Apparently the third “Venom” film. The second one is not on Netflix, so I just picked this one.
Like the other “Venom” that I reviewed, “The Last Dance” is alright. Tom Hardy is Eddie Brock, this time and his is already possessed by Venom. Venom is chased by other aliens and so a ‘bromance’ action comedy unfolds with a bit of kids humour.
Another nice Del Toro film in which a scientist in the 1960’ies found a human-like, but water-born creature that he investigates in a secret laboratory. The mute (but not deaf) Elisa develops contact and later a friendship of sorts with the creature. When she learns that there are plans to elimate the creature, she develops a plan to set it free.
With the familiar nice camera work, dreamy atmosphere, slightly odd characters, subtle humour and good dialogues, Del Toro unfolds his ‘faerie tale’. Perhaps this is all you need to know before seeing it.
Another Neil Gaiman mythological fantasy. “The Sandman” from the title is the lord of dreams, Morpheus. When he gets captured by a wicked magician, the world of dreams crumbles. After a long time Morpheus manages to escape and he tries to set things right. First he has to regain his objects of power.
Morpheus looks like he plays in The Cure. Other characters are more colourful, especially in “the dreaming”. The series jump from ‘real world’ to ‘dream’ scenes. Morpheus meets entities that are either or not friendly towards him and one storyline is pulled up after the other. Also halfway the series seem to jump to a quite different season, while in fact, when I write this, there is only one season. New characters are introduced, even again in the very last episode.
The series are alright. There are many references to mythology, there is the fantasy pomp that you perhaps expect. Some story lines are more interesting than other, the same goes for the range of characters that pass by.
I watched this Marvel ill-prepared. I was going to watch something else and decided to switch the last minute and this one was in the watch-list.
It is by and far the weakest Marvel that I saw so far. The movie is more of a Harry Potter type magical fantasy, but more pompous. Dr. Strange is some sorcerer who encounters a girl being chased by a monster. There appears to be another sorcerer in the neighborhood and the two take the girl to their temple of sorcerers.
Dr. Strange goes to consult his ex-wife who proves to be the most mighty of black magicians and she is after the girl’s powers. The girl has the ability to jump between different universes and so there is an “Inception” like chase through “the multiverse of madness”. This of course leads to a visual spectacle which is quite unimpressing.
Had I prepared myself a little better, I would have known that there have been Dr. Strange movies since the 1970’ies and this one is not even the first Marvel. There are almost no references to the “Marvel Cinematic Universe”, What is somewhat amusing is that Lashana Lynch appears as Captain Marvel, while in the “Captain Marvel” film she is Maria Rambeau. For a minute I thought she was also in the Wakanda films, but she is actually in “Woman King“. Also Sheila Atim from “Woman King” appears in this Doctor Strange.
Alithea (Tilda Swinton) is a happy, single “narratologist”. When in Turkey for a conference, she buys a bottle which proves to contain a Djinn (Idris Elba).
The Djinn likes to tell stories, Alithea of course does so too, so the film is presented as a story in which stories are told. We hear how the Djinn found himself trapped in a bottle three times, all times ’caused’ women. As the Djinn tells his story, so does Alithea culminating into a shared life.
Miller’s film is slow and somewhat dreamy, romantic in the sense that the two spirits find their similarities.
The second “Black Panther” brings another highly entertaining mix between African culture and science-fiction. Characters in traditional African apparel (at least, in some situations) are picked up by flying saucers, the vibranium that they mine gives them extremely high technology going from advanced AI to impenetrable suits, superhuman power and what not.
The imaginary African state of Wakanda has earned a place in the international community, but actually everybody is only after their vibranium. Then there appears to be another state that is as advanced as Wakanda. This could be an ally or a foe.
Naturally, when another such nation with similar technology is an enemy, this allows for over-the-top scifi action and so it is. African traditions and languages can in this story be supplemented with South American ancient culture. The technology is very imaginative. The action is a bit too much here and there perhaps and the drama is a bit too ‘thick’ for my liking two, but overal this second “Black Panther” makes a very interesting and watch-worthy Marvel spectactle.
The follow-up was a preview before “Woman King“, which made me somewhat curious about the film. “Black Panther” holds the middle between adventure, science-fiction and superhero action.
The imaginary African state of Wakanda is built on a vibranium mine. Vibranium is an odd substance that came with a comet and allows the inhabitents of Wakanda extremely high-tech sollutions; hence the sci-fi elements. The Wandians have super-cars, super-suits and super-weapons which gives the film the superhero elements. The movie is indeed based on a comic.
A piece of vibranium that was kept in a museum outside Wakandu was stolen and the Wakandians set out to retrieve it and to prevent the powers of vibranium falling in the wrong hands.
“Black Panther” is a bit of a ‘blacksploitation’ with mostly black actors (the white ones are the villains). Besides all the sci-fi and spectacle, there are also ‘African elements’ which bring the ‘adventure’ elements that are somewhat out of place. This is exactly what makes the film somewhat atypical which is not a bad thing.
All in all not a masterpiece, but an enjoyable sci-fi, superhero action.
I saw a weird-looking Johnny Depp so I figured we could watch a weird film. The film is full of marvellous strange creatures in a very fantasyful world.
There is the obligatory battle between good and evil. The good are ministries of magic, Depp plays the counterpart. Another battle is between the magicians and the non-magicians.
As the film continued there were words, locations and even scenes that reminded me of Harry Potter and indeed, the story is written by J.K. Rowling. There are less children in this film than in the Potter films, but for the rest things are quite alike. I am not sure if this films aims at another audience or that the story just better involved adults.
The film has great CGI, a fairly dull story, some alright humour.
Mostly recommended for Potter lovers I guess. Also, it looks like this film is (going to be) part of a series.
I thought this film was quite well known, but it took some effort to see it.
Pi is the short name for an Indian boy who, on his search for God, joins several religions. He was raised a Hindu, found Christ and later Allah, much to the chagrin of his rationalistic father.
His father owns a zoo. Then he decides to sell his zoo and emigrate to Canada. The family sets sail on a ship that also transports some of the animals that are to be sold in the USA. After a shipwreck, Pi gets stuck on a lifeboat together with a tiger.
The “Life of Pi” is told by Pi to a writer. The film has wonderful imaginary, quirky humour and a surrealistic atmosphere. It reminds me a bit of “Big Fish“.
A very nice drama indeed.
Burton’s latest already has a wonderful title. It is a fairly typical Burton. A surrealistic film with children as main characters and they are of course very weird characters, ehm I mean: “peculiar”.
Jake’s grandfather tells him weird stories of “peculiar” children living in Wales, but also about monsters. When he sets out to find his grandfather’s “home for peculiar children” he falls into a strange world of repeating time in which “miss Peregrine” (a beautiful Eva Green) leads the home. There is an invisible boy, a girl that floats away if she does not wear her leaden shoes, a girl whose touch makes fire, etc. You get it, Burton leads you into his strangest fantasy. There are also bad guys, lead by Barron, played by Samuel L. Jackson.
As expected this is another colorful film about a colorful world with subtle humor and great filmographic findings. Perhaps a bit too teen, but a good and entertaining film.