarily the first game the two of them play. Let's just say that Han learns a thing or two from the scoundrels he hangs out with.
Also- it took me until the credits to find that Kira was played by Daenerys from Game of Thrones... I just don't recognize her without that wig :P I'd also only seen Game of Thrones a handful of times... my whole family is really into it, even my dad who isn't really into this stuff... I think I've seen 3 episodes EVER...
Grade: B
Monday, June 13, 2016
Theatrical Review: Now You See Me 2
Date: Sunday June 12, 2016
Location: Pocono Movieplex
Time: 1:10pm
Duration: 129 minutes (+3 trailers)
Party: 2 (my sister & I)
Director: John M. Chu
[notable credits: Step Up 2 and 3 and the Justin Bieber documentary film]
Cast:
J. Daniel "Danny" Atlas- Jesse Eisenberg
FBI agent Dylan Rhodes- Mark Ruffalo
Merritt McKinney- Woody Harrelson
Lula -Lizzy Caplan
Jack Wilder- Dave Franco
Owen Case- Ben Lamb
Walter Mabry- Daniel Radcliffe
Li- Jay Chu
FBI Deputy Director Natalie Austin- Sanaa Lathan
FBI Agent Cowan- David Warshofsky
Thaddeus Bradley- Morgan Freeman
Arthur Tressler- Michael Caine
[Opening Comments]
http://moviegoerconfessions.blogspot.com/2013/06/theatrical-review-now-you-see-me.html
I'll include my review of the original movie in case anyone is interested.
I liked the original. Enthralled by the special effects and loved the all-star cast. Despite all the bad reviews, a sequel went into the works almost immediately. And supposedly, there is already talk of a THIRD installment.
I guess people love magic... or the cast members. It's hard to say at this point.
It'll be interesting to see Daniel Radcliffe play a bad guy, but even before seeing the movie, I'm not wholly convinced he's the only "villain" this movie has. That'd only be too easy, right?
Lizzy Caplan is another newcomer. Most people (including myself) know her best as Janis Ian from "Mean Girls." Seeing no trace of Isla Fisher (one of the original "Four Horsemen") in the trailers, I wondered if something bad happened that made her pull out.
According to IMDb, the designated female role was given to Lizzy because of Isla's pregnancy. Still so weird to me that she's with Sacha Baron Cohen of all people... even though his profile says that he's nothing like the characters he plays.
And they didn't recast the role of Henley. Lizzy plays a brand new character, a new member of the magical quartet known as the "Four Horsemen"). So with that in mind, I wonder if they'll address Henley's absence in the movie or if Lizzy may possibly be a villain.
Seriously, a movie about magic, anything can happen. The identity of the mysterious 5th Horseman in the previous film proved that. [I didn't give that away in my last review, but there's a good chance I may have indulge that secret in order to properly review this movie].
[Audience Comments and Coming Attractions]
The two of us were among maybe 10 people in the entire theater, which is a slightly better turnout than the first movie. We were there for a couple minutes when the first three showed up. Two girls and a guy. The guy walks in, then says to his companion "we might have trouble finding a seat, it's packed." Of course, complete sarcasm. We had so many commercials before the previews (seriously, there must be have been 24 commercials in the 15 minutes we waited until the movie started... the movie didn't even start on time). He was reading subtitles and made some comments to amuse himself. Don't remember anything specific, but at least someone had humor about the situation.
A group of four walked in during one of the previews. And there were moments of laughter throughout the movie, but only 3-4 times.
I wondered to myself beforehand what trailers they would have because Summit Entertainment doesn't have anything big coming out. Then I noticed as we progressed that Lionsgate was also one of the studios. Either way, I was hearing of two of the movies for the first time.
We were going back and forth between "Warcraft" and this movie and the day before, my sister said we should go to this one. But even then, I was worried with the previews that unfolded that it might have been too much. She's not into scary movies or thrillers with intense scenes and that's what all the movies had in common.
Deepwater Horizon starring Mark Walberg and Kate Hudson
Within seconds, I knew exactly what this movie was going to be about and I was FURIOUS. They are actually making a survival story about the BP oil spill. The worst oil spill in history and they made a movie to profit from it. I don't care that it's been 6 years. That is just in poor taste.
I remember being in a panic about it for months, dying to go down there to help in some way, but I couldn't because I had a job. A job I lost that September. And by then, there was nothing to do. I mean, the oil spill wasn't a end-of-the-world scenario, but it threatened to devastate an entire ecosystem. Not to mention how many cruise lines and vacation spots it could have impacted if it wasn't stopped.
I think Mark Walberg might also be attached to a movie they're planning to make about the Boston marathon bombing. Again, poor taste. Just like 9/11 films like "United 93." Movies like "Remember Me" and "Extremely Loud and Close"- they were fine because they were about how people were affected by the 9/11 tragedy, not about the tragedy itself.
Then with the Benghazi film- possibly in poor taste, but at the same time, it's a story that needs to be told and not forgotten about.
Sorry if I'm getting too political, but in dire times like these, it's hard not to. The day we're seeing this movie, the Orlando night club shooting happened, and it served as a good escape from all that negativity and just being terrified that the world is falling apart.
Nerve starring Emma Roberts and Dave Franco
We saw the movie poster for this in the lobby. The text was written backwards, but I read easily. It had Emma Roberts facing computer screen. NERVE was at the top. And below it had two boxes that can be clicked on- WATCHER or PLAYER.
This was maybe the craziest trailer I'd ever seen. Whether it ran for 3 or 5 minutes, it felt like 10, and I was on the edge of my seat the entire time.
The premise is an online experiment. You can either be a "Player" who follows a list of instructions in hopes of winning a lot of movie. Or you can be a "Watcher" who make the suggestions to the players and observe what happens.
Emma Roberts plays a girl who'd never taken any risks in her life and her friends convince her to give it a try. In the first "dare" [the opening monologue said this game was truth or dare but without the truth], she kisses a random guy, who happens to be played by Dave Franco. I thought- "nice plug"- because he plays one of the Four Horsemen in this movie. And the two of them wind up going on this journey together. But there comes a point where it goes downhill and the "watchers" basically are holding them hostage until they complete the game.
I say this was the craziest trailer I'd seen- not just because of the heart-racing action. But I don't think I'd ever had this great a Ping-Pong match while watching a trailer. I went back and forth so many times trying to decide if this movie is going to be really bad or if, in fact, it is GENIUS. If the reviews are good, I just might consider it.
The Shallows- starring Blake Lively
Yeah, I don't need to go into detail about this one. It's a survival movie and there's a great white shark involved. And seriously, how bad does your career have to be where you have to agree to something like this? And "Jaws" touched on this archetype YEARS ago- does it really need to be revisited?
[Other Reviews and Ratings]Going back to my review on the first movie, I decided to bring this back.
Going by headlines alone, Indiewire.com is 50/50 on this. David Ehrlich hated the original so much that he didn't even give the sequel a chance. Liz Calvario is more lenient, saying "the thrills disappear" but the cast still shines.
Richard Roeper either hasn't reviewed this movie yet or he simply refuses to because there's no record of it on his website. It's just as well. He gave the original a really bad score.
Yet IMDb still has a positive rating: 7.2 out 10 stars.
The consensus on Rotten Tomatoes goes one of two ways. People either hate the movie entirely or they suggest turning your brains off and just taking it for what it is.
The trailers and the behind-the-scenes special on HBO looked impressive. And seeing as I liked the first one so much (although despite my comment on my post, I did not get the DVD... somehow it just slipped my mind).
[The Story]
I'm sorry, but I cannot process without SPOILING the events of the first movie.
So be forewarned... also some mild spoilers ahead about this current movie...
The Four Horsemen have been in hiding for a year. And Atlas is impatiently waiting for instructors from 5th Horseman. After making a final plea to "the eye" (a mysterious person or persons that lead this organization whose job it is to right wrongs committed by people in power), he finds Lula in his apartment. Someone he'd never met before, but somehow knows all about the Four Horsemen's antics, the fact Jack Wilder is alive, Henley left [answering my question about whether her absence would be addressed] and so on.
The scene we met Henley in the first movie caught me off guard and I'm still ill-at-ease about it. Apparently, we have to continue that theme and give Lula's magic a gross-out factor. I'm not saying women can't do gross stuff, but just why?
And in their downtime, it appears that Merritt and Jack are trying to teach each other their unique talents.
I commented in my "Now You See Me" post that Jack Wilder was not to be underestimated... that appears to be a continuing theme and it works out pretty spectacularly. Yes, even more than the fact he survived the first movie's car accident.
The Horsemen finally reunite with their leader and the rest meet Lula for the first time. [And she actually used my words- calling herself "the designated female Horsemen].
Their next gig is at a launch party for a new piece of technology and they need to expose Owen Case's agenda. That his new technology will allow him to access and download everyone's private information. But their plan goes so horribly wrong that it's scary. It's hi-jacked by someone else remotely who exposes all the players. That Jack Wilder is still alive and that the 5th Horsemen is a member of the FBI.
The biggest SPOILER about "Now You See Me" that I didn't disclose until now...
Dylan Rhoades (aka Mark Ruffalo) from the FBI was actually behind all the tricks and heists executed in the first movie. And his motive behind it all- framing Thaddeus Bradley and putting him behind bars. Given the flashback we start with here, it's easy to piece together the fact Dylan blames Thaddeus for his father's death. His father was Lionel Strike- one of the greatest magicians- who died performing his final trick.
As the Four Horsemen flee, they take their planned escape route... but like Harry Potter winding up in Knockturn Alley in the "Chamber of Secrets," they don't proceed carefully enough and take the wrong escape route. And they find themselves in Macau. The movie refers to it as the "Las Vegas of Asia" but in layman's terms, it's a Chinese peninsula that's close to Hong Kong.
Here, they not only run into Merritt's twin brother, Chase [who used to be his partner in magic business] but they learn he's working for Walter Dabry- Owen's ex-business partner who the world believes to be dead.
So with my assumptions going in about the new cast members, I broke even. Lula didn't wind being a bad guy (although we had a sequel on the horizon, so there's still that possibility), but Walter isn't the supreme villain in this movie.
Even though he took a bunch of selfies with the Horsemen, knocked out en route to Macau (one of the biggest laughs the movie got- the second in response to Daniel Radcliffe, it's in his final scene, but I'm not gonna spoil that), he is still a bad guy with a lot of control and he means business.
The Horsemen commit a heist for him, stealing the technology that can unencrypt any computer system in the world. The technology being metal and the entry way to its location being a built-in metal detector... it's bound to make things difficult and my belief changed into utter disbelief the longer the scene went home.
Atlas tries to get them out of their contract to Walter and fails miserably.
Luckily for him, Dylan uncovers their location, arrives to save him, but almost gets himself killed in the process.
The movie goes back and forth between the Macau misadventures and Dylan having to swallow his pride and seek Thaddeus Bradley for help- under the impression he was behind their disappearance.
He breaks him out of jail, Thaddeus says where they need to go, and he gives him the slip when they visit a local magic shop. A place the Four Horsemen went to get supplies from local magician Li and his grandmother.
Thaddeus returns later in the film and his overall contribution to the story. Not just the current one, but what happened to Lionel Strike. It's not exactly what you expect and it's kinda cool. But it also leaves behind a bit of a headache.
As does the rest of the movie.
In a cryptic online message, the Horsemen threaten to expose Walt (without actually mentioning his name) using the technology they stole and the final act takes place in London.
This is where the majority of the magic happens in the movie. Of course, it's thrilling to watch and it's dazzling.
But the critics might be right about this one. The story gets a little convoluted. As good as our heroes are at what they do, it becomes harder to believe that they are going to come out on top. Until the final moment, nothing seemed to be working in their favor. Unless you account for the fact you didn't see who drove the van that captured them and brought them to the bad guys.
The only way I knew that for sure was the unspoken contract between movie and audience: The good guys always win.
And at the end, there are a few secrets and reveals still to come and a little bit of a cliff-hanger. The Horsemen are at the headquarters of "the eye" and they see something at the bottom of a spiral staircase that they run towards... but we never see what it is. Maybe it's nothing, but it could also be something that will lead us to the upcoming sequel.
[Other Comments]
Yeah, I found it really distracting and kinda stupid to write a twin brother for Woody Harrelson's character. To me, it felt like an excuse not to put someone else on the payroll. On a previous occasion, he said he mentioned someone who took everything from him, but with so much emphasis on the special effects, who's going to remember details like that?
[Well, I'm usually better at it, but it'd been 3 years since I last saw it].
Daniel Radcliffe played a pretty good villain, but of course he wasn't the only one involved.
It's kinda funny how "revenge" is a common theme.
In a way, they borrowed from "Ocean's 12" where the good guys were forced to work for Andy Garcia to get back the money he stole from them.
The money that was stolen by the Horsemen in the previous movie belonged to him and his father. And the two of them aim to exact their revenge.
We have that and Dylan's vendetta against Thaddeus and how he believes the disappearance of the Horsemen was Thaddeus's revenge against his framing and false arrest.
Both have radically different results.
For a role that has some sickness involved, Lizzy Caplan was the right person for it. She showed no fear and is just weird enough to make it work.
There's a potential romance also between her character and Dave Franco's. It's explored, but only at the surface. At least in this movie.
Grade: A-/B+
[the margin between the two grades is insanely slim. The difference is whether or not I care about the convolution and excess length in a couple places. Not a bad sequel, but the original did it better]
Location: Pocono Movieplex
Time: 1:10pm
Duration: 129 minutes (+3 trailers)
Party: 2 (my sister & I)
Director: John M. Chu
[notable credits: Step Up 2 and 3 and the Justin Bieber documentary film]
Cast:
J. Daniel "Danny" Atlas- Jesse Eisenberg
FBI agent Dylan Rhodes- Mark Ruffalo
Merritt McKinney- Woody Harrelson
Lula -Lizzy Caplan
Jack Wilder- Dave Franco
Owen Case- Ben Lamb
Walter Mabry- Daniel Radcliffe
Li- Jay Chu
FBI Deputy Director Natalie Austin- Sanaa Lathan
FBI Agent Cowan- David Warshofsky
Thaddeus Bradley- Morgan Freeman
Arthur Tressler- Michael Caine
[Opening Comments]
http://moviegoerconfessions.blogspot.com/2013/06/theatrical-review-now-you-see-me.html
I'll include my review of the original movie in case anyone is interested.
I liked the original. Enthralled by the special effects and loved the all-star cast. Despite all the bad reviews, a sequel went into the works almost immediately. And supposedly, there is already talk of a THIRD installment.
I guess people love magic... or the cast members. It's hard to say at this point.
It'll be interesting to see Daniel Radcliffe play a bad guy, but even before seeing the movie, I'm not wholly convinced he's the only "villain" this movie has. That'd only be too easy, right?
Lizzy Caplan is another newcomer. Most people (including myself) know her best as Janis Ian from "Mean Girls." Seeing no trace of Isla Fisher (one of the original "Four Horsemen") in the trailers, I wondered if something bad happened that made her pull out.
According to IMDb, the designated female role was given to Lizzy because of Isla's pregnancy. Still so weird to me that she's with Sacha Baron Cohen of all people... even though his profile says that he's nothing like the characters he plays.
And they didn't recast the role of Henley. Lizzy plays a brand new character, a new member of the magical quartet known as the "Four Horsemen"). So with that in mind, I wonder if they'll address Henley's absence in the movie or if Lizzy may possibly be a villain.
Seriously, a movie about magic, anything can happen. The identity of the mysterious 5th Horseman in the previous film proved that. [I didn't give that away in my last review, but there's a good chance I may have indulge that secret in order to properly review this movie].
[Audience Comments and Coming Attractions]
The two of us were among maybe 10 people in the entire theater, which is a slightly better turnout than the first movie. We were there for a couple minutes when the first three showed up. Two girls and a guy. The guy walks in, then says to his companion "we might have trouble finding a seat, it's packed." Of course, complete sarcasm. We had so many commercials before the previews (seriously, there must be have been 24 commercials in the 15 minutes we waited until the movie started... the movie didn't even start on time). He was reading subtitles and made some comments to amuse himself. Don't remember anything specific, but at least someone had humor about the situation.
A group of four walked in during one of the previews. And there were moments of laughter throughout the movie, but only 3-4 times.
I wondered to myself beforehand what trailers they would have because Summit Entertainment doesn't have anything big coming out. Then I noticed as we progressed that Lionsgate was also one of the studios. Either way, I was hearing of two of the movies for the first time.
We were going back and forth between "Warcraft" and this movie and the day before, my sister said we should go to this one. But even then, I was worried with the previews that unfolded that it might have been too much. She's not into scary movies or thrillers with intense scenes and that's what all the movies had in common.
Deepwater Horizon starring Mark Walberg and Kate Hudson
Within seconds, I knew exactly what this movie was going to be about and I was FURIOUS. They are actually making a survival story about the BP oil spill. The worst oil spill in history and they made a movie to profit from it. I don't care that it's been 6 years. That is just in poor taste.
I remember being in a panic about it for months, dying to go down there to help in some way, but I couldn't because I had a job. A job I lost that September. And by then, there was nothing to do. I mean, the oil spill wasn't a end-of-the-world scenario, but it threatened to devastate an entire ecosystem. Not to mention how many cruise lines and vacation spots it could have impacted if it wasn't stopped.
I think Mark Walberg might also be attached to a movie they're planning to make about the Boston marathon bombing. Again, poor taste. Just like 9/11 films like "United 93." Movies like "Remember Me" and "Extremely Loud and Close"- they were fine because they were about how people were affected by the 9/11 tragedy, not about the tragedy itself.
Then with the Benghazi film- possibly in poor taste, but at the same time, it's a story that needs to be told and not forgotten about.
Sorry if I'm getting too political, but in dire times like these, it's hard not to. The day we're seeing this movie, the Orlando night club shooting happened, and it served as a good escape from all that negativity and just being terrified that the world is falling apart.
Nerve starring Emma Roberts and Dave Franco
We saw the movie poster for this in the lobby. The text was written backwards, but I read easily. It had Emma Roberts facing computer screen. NERVE was at the top. And below it had two boxes that can be clicked on- WATCHER or PLAYER.
This was maybe the craziest trailer I'd ever seen. Whether it ran for 3 or 5 minutes, it felt like 10, and I was on the edge of my seat the entire time.
The premise is an online experiment. You can either be a "Player" who follows a list of instructions in hopes of winning a lot of movie. Or you can be a "Watcher" who make the suggestions to the players and observe what happens.
Emma Roberts plays a girl who'd never taken any risks in her life and her friends convince her to give it a try. In the first "dare" [the opening monologue said this game was truth or dare but without the truth], she kisses a random guy, who happens to be played by Dave Franco. I thought- "nice plug"- because he plays one of the Four Horsemen in this movie. And the two of them wind up going on this journey together. But there comes a point where it goes downhill and the "watchers" basically are holding them hostage until they complete the game.
I say this was the craziest trailer I'd seen- not just because of the heart-racing action. But I don't think I'd ever had this great a Ping-Pong match while watching a trailer. I went back and forth so many times trying to decide if this movie is going to be really bad or if, in fact, it is GENIUS. If the reviews are good, I just might consider it.
The Shallows- starring Blake Lively
Yeah, I don't need to go into detail about this one. It's a survival movie and there's a great white shark involved. And seriously, how bad does your career have to be where you have to agree to something like this? And "Jaws" touched on this archetype YEARS ago- does it really need to be revisited?
[Other Reviews and Ratings]Going back to my review on the first movie, I decided to bring this back.
Going by headlines alone, Indiewire.com is 50/50 on this. David Ehrlich hated the original so much that he didn't even give the sequel a chance. Liz Calvario is more lenient, saying "the thrills disappear" but the cast still shines.
Richard Roeper either hasn't reviewed this movie yet or he simply refuses to because there's no record of it on his website. It's just as well. He gave the original a really bad score.
Yet IMDb still has a positive rating: 7.2 out 10 stars.
The consensus on Rotten Tomatoes goes one of two ways. People either hate the movie entirely or they suggest turning your brains off and just taking it for what it is.
The trailers and the behind-the-scenes special on HBO looked impressive. And seeing as I liked the first one so much (although despite my comment on my post, I did not get the DVD... somehow it just slipped my mind).
[The Story]
I'm sorry, but I cannot process without SPOILING the events of the first movie.
So be forewarned... also some mild spoilers ahead about this current movie...
The Four Horsemen have been in hiding for a year. And Atlas is impatiently waiting for instructors from 5th Horseman. After making a final plea to "the eye" (a mysterious person or persons that lead this organization whose job it is to right wrongs committed by people in power), he finds Lula in his apartment. Someone he'd never met before, but somehow knows all about the Four Horsemen's antics, the fact Jack Wilder is alive, Henley left [answering my question about whether her absence would be addressed] and so on.
The scene we met Henley in the first movie caught me off guard and I'm still ill-at-ease about it. Apparently, we have to continue that theme and give Lula's magic a gross-out factor. I'm not saying women can't do gross stuff, but just why?
And in their downtime, it appears that Merritt and Jack are trying to teach each other their unique talents.
I commented in my "Now You See Me" post that Jack Wilder was not to be underestimated... that appears to be a continuing theme and it works out pretty spectacularly. Yes, even more than the fact he survived the first movie's car accident.
The Horsemen finally reunite with their leader and the rest meet Lula for the first time. [And she actually used my words- calling herself "the designated female Horsemen].
Their next gig is at a launch party for a new piece of technology and they need to expose Owen Case's agenda. That his new technology will allow him to access and download everyone's private information. But their plan goes so horribly wrong that it's scary. It's hi-jacked by someone else remotely who exposes all the players. That Jack Wilder is still alive and that the 5th Horsemen is a member of the FBI.
The biggest SPOILER about "Now You See Me" that I didn't disclose until now...
Dylan Rhoades (aka Mark Ruffalo) from the FBI was actually behind all the tricks and heists executed in the first movie. And his motive behind it all- framing Thaddeus Bradley and putting him behind bars. Given the flashback we start with here, it's easy to piece together the fact Dylan blames Thaddeus for his father's death. His father was Lionel Strike- one of the greatest magicians- who died performing his final trick.
As the Four Horsemen flee, they take their planned escape route... but like Harry Potter winding up in Knockturn Alley in the "Chamber of Secrets," they don't proceed carefully enough and take the wrong escape route. And they find themselves in Macau. The movie refers to it as the "Las Vegas of Asia" but in layman's terms, it's a Chinese peninsula that's close to Hong Kong.
Here, they not only run into Merritt's twin brother, Chase [who used to be his partner in magic business] but they learn he's working for Walter Dabry- Owen's ex-business partner who the world believes to be dead.
So with my assumptions going in about the new cast members, I broke even. Lula didn't wind being a bad guy (although we had a sequel on the horizon, so there's still that possibility), but Walter isn't the supreme villain in this movie.
Even though he took a bunch of selfies with the Horsemen, knocked out en route to Macau (one of the biggest laughs the movie got- the second in response to Daniel Radcliffe, it's in his final scene, but I'm not gonna spoil that), he is still a bad guy with a lot of control and he means business.
The Horsemen commit a heist for him, stealing the technology that can unencrypt any computer system in the world. The technology being metal and the entry way to its location being a built-in metal detector... it's bound to make things difficult and my belief changed into utter disbelief the longer the scene went home.
Atlas tries to get them out of their contract to Walter and fails miserably.
Luckily for him, Dylan uncovers their location, arrives to save him, but almost gets himself killed in the process.
The movie goes back and forth between the Macau misadventures and Dylan having to swallow his pride and seek Thaddeus Bradley for help- under the impression he was behind their disappearance.
He breaks him out of jail, Thaddeus says where they need to go, and he gives him the slip when they visit a local magic shop. A place the Four Horsemen went to get supplies from local magician Li and his grandmother.
Thaddeus returns later in the film and his overall contribution to the story. Not just the current one, but what happened to Lionel Strike. It's not exactly what you expect and it's kinda cool. But it also leaves behind a bit of a headache.
As does the rest of the movie.
In a cryptic online message, the Horsemen threaten to expose Walt (without actually mentioning his name) using the technology they stole and the final act takes place in London.
This is where the majority of the magic happens in the movie. Of course, it's thrilling to watch and it's dazzling.
But the critics might be right about this one. The story gets a little convoluted. As good as our heroes are at what they do, it becomes harder to believe that they are going to come out on top. Until the final moment, nothing seemed to be working in their favor. Unless you account for the fact you didn't see who drove the van that captured them and brought them to the bad guys.
The only way I knew that for sure was the unspoken contract between movie and audience: The good guys always win.
And at the end, there are a few secrets and reveals still to come and a little bit of a cliff-hanger. The Horsemen are at the headquarters of "the eye" and they see something at the bottom of a spiral staircase that they run towards... but we never see what it is. Maybe it's nothing, but it could also be something that will lead us to the upcoming sequel.
[Other Comments]
Yeah, I found it really distracting and kinda stupid to write a twin brother for Woody Harrelson's character. To me, it felt like an excuse not to put someone else on the payroll. On a previous occasion, he said he mentioned someone who took everything from him, but with so much emphasis on the special effects, who's going to remember details like that?
[Well, I'm usually better at it, but it'd been 3 years since I last saw it].
Daniel Radcliffe played a pretty good villain, but of course he wasn't the only one involved.
It's kinda funny how "revenge" is a common theme.
In a way, they borrowed from "Ocean's 12" where the good guys were forced to work for Andy Garcia to get back the money he stole from them.
The money that was stolen by the Horsemen in the previous movie belonged to him and his father. And the two of them aim to exact their revenge.
We have that and Dylan's vendetta against Thaddeus and how he believes the disappearance of the Horsemen was Thaddeus's revenge against his framing and false arrest.
Both have radically different results.
For a role that has some sickness involved, Lizzy Caplan was the right person for it. She showed no fear and is just weird enough to make it work.
There's a potential romance also between her character and Dave Franco's. It's explored, but only at the surface. At least in this movie.
Grade: A-/B+
[the margin between the two grades is insanely slim. The difference is whether or not I care about the convolution and excess length in a couple places. Not a bad sequel, but the original did it better]
Saturday, November 21, 2015
Theatrical Review: Mockingjay- Part 2
Date: Saturday November 21, 2014
Time: 12pm
Location: Pocono Movieplex
Party: 2 (my mom and I)
Director: Francis Lawrence
Type: young adult, drama, book-to-movie adaptation, action, sci-fi
Cast:
Katniss Everdeen- Jennifer Lawrence
Peeta Mellark- Josh Hutcherson
Gale- Liam Hemsworth
Plutarach- Philip Seymour HoffmanFinnick Odair (District 4)- Sam Claflin
Beetee (aka "Volts") (District 3)- Jeffrey Wright
Haymitch- Woody Harrelson
Effie Trinket- Elizabeth Banks
Prim Everdeen- Willow Shields
Caesar Flickerman- Stanley Tucci
President Snow- Donald SutherlandJohanna Mason (District 7)- Jena Malone
District 13 President Coin- Julianne Moore
Katniss's bodyguard Boggs- Mahershala Ali
Propaganda director Cressida- Natalie Dormer
Propaganda crew member Messalla-Evan Ross
Propaganda crew member Castor- Wes Chatham
Propaganda crew member Pollux- Elden Henson
Duration: 137 minutes (+ trailers)
Opening Remarks and Trailers:
We were the only ones in the theater when we arrived. 2-3 people came in after the trailers, but they slipped in through the back so we only heard them come in.
I'm not sure if I've asked this yet, but are we going to have to suffer through that Superman/Batman trailer EVERY SINGLE TIME we go to the movies? The god-awful excessive promotion of this is actually talking me OUT of seeing this movie.
That was my last thought before the movie itself started.
Before that, we had some pretty awesome looking trailers for "Alice in Wonderland: Through the Looking Glass" (although I have to ask if there was any conceivable reason to make the Mad Hatter a lead character if he wasn't being played by Johnny Depp), "Allegiant" (why the hell are they making this into two movies, again? It looks fairly complete to me...), "Star Wars: The Force Awakens" (we got to see Leia this time! I'm also theorizing whether the female lead and Oscar Isaac's characters are Han & Leia's twins... I'm pretty sure she's one of them, with him, it's just wishful thinking, lol).
Then there was a brand new movie called "God of Egypt" which looked SUPER AMAZING. The effects especially. Gerard Butler appears to be playing the villain God, Set. And Robert Sheehan (who played Simon in "City of Bones") might be one of the main characters. I just hope it really is as amazing as it looks and it doesn't wind up being that waste-of-time "Clash of the Titans" remake.
Write-up:
The End of Another Franchise
For my previous "Hunger Games" reviews, follow the links below... if that kind of thing strikes your fancy:http://moviegoerconfessions.blogspot.com/2013/07/71-hunger-games-2012.html
http://moviegoerconfessions.blogspot.com/2013/11/theatrical-review-hunger-games-catching.html
http://moviegoerconfessions.blogspot.com/2014/11/theatrical-review-mockingjay-part-1.html
Now onto business...
I was just thinking the other day how, once this movie is done, the only YA franchise we have left is Veronica Roth's series... and that's going to be agonizingly carried out over the next couple years. Those who've read "Allegiant" know why- I'm not going to dispense with any spoilers until that time comes (in 2018).
Beyond that, we'll have a bunch of "Star Wars" movies, the rest of "50 shades" (2017 cannot come fast enough... assuming "50 Shades Darker" follows in the same footsteps of the first movie, which I enjoyed far more than the book. Although the 2nd book is my favorite in the series by far), and a bunch of John Green adaptations ("Paper Towns" got horrible reviews, but I loved the book so I still want to see it).
What'll we do without any serieses of book-to-adaptations? Who knows?
But what's for sure is that the ending of every franchise is a celebration with some bittersweet aspects. Most of them are in the realm of "crying cuz it's over, but happy that it happened"... Harry Potter and Twilight were that for me, easily.
With "Mockingjay" and the Hunger Games, even before going into the movie, I know for a fact it will be bittersweet because the impending victory (this is not a SPOILER, by the way. Find me one franchise where the rebels/good guys don't win, then we'll talk) comes after some very drastic and heartwrenching sacrifices.
Far worse than losing Fred Weasley, Tonks and Lupin in "Harry Potter"- but to be fair, those deaths were shown so quickly that we barely had time to grieve. Of all people, Snape was probably the one person we were allowed time to mourn. [And I proceeded through the series all over again, books & movies, so I could truly appreciate him and his actions].
And much to my continued annoyance while reading the book, one of those casualties/deaths DID NOT INCLUDE PEETA.
I can be pretty rabid about wanting someone killed off in a series (film, TV, book, etc.). Especially villains. But also when something appears to be a dead end with no hope of redemption. This was not assisted by the fact I shipped Katniss and Gale for the series and something happens that blows up (figuratively AND literally) any possibility of that. After Bella married Edward and become a vampire, I didn't think there was a more final way to put an end to a YA novel coupling. Any member of Team Jacob reading this would probably laugh and point "NOW YOU KNOW HOW WE FEEL."
More on Shipping YA book/movie couples
Excluding "Twilight" (Team Edward for life!), it really does suck when the girl always ends up with the guy she just met opposed to the one she knew her whole life. Clary & Simon had that same issue in the "Mortal Instruments" series, but then again, that whole cockblock [not a typo!] that was Clary & Jace being fooled into believing they were brother and sister... I'm sorry, that was incredibly stupid. I enjoyed the series, but it had so many annoying roadblocks keeping Clary & Jace apart that I almost gave up on a number of times.
The only example of friends winding up together was "Some Kind of Wonderful"- it STILL does not make up for Andy & Ducky not happening in "Pretty in Pink."
Anyway, the movies made me like Peeta more than I did in the books- where I think I was more indifferent towards him. The credit, without a doubt, goes to Josh Hutcherson for just being so good at being likeable. So going in, I could only hope that his performance would save me again. That I wouldn't spend most of the movie wishing him dead because the grip that tracker-jacker torture had on him could not be broken.
Onto The Movie itself...
After all that build up, I hope that I at least have enough to talk about to fill up the rest of the post.
We re-enter the movie maybe a couple weeks after the previous part ended. Katniss is just getting her voice back after Peeta nearly choked her to death. And I spend a great deal of the movie white-knuckled, shell-shocked and in that old "Mockingjay-death-to-Peeta" state of mind.
Being with him in those scenes was so difficult. I don't have a lot of memory of the book at this point, but I didn't remember Katniss actually taking my side and really wanting nothing to do with him. Heck, there's a scene where President Coin, Plutarch and Haymitch make her talk to him when she really doesn't to. The madness comes out when they first send Prim to talk to him, which I don't remember from the book, but if it was made for the movie, it made sense. First because he knows and trusts her and second because we need more Prim screen time to make up for later on.
Spoilers from this point forward...
And just prepare for me to go into length about the characters... it's always best to read the books first.
In previous book-to-movie adaptations (although most of this was "Twilight"), I loathed when they spent time away from the protagonists and spent time with the villains or side characters. But in this case, I enjoyed President Snow's additional screen time to see more of what was going on.
There was an intriguing "dinner party" scene where he offs somebody in a way much more subtle than Darth Vadar choking out the creator of the Death Star. Snow being the ruthless ruler he is, it's not surprising that he's dealt with a fair number of assassination attempts. But I enjoyed the fact (not sadistically, but for storytelling purposes) that this was starting to take a toll on him. And he could very well die soon of his own fruition.
I don't know if I would have found as much comfort in Plutarch's presence in the story had Philip Seymour Hoffman not died. But whatever presence he had was grounding and comforting, especially when a lot of it was bleak and tense. The CGI renderings of him to fill in the blanks he left behind after his death were so live-like, I'm welling to bet they were bittersweet for greater fans of his .
And his absence also gave Woody Harrelson a chance at having a great additional scene that made me grateful for both their characters. Haymitch had the least screen time in this film than any other before it, but he made each one really count for something.
Jena Malone appears a small number of times as Johanna, being somewhat of the antithesis/voice of reason within District 13's rebel stronghold. Although her most memorable moments were stealing Katniss's morphine (anyone who knows Johanna from "Catching Fire" or reading the books, this was one of those "well-of-course") moments and slowly forming a Joker grin while listening to Katniss's plan at the wedding.
To me, having Finnick and Annie's wedding in the middle of this movie felt a little contrived and pointless. I didn't know whether or not he was going to die in an upcoming scene and if he had, what was the point of all this? Just to take us away from the bleak nature of this movie? To give Katniss and Prim one final nice scene together?
It wasn't nearly as gratifying, heartwarming or exciting as Bill and Fleur's wedding in part 1 of the "Deathly Hallows."
One review I remember mentioned something about Stanley Tucci having one last scene as Caesar Flickman that was memorable... when I saw it, I figured I misread it as being something more than it was. But somehow I missed the line "he manages to end his brief appearance with the single most insincere smile his toady of a character has ever smiled." Actually, until that moment, I always liked his character. Then I freaking HATED him or wished he was joking about Katniss being horrible.
After the wedding, a few scenes of Katniss fighting to storm the Capitol, and Peeta continuing to deteriorate my opinion of him, we have Katniss going with Boggs, Gale, Finnick and her propaganda team to infiltrate the Capitol.
Which obviously is tricky business because there are booby traps everywhere, even those not marked on their portable electronic map.
Plus the fact Peeta was shipped to them. I don't remember that in the book either, him joining their squad in this way, but either way, it felt like foul play was at work. That coupled with Boggs telling Katniss that Coin wanted to save Peeta from the arena instead of her because she wants to be in control of everything. Losing him was a little bit of a game-changer, but I also hated it because I had started to like him at this point.
Peeta lashes out only one other time, killing one person whose name escapes me, which made me feel a bit better. After a while, I started to ignore the ticking bomb in the room and focus on the other dangers ahead. I screamed once and it was at something that wasn't even deadly. The only way for them to go day to day was to keep asking/answering whether something was real or not. Apparently, the tracker-jacker torture involved using images that were real and some that weren't. And that same Peeta I liked in the first couple movies was back.
I still don't regret feeling any of that negativity, though.
Gale and Peeta actually got to have a scene together, which was interesting, but much shorter than the whole Edward/Jacob conversation in the tent in "Eclipse." They ultimately agree that Katniss will choose whomever when the war is all over.
But being on Team Gale, I still feel letdown about how he and Katniss parted ways. The scene was barely a blimp in the radar of the movie. He didn't know whether the final assault on the Capitol was his issue (in the book, I think he knew he was behind it) and she simply said goodbye to him. They never saw each other after that. At least Jacob, however annoying he was at times, contributed to the plot and was around after the main story ended.
All the boobytrap scene had really great CGI and special effects. But they were also terrifying, more than anything in either arena from the first two movies. In the sewers, there were all these monsters looked like the demons in the cave from the "Half-Blood Prince." The action happened so fast you almost didn't know who was who. But the fact Peeta got involved and actually attacked them (rather than his fellow humans) was great to see from his character. It let me know things would be okay from that point forward.
But losing one character here was particularly difficult. It almost felt unnecessary, but considering how they were surrounded, there really was no way out.
Besides the Peeta-turn-around, the one good thing that came out of going underground was giving Pollux a time to shine. I fouind him very endearing in Part 1 and having him lead the squad through the tunnels he knew like the back of his hand- that was great, and he did it without saying a word. (He's an Avox- had his tongue cut out by the Capitol as punishment).
There's a scene where everyone left ducks into a fashion boutique where they hid for the night. I believe this was supposed to the one scene Effie had in the entire "Mockingjay" novel. Instead, this went to Tigress, a former "Hunger Games" beautifier that Snow had tired because she wasn't pretty anymore. The only thing left at this point is for the squad to split up with Katniss and Gale going undercover.
Snow makes an announcement that all the Capitol denizens need to hide in his mansion. So I'm rolling my eyes thinking this is a human-shield tactic. Then at the front, they're ordered to hand all their children over. More eye rolling. Parachutes (like those with sponsor gifts in the Hunger Games) come down and I figure out very quickly that they are not a good thing. Everything turns around very quickly. So much that you almost have no time to react. Barely even have time to notice Prim and scream when she's killed in one of the bombings.
In this part of the book, Katniss is rendered mute from the shock of it all. She figures out very quickly what happened and who was responsible. But I suppose they needed one final scene with her and President Snow to really establish her future mindset and explain why she takes the actions she does.
I remember reading the end of a chapter where she has an arrow notched for Snow. But turn the page and she kills President Coin and he dies choking on his own tongue and blood from laughing so hard at the sheer madness of it all. I honestly don't remember my reaction: whether it was a surprise or I had expected it.
It was frustrating that she never got to explain herself to anyone when everyone in the crowd was in a frenzy over what she did. But I like the scene with Haymitch, reading Plutarch's letter about sneaking her out of the city and also understanding her actions.
But I started to wonder/worry that they were going to gloss over Prim's death... until Katniss returns home (in the Victor's part of District 12) and sees Prim's cat. Her reaction still came off better in the book, but J-Law makes this hard to watch for good reasons. We all feel the way she does (at least I should hope so at this point).
I liked the ending where she, Peeta and Haymitch are living together. And she also comes to his room and falls asleep in Peeta's arms.
But then we went into the re-written epilogue section... which I felt was a little overkill with the sticky-sweet factor. I knew she and Peeta would end up together, but did we really have to see them have a couple kids? And she tells one of them about having nightmares and playing "games"... I'm sorry, guys, but give me a freaking break here.
I realize that there would be no Hunger Games (President Coin's push for them with the Capitol's children ended with her death) and there's no reason left to not want kids. But it felt a little too cliché to me.
[Just re-read the last couple pages- the only differences are which of the two child is older and the narrative was converted to dialogue... either way, I rolled my eyes when I read it because I honestly didn't care to know any of that. But that's just me...]
Final Comment:
I really enjoyed the first two movies. The second even more than the first one. But splitting this movie in two might have done it less favors. There were moments with certain character I really enjoyed, but after a while, I just wanted to it all to be over. It wasn't thoroughly enjoyable, but then again, war rarely is.
My mom was saying afterwards that she felt numb after all that's happened through the series. And I tend to agree.
Grade: B+
Time: 12pm
Location: Pocono Movieplex
Party: 2 (my mom and I)
Director: Francis Lawrence
Type: young adult, drama, book-to-movie adaptation, action, sci-fi
Cast:
Katniss Everdeen- Jennifer Lawrence
Peeta Mellark- Josh Hutcherson
Gale- Liam Hemsworth
Plutarach- Philip Seymour HoffmanFinnick Odair (District 4)- Sam Claflin
Beetee (aka "Volts") (District 3)- Jeffrey Wright
Haymitch- Woody Harrelson
Effie Trinket- Elizabeth Banks
Prim Everdeen- Willow Shields
Caesar Flickerman- Stanley Tucci
President Snow- Donald SutherlandJohanna Mason (District 7)- Jena Malone
District 13 President Coin- Julianne Moore
Katniss's bodyguard Boggs- Mahershala Ali
Propaganda director Cressida- Natalie Dormer
Propaganda crew member Messalla-Evan Ross
Propaganda crew member Castor- Wes Chatham
Propaganda crew member Pollux- Elden Henson
Duration: 137 minutes (+ trailers)
Opening Remarks and Trailers:
We were the only ones in the theater when we arrived. 2-3 people came in after the trailers, but they slipped in through the back so we only heard them come in.
I'm not sure if I've asked this yet, but are we going to have to suffer through that Superman/Batman trailer EVERY SINGLE TIME we go to the movies? The god-awful excessive promotion of this is actually talking me OUT of seeing this movie.
That was my last thought before the movie itself started.
Before that, we had some pretty awesome looking trailers for "Alice in Wonderland: Through the Looking Glass" (although I have to ask if there was any conceivable reason to make the Mad Hatter a lead character if he wasn't being played by Johnny Depp), "Allegiant" (why the hell are they making this into two movies, again? It looks fairly complete to me...), "Star Wars: The Force Awakens" (we got to see Leia this time! I'm also theorizing whether the female lead and Oscar Isaac's characters are Han & Leia's twins... I'm pretty sure she's one of them, with him, it's just wishful thinking, lol).
Then there was a brand new movie called "God of Egypt" which looked SUPER AMAZING. The effects especially. Gerard Butler appears to be playing the villain God, Set. And Robert Sheehan (who played Simon in "City of Bones") might be one of the main characters. I just hope it really is as amazing as it looks and it doesn't wind up being that waste-of-time "Clash of the Titans" remake.
Write-up:
The End of Another Franchise
For my previous "Hunger Games" reviews, follow the links below... if that kind of thing strikes your fancy:http://moviegoerconfessions.blogspot.com/2013/07/71-hunger-games-2012.html
http://moviegoerconfessions.blogspot.com/2013/11/theatrical-review-hunger-games-catching.html
http://moviegoerconfessions.blogspot.com/2014/11/theatrical-review-mockingjay-part-1.html
Now onto business...
I was just thinking the other day how, once this movie is done, the only YA franchise we have left is Veronica Roth's series... and that's going to be agonizingly carried out over the next couple years. Those who've read "Allegiant" know why- I'm not going to dispense with any spoilers until that time comes (in 2018).
Beyond that, we'll have a bunch of "Star Wars" movies, the rest of "50 shades" (2017 cannot come fast enough... assuming "50 Shades Darker" follows in the same footsteps of the first movie, which I enjoyed far more than the book. Although the 2nd book is my favorite in the series by far), and a bunch of John Green adaptations ("Paper Towns" got horrible reviews, but I loved the book so I still want to see it).
What'll we do without any serieses of book-to-adaptations? Who knows?
But what's for sure is that the ending of every franchise is a celebration with some bittersweet aspects. Most of them are in the realm of "crying cuz it's over, but happy that it happened"... Harry Potter and Twilight were that for me, easily.
With "Mockingjay" and the Hunger Games, even before going into the movie, I know for a fact it will be bittersweet because the impending victory (this is not a SPOILER, by the way. Find me one franchise where the rebels/good guys don't win, then we'll talk) comes after some very drastic and heartwrenching sacrifices.
Far worse than losing Fred Weasley, Tonks and Lupin in "Harry Potter"- but to be fair, those deaths were shown so quickly that we barely had time to grieve. Of all people, Snape was probably the one person we were allowed time to mourn. [And I proceeded through the series all over again, books & movies, so I could truly appreciate him and his actions].
And much to my continued annoyance while reading the book, one of those casualties/deaths DID NOT INCLUDE PEETA.
I can be pretty rabid about wanting someone killed off in a series (film, TV, book, etc.). Especially villains. But also when something appears to be a dead end with no hope of redemption. This was not assisted by the fact I shipped Katniss and Gale for the series and something happens that blows up (figuratively AND literally) any possibility of that. After Bella married Edward and become a vampire, I didn't think there was a more final way to put an end to a YA novel coupling. Any member of Team Jacob reading this would probably laugh and point "NOW YOU KNOW HOW WE FEEL."
More on Shipping YA book/movie couples
Excluding "Twilight" (Team Edward for life!), it really does suck when the girl always ends up with the guy she just met opposed to the one she knew her whole life. Clary & Simon had that same issue in the "Mortal Instruments" series, but then again, that whole cockblock [not a typo!] that was Clary & Jace being fooled into believing they were brother and sister... I'm sorry, that was incredibly stupid. I enjoyed the series, but it had so many annoying roadblocks keeping Clary & Jace apart that I almost gave up on a number of times.
The only example of friends winding up together was "Some Kind of Wonderful"- it STILL does not make up for Andy & Ducky not happening in "Pretty in Pink."
Anyway, the movies made me like Peeta more than I did in the books- where I think I was more indifferent towards him. The credit, without a doubt, goes to Josh Hutcherson for just being so good at being likeable. So going in, I could only hope that his performance would save me again. That I wouldn't spend most of the movie wishing him dead because the grip that tracker-jacker torture had on him could not be broken.
Onto The Movie itself...
After all that build up, I hope that I at least have enough to talk about to fill up the rest of the post.
We re-enter the movie maybe a couple weeks after the previous part ended. Katniss is just getting her voice back after Peeta nearly choked her to death. And I spend a great deal of the movie white-knuckled, shell-shocked and in that old "Mockingjay-death-to-Peeta" state of mind.
Being with him in those scenes was so difficult. I don't have a lot of memory of the book at this point, but I didn't remember Katniss actually taking my side and really wanting nothing to do with him. Heck, there's a scene where President Coin, Plutarch and Haymitch make her talk to him when she really doesn't to. The madness comes out when they first send Prim to talk to him, which I don't remember from the book, but if it was made for the movie, it made sense. First because he knows and trusts her and second because we need more Prim screen time to make up for later on.
Spoilers from this point forward...
And just prepare for me to go into length about the characters... it's always best to read the books first.
In previous book-to-movie adaptations (although most of this was "Twilight"), I loathed when they spent time away from the protagonists and spent time with the villains or side characters. But in this case, I enjoyed President Snow's additional screen time to see more of what was going on.
There was an intriguing "dinner party" scene where he offs somebody in a way much more subtle than Darth Vadar choking out the creator of the Death Star. Snow being the ruthless ruler he is, it's not surprising that he's dealt with a fair number of assassination attempts. But I enjoyed the fact (not sadistically, but for storytelling purposes) that this was starting to take a toll on him. And he could very well die soon of his own fruition.
I don't know if I would have found as much comfort in Plutarch's presence in the story had Philip Seymour Hoffman not died. But whatever presence he had was grounding and comforting, especially when a lot of it was bleak and tense. The CGI renderings of him to fill in the blanks he left behind after his death were so live-like, I'm welling to bet they were bittersweet for greater fans of his .
And his absence also gave Woody Harrelson a chance at having a great additional scene that made me grateful for both their characters. Haymitch had the least screen time in this film than any other before it, but he made each one really count for something.
Jena Malone appears a small number of times as Johanna, being somewhat of the antithesis/voice of reason within District 13's rebel stronghold. Although her most memorable moments were stealing Katniss's morphine (anyone who knows Johanna from "Catching Fire" or reading the books, this was one of those "well-of-course") moments and slowly forming a Joker grin while listening to Katniss's plan at the wedding.
To me, having Finnick and Annie's wedding in the middle of this movie felt a little contrived and pointless. I didn't know whether or not he was going to die in an upcoming scene and if he had, what was the point of all this? Just to take us away from the bleak nature of this movie? To give Katniss and Prim one final nice scene together?
It wasn't nearly as gratifying, heartwarming or exciting as Bill and Fleur's wedding in part 1 of the "Deathly Hallows."
One review I remember mentioned something about Stanley Tucci having one last scene as Caesar Flickman that was memorable... when I saw it, I figured I misread it as being something more than it was. But somehow I missed the line "he manages to end his brief appearance with the single most insincere smile his toady of a character has ever smiled." Actually, until that moment, I always liked his character. Then I freaking HATED him or wished he was joking about Katniss being horrible.
After the wedding, a few scenes of Katniss fighting to storm the Capitol, and Peeta continuing to deteriorate my opinion of him, we have Katniss going with Boggs, Gale, Finnick and her propaganda team to infiltrate the Capitol.
Which obviously is tricky business because there are booby traps everywhere, even those not marked on their portable electronic map.
Plus the fact Peeta was shipped to them. I don't remember that in the book either, him joining their squad in this way, but either way, it felt like foul play was at work. That coupled with Boggs telling Katniss that Coin wanted to save Peeta from the arena instead of her because she wants to be in control of everything. Losing him was a little bit of a game-changer, but I also hated it because I had started to like him at this point.
Peeta lashes out only one other time, killing one person whose name escapes me, which made me feel a bit better. After a while, I started to ignore the ticking bomb in the room and focus on the other dangers ahead. I screamed once and it was at something that wasn't even deadly. The only way for them to go day to day was to keep asking/answering whether something was real or not. Apparently, the tracker-jacker torture involved using images that were real and some that weren't. And that same Peeta I liked in the first couple movies was back.
I still don't regret feeling any of that negativity, though.
Gale and Peeta actually got to have a scene together, which was interesting, but much shorter than the whole Edward/Jacob conversation in the tent in "Eclipse." They ultimately agree that Katniss will choose whomever when the war is all over.
But being on Team Gale, I still feel letdown about how he and Katniss parted ways. The scene was barely a blimp in the radar of the movie. He didn't know whether the final assault on the Capitol was his issue (in the book, I think he knew he was behind it) and she simply said goodbye to him. They never saw each other after that. At least Jacob, however annoying he was at times, contributed to the plot and was around after the main story ended.
All the boobytrap scene had really great CGI and special effects. But they were also terrifying, more than anything in either arena from the first two movies. In the sewers, there were all these monsters looked like the demons in the cave from the "Half-Blood Prince." The action happened so fast you almost didn't know who was who. But the fact Peeta got involved and actually attacked them (rather than his fellow humans) was great to see from his character. It let me know things would be okay from that point forward.
But losing one character here was particularly difficult. It almost felt unnecessary, but considering how they were surrounded, there really was no way out.
Besides the Peeta-turn-around, the one good thing that came out of going underground was giving Pollux a time to shine. I fouind him very endearing in Part 1 and having him lead the squad through the tunnels he knew like the back of his hand- that was great, and he did it without saying a word. (He's an Avox- had his tongue cut out by the Capitol as punishment).
There's a scene where everyone left ducks into a fashion boutique where they hid for the night. I believe this was supposed to the one scene Effie had in the entire "Mockingjay" novel. Instead, this went to Tigress, a former "Hunger Games" beautifier that Snow had tired because she wasn't pretty anymore. The only thing left at this point is for the squad to split up with Katniss and Gale going undercover.
Snow makes an announcement that all the Capitol denizens need to hide in his mansion. So I'm rolling my eyes thinking this is a human-shield tactic. Then at the front, they're ordered to hand all their children over. More eye rolling. Parachutes (like those with sponsor gifts in the Hunger Games) come down and I figure out very quickly that they are not a good thing. Everything turns around very quickly. So much that you almost have no time to react. Barely even have time to notice Prim and scream when she's killed in one of the bombings.
In this part of the book, Katniss is rendered mute from the shock of it all. She figures out very quickly what happened and who was responsible. But I suppose they needed one final scene with her and President Snow to really establish her future mindset and explain why she takes the actions she does.
I remember reading the end of a chapter where she has an arrow notched for Snow. But turn the page and she kills President Coin and he dies choking on his own tongue and blood from laughing so hard at the sheer madness of it all. I honestly don't remember my reaction: whether it was a surprise or I had expected it.
It was frustrating that she never got to explain herself to anyone when everyone in the crowd was in a frenzy over what she did. But I like the scene with Haymitch, reading Plutarch's letter about sneaking her out of the city and also understanding her actions.
But I started to wonder/worry that they were going to gloss over Prim's death... until Katniss returns home (in the Victor's part of District 12) and sees Prim's cat. Her reaction still came off better in the book, but J-Law makes this hard to watch for good reasons. We all feel the way she does (at least I should hope so at this point).
I liked the ending where she, Peeta and Haymitch are living together. And she also comes to his room and falls asleep in Peeta's arms.
But then we went into the re-written epilogue section... which I felt was a little overkill with the sticky-sweet factor. I knew she and Peeta would end up together, but did we really have to see them have a couple kids? And she tells one of them about having nightmares and playing "games"... I'm sorry, guys, but give me a freaking break here.
I realize that there would be no Hunger Games (President Coin's push for them with the Capitol's children ended with her death) and there's no reason left to not want kids. But it felt a little too cliché to me.
[Just re-read the last couple pages- the only differences are which of the two child is older and the narrative was converted to dialogue... either way, I rolled my eyes when I read it because I honestly didn't care to know any of that. But that's just me...]
Final Comment:
I really enjoyed the first two movies. The second even more than the first one. But splitting this movie in two might have done it less favors. There were moments with certain character I really enjoyed, but after a while, I just wanted to it all to be over. It wasn't thoroughly enjoyable, but then again, war rarely is.
My mom was saying afterwards that she felt numb after all that's happened through the series. And I tend to agree.
Grade: B+
Monday, November 24, 2014
Theatrical Review: Mockingjay-Part 1
Time: 12:15pm
Location: Pocono Movieplex
Party: 3 (my mom, book-to-movie loving aunt and myself)
Duration: 123 minutes (+3 trailers)
Director: Francis Lawrence
Type: young adult, drama, book-to-movie adaptation, action, sci-fi
Cast:
Returning Players
Katniss Everdeen- Jennifer Lawrence
Peeta Mellark- Josh Hutcherson
Gale- Liam Hemsworth
Plutarach- Philip Seymour Hoffman
Finnick Odair (District 4)- Sam Claflin
Beetee (aka "Volts") (District 3)- Jeffrey Wright
Haymitch- Woody Harrelson
Effie Trinket- Elizabeth Banks
Prim Everdeen- Willow Shields
Caesar Flickerman- Stanley Tucci
President Snow- Donald SutherlandJohanna Mason (District 7)- Jena Malone
Newcomers
District 13 President Coin- Julianne Moore
Katniss's bodyguard Boggs- Mahershala Ali
Propaganda director Cressida- Natalie Dormer
Propaganda crew member Messalla-Evan Ross
Propaganda crew member Castor- Wes Chatham
Propaganda crew member Pollux- Elden Henson
Opening Remarks and Trailers:
We were 3 of 9 people in the entire theater. A group of two sat several seats in front of us and a family of 4 sat across from us. The interaction was few and far between, but there was one point (I'll mention when) when they clapped.
Going in, I guessed we'd have three trailers. One for the last "Hobbit" movie (our next theatrical venture), one for "Insurgence" (book two of Veronica Roth's series) and one for the newest "Avengers" movie...
I had the number right, but the "Hobbit" trailer was replaced by something else. Most likely, because Lionsgate wanted to promote their movies and didn't want to risk the competition.
Seeing as the closest movie in box office numbers this week was "Big Hero 6" at $20M (compared to $123 million), such a thing does not currently exist.
"The Age of Adaline" was yet another attempt at the cliché: a person is mysteriously granted with the gift of Eternal Youth and they need to navigate their lives accordingly.
The only big difference here is that the hero is a heroine. Blake Likely to be exact. And the focus is on how she spent her eternity not allowing herself to get involved with people because it only leads to heartbreak over the whole "not aging" thing.
So between a tired plot and Blake Likely (do not get the hype around her at all... but that's mostly because she was the only "Sister of the Pants" had nothing in common with... plus her whole storyline where she flirts with a soccer coach and after sleeping with him, she feels bad about herself... as far as I'm concerned, she ASKED for that heartache by pursing a forbidden relationship)
"Insurgence" was nothing but a teaser trailer... that never happened in the book. To me, it looked a dream sequence or another "simulation". Plus I'm still recovering from the last time I saw it-- Tris crying over her mom dying left me an emotional mess 10 minutes after that death scene... the trailer was her chasing after her mom (who I know to be DEAD) in a floating burning building.
Considering my Downey fangirl status, it might sound crazy, me saying this, but this was my first glimpse of the new "Avengers" trailer. While I found it odd that he committed to the next "Captain America" movie [he's just procrastinating more for "Sherlock 3"], it's really reassuring.
No more of me worrying about the reunion of the "Less than Zero" cast mates [since James Spader will be Ultron's voice] giving way to the "nightmare scenario" of deja vu.
Seriously, though, the trailer looks impressive. We get our first glimpses of Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch. Lots of great action sure to come, the characters being pushed to their limits... my knuckles will be white the entire time :P
Write-up:
Other Opening Remarks
For my previous "Hunger Games" reviews, follow the links below... if that kind of thing strikes your fancy:
http://moviegoerconfessions.blogspot.com/2013/07/71-hunger-games-2012.html
http://moviegoerconfessions.blogspot.com/2013/11/theatrical-review-hunger-games-catching.html
Now onto business...
Excluding the people who hate on YA novel film adaptations, there are two kinds of critics of this movie:
1) those who believe "Mockingjay" shouldn't have been split into two movies
2) those who believe "nothing happened"
One movie or two?
I will concede the first point.
I expressed my annoyance with "The Deathly Hallows" (in the first half of the book, nothing really did happen, I couldn't wait for it to be over) being split in half... an opinion I later reversed since part 1 was really well done.
The same thing with "Breaking Dawn"... I felt they were copying the Harry Potter thing by doing two movies... I felt like they could have done it in one, but then we'd have to rush through all the new vampires. I also appreciated the "good-bye" treatment in the beginning (set to "Bella's Lullaby") and end (set to Christina Perri's "A Thousand Years").
...hey, I'm a Twi-hard, I love these characters... the very least Harry Potter could have done was erupt into cheers and celebration when Voldermort was finally defeated [you know, like at the end of "Return of the Jedi"]
"Mockingjay", I had the same reservations about... and don't even get me started on the latest announcement about "Allegiant"... why prolong the inevitably painful ending by splitting into two movies? The studio hears money while I hear my insides screaming.
I read "Mockingjay" over two years ago, so I don't remember much about it... other than the beginning, middle (where this movie ended) and the end/epilogue.
So as far as rating it as a book-to-movie adaptation, I'm a little out of my depth :P
but as with the above mentioned links, I strongly recommend reading the books beforehand... otherwise, you're at a disadvantage.
Not just being in the dark about what happens, but forging a relationship with these characters.
You can get caught up in the disbelief that anything happens in this movie, but if you don't know the characters or allow yourselves to get to know them, you might as well be wasting your time.
Story
SPOILERS AHEAD
When President Coin (Julianne Moore) says "the games destroyed her" in the trailers, she really wasn't kidding. Katniss is a mess when we first see her. Refusing to sleep because all of the nightmares. Also still very incensed that Haymitch went back on his word to save Peeta over her.
In fact, she goes on about that for the first half hour of the movie until the President agrees to her "demands"-- rescuing the hostages (Peeta, Johanna and Finnick's girlfriend Annie) at the early opportunity and giving them a full pardon.
Much of the movie is spent making propaganda videos. The trick is visiting some of the districts and capturing Katniss's reactions as they happen. [Haymitch hatches this plan since reading from a script clearly wasn't cutting it] Meanwhile, we see members of District 7 (Johnna's lumber yard district) and 5 (hydroelectric) fight back against the Peacekeepers in response.
We meet four new characters, all refugees from The Capitol. Castor and Pollux (as Greek mythology would suggest) are brothers, but one is an Avox (he had his tongue cut out as punishment). Pollux still manages to charm Katniss with only his smile.
Cressida is tough-as-nails (half her head is shaved and tattooed... that's pretty bad-ass) and very business-like. Up until the final video (where Katniss refused to go on), I found her very accommodating to her.
Outside of Peeta's captivity, the biggest conflict in the film comes from The Capitol. They're presenting Peeta as a "voice of reason," trying to convince the people to stop their revolution. So District 13 isn't exactly a fan of him (or Katniss's condition to give him a full pardon).
And The Capitol is the only place in Panem not broadcasting District 13's videos. So it's up to Beetee (District 3's survivor of the Quarter Quell Hunger Games) to find a way to break past the security system that--ironically--he invented himself.
Team Peeta vs. Team Gale- Part 1
As a member of Team Gale, there were a lot of great moments I enjoyed this movie. Gale getting more screentime than he had in the previous two movies COMBINED. He and Katniss appear to be getting closer, but all the while, she's fixated on saving Peeta.
I love their combined screen time, but in the back of my mind, I knew this wasn't fair to Gale.
As for Peeta... I didn't quite see the transformation he went through during this movie. My mom and aunt talked about him losing weight-- something I didn't see until he was finally rescued. But his face looked increasingly gaunt, as if they were beating him up in addition to using him as a puppet for the Capitol.
Then at one given moment, once the propaganda clips finally reach the Capitol and he sees the destruction of District 12, he comes out of his trance long enough to warn District 13 on an oncoming military assault.
However, come the final three minutes of the movie... after the "big rescue"... Peeta almost kills Katniss in a really traumatic choking scene. Her eyes were visibly bloodshot and after her bodyguard knocks him out, making the screen go completely black, I was terrified the movie would end that way.
Luckily, there was one scene afterwards to help cushion the blow, which it barely does. The final visual we have is Katniss (complete with a neck brace) watches Peeta through the glass having a psychotic episode tied to a bed.
As much as the movies so far have made me more of a fan of Peeta than I was reading the books, I can already feel that old habit coming back-- me spending "Mockingjay" wishing they just let Peeta die because I felt like he was beyond saving.
Especially going into the climax where they're storming the Capitol and Peeta has another episode that almost gets everyone killed.
I hope the next movie is good enough to spare my feelings and make it easier to accept the inevitable ending. Katniss choosing Peeta and turning her back on Gale because she blamed him for what happened to Prim.
Characters and Other Highlights
Effie Trinket had a tiny role in the book, but I'm really glad they made that adjustment in the movie by giving her a bigger role. The transformation from her being superfluous with her makeup and clothes to trying to bring fashionable accessories to her District 13 jumpsuit... that's worth every minute.
Plus, other than Gale, she's the one friend Katniss feels she has in the wake of this new conflict. Love the scene where she shows Katniss the last sketches Cinna left behind before the Capitol killed him over the Mockingjay dress. Doesn't fully make up for the fact he's gone, but it helped fill that void a bit.
Woody Harrelson as Haymitch, once again, steals the show for me. He tells it like it is whether you want it or not and usually, he's very on point.
Philip Seymour Hoffman as Plutarch is a bittersweet venture in the event of his recent death. But his presence felt like it gave the movie an enhanced sense of professionalism and credibility.
Julianne Moore does well on her first outing in this franchise and by the end, we start to see she may not be as clean cut as we were originally led to believe. Despite Peeta's psychological state, she makes an elaborate speech to the masses to call the rescue mission a success... omitting the negatives for appearances.
Jennifer Lawrence, again, embodies Katniss and all her emotions.
Donald Sutherland has little screentime, but his presence is so poignant that the air goes out of the room. Particularly where he leaves a bed of white roses for Katniss, leaving her unwilling to do a final video.
The previous two were really well done.
Her promo that ends with "Fire is catching. If we burn, you burn with us!" and the fiery mockingjay symbol was so inspiring that we clapped.
Then the scene where she's singing "The Hanging Tree" with the mockingjays whistling in the background... powerful. The song was almost stuck in my head by the time it was all over. (We even hear it in the credits after Lorde's haunting "Yellow Flicker Beat").
A Quick Comment on Politics
I thought this subject matter was poignant when I read it a couple years ago :P
It's a little unnerving when you look beyond the film, beyond the escapism and being absorbed by this fictional world, and find similarities in real life.
Speaking as someone surrounded by people who fear we're approaching socialism...
Final Comments
It's not as if NOTHING happens in this movie. Plenty does happen. My attention didn't falter once the entire 2 hours (and change). But that's because I know and care about the characters.
There were a couple scenes where I was on the edge of my seat or holding my breath. One was the assault on District 13 where Katniss and Prim almost don't get past the closing doors because Prim went back for her cat.
Then of course the scene towards the end where my heart was pounding about the inevitable confrontation between Katniss and Peeta. The moment I let myself relax, seeing his face and how battered he looked, I jumped when he attacked and freaked about the cliff-hanger sure to come.
At the same time, it does suck that the movie had no justified resolution.
The Deathly Hallows had Voldermort stealing the Elder Wand from Dumbledore's grave
Breaking Dawn had Bella opening her eyes after she became a vampire.
Katniss and Peeta didn't get their reconciliation yet, so that is a bit of a letdown.
And speaking as someone not a fan of psychological thrillers or possession, how they depicted Peeta's state of mind freaked me out a bit.
If I were Team Peeta, I think I'd be an emotional wreck :P
Grade: A-/B+
It's a tough call.
On the one hand, the movie held my attention the entire time and I enjoyed all but 3 minutes of it.
But on the other hand, the cliff-hanger ending was unsatisfying.
Right now, I'm thinking I might wait on getting the DVD until after Part 2 comes out next year
Sunday, November 24, 2013
Theatrical Review: The Hunger Games- Catching Fire
Date: November 23, 2013
Time: 1:15pm
Location: Pocono Movieplex
Party: 3 (my mom & fellow movie-going/book-reading aunt)
Duration: 146 minutes (+2 trailers)
Director: Francis Lawrence
Type: young adult, drama, book-to-movie adaptation, action, sci-fi
Cast:
Returning Players
Katniss Everdeen- Jennifer Lawrence
Peeta Mellark- Josh Hutcherson
Gale- Liam Hemsworth
Haymitch- Woody Harrelson
Effie Trinket- Elizabeth Banks
Cinna- Lenny Kravitz
Prim Everdeen- Willow Shields
Caesar Flickerman- Stanley Tucci
President Snow- Donald Sutherland
Newcomers
Head Gamemaker Plutarach- Philip Seymour Hoffman
Finnick Odair (District 4)- Sam Claflin
Johanna Mason (District 7)- Jena Malone
Beetee (aka "Volts") (District 3)- Jeffrey Wright
Wirress (aka "Nuts") (District 3)- Amanda Plummer
Mags (District 4)- Lynn Cohen
Trailers:
There were two.
First was for yet another YA book series getting adapted to film.
"Divergent" by Veronica Roth is coming to theaters next March.
The book's down to $8 at Wal-Mart, but I have yet to pick up a copy. (But in my defense, I have five other books yet to read... and yeah, after seeing this trailer, now I gotta read it).
So far, I just know it takes place in the future where kids are classified as one of four personality types that go on to define their futures... but I didn't realize our heroine (played by Shailene Woodley) couldn't be classified by the system.
Then there was "I, Frankenstein," which looks like a modern take on the Mary Shelley story with a hint of "Underworld" folklore (seeing as it's done by the same people behind that franchise).
It was a decent crowd, roughly a dozen or so other people in addition to the three of us.
Write-up:
Just to save myself a little bit of typing, for those unfamiliar with the franchise, I'll provide the link to my "Hunger Games" review to recap.
http://moviegoerconfessions.blogspot.com/2013/07/71-hunger-games-2012.html
Skip down to the "discussion" sub-heading for the basic premise
Spoilers from this point out... but again, I urge newbies to read the book or at least see the first movie before preceding with the second. Otherwise, it might be difficult to follow.
Aside from the addition of more characters and upping the dramatics with the plot, the biggest change is a brand new director.
Francis Lawrence only has a few movie credits to his name from the director's chair, getting his start with music videos for Green Day and Britney Spears. Gary Ross's directing for the previous installment drew a lot of criticism, particularly regarding the shaky camera angles. Based on the fact Lawrence has been signed for the rest of the series, the franchise has themselves a winner.
Kinda like David Yates with the Harry Potter franchise, but books five through seven had a similar feel, so that made sense.
Plot
(I'll try to keep up with the main points without giving away too much)
The story picks up from where the previous movie left off and could be broken into three parts.
The Aftermath & Victory Tour
Settings: District 12, Districts 1-11, The Capitol
Katniss and Peeta are back in District 12 after being crowned co-champions of the 74th Hunger Games. Katniss receives a not-so-cordial visit from President Snow. In a passive-aggressive manner, he gives Katniss a "task" to fulfill when she and Peeta are on the Victory Tour: Convince him that their plan of ingesting the poisonous berries in the Games wasn't to defy the Capitol, but because they'd rather die than be without each other. Along with their mentor, Haymitch and their PR person, Effie, Katniss and Peeta set off to visit the other districts with The Capitol as their last stop.
Their first stop: District 11, home to fallen Tributes, Rue and Thresh.
Because Rue was her ally and closest friend in the arena, Katniss decides to give a tearful speech about her. This pledge of good faith earns her the respect of District 11 and, unfortunately, leads to bloodshed. While not at the same magnitude, similar incidents happen throughout the districts, no matter how much Katniss and Peeta "stick to the script." They attempt to remedy the situation by getting engaged.
Naturally, The Capitol was the most extravagant of the affairs. While there, Katniss makes the acquaintance of the new gamemaker, Plutarch.
Once back in District 12, things only seem to go from bad to worse when a new Head Peacekeeper is appointed. Meanwhile, Plutarch and Snow are scheming for a way to "eliminate" Katniss before uprsings start to happen again... and arrive at a brilliant, albeit horrifying solution.
Every 25 years, a special version of the Hunger Games known as the "Quarter Quell" is held. Notably, they come with their own set of rules and/or changes in protocol. This is to keep things interesting while serving as education for the newest "crop" of tributes.
For the 75th Hunger Games, the "crop" is made up of previous victors... seeing as District 12 has only produced three champions with Katniss being the only female, she has to return.
Preparing for the Quarter Quell
Setting: The Capitol
Regarding the male tribute, Haymitch was drawn out of the bowl, but Peeta volunteered to take his place...
Unlike the previous time around, Katniss and Peeta decide to train as if they were from District 1 or 2, i.e. "Careers." Throughout the trials, they size up the other victors to determine who the best allies would be.
Katniss is put off by the womanizing Finnick and overtly sexual Johanna, but finds kinship with the older, but intelligent, Beetee and Wiress from District 3. She also likes the older woman, Mags, who volunteered to come from District 4 alongside Finnick.
During the interview segment, Katniss shows off Cinna's latest creation: the wedding dress she would have wore to her wedding with Peeta. But when she does the "girl on fire" twirl, it reveals a mockingjay.
Unfortunately, this doesn't end well for Cinna and his demise is the last thing Katniss witnesses before re-entering the arena
Re-entering the Arena
Setting: Somewhere in the tropics
The tributes arrive, finding themselves surrounded by water, which is surrounded by jungle. Bloodshed ensues, Katniss grabs her favored weapon and finds herself with Finnick as an ally, along with Mags.
They quickly found there are multiple horrors waiting for them, both natural and man-made (or man-"taught"). Later on, they meet with Johanna who "retrieved" Wiress and Beetee (who she calls "Nuts" and "Volts") for Katniss. Wiress constantly repeats "tick, tock," something Johanna chalked up to PTSD, but Katniss realized it refers to a set pattern of "horrors" in the arena based on a clock.
When the tributes come down to a small enough number (only a handful of Careers remaining in addition to Katniss's group), they concoct a plan to off them while sparing themselves direct confrontation.
But not all goes according to plan... and by the end of the movie (which is a cliff-hanger, by the way), Katniss comes to realize there was another plan in place and it puts her at the helm of it.
That plan being... REVOLUTION.
Book-to-Movie and Sequel Chatter
Now that the structured part of this review is over, I can work on the editorial portion.
For starters, the movie was AWESOME. Probably will go on to be in my top 3 theatrical outings this year (or maybe top 5, so I can make room for "Iron-Man 3" and "Now you see me" along with "Thor: The Dark World" and "Star Trek Into Darkness").
Like the "Hunger Games" before it, the adaptation from book to film was on-point. Although I read the book just once over a year ago, I felt like it hit on all the major points and didn't leave too much out. (At this length, they would have been in a lot of trouble if they left out anything huge because there'd simply be no excuse for it).
It's said so often in Hollywood that it's practically cliché by this point... to say that sequels are tricky because they rarely surpass the original. That's especially difficult in franchises like this one that's either adapted from a book series or derives from the sci-fi/fantasy genre.
Having said that, "Catching Fire" is yet another successful sequel. In comparison to some of the other sequels I saw this year, most of which were done particularly well, it's probably the best.
The biggest issue I can draw is that the subject matter of the storyline might be so intense that it lessens the "re-watchability" factor, just speaking as someone who loves to revisit movies several times :-P
If I were to chart the intensity level, "The Hunger Games" has an oscillating curve that has distinct peaks & troughs (highs and lows). With "Catching Fire," it'd be compare to something you'd find on a Richter scale on the west coast. As soon as the tension dies down, it comes back up within 5 minutes, opposed to having break periods lasting 10-15-20 minutes in its predecessor. Not to mention the violence is more graphic and "personal" this time around. The various dangers in the arena were well done, which made them borderline terrifying at times (I wasn't a fan of the poisonous smoke or the jabberjays that plays into the psychological side of things).
But in other aspects, I think it had a better storyline and the characterization was handled especially well.
Characters and Actors, Old & New
Katniss maintains the "reluctant heroine" archetype throughout the series, but does so in varying capacities.
She was very guarded going into the first movie, unwilling to trust and rely on other people. While trying to convince Snow she isn't out to defy The Capitol, she's become a better actor. This is especially noticeable when she's being interviewed by Caesar Flickerman, more at ease with being herself and playing to the audience the way Peeta had done so easily the last time around.
Even with an Oscar under her belt, Jennifer Lawrence continues to be on her game, living and breathing this role as if she is this character when the cameras aren't on.
Gale reminded me why I preferred him to Peeta going into this phenomenon. But then again, Liam Hemsworth looks so much cuter with dark hair (I don't care for him as a blonde). He continues to struggle with his feelings for Katniss, getting a few kisses in to make his feelings known, but it can't be easy for him sitting on the sidelines while she's forced to keep people believing she and Peeta are an item.
At the same time, though, I'm grown more fond of Peeta this time around.
Right now I'm recollecting how unhappy I was with him while reading the book. He spent the first few chapters in a mood after what Katniss said at the end of the previous book... how she thought this whole thing, including how he felt about her, was an act. The truth was that he meant everything he said and it hurt his feelings that she didn't reciprocate that, let alone believe him.
Not only did they downplay that drama to the point where it was non-existent, but I especially loved whatever relationship the two of them had here. There were a few scenes where Katniss had nightmares and Peeta was there to support her, being there as if he was the only friend she had in the world. Although it does help that they shared a lot of the same experiences.
Woody Harrelson continues to be one of my favorite supporting actors with this second outing as Haymitch, always on hand to provide much needed advice (and tough love) to our favorite District 12 denizens... but not nearly as present and impactful as I found him in the previous film.
Perhaps this was meant to make more room for Effie to shine. Die-hard Panem fans (and IMDB disciples like myself) would notice her character wasn't even referred to by name in "The Hunger Games". She not only ushers Katniss and Peeta throughout the districts for the Victory Tour, but she treats the audience to a myriad of amazing yet confounding outfits. And the fact she gets so close to them and loathes the fact they have to go back into the arena was something that grabbed me about her character this time around (yet I forgot to include it in this entry until a couple hours after I wrote it :-P )
On that particular note, I gotta give my props to the costume department... especially to the people behind the Mockingjay dress. They were careful to only show it from behind in the trailers, but it was spectacular enough to warrant an audible gasp... it doesn't make Cinna's demise any less painful, though :( that was one of the saddest moments in the series for me, up there with when Rue got killed.
Before getting to the other tributes (two in particular), I want to draw attention to Katniss's sister, Prim and how much she's matured. Fans of the series will note the significance, but since the latest Games, she rose to the role of being an assistant healer to her mom... especially notable in the scene where they need to take care of Gale after he receives corporal punishment from the new Head Peacekeeper. She's become a much stronger individual, something Katniss finds admirable, but at the same time, she loathes how the state of things has "hardened" her and taken away her child-like innocence.
One of my favorite aspects of this movie was how they spent more time getting to know the other tributes... how Katniss develops friendships with some of them and how she's uneasy about others. While other tributes kinda dismissed Beetee and Wiress as weirdos, Katniss gravitated towards them, perhaps feeling that their unconventional talents have equal warrant to combat.
I knew Sam Claflin previously as Snow White's Prince William in "Snow White & the Huntsman"... even though he was up against Chris Hemsworth, I thought he was the better looking man of the two.
My mom thought he looked exactly like Jake Abel of "Percy Jackson" fan... and I saw quite a bit of that as well... Finnick's character is very chauvinistic and a little self-absorbed so Katniss didn't care much for him at first, but he proved to be an excellent ally in the field.
Johanna was one character I really disliked in the book on the ground she seemed like a bitch and through Katniss's narration, you felt that she felt sexually threatened by her, in that Johanna was more at ease with showing off her figure in front of Peeta. To that effect, there's a scene in the movie where she strips off her "chariot" outfit in the elevator for Katniss, Peeta and Haymitch to see. (If any men saw this movie, I'll bet they were disappointed it was PG13 and didn't warrant any on-screen nudity here).
My attitude towards her changed in the latter chapters of the book when she became an ally and the announcement of Jena Malone playing her made her one to watch.
Actually, when Johanna wasn't being a flirt, she reminded me a lot of your typical "Real World" housemate, foul-mouthed and copping an attitude about sticking it to the man, which I thought was a cool "modern" twist they threw in. (I had actually never seen any of MTV's reality series, but I've heard things).
And to foreshadow a bit more, I am a week away from covering one of her movies (the one that made me fall in love with her as an actress).
Final Comments
I stayed through the credits to hear some of the songs that were playing. I guessed right that the first was Coldplay and loved the track by Of Monsters and Men... although I doubt that'll be enough to make me want to run out and get it :-P
On paper and on screen, as I previously stated, "Catching Fire" probably will go on to be in my top 5 theatrical features this year. It stays faithful to what made the original great and made it progressively better in all aspects (plot, characterization, conflict, etc.).
Grade: A
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