A Lion King (2019) Review

First things first, this is an animated movie. It is CGI, Computer Generated Images, which is a form of animation, so stop calling this a live-action adaptation.

I won’t be going over the plot because it’s literally a shot for shot recreation of the original. Very few changes from the actual movie. I’m sorry Disney, but having a pretty smile isn’t enough for me, I need substance, I need something new, I need something more than what you’re offering on this one. Yeah the actor’s are good at portraying their characters and the songs are still good, but compared to the original, this ain’t it chief.

The one noticeable difference is a shout out to Beauty and the Beast with “Be Our Guest” being sung by Timon to attract some hyaenas. And that Scar didn’t really sing “Be Prepared”

This review is so short because they didn’t really do anything special, the original is superior in every form, if you have a kid just rent the original and skip this one entirely.

Lion King gets a 3/10, it’s enjoyable enough but besides looking pretty has nothing going for it over the original.

A Spider-Man: Far From Home (2019) Review

I love the story of Spider-Man, always have and always will, so I might be a bit bias.

I know many fans won’t see this movie since it is still so close to End Game and many of us are still recovering. So I will go over spoilers as well as the post credit scenes so you still get all your info without having to go through more heart break.

Our story opens with a very funny, poorly made video tribute of all the fallen Avengers done by Midtown High School sort of refreshing everything for the viewers or people who haven’t seen the movie, letting the fans know how much has changed in the world. Peter Parker (Tom Holland) and Ned (Jacob Batalon) are planning their school’s science club field trip to Europe. Just going to skip over the set up since it was shown in the trailers. Mysterio (Jake Gyllenhall) needs Spider-Man’s and Nicky Fury’s (Samuel L Jackson) help to defeat these elemental monsters that destroyed the world he came from. In fighting the fire elemental, Peter manages to accidently hit a projector but in the middle of the fight he doesn’t notice, but MJ (Zendaya) does and gets it. Fast forward through some exposition, and MJ, Peter, and Ned realize that Mysterio is a liar and used other people fired from Stark to make himself look like a hero to get fame, wealth, and EDITH, a program Tony Stark created to help Peter Parker. After being tricked and beaten by Mysterio, Peter figures out how to defeat him, using the drones from EDITH to attack each other and tapped into his Peter Tingle (Spider Sense) to catch Mysterio up.

Post Credit Scene 1: After swinging MJ around NY, a breaking news announcement is made that Mysterio made a video before being “attacked by Spider-Man” and who else breaks it but J Jonah Jameson, played by returning actor JK Simmons. Mysterio and team made it look like Peter sent the drones to hurt everyone, that he murdered Mysterio, and revealed his secret identity to the world.

Post Credit Scene 2: Nick Fury in this movie was really a Scrull, while the real Nick Fury is traveling through space, very little else is shown. My guess is that this may be leading to a Silver Surfer, Fantastic Four, or Captain Marvel movie. I think it’s too early to show Galacts all ready, I think they need to set up a few more things before dropping the next major story line.

Overall I loved Far From Home, I think it was well made and stayed true to the source material. Of course if you read any of the comics you’d know Mysterio and the story is no surprise, however they make up for it well with some rock solid comedy and performances from all the talent. I’d say that this one was much funnier than Homecoming, it knew what it wanted to do and did it well. No joke felt forced to me and characters reacted naturally and no one stepped out of their character arcs.

I enjoyed the way they explained the arc, in a comedy style news show with one serious student and an annoyed and confused one. As well as the B-Roll style footage of people reappearing and causing chaos when they came back. I also enjoyed Aunt May in her few times on screen, her one joke about her return from the snap really got me. For those curious she said that when she returned her apartment was rented out by a family, the wife thought she was a mistress, and the grandmother thought she was a ghost.

Far From Home even had some nice romance, from Peter and MJ both trying to get the courage to tell each other how they feel to Happy and May Parker not being on the same page of their relationship. Even Ned had a European relationship that ended before they landed back in the States.

A very important line was one that Mysterio said to Parker, “Don’t be sorry for being the smartest guy in the room.” Mysterio was the smartest guy, it got to a point where he knew he wouldn’t win, but he made it so in the long run he got the last laugh, that he ruined Spider-Man and have set up a new serious problem I’m excited to see play out in the next movie.

If you love Marvel, just Spider-Man, or just a good action comedy, I would highly recommend checking this one out.

I would give Spider-Man: Far From Home a 9/10, the only thing keeping it from a 10 is the simplicity of the story.

A Toy Story 4 (2019) Review

Disney does it again, they brought another tear to my eye this year with a perfect ending. When I first heard of Toy Story 4 I was kind of upset, I thought it ended fine with 3, but I’m so glad we got this one.

The story is of Woody (Tom Hanks) trying to keep Bonnie (Madeline McGraw) happy. And in order to do so, he needs to keep Forky (Tony Hale) alive and teach him how important he is to her. Forky eventually manages to jump out of a window in an attempt to end it all and Woody jumps out after him. They have to walk 5 miles to get back to Bonnie and the gang and right before they get there Woody sees Bo Beep’s (Annie Potts) lamp in an antique store. There they meet some literal dummies that are incredibly unnerving and Gabby Gabby (Christina Hendricks) a broken toy who wants Woody’s voice box so she can hopefully finally have a kid of her own and be loved. She “kidnaps” Forky as a bargaining tool. I don’t want to spoil everything so I’ll leave it with this. What is Woody willing to sacrifice to make a child happy.

This is a beautiful movie about having a purpose and doing what you can to achieve it and what do you do when you’ve done what was needed. I’ll admit, I cried at the end of this movie, seeing each toy do what needed to be done, seeing each toy get to be happy and help other toys just to make kids happy. It also made me laugh, a lot, Disney just does it like no other when it comes to mixing comedy and drama in their films.

Key and Peele as Ducky and Bunny felt natural, their chemistry with each shined through and how they were with the rest of the cast felt natural. It was nice to see what happened to Bo Beep and finally get that answer, something tells me Disney had this planned from the very beginning. She’s become a badass who helps fellow toys find homes and takes care of them when they’re injured, much like a nurse in a war. Buzz doesn’t shine as much in this one but that’s okay, this is Woody’s story, it all started with him anyway. Even though Gabby Gabby gave off super evil vibes, by the end she was the first one making you cry when her story was finally redeemed. Everything just felt right throughout the entire movie.

I’d give Toy Story 4 a 10/10, if you loved Toy Story as a kid or have a kid of your own, any excuse is a good enough one to check this one out. And if you go to a Regal, spend the 12 bucks and get the little popcorn bucket and cup, it’s cute.

An Aladdin (2019) Review

This being a remake of one of Disney’s greatest movies means this won’t be a traditional review. Mostly because the story and songs are the same so if you don’t know the tale by now I think we have bigger problems.

I want to start off by saying that I was pleasantly surprised by everyone in this film. It’s a case of this only not being better because the original was so great. If this was completely original by Disney this would be talked about for years as one of the best Disney movies.

Will Smith did a great job as Genie being as showy as you’d thing he be. Prince Ali and Friend Like Me were so insanely busy, but they should be, it was exactly how I wanted it to be. Mena Massoud and Naomi Scott actually pulled at my heart some as Aladdin and Jasmin. I actually felt anger to Marwan Kenzari’s Jafar since he played it so well.

The only problem is that they played this movie so safe, nothing really changed much from the original. This is good and bad, good because if they changed too much, so many people would be outraged, but also bad since they didn’t take any new risks. It was just safe, and sometimes safe is alright.

Overall I’d give Disney’s 2019 live action remake of Aladdin a 7.5/10. I’d recommend it to any Disney fan however if you decide to wait until Disney+ to add it after release you wouldn’t be missing anything.

A X-Men: Dark Phoenix (2019) Review

First I’d like to say that I adore the X-Men, actually more than The Avengers, at least when it comes to the comics. They have some of the greatest comics in history, Phoenix Force, Age of Apocalypse, these are comics I love, and the movies hurt.

The movie starts out with a young Jean Grey (Summer Fontana) learning of her powers, killing her parents, and being visited by Charles Xavier (James McAvoy). Later in life they go to space to save some astronauts from a solar flare which is really the Phoenix Force and it takes over Jean Grey (Sophie Turner). After she freaks out and kills Mystique/Raven (Jennifer Lawrence) she tries to hide with Magneto/Erik Lehnsherr (Michael Fassbender). After he refuses to help her Vuk (Jessica Chastain) helps her and tries to take the Phoenix Force for herself. The whole movie ends with Jean Grey and Phoenix Force taking Vuk to space and basically imploding.

See how that plot rundown felt “bleh”? yeah? you aren’t missing anything. This movie did nothing spectacular. The CGI looked good enough and so did the makeup. But McAvoy and Fassbender carried the movie acting wise, Sophie Turner did alright as Jean Grey but it was nothing to write home about. And the girl that played Storm, Alexandra Shipp, pretty sure she had so little lines because of that terrible accent. All her brain had to go to focusing on that instead of focusing on her delivery. And Scott Shepherd just called in all his lines as Dr. John Grey.

The problem with Fox’s X-Men movies is that they all felt rushed. End Game had over 44 hours over every MCU movie to just set up the thought of Thanos. These X-Men movies just cover the biggest comics ever in an hour, no time to shine or grow for anyone.

You expect me to believe that Nightcrawler (Kodi Smit-McPhee) just decided to become a League of Assassins level tough because he saw a no name security guard die, no, that’s not how character progression works. And Jean Grey overcomes the Phoenix Force because of some flash backs, no, not how this character works, maybe put her in the very first movie and have a constant struggle with it and than I’d believe you.

This is suppose to be the last X-Men movie and I hope that’s true. I’m tired of having my favorite comics crapped on because they just want to cover them in one movie instead of long term development.

Overall, X-Men: Dark Phoenix gets a 3/10. I liked the CGI and McAvoy and Fassbender did a great job as Xavier and Magneto as always but that’s where the good times end. Don’t waste your money on this one, wait till it’s playing on TV for free.

A Godzilla: King of the Monsters (2019) Review

Going into this I was beyond worried. It didn’t get very good reviews and I am a massive Godzilla fan and I’ve been disappointed in most of America’s takes on the kaiju.

Well I was pleasantly surprised. Godzilla: King of the Monsters may be the best Godzilla movie of the last 20 years.

The plot of Godzilla has always been kind of weird. There’s always the plot of big Kaiju fight and destruction with a subplot with humans to push the main plot along. American Godzillas have a tendency to make Godzilla the subplot, however this one really let Zilla shine.

Our story starts in 2019, 5 years after the events of 2014’s Godzilla. Don’t quiet like the dating but that’s just me nitpicking. After the loss of their son Mark Russell (Kyle Chandler) and Dr. Emma Russell (Vera Farmiga) separate since Mark wants to destroy Godzilla while Emma wants to keep the Kaiju race alive and study them. After the wake of Mothra, Jonah Alan (Charles Dance) and his eco-terrorist group storm the Monarch facility and take Emma and Madison Russell (Millie Bobby Brown).

They want their technology to awaken the other Kaiju so that they can take back the world and “cure the disease that humans created.” They awaken Rodan and King Ghidorah who fight and defeat Godzilla, making Ghidorah king and he wakes up all other Kaiju to destroy and take over Earth.

Godzilla is out and Dr. Ishiro Serizawa (Ken Watanabe) has to travel to Godzilla’s underwater sanctuary to use a nuke to revive and rejoice our favorite Kaiju however he needs to sacrifice himself since the radiation is so strong. After still being beat by Ghidorah again, Emma has to distract him to give Godzilla a chance to get back up. It took Godzilla and 2 humans to defeat King Ghidorah.

The movie ends with Godzilla standing over 3 other Kaiju roaring, reestablishing himself as king.

Some will complain about how the human story is lacking. It’s a Godzilla movie, the human story is there to drive the monster story. We had so much action compared to the last one which definitely adds points in my book.

Oh, side note, King Kong was either directly shown or name dropped 3 times, confirming him as a Titan like Godzilla. I find this interesting because our new Kaiju King needed help from humans, which may be seen as weak and cause King Kong to rebel against him.

I love the messages and imagery though out. Our humans have to learn to forgive and make sacrifices and redeem themselves. Godzilla must also grow, he has a challenger and he needs help. The humans, being stupid, awaken the Kaiju and Godzilla, being the protector, needs to fix this. It really shows companionship and I think shows an important message of living with our planet, that we are killing it too quickly. There aren’t giant monsters in the real world to fix our mistakes so we need to correct ourselves before its too late.

One of the coolest images in the movie is seeing Ghidorah standing on a mountain top with a cross in the foreground, he is towering over the cross showing him as the new god of this planet.

Whenever we see humans the camera is fine, but with Kaiju in the scene, it gets shaky, it goes in and out of focus on their faces and features, hard zooms and close-ups. Just typing it makes it seem chaotic and amateur but how they use it makes the scenes more intense and exciting, these styles show him big and impactful these creatures are.

I would give Godzilla: King of the Monsters a solid 8.5/10. It is definitely in my top 5 favorite Godzilla movies ever and if you like Godzilla even a little bit or even just the idea of Kaiju’s like Pacific Rim this is a must-see.

A John Wick Chapter 3: Parabellum (2019) Review

Parabellum: To Prepare for War

A perfectly title for this movie as it sets up for a fourth and possibly final John Wick movie.

Parabellum takes place where the 2nd movie ended. John Wick (Keanu Reeves) is preparing to be excommunicated and have a 14 million dollar bounty put on his head by The High Table. As he fights his way to freedom, The High Table send The Adjudicator (Asia Kate Dillon) to take care of Winston (Ian McShane) and Bowery King (Laurence Fishburne). After slaughtering an unholy amount of people, Wick learns how to get to The Elder (Said Taghmaoui) and The Elder agrees to take back the exommunicato but only if Wick kills Winston.

Wick accepts this mission until he’s holding the gun, then Winston and Wick wage war inside The Continental with The High Table’s overly armed guards and Zero’s (Mark Dacascos) men. Winston and The Adjudicator make a deal, kill Wick and The Continental and Winston get reinstated under the table. When Winston agrees, he shoots Wick off a balcony-lobby-esk area and send him to the alley below. Upon further inspection, Wick is gone and our fourth movie is officially set up.

The first fight sets the whole pace for an action movie like this, however the first fight we see between Wick and Ernest (Boban Marjanovic) is so awkward. Boban is over 7 feet tall which immediately makes it difficult for him to move as fluently as Reeves who is 6’1. Luckily this fight was the one sour note when it comes to the fight scene. And every fight scene afterwards is a shot of adrenaline.

Continuity was weird when Wick meets up with Sofia (Halle Berry) but that’s because of the real dogs used, German Shepherds. They regularly came out of no where and it made the area seem very odd since we would see them with Sofia but when pop out of a door or window no where near her. I know working with dogs is hard however it may have been better to have 1 dog instead of 2 since it’s a lot less hassle placement wise.

And I really enjoyed some of the metaphors in the movie. Wick has been called the boogieman, the baba yaga, in previous movies, at least when talking about his past. Towards our climax, the Continental goes into “John Wick Mode” I suppose you can call it, with all lights off besides green flashing light bars. With green being the color most represented when it comes to the boogieman, this shows that fear dying away, that Wick isn’t as strong and feared as he once was.

We also see an all glass room, so “we can see everything an opponent has” as its worded by Winston. But even in an all glass room, with bright lights, Wick can’t see past the shadows, he is constantly attacked because he can’t see as clearly as before. As he fights he remembers who he truly is and what he fights for, he fights with more passion, he can see his mission clearly. When he kills Zero, all lights turn off and then back on. The boogieman is back, Wick stands up and goes to the balcony area to finish off the film.

This movie was surprisingly good, I was amazed by the depth in, what can be seen as, a basic action movie.

I would give John Wick Chapter 3:Parabellum a solid 8/10. If action movies are your thing or you just love Keanu Reeves and just generally bad-ass-ery. This is the movie for you.

A Detective Pikachu (2019) Review

Before anything I would like to say that there will be a video version of this review coming out by this Sunday, Mya 12th, if you prefer to watch/listen instead of read.

Detective Pikachu, directed by Rob Letterman, may just be the best movie you won’t see. Coming out just 2 weeks after End Game is risky for any movie, no matter the company behind it. However, I highly recommend this movie to any fan of Gen 1 of Pokémon.

The movie starts just like the original Pokémon movie, with Mewtwo (Rina Hoshino & Kotaro Watanabe) in a lab, a nice bit of nostalgia. However, it is acknowledged that this isn’t the birth of Mewtwo, he was actually captured in Kanto region and brought in to do tests on. Mewtwo breaks out and seemingly attacks our lead characters father, starting out story.

When Tim Goodman(Justice Smith) hears of his fathers death he travels to Ryme City to say goodbye. But when he runs into our Pikachu (Ryan Reynolds) they must now find out what really happened to his father and why Pikachu has amnesia. They run into aspiring news reporter Lucy Stevens (Kathryn Newton) and with her help they uncover a deep, dark, secret. The movie is full of several twists, twisty twists, and I want you to go see it so I won’t be spoiling them here.

I quiet enjoyed the story and characters, seeing the broken relationship between father and son quickly tugged on my heartstrings and made me instantly care about the situation. I even cared for Pikachu who, like many of us, just wants to know his purpose. All actors did a very believable job acting around a bunch of CGI.

Speaking of CGI, I must say, it’s some of the best I have ever seen. Every scene has the Pokémon in it and almost every frame stars them, and besides a few weird looking ones, the CGI makes you believe they were actually on set. Every Pokémon looked the way you would think they’d look. From Charmanders being have scales, Jigglypuffs being all fuzzy, and Mr. Mimes uncomfortable smoothness, they all look phenomenal. Even the few poke balls in the movie looked genuine, and something I don’t need in my life but really, really want.

And the movie felt genuine with its comedy. Nothing forced. From Pikachu having to rub Psyduck’s feet to a few drug jokes. My favorite part was at an undercover fight when all the Pokémon went crazy for “R” and Pikachu kicking a Magikarp to make it evolve into a Gyarados.

Detective Pikachu paid homage the original pokemon several ways including the apartment being called “Oak”, spelt out in kanji so you have to actually look to see the name. As well as, Ryan Reynold’s Pikachu singing the original song while he dances some walking down the road, I laughed because of the bizarreness but also whispered the words to myself between chuckles. The main credits even roll to a remixed version of the opening.

I would give Detective Pikachu an 8/10, a must watch film for anyone of any age who enjoyed the first generation of Pokémon especially. Besides a handful of odd designs and corny jokes, it was a well done performance all around.

A Long Shot (2019) Review

It feels like every movie that Seth Rogen is in, he is the exact same character. A pot head who is down on his luck who gets the women of his dreams. Let’s be honest, if you’ve seen a movie where Seth Rogen is a main character, you’ve seen them all.

The story follows a journalist names Fred Flarsky (Seth Rogen) who quits his job and runs into his old baby sitter that he had a huge crush on. In walks Charlotte Field (Charlize Theron) the Secretary of State who is getting ready to run for President. And luckily enough, she needs a writer to help make her funnier to seem more open to the viewers.

None of the above bothers me. The part that gets annoying is the dated, on the nose, political commentary. I’m 90% sure Charlize Theron even said “Trump” instead of this universes version of him, President, no first name, Chambers (Bob Odenkirk). There is no subtly in this film, even the make believe news organizations share the exact same design and color scheme to their real life counterparts. It even violently leans to the Democratic/Liberal side where the Fox News of this universe is incredibly sexist and overall rude. And the CNN and MSNBC are the most unbias, most fair, news sources on the planet.

I’m fine with social commentary in movies, I think it’s needed, however this is so one sided, so unfair, so on the nose, to where it loses a lot of the comedy factor. Most of the jokes in this movie are either about sex or drugs or about the President. Everything about this movie felt juvenile.

The parts that weren’t so political felt very funny and genuine. I enjoyed the part to where Fred and Charlotte are running through a hotel during a civil war and had to hide which allowed their characters to be alone and bond. I liked seeing them yell and freak out because she was giving up on something she was so passionate about her whole life. That part felt genuine and something I could connect to.

Sadly the best parts of this movie are obscured by the political interest of the writers/director. The desire to get this out before the 2020 election lead to an uninterested hour and a half.

I’d give Long Shot a 5/10. Maybe if you’re down to light up and make some Trump jokes you’ll enjoy it more than I did.

An Avengers: End Game (2019) (Pre-)Review

First, the score, I would give this movie is a 10/10. Go see it, go see it a second time. See it alone, and then with family, then with friends. Sit down in a private place after watching and just discuss the emotions.

I saw this movie on opening night, Friday April 26th, and it took me the whole weekend to come to terms with my feelings.

End Game, the end of a story that started 11 years ago in 2008 with the original Iron Man. 11 years of hard work and dedication by so many actors come to an end in the best ways possible. From Iron Man’s internal struggles to commitment, Captain America’s desire to be with the one he loves. Bruce Banner’s struggles dealing with Hulk. Thor’s family issues. All the stories come full circle in THE movie of 2019.

Everything in this movie felt right. The acting was on point from all parties, the CGI really showed up Hellboy, especially since there was only a year between Infinity War and End Game for the team to create everything. Top notch CGI department, good showing.

All of our heroes meet one final time and each must pay a huge sacrifice to save all the people they love. This movie was full of not only comedic moments, moments actually funnier than most comedies on the market today. But also moments of sorrow that would cause even the most manly of men to shed some tears.

There is so much I want to say but will not simply because I beg you to go see it. I will write a fully comprehensive review of End Game at the beginning of June. By that time you have no excuse to have not seen it and the spoiler-gate will be open.