Star Wars Episode IX: The Rise of Skywalker (2019) ★★★½
Directed by JJ Abrams
I have a confession: I’m not really a Star Wars fan. I can’t be a Star Wars fan. Why not? Because I actually like Star Wars. Pretty much all of it. I love the prequels. I liked the original Clone Wars movie before it became a series. I loved, loved, lovedEpisode VIII. I enjoy all of these things as fun, slightly silly, Saturday-morning fare for kids that can sometimes skew slightly adult. Therefore I can’t be a true Star Wars fan, because I don’t nit-pick the damned thing to death. As such: I really, really enjoyed Episode IX: The Rise of Skywalker. More… »
Frozen II is a good movie. Is it as good as the first Frozen (which is also a good movie)? I’m actually not entirely certain. But it is at least as good. Spoilers abound!
Y’know what? It’s not bad! It’s actually pretty enjoyable. But let’s get the elephant outta the room right off the top: How is Will Smith’s version of Genie? It’s actually pretty good! More… »
Endgame is good! I don’t think it works quite as successfully as Infinity War did, and there are a couple of very poorly-done things, but for the most part it’s exciting, frikkin’ hilarious, and satisfying. Spoilers ahoy! More… »
That seems to be the overriding sentiment throughout Cap’m Marvel. Everybody in the film seems to be having fun. And not just the actors (though that does seem to be the case, too), but the characters. Brie Larson as our amnesiac heroine (who is called “Vers” for most of the movie) is witty and quick with a quip, and seems to have a wry smile curling the corner of her mouth throughout most of the movie. Sam Jackson’s Nick Fury is just a bit more exasperated at times with all this alien business, but he seems pretty darned excited by it all, too. More… »
Directed by Bob Persichetti, Peter Ramsey, & Rodney Rothman
There hasn’t been a Spider-Man Movie (that I’ve seen) that quite so successfully encapsulates the sheer exuberance of swinging through a city as Spider-Man.
Much of that must be credited to the wondrous visual style of SMItSV. Most animated movies nowadays have one visual style, and the whole movie looks like it. But SMItSV has a very idiosyncratic and expressive range of styles; individual scenes are animated with different effects depending on the need of the scene. And indeed, later in the movie when a handful of characters are introduced, they’re all animated in their own individual style in addition to the style of the movie. It’s simply amazing to look at, and extreme care was taken to make sure each shot in the movie looks as gorgeous as possible. More… »
Ant Man & the Wasp is pretty much the epitome of a three-star movie. It’s fun, breezy, exciting, and hilarious, but never earth-shattering. You won’t come out of it a better person, or wanting to be a better person, or still gasping in amazement at the things you saw on the screen. You will have a good time, though. More… »
