I thought this was a ‘big story’ told in two parts, but part two ends with a big cliffhanger, so I suppose there will be another (few) Rebel Moon movie(s).
Since the introduction of the story is the opening sequence of part one, part two just begins with the troupe having returned to the planet Veldt thinking that they defeated the enemy. It is clear that the enemy is not defeated and that they have to prepare for another battle.
Needless to say that the fight is hard, but the good guys win.
Snyder took a stab at the genre of science fiction epic. Two movies of over two hours (with 3+ hours director cut versions) and a ‘grand story’.
Kora is hiding on a farmer’s planet. A branch of the authoritive rulers of the universe visit the planet (aptly looking like 1940’ies Germans), which makes Kora decide to become the rebel that she already was. She gathers a crowd to go after the rulers of the “Motherworld”.
Part I beging with a complex story, but -as happens more often in such films- what follows is basically a ‘good guys vs bad guys’. Not bad.
Marvel introduced yet another new troupe into the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The eternals are a party of extraterrestrial super heroes, a team of which has been sent to earth to protect humanity against a type of alien super monsters. Also the eternals help humanity evolve.
The story is made a bit too ‘grand’. These eternals are -of course- ‘gods’. They are even called Gilgamesh, Ikarus, etc. They have been around for 7000 years and can’t really interfere in human affairs.
The monsters have supposedly been long whiped out, but they return and a new battle ensues. The eternals have tried to live relatively normal lives and now have to get the team together again to fight the improved version of the monsters.
Besides a few joking references to other Marvel characters, there is no connection to the ‘Cinematic Universe’.
The film is not the most interesting in the Marvel franchise.
Presented as a ‘good old distaster movie’ and that is exactly what it is. A very American one too.
A young student has a theory on how she can make a tornado disappear. Her final test goes horribly wrong and she moves from the action of being a storm chaser, to a meteorologist office job. When an old school mate comes to talk her into a new project in the middle of the action, Kate returns to the state of her birth.
Javi (the school mate) now has a big company collecting tornado data. Out in the field Kate learns that storm chasing became a hip pastime with the popular YouTuber Tyler.
In a very predictable story Kate’s allegiances change and a patriotic romance unfolds. The film does show both the excitement and spectacle of storm chasing and the devastating results. Also you get a bit of a peek into how communities living in tornado active areas deal with the constant threat. I have no idea of all the ‘smart talk’ in the film is correct, but there is also quite a bit of that.
There have been Japanese Godzilla films since 1954. In 1998 followed the first American attempt to exploit the concept. The film was no success and especially the Japanese made fun of the American version. 25 Years later the film looks like a Hollywood disaster spectacle that is at best amusing.
Of course this American version is not set in Japan, but in New York. Godzilla was born as the cause of nuclear tests, but he does not have his famous nuclear beam. Godzilla does have the ability to lay 200 eggs and hatch them in no-time, so the Americans not only have to fight a giant lizard, but also its offspring.
In style this 1998 movie fits well into the time-frame.
I thought I also saw another “Ghostbusters” revamp. That must have been “Afterlife”, 2021, Jason Reitman. Did I forget to review it? If my memory does not fail me, in that other movie, the firestation of the original Ghostbusters is taken over by a family and towards the end a few of the original actors are introduced for the big battle.
This time, the old actors are present from the beginning, but the focus lays mostly on the family who does indeed fight ghosts, but cause so much damage that the major tries to get rid of them.
Then there is a dull story about an ultimate evil that has to be fought. Needless to say that the new Ghostbusters together with the old get the job done, everybody likes them and they live happily ever after.
Mankind messed up preventing climate change and the earth is terrorised by extreme weather. An elaborate system is developed where thousands and thousands of satellites interfere when -for example- a hurricane develops. That way the weather is ‘perfect’ everywhere.
The film is -of course- about the malfunctioning of that system. Ice in Afghanistan, bursting earth in Hong Kong. The man who developed the system has to get back to space to find out what goes wrong.
The film is alright, but towards the end, it takes a deep dive.
Two classic movie monsters are dragged into a new story. The film combines the monster-action with a bit of Indiana Jones type adventure.
I have not seen the 2021 “Godzilla vs. Kong”, but I suppose that the scientist we follow (Ilene) was already there in part one and perhaps she even picked up her adoptive child Jia in that film.
Jia is the last of an ancient tribe that was (I guess) wiped out in the previous film. She is somehow connected to Kong. The new film plays in a time in which everybody knows about King Kong and Godzilla and their movements are closely followed, above and below the surface of the earth.
Kong has moved to “hollow earth”, a kingdom below the surface of the earth, but as he is the last of his kind, he is not going to find and kindred species there. Meanwhile, Godzilla appears to have plans to gain power above ground. A group of scientists do their best to keep the two apart, as them fighting would cause great damage for mankind.
Apparently there are other “titans” (‘monsters’) and Godzilla uses them to gain power. Meanwhile the same scientists have to visit the “hollow earth” to find the reason for certain disturbances that may also be a cause for Godzilla roaming the earth. In the “hollow earth” they discover more than one yet unknown civilisation, one of which poses yet another thread.
In a massive spectacle of monsters fighting, only with a break every now and then when we follow the people in their quest through the subterranean rain forests, it is needless to say that it all leads up to a final battle.
Sandra Bullock (1964) is Loretta Sage, an author of sensual adventure novels who actually wants to start to take things more slowly. She is talked into finishing her new novel. During the presentation of the boo, Sage is kidnapped and finds herself into one of her own stories.
“The Lost City” is a not-too-special India Jones type romantic comedy with an amusing Bullock and a great Brad Pitt who unfortunately has but a short part.
I have not really followed the Indiana Jones franchise. Of course I saw the 1980’ies films when I was younger, but there also appear to be 2021, 2018 films and in 2008 even one by Spielberg and with Harrison Ford. I was not all that interested in the latest, but cinema airco and 4D made me pick “The Dial Of Destiny”.
Initially the film appears to have the famous “spear of destiny” story in which Nazi’s try to get their hands on the spear of Longinus, but the object of interest soon appears to be a dial created by Archimedes. In a typical story the bad guys have bad plans for the world and the hero tries to prevent it. Along the lines there is a puzzle to solve that we would nowadays perhaps call a ‘Dan Brown type story’, but of course these puzzles were also elements of the early Indiana Jones films.
There are no big surprises and the story has a few references to earlier films. Not boring, but not really a must-see.
