Recently Watched Movies
Aug. 23rd, 2014 10:45 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
iariaTucker and Dale vs Evil - Not as funny as I was expecting but still good. It was funny in parts and Tucker and Dale's reactions to everything happening around them were amusing. I still love the concept. The casting was pretty good and I liked the characters. Especially Dale who was a complete sweetheart.
47 Ronin - Not bad. I really wasn't expecting the fantasy element and I loved that part of it. It felt very Princess Mononoke. The creatures all looked great.
Black Rain
A B-movie but one that did something really unexpected and a couple things I rather liked.
• Basically they took the hero - the hot, brooding and angsty, genius recluse who can save the day - and made his love interest not the female lead but rather her gay best friend. I didn't see that coming! The female lead/male lead weren't romantically linked at all despite having a bunch of scenes of them bonding. Also Jenny's kind of jerky boyfriend ended up not being as much of an ass as he first appeared (but still died as expected.) And even though she wasn't the love interest Jenny still had a significant role. All of that was unexpected but honestly great.
• I love that Jenny was a scientist and got to act like it. That she had a whole past about how all her family are doctors but she couldn't because blood makes her faint and then she's forced to confront that weakness by having to do an emergency tracheotomy on her boyfriend to save his life. Which she does! I liked that instead of succumbing to grief after Kevin’s death she was determined to help stop the acid storm and save people.
• I liked the Jenny/Andrew friendship. I liked the bad guy - Carol was ruthless and smart and amoral and she worked pretty well. I liked the Jenny/Jack friendship and the Andrew/Jack relationship.
• I actually ended the movie shipping Jenny/Andrew/Jack; though more as a triangle with Jenny/Jack and Andrew/Jack together and Jenny/Andrew as BFFs and them all living happily together.
• This is a b-movie so there was some nonsensical stuff happening. Like them suddenly being with the vet and him randomly spilling everything he knows to them. That was really random and super weird. Or Jack being revealed to be Carol's son which ended up just being thrown out there randomly during the final confrontation. Unless I missed something earlier (entirely possible.) I also really could have done without Jack’s angst.
For a B-movie it did a couple cool things I wish I could see in better movies.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
It was okay.
• A major issue I had was that I actually missed some of the dialogue. I found it hard to understand what the turtles were saying during fight/action scenes.
• The biggest disappointment for me was the lack of a real friendship between April and the turtles. Their first meeting was great. I loved how that played out. It just would have been nice to get a couple scenes of the five of them actually bonding/becoming friends before all the action took off.
• The turtles voices were good. I particularly liked Leonardo's. Visually they were - kind of creepy, tbh. But okay overall I suppose. Donatello's design was kind of meh. I did like the turtles interactions with each other and the Leonardo/Raphael relationship was well done.
• From the trailers I thought April/Eric Sacks had an actual relationship and now having seen it I really wish they had. I think it would have been far more interesting if April had formed a surrogate father/daughter relationship with him. It would have given the reveal that he's a bad guy much more weight.
• The changed backstory for the turtles is - fine. This is a new universe so okay. I even like that April was the one to save them. That said I was rather disappointing that there was no history between Splinter/Shredder. The turtles being April's childhood pets, fine. But the lack of a Splinter/Shredder connection didn't work for me.
• I think Megan Fox was good as April. She did a good job of making April likeable. I really liked April's tenacity. But she doesn't have a lot of common sense does she? The physical danger stuff (sneaking into the shipyard, going into the subway, learning out the truck window to get pictures) I can wave away. She's an intrepid reporter - jumping into risky situations/doing physically dangerous things is all part of the job! So that works for me. But her taking the vigilante story to her editor, twice, is a lot harder to wave away. That just made her look kind of dumb and super naive. Of course her editor isn't going to run a story based on absolutely no proof. Of course talk about mutated six foot turtles who used to be her pets is going to make her look crazy. What the hell was she thinking?!
• I was pretty irritated when Vernon took out Sacks. He killed April's father! That was her knockout to take, damn it!
• The turtles/Shredder fight felt a little short and lacking.
• When the Foot soldier grabbed April at the subway I actually jumped.
• The Foot Clan itself didn't have much of a presence. They basically felt like basic bad guys minions. The danger posed by them and the fear that was apparently gripping the city felt kind of shallow. I think more scenes like the subway would have helped. Maybe giving the Foot a better look and shown a scene or two of Shredder with some of them.
47 Ronin - Not bad. I really wasn't expecting the fantasy element and I loved that part of it. It felt very Princess Mononoke. The creatures all looked great.
Black Rain
A B-movie but one that did something really unexpected and a couple things I rather liked.
• Basically they took the hero - the hot, brooding and angsty, genius recluse who can save the day - and made his love interest not the female lead but rather her gay best friend. I didn't see that coming! The female lead/male lead weren't romantically linked at all despite having a bunch of scenes of them bonding. Also Jenny's kind of jerky boyfriend ended up not being as much of an ass as he first appeared (but still died as expected.) And even though she wasn't the love interest Jenny still had a significant role. All of that was unexpected but honestly great.
• I love that Jenny was a scientist and got to act like it. That she had a whole past about how all her family are doctors but she couldn't because blood makes her faint and then she's forced to confront that weakness by having to do an emergency tracheotomy on her boyfriend to save his life. Which she does! I liked that instead of succumbing to grief after Kevin’s death she was determined to help stop the acid storm and save people.
• I liked the Jenny/Andrew friendship. I liked the bad guy - Carol was ruthless and smart and amoral and she worked pretty well. I liked the Jenny/Jack friendship and the Andrew/Jack relationship.
• I actually ended the movie shipping Jenny/Andrew/Jack; though more as a triangle with Jenny/Jack and Andrew/Jack together and Jenny/Andrew as BFFs and them all living happily together.
• This is a b-movie so there was some nonsensical stuff happening. Like them suddenly being with the vet and him randomly spilling everything he knows to them. That was really random and super weird. Or Jack being revealed to be Carol's son which ended up just being thrown out there randomly during the final confrontation. Unless I missed something earlier (entirely possible.) I also really could have done without Jack’s angst.
For a B-movie it did a couple cool things I wish I could see in better movies.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
It was okay.
• A major issue I had was that I actually missed some of the dialogue. I found it hard to understand what the turtles were saying during fight/action scenes.
• The biggest disappointment for me was the lack of a real friendship between April and the turtles. Their first meeting was great. I loved how that played out. It just would have been nice to get a couple scenes of the five of them actually bonding/becoming friends before all the action took off.
• The turtles voices were good. I particularly liked Leonardo's. Visually they were - kind of creepy, tbh. But okay overall I suppose. Donatello's design was kind of meh. I did like the turtles interactions with each other and the Leonardo/Raphael relationship was well done.
• From the trailers I thought April/Eric Sacks had an actual relationship and now having seen it I really wish they had. I think it would have been far more interesting if April had formed a surrogate father/daughter relationship with him. It would have given the reveal that he's a bad guy much more weight.
• The changed backstory for the turtles is - fine. This is a new universe so okay. I even like that April was the one to save them. That said I was rather disappointing that there was no history between Splinter/Shredder. The turtles being April's childhood pets, fine. But the lack of a Splinter/Shredder connection didn't work for me.
• I think Megan Fox was good as April. She did a good job of making April likeable. I really liked April's tenacity. But she doesn't have a lot of common sense does she? The physical danger stuff (sneaking into the shipyard, going into the subway, learning out the truck window to get pictures) I can wave away. She's an intrepid reporter - jumping into risky situations/doing physically dangerous things is all part of the job! So that works for me. But her taking the vigilante story to her editor, twice, is a lot harder to wave away. That just made her look kind of dumb and super naive. Of course her editor isn't going to run a story based on absolutely no proof. Of course talk about mutated six foot turtles who used to be her pets is going to make her look crazy. What the hell was she thinking?!
• I was pretty irritated when Vernon took out Sacks. He killed April's father! That was her knockout to take, damn it!
• The turtles/Shredder fight felt a little short and lacking.
• When the Foot soldier grabbed April at the subway I actually jumped.
• The Foot Clan itself didn't have much of a presence. They basically felt like basic bad guys minions. The danger posed by them and the fear that was apparently gripping the city felt kind of shallow. I think more scenes like the subway would have helped. Maybe giving the Foot a better look and shown a scene or two of Shredder with some of them.
