May 8, 2024 –

Well, that was a fascinating continuation of this PotA reboot!

The visuals were great, I certainly would have seen this in IMAX 3D if I could have. Though sometimes I still think the music overpowers the dialogue in some theaters.

As such, I’m not 100% certain of all the characters names. But, I enjoyed each of them. The protagonists were decently fleshed out. And the antagonists perhaps could have been more so, but they were still enjoyable. The movie did a good job of connecting us to them as we met them. There were some good surprises too. The plot involved a pretty simple journey but held the attention of the viewer.

The connections to the past from 300 years previous were few but they were well-made. And having recently rewatched the other three movies, those events were fresh in my memory. The potential for the future is intriguing. I’m unsure what could happen, but I want to know more.

I liked this movie, and I did feel the run-time, but I was excited to be back in this world and learn of things that happened, so I didn’t mind it.

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Mid-credit scene: Nope.

End-credit scene: Nope.

March 28, 2024 –

Well that was really fun movie! I maybe should have refreshed my memory since the last movie, but I remembered stuff pretty quickly. And I still think watching the Monarch show would have raised my awareness of Easter eggs and stuff a bit.

The 4 or so returning characters were nice to see. And of course everyone’s acting was great. The monsters were as glorious as ever. The effects were fantastic. I forgot to say that I saw this in Real D 3D. Though I was very surprised that this film, which was filmed for IMAX, didn’t have an IMAX release at this theater. But I assume that since it was so close to Ghostbusters last week, that that had the IMAX screens still. It was still decently 3D in normal 3D.

The plot was as it was laid out in the trailers. I always love diving into lore with fandoms and there was certainly some new lore here. Some of which I predicted before the reveals, but still was a good experience. And that is also why I need to watch the Monarch show since that is essentially all lore. Hopefully I’ll get to it before the next Monsterverse movie.

There were a couple surprise monsters that I didn’t expect, and I enjoyed their presence on-screen. The fight scenes were big and bold and all over the place, such fun! And they looked great in 3D, so I assume they looked amazing in IMAX 3D.

The ending seemed a little quick, only in that I wanted maybe one more scene with the humans to, I don’t know, talk? Not sure, but I didn’t mind that to much. But I enjoyed this. Hopefully we get news of what the next movie will be soon. And I wouldn’t say no to more shows, both animated and live action. The Netflix show for Skull Island was really good, I hope there’s another season of it at some point.

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Mid-credit scene: Nope.

End-credit scene: Nope.

March 21, 2024

Well, I was right, I enjoyed this a lot! It had a nice balance of new and old characters that worked very well. It actually went by faster than I thought it would. I probably should have rewatched Afterlife before this since I had to remind myself of who some characters were and if they were in the previous movie. But I didn’t mind that. Also the effects and music were great!

The cast did a great job, McKenna Grace was essentially the lead, and she certainly had the most screen-time. Most everyone else in the cast took, maybe not a back seat, but a passenger’s seat? But it still felt fine. I would hope for more even character development in the next movie since I do enjoy all the cast members. I wouldn’t say no to some of the cast having less time if perhaps some kind of series could be spun out of this. Doing so would give each set of character extra time to be developed. I doubt anything like that is planned, but it would be a fun idea.

The plot is essentially as simple as the trailer shows, and they didn’t deter much from that story. The solution was a little bit quick once that one thing happened, but I didn’t mind too much. I would have liked to see some references to the past when a certain moment happened, but perhaps something like that could happen in a future movie.

Not too much more to say really, I just had a good time with this movie. I have the same positive feeling now, that I did after I watched the previous movie. It’s a good time!

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Mid-credit scene: Yes, just a funny little scene.

End-credit scene: Nope.

It was strange seeing a Netflix film in a theater. But it was a fun experience. We got a free drink and a small popcorn, and we got items to wear and keep. The items to wear were various bows and ribbons, we could make our own bracelets (I didn’t because I had too many things in my hand already), and flower crowns.

The movie was exactly what the trailer suggests. And I enjoyed it! Of course the twist doesn’t hit as well when the movie is advertised as such, but that was fine with me. It just made me intrigued by what the characters were going to go.

Millie Bobby Brown was, of course, brilliant. She did a marvelous job. Most of the movie was her acting by herself, so she had the most to do, but I enjoyed the other cast members performances as well.

The story was well done, there were a couple more twists that I didn’t expect and liked. The music in this film was very well chosen. It wasn’t overly dramatic nor too loud or overbearing.

I will probably watch this again after it comes out, not right away, but I certainly will enjoy it again. I wouldn’t say no to more from this world, though I can’t really guess as to what that would be, but it would be fun I bet. I’m glad I saw this movie, and suggest it.

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Mid-credit scene: Nope

End-credit scene: Nope. As this is a Netflix movie, I didn’t expect anything at the end, but stayed till it all the same.

February 14, 2024

Well. It was better than Venom 2. It’s wasn’t an altogether bad movie, it wasn’t amazing, but I’ve seen worse movies.

There are numerous Marvel related problems (which I will vaguely mention later) all over the place, but honestly the most distracting thing was that characters just made decisions that didn’t make much sense some of the time. One that has nothing to do with plot is a camp fire was left as characters were leaving and they didn’t make sure it was out. I would think a director would think about something so simple. But again, they are small thing that just irked me.

The cast did a good job I thought. I would have enjoyed seeing them in a Marvel Studios produced version of this since it would have been more well put together. Though I can say that about all of Sony’s Marvel movies since Venom. They all kind of feel like they could all be movies on their own without any of the Marvel characters there.

Oh, and this movie was set in 2003, for no discernible, reason. And it also felt like a superhero movie that was made in 2003.

I don’t tend to notice a lot of cinematographic things while watching movies unless they really stand out, but there was some quite shaky camerawork in some scenes that I was surprised by. Like I could feel the camera moving as it rotated. Maybe that was just a quality problem with the film file or something, I’m not sure.

The plot was essentially what it was advertised as in the trailer. it just seemed like similar circumstances continue throughout the movie to put characters in danger and then it all eventually ends. Just a bit repetitive. The characterization of the girls was a bit weak, we got introduced to them and then had maybe one or two scenes learning a tiny bit about them and that’s all. And I know that this is Cassandra’s movie, but a little more character development for the girls would have been nice.

The villain. In the comics, he’s really not that important a character, and one could argue that he’s really not here. He doesn’t even have powers in the comics. But after the initial scenes with him, the movie doesn’t really give us character development of him either other than his mission throughout the movie. But we didn’t learn anything else about him at all. The actor did a good job, but the writing was just barely serviceable for his character.

I think they did an ok job with the time-powers ish, but I don’t know, something felt off about the editing. Also, I think the sound-design was a bit too loud in many scenes.

Now for the Marvel related issues. The fact that this takes place in 2003, is just odd. I don’t know why that choice was made, and all three girls being around before Spider-Man exists is just weird. Cassandra being around beforehand, sure, but the others being around is just messy. And just, wow, the origin of the powers is just totally made up. in the comics, Cassandra is a mutant. Of course they couldn’t do that origin here, but this seems to be Sony’s main problem, they keeps picking characters whose origins tie into heavy Marvel lore but Sony doesn’t have access to many of these things. For example, Venom without Spider-Man, one of the only Spidey villains whose origin directly is connected to Peter and Spidey in the comics, and Sony makes it without that aspect. I’m guessing that what they actually did was based in some actual mythology, but it just was a bit cheap. There were some other aspects that I won’t mention since they’d be more spoilery, but after watching the movie and then reading this or the other way around, you’ll probably get what I mean.

In general, it wasn’t horrible, it just was a bit chaotic. I still like this movie over Venom 2. Maybe it’s tied with Morbius. It was still fun at times, but things moved so fast that there wasn’t a lot of time to sit with characters. I would probably wait to watch this at home. But this technically should eventually connect to the other SSU movies and shows, so we’ll see what happens with these characters. Like I said, I liked the acting from everyone.

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Mid-credit scene: No

End-credit scene: No

December 21 –

A fun end to this iteration of the DC Films universe. It was an adventure, and I enjoyed it! And it surprisingly didn’t feel as long as it was.

The plot was decent, the acting was fantastic. The visuals were well-done also. Though I saw it in IMAX 3D and somehow, there were only a handful of shots that actually looked 3D. The rest kind of felt literally flat. Perhaps it was my theater, but if not, DC really didn’t need to make this 3D. The first movie worked very well in 3D. This one didn’t have much of that visual depth that one associates with 3D. I definitely expected it to at least.

The cast was pretty small and centered on the main characters we already knew. Beyond the antagonist, and some henchmen, there weren’t many new characters to get to know. But it’s been so long since we’ve seen these characters (2018) that I didn’t mind that.

There was some interesting Atlantean lore that I wish there had been more time with, and perhaps more with the villain itself. But, it was a fun adventure and I’m glad to have seen it. Also, it was funnier than I expected! I certainly had a few laughs that I enjoyed.

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Mid-credit scene: Yes, it’s just a continued part of one of the ending scenes in the movie. It’s a gag scene really, might as well stay to watch it.

End-credit scene: Nope. Which makes sense since this is the end of this era of DC films.

November 29, 2023 (Early Screening)

That was an intense movie! It certainly had that classic Godzilla feel. There was the balance between the story of the characters and the Godzilla scenes that I thought was done well.

I wasn’t sure if this would take place in present day at all, and I was happy that it didn’t. The story was kind of classic with little twists here and there to stand out from the other origins.

I liked the POV we saw the story from. The main character had a lot going on and it was portrayed very well. There were a couple surprises too, some I saw coming, some I didn’t.

It’s always interesting to see what a new take on Godzilla will be. There were some changes made that I liked and was surprised by. There was a lot of destruction of course, but especially with the strength of Godzilla’s heat blast. Certainly happy this was in IMAX.

The music was also very well done, it felt like a thriller and horror movie at the same time. There was intense emotion throughout, with the Godzilla plot of course, but also because of the time period.

Similarly to Shin Godzilla, there was a scientific approach taken to dealing with him, but this was different indeed. And of course, in that movie, the time frame was longer in the short term but shorter in the long term. This was the opposite, it took place over years but when things happened, they happened very fast. And of course this is also a different way of doing things than the Legendary movies have done as in those movies, Godzilla is a protagonist. In these Toho movies they tend to keep him as a threat, and it’s humanity against the terror of him.

I enjoyed this movie a lot. The end could hint at more to come, but I’d be fine if the story ended there. Either way works for me.

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Mid-Credit scene: Nope

End-Credits scene: Nope. Though, there is that roar.

November 18, 2023 (Advanced Screening) –

This was a delightful movie. It certainly was a fine way for Disney to celebrate its 100th Anniversary. There were a few obvious references to the past both in the art style, the character designs, and other little things, and I enjoyed that.

The story was based on the wishing star idea. And I would assume also the song used in Pinocchio, When you wish upon a star. From the trailer you can pretty much get the story. I liked the characters, if this had been a longer movie with a bit more depth, I would have had more character development for the side characters. But I had fun with this.

The music was lovely, the main song is the star (no pun intended, but appreciated, haha) of the songs that were in the movie. It’s certainly heard the most. Some of the other songs were a bit on the nose, but they were enjoyable. There was one more but I’ll get to that later.

I loved the animation combination. Seeing the classic Disney watercolor style and the CG together worked well for me. I know some aren’t a fan of when art styles are so different from one another in one feature, but I liked how they looked and worked off of each other.

It was a movie about hope and believing on oneself. I certainly would suggest it as a quick 90 minute burst of Disney appreciation.

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Mid-Credit Scene: No, but the throughout the entire credits, there are golden line drawings of many Disney animated movies from the past century. It was a joy to see the characters that I’ve grown up with just saying hello for a moment.

End-Credit Scene: Yes. There is a short scene at the end that gives a wink to the song that inspired all this. And it is quite a lovely rendition. They it all ends with the full Disney 100 logo that it usually at the beginning. It was a wonderful way to end the movie.

November 16, 2023

Well, that was certainly a ride! I forgot how long the movie was and half way through I was like oh there’s still half a movie left! And I was happy about it.

The acting was, of course, fantastic. Everyone played their roles brilliantly. I felt every moment of emotion.

The story was well planned out I thought, though as it’s coming from a novel like it’s predecessor, that makes sense. The first act is as expected, the second was intriguing, the third made sense.

The music was a very important part of this and it was all amazing. I loved it all throughout the movie. The reprisal was nice too, I do enjoy that song.

There were a couple twists and turns, though I expected more. And I thought THE turn would happen sooner, but that’s fine. I certainly would enjoy seeing more of this story.

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Mid-Credit Scene: Nope. Though there is a sound bite at the end of the movie before the credits that was a nice call-back.

End-Credit Scene: Nope