FILMRECENSION - Captain America: Civil War
Engelskspråkig recension igen.
Jag tror bara jag ska sluta tillkännage det i fortsättningen, för jag gissar att det troligtvis alltid kommer förbli på engelska. ^^
*SPOILERALERT*
Here's a movie that will finally get a high score, because this movie is awesome. I actually watched this movie several months ago, but as described in the latest review, I am very bad at giving credit where credit is due; mainly because I suck at describing and elaborating on things which are positive. I'm better at complaining; I hate to admit it, but its true. ^^
However, here's finally an opportunity for me to practice on commending instead of just condemning, and I am going to try to do this movie justice by actually uploading a full review of this as an example of a movie that really gave me an awesome experience from start to finish.
PROS
Oh my god, what DIDN'T I like about this movie?
I love this movie for several reasons; one of them being that this is not just your average typical low-brow action flick. This movie has a deeper message that really shines through and presents a moral dilemma which I think even little kids are picking up on.
Who takes responsibility for the innocents that die on the sidelines in a superpowered battle?
Aren't the heroes causing more deaths simply by opposing the villains?
Why don't they ever mention the people who obviously die as collateral damage and why hasn't the government ever touched upon this?
These were questions that never really saw the light of day when I was growing up and watched superhero-movies; it was always so dichotomic, you had your heroes and your bad guys. Fight!
And let me tell you, this is the one thing that stands out the most in this movie: the split between the characters and the utterly ambiugious choice between the two.
The audience is encouraged to think for themselves and decide which of the two groups they want to root for and I think that is just brilliant! There is no clear line between good and evil here. The view of preserving your independence in order to do what you think is right is equally as valid as siding with the government in order to do what society thinks is right.
The rogues gallery in this movie is really impressive and gets you really excited, mainly because they consist of the heroes themselves; there really isnt any supervillains this time. The bad guy is just some normal guy who wants to do all of the Avengers in because he had been victimized by them.
At first it felt kind of like a let down, but after a while it just dawned on me that it was the perfect way of doing things here. This guy becomes a simple but determined manipulator which in turn by proxy make villains out of whichever side of Team Cap/Team Stark you DON'T side with. Ingenious!!
This movie really makes you think and honestly, is the first action-movie in a long time that also almost managed to move me to tears. The tragedy of having to go up against your friends; you can feel the wrongness of the situation, nobody wants to do this but they have to and it is tearing them apart.
And that's another thing that's executed perfectly; the drama.
The same way that the moral dilemma in Age of Ultron made me yawn because they seemed to constantly hammer in the obvious dangers of creating an A.I, this one gripped me by the balls and kept me wondering which hero would side with which side.
The actors in this movie really dish out their A-grade material and it shows. Because of the moral dilemma, character-development come by the boatload here. And I love how the two main characters suddenly swich sides on their own default opinions. Suddenly, the usually by-the-book Steve Rogers is in favor of staying away from the government after having seen the duplicitous nature of SHIELD in Captain America: The Winter Soldier, while the typically rebellious Tony Stark developes a conscience because of his actions in Age of Ultron and starts to favor accountability and a closer tie to the people by submitting to an elected administration. Its like they developed into two opposites from being the opposite opposites and I just find that both funny and clever. ^^
The action-scenes in this movie are sooooo good, you are litterally hanging on for dear life. And in many cases when it comes to action, movies tend to either go overboard or not enough, but not here.
In this movie, the balance is executed perfectly between dramatic downtime and adrenaline-pumping action. It gives you just enough to keep you entertained, but not so much that you get sick of it. Everytime the movie progressed into a new fight-scene, I was like "Yes! Good! Let's get it on!" and when it ended, it always seemed to end at just the right time and good action does that.
But the main fight... holy shit, nothing beats that. Nothing else in the movie even comes close.
Not that I know how or what to say other than the fact that it was an all-out pummeling-fest which left me completely exhausted, but in a good way, as if I had just orgasmed.
I truly loved it!!
And I think the reason that this fight is so epic is most likely because this wasn't a hero vs a villain or even a hero vs a hero.... this was a TEAM of heroes vs a TEAM of heroes. The controversy and awesomeness alike in such a concept reaches epic proportions. You get to see all of those characters that you have followed througout the previous connected movies duking it out and for all the true fans, that is just ecstasy beyond our dreams.
The only downside was that it WAS so short for all that it was; I had wanted to see more of the heroes going at it, but I realize that the entire movie can't be all about the Avengers beating the crap out of each other.
Oh yeah, Spider-man is in there!! :D
And I was pleasantly surprised too, because I was afraid that his puns and quick remarks might make him sort of childish and goofy, but they actually work pretty well. They're not even bad puns, they're good. ^^ I mean, when was the last time you experienced good puns in an action movie?
Another thing I was afraid of was that he might be underplayed as sort of a sidenote, but no.
I mean, he actually manages to hold his own against TWO opponents, damnit!
That's just how its supposed to be, because even though he might be young, Spider-man isn't some side-character that you can just brush away; he has his own franchise and must be respected and even though his appearance was relatively brief, they did good by him. Thank god.
The climax was both exhilarating and tragic. The scene where Tony finds out about his parents was so incredibly touching that I could experience every ounce of pain that he felt. It made me feel that Tony was completely justified in taking action against the titular protagonist Captain America; not just because of his standpoint regarding the accords, but also because of his sense of being betrayed. As Tony learned about who killed his parents and that Steve hadn't told him that he knew about it, you can really see his heart breaking.
It culminates in this epic three-way duel between cap, 'man and soldier in which they truly go all out, I mean they pull no punches here. You can tell that this fight is all about emotions going out of control and it just adds to the tragedy. Even the aftermath leaves things unresolved with the Avengers split, which opens up for new possibilites by not returning to the status quo. It is kept interesting even in the end.
CONS
Negatives?
Hmm, I don't know.
Bad characters? Not really. They all feel significant to the story as a whole.
Bad performances? Nah.. everyone performs at the very least to an acceptable standard; even the Martin Freeman-character, who managed to get away with his fake american accent. ^^
Where there plot holes? ... I don't really remember. Not that I can recall. And if there were, I was kept so entertained that I missed them completely.
............
Well, okay. Actually there was one thing which sort of is worth mentioning; a piece of vital information which went over the heads of most people.
When you find out that Captain America had known about Bucky murdering Stark's parents, many people including myself went "Wait, what? When did you learn that?"
Apparently, its supposed to be implied from some obscure newspaper article which Rogers sees back in Captain America: The Winter Soldier when he and Black Widow is in the underground bunker complex talking to Arnim Zola.
But I can't really fault Civil War for that as it is a problem that stems from a completely different movie entirely. And if I ever do a review of that movie, you can be sure I'm gonna bring that up.
Other than that, I have no real complaints at all. Though, I guess a minor nitpick I have is the fact that the duality and theme of "pick your side" of this movie is so omnipresent that I felt that it really should have been a full-fledged Avengers-movie and not presented under the banner of one single superhero, but as I said, thats just nitpicking.
CONCLUSION
So.. what about the final score?
Will it reach the ever-coveted five deathstars out of five possible?
It depends.
Is it absolutely perfect, the very Platoesque paragon of all movies ever made?
Well, no, of course not. But then again, what movie is? And I will say that for an Avengers- movie (yes, it should be "Avengers: Civil War", damnit!!), its pretty damn close to perfect.
So... for the first time ever... Captain America: Civil War will be the first movie ever to reach my highest grade.
I hereby award you FIVE deathstars out of five!
May you give rise to a new level of quality entertainment that is sustained in your successors.
FILMRECENSION - Batman vs Superman: Dawn of Justice
Återigen blir det här på engelska. Vet inte varför, men jag har börjat skriva mer och mer debattinlägg på engelska. Jag antar att det är nånting som både ni och jag får stå ut med. ^^
*SPOILERALERT*
This movie is very confusing and has a fair amount of plot holes. Normally, plot holes can be debated and dismissed if minor, but some things in this movie just sticks with me.
For instance, how kryptonite in gaseous form appears to be as effective against Superman as a cigarette is to a non-smoker.. sure, you cough a few times but within a couple of minutes, you're fine again. Yes.. it wears off!
And as kryptonite is supposed to be more or less as poisonous to Superman as nuclear radiation is to ordinary humans, we can only deduce by that logic that the effects of harmful radiation exposure to the average homo sapiens usually wears off as well.
I'll be sure to notify radiation-sickness wards around the world.
What else? Well, Gotham and Metropolis should NOT be that close. I know full-well that some sources state them to be very close, usually in the same general region, but in my opinion they should not be twin-cities.
My biggest beef with this is the fact that there would be no need for Batman if Superman was on active duty in the same immediate area. Many want to argue that the bat is "on the night-shift" because Superman has to sleep, but I'm sorry, that's an argument I will never accept because the very idea of Superman and Batman dishing out their own brands of justice in the same city raises way too many questions.
On the map below you can clearly see that the cities are supposed to be located a fair distance from each other, separated by a huge body of water that even manages to contain an island. This is acceptable, mainly because the indicated distance deduced by the apparent size of the city-markers put them out of sight-range. And anything so remote would not be considered the "backyard" for either superhero; the water which separates the two cities would be akin to a significantly large lake or an oceanic strait.
However, the subsequent images of Luthor watching the Batsignal over Gotham from his Lexcorp headquarters in Metropolis and Lois pointing to Gotham from the roof of the Daily Planet show them to be so close that they could almost be mistaken for neighboring boroughs of a single metropolitan city just across a local bay; i.e Staten Island and Brooklyn.
Its inconsistencies like this that annoy me.
You want more? Okay.. what exactly is Batman's motivation for wanting to kill Superman? When Batman fights Superman he displays such anger and hate which I have difficulty finding a reason for.
I mean, what..? Does he believe that Superman was the culprit behind the bombings? No?
Is he somehow convinced that Superman is evil because a future version of the Flash warns him about Superman? A vision which turns out to BE. A. DREAM!
Does he in some way feel responsible for the innocent bystanders that are hurt and as such is triggered by the message that he "let his family die" because it somehow parallels current events? That's an incredible stretch.
And even so.. why hold Superman responsible? Yes, shit blows up around him, but he has superpowers! Of course his abilities are hazardous to surrounding areas. But his INTENTIONS are good.
And that's just it. The most damaging prospect of all is that Bruce Wayne; the "world's greatest detective", can't see three fingers in front of him. He never stops to think about who Superman is, what his intentions are and why he does the things he does; he just labels Superman a danger to society without delving deeper into the situation. I would imagine that a mind which operates on a genius-level like Bruce Wayne would at least consider all the facts and gather every bit of information on the man-god before trying to kill him.
And I have to say.. during that fight when Batman brings up their parents... it almost seems like he is acting out some sort of childish jealousy.
"Why did your parents give you a good childhood while mine left me?"
"Why are you looked up to while I'm feared?"
I kind of see what they were aiming for, that they wanted to show his more human emotions, but come on.... this is Batman! Twenty years of pummeling criminals into dust would've acted as therapy and at least softened any residual anxiety in connection with his parents deaths. If anything, the Robin-death would've been more current, but that hasn't even got anything to do with it.
I also didn't really like the fact that Superman has to be coerced into fighting Batman; it just felt so cheap.
When I think "Batman vs Superman", I imagine them going all-out, with both of them feeling completely justified in taking a stand against the other. In this fight you could clearly tell that Superman was pulling his punches.
And would someone please tell me what this is supposed to be? Why is Wonderwoman SMILING in the middle of a losing battle?
I mean, granted; it does make her look hot.. but was it their intention to make her over-the-top sexy in a completely inappropriate situation?
And another thing, doesn't Superman look an awful lot like Christopher Mcdonald in this close up-shot??
One thing I did like though, is how this movie makes use of the rarely-touched-upon fact that the mothers of both superheroes have the same first name. Its something that I have mentioned several times in online-discussions, and the fact that many fans have not realized it has always perplexed me. But in this movie it is touched upon quite cleverly and is ultimately what turns the situation.
In conclusion, this movie was a mixed bag. What it had going for it was the fact that it was fairly interesting at its core as I genuinely wanted to follow the story because it dealt with relevant topics, such as how Superman should deal with negative backlash.
However, unfortunately, I also found it to be quite boring at times. I found myself engrossed in youtube videos on several occassions (or sites trying to explain the plot holes in the movie); hitting that pause button over and over, needlessly prolonging and chopping up the experience.
The movie took sooo long before it gained any momentum, mostly presenting us with exposition and mundane scenes, before FINALLY getting to the good stuff. The complete edition is THREE FUCKIN' HOURS!!! Now, I know exposition and causality are necessary and indeed, I welcome it, but this movie just went overboard with it and coupled that fact with the slow pace and way too arduous runtime; which was a sure-fire way to grind down all interest.
Så.. vad ska den få för betyg? ....
Jag har märkt att dom filmer som jag recenserar tenderar att få ganska låga betyg, och det har inte riktigt gått upp för mig varför förrän nu. Jag börjar undra om det inte är så att jag har mycket lättare att skriva ner vad jag har att klaga på än när jag faktiskt tycker en film är upplyftande.
Case in point: X-Men Days of Future Past.
Den filmen såg jag relativt nyligen och den satte alla kriterier perfekt; jag tyckte den var en helt underbar upplevelse och det var nervkittlande att få se alla gamla skådespelare komma tillbaka för att göra sina gamla karaktärer igen och kombinera dom med dom nya från First Class. Och slutet var det perfekta slutet... det var bara några saker som jag noterade.. (återigen, saker som är negativa tenderar jag att notera medan positiva saker lätt absorberas av mig utan vidare begrundan), men inget som gjorde att filmen ens var "bra". Den var "toppen"!
Och ändå så har jag inte skrivit nånting om den...
Det här får bli en läxa för mig. Jag måste lära mig att faktiskt ge credit where credit's due.
Men låt oss inte spåra ur fullständigt nu. Åter till betyget för Batman vs Superman: Dawn of Justice.
BETYG:
Om jag sa att Batman vs Superman: Dawn of Justice var en bra film så skulle jag ljuga. Men den är ingen total flopp heller. Jag såg den utökade versionen; folk som såg den kortare biograf-versionen verkar dock ha fått en ÄNNU sämre upplevelse (stackare)... så jag står och väger lite här, vilka aspekter ska faktorera in i ekvationen?
I slutändan drar förvirringarna, plothålen och det sega tempot ner betyget avsevärt mer än det hade behövts. Men på samma gång så håller storyn bra nog och jag är inte besviken lika mycket som jag är fysiskt utmattad; ärligt, med alla pauser jag gjorde vart filmen säkert mer än fyra timmar lång (!!!!!!!!)
Filmen lyckas åtminstone pressa sig upp till tre hela dödsstjärnor av fem möjliga.
Bättre än TMNT Out of the Shadows, men det säger inte mycket. Dawn of Justice är godkänd som bäst. Jag väntar mig mera av uppföljaren...
FILMRECENSION - TMNT Out of the Shadows
*SPOILERALERT*
Turtles Out of the Shadows.
I'm sorry, but as a turtles-fan who grew up with every turtles show in history, this is kind of painful to watch. The characteristics, the group dynamics, the feel of it all.. its just so off and completely unblalanced. Even though I will say I actually like this movie a little bit more than the first one simply because we see more of the canon-material, its still flawed beyond belief.
My biggest problem is how the director insists on enhancing the image and giving character development to one guy instead of the entire group. Both of these recent live-action movies are so obviously directed by someone who is clearly a Raph-fanboy, because in each one Raphael is more or less the one we should identify with as the hero, sometimes subtly and sometimes blatantly.
In the first one, its "Raphael to the rescue!". He is the only one not captured during the fight in the lair and needs to save the day. The rest of the turtles just sort of melt into the shadow; Don is lost in techno-babble, Mikey is annoying and Leo barely gets any screen-time because.. what, they couldn't figure out any reasons at all for giving the leader some character development? No obvious lessons learned or emotional breakdowns because of the pressure of dealing with leadership or anything? No, he's just sort of this voicebox who says what they are going to do, and that's basically it.
Instead its Raph who needs to learn something, its Raph who needs to connect with the group, its Raph that needs to be the guy that rescues them and its Raph that gets the final super-funny joke as they hang on for dear life at the end.
But what about the second movie? Surely Raph isn't the favored turtle in THIS story? They can't do it TWICE?
Well, shows how wrong you are, because this is even MORE unbalanced, as the director is trying to unfairly paint Leo to be some sort of douchebag when he willfully decides to keep the truth about the ooze from his brothers, blatantly says that the only vote that counts is his and Raph gives voice to what most of us are thinking, again turning Raph into some sort of moral center of the story (albeit a violent one).
Sure, in the end Raph's action was proven wreckless, but Leo is still going on about how he was right, they should fall in line and be all like him, yadda-yadda-yadda.
I just think it is appalling that while the first movie had Leo be this secondary character that didn't stand out at all, this movie turned Leo into this jerk that lacks any form of social standards. Its obvious that the creators of this movie haven't seen the show before. Hell, its even doubtful that they've seen the preceeding movies.
This whole the-ooze-might-turn-us-human-but-we-must-stay-turtles-because-that's-what-we-are... I will declare that it is highly unlikely.. no, as a matter of fact, its down-right impossible for Leo to ever make such a drastic decision that affects the whole group in such a profound manner without any input from the others or at LEAST (!) with him consulting master Splinter.
Any turtles-fan knows that while Leo occasionaly has to make the tough decisions, he is not SO closed-off and blindly arrogant that he actually can feel so justified to single-handedly make that call for everybody, no matter the intentions given as an excuse.
And in the end, what did it all amount to? Well, apparently it didn't even matter, because when it comes right down to it and they have to make the final decision of whether to use the ooze or not, Leo makes a complete reversal on his standpoint and just says "I'll do whatever you guys do." ... like, what??.. you were going to come to blows with Raph over this before and now its like "Fuck it! You decide!"?
And yes, again its Raph that wants all of the turtles to have a vote, its Raph who needs to overcome his fear of heights, its Raph who speaks for the entire group at the end .. God, this is such a flagrant fanboy-biased portrayal, I don't even...
Allright, let's move on before I get a nosebleed just thinking about this...
Then there's the Shredder. Good god... where to even start with this one?
If I thought the Shredder in the first film wasn't given any character and too little screen-time, this one, while being seen a whole lot more, STILL manages to be completely bland.
And I can't for the world figure out how they could mess this up so completely. They HAVE the character to work with and the actor who plays him, Brian Tee, actually looks really good as the Shredder; his appearance matches what I could accept as Oroku Saki and his voice when he meets Krang has that raspy threatening tone.
But they barely even present a decent facade, let alone a completed product. He mostly just stands around with a face that looks like it belongs on the side of a japanese mount Rushmore and acts like Leonardo's counterpart in the Foot Clan; he gives commands and nothing else.
No reiterating his schemes with maniacal laughter or anything that we have come to expect from the guy. He isn't even wearing his Shredder-suit until the very last part of the movie; he could've easily just as well have been mistaken for one of the leather-dressed ninja soldiers to the casual onlooker.
I thought they would've given us a more fleshed-out Shredder in this movie, seeing as how the first one was so ridiculously underplayed that this one had to be the definitive version. But no, this one is even more underplayed, and this time its truly insulting simply because he IS shown that much more and still manages to be this non-descript individual.
The scene where he meets Krang is probably the most underwhelming anti-climactic scene I have ever seen on film.
So Shredder just appears before Krang and is like "where am I?" and this massive robot with a disembodied brain comes out and literrally tells him to pay it no mind.
Yeah, you know... because... why should he care?
It then goes on to blatantly tell the Shredder that he wants the teleporter which Baxter Stockman found in order to open this door to earth, like its as common as taking your dog out for a walk.
And Shredder just gives a response that's somewhere along the line of ... "Okay. Can I go now?" .. seriously, no disbelief, no questioning Krang's character or intentions... I swear, Shredder gives the most uninterested reaction to the first meeting of an extradimensional being ever recorded on film. And its not even a spoof! I'm serious, I pay even less attention to Shredder than I do to the human sidekicks in this movie, and that's when you know its bad.
But wait, there's more! Because not only does he have the radiant charisma of a rock, he is also a complete idiot.
For you see, he actually goes along with the plan to rule the world, chosing to trust this *COMPLETELY* *INHUMAN* *THING* right there on the spot.
Come on!.. you have never seen this creature before! At all!! You are not in any position in which you can just dismiss the very potential threat being presented to you by this completely unknown variable, let alone even going so far as to join forces with it!! You don't know its ultimate agenda, you don't know if its speaking the truth or not.
Of course, you could argue that Shredder might have and probably does have his own plans and is scheming right now to take control away from Krang at the end an- .. or okay, he really believs him and gets betrayed by Krang, yeah.
I can't believe this is happening.. and then, when Shredder dumbfoundedly exclaims "You betrayed me!" ... I was like "NUUHUUU!!???? IT'S AS IF THIS EVIL-LOOKING ALIEN HAS PLANNED THIS ALL ALONG!!!" :O .. oh my god..! Even the Shredder from the Cartoon of the 80s were smarter than this.
And to top it off, possibly the worst plot-decision EVER!.. get this...
...they brush aside the Shredder.
THEY BRUSH ASIDE THE SHREDDER!
.. Yeah, that's right! :O
He's basically disposed of like a little bitch when Krang just decides to stuff him in the fridge. And we NEVER SEE HIM AGAIN!! Yeah, so much for the badass ultimate nemesis of the turtles. *JAW DROPPED*
I would say that he had it coming for already being so incredibly stupid, but.. seriously? The Shredder is the supervillain in this franchise; if anything, Krang is the secondary antagonist, he always has been.
YOU...... ASSHOLES!!!!!
Krang himself is just your average generic megalomaniac. I would've wanted to get a more in-depth connection with the character, but we don't even get his backstory! No, you heard me. He just appears out of nowhere, like some random door-salesman that just shows up and wants to pester your life for no discernable reason.
And yes, as I said, the human sidekicks are nothing special, but to be fair, that's to be expected. Vern, Casey and April are all just there for human relations, barely noticable as a result.
We do get some sort of police-chief woman who actually manages to make me raise an eyebrow, but that's mostly because she is so good at playing the obligatory asshole for the majority of the film.
So, was it all bad completely through? No. There were some things that tried to balance out the negativity.
Like Bebop and Rocksteady
Every time we cut to them the whole movie just took off. The corny jokes and their goofiness is really something that I believed that I would hate and roll my eyes at, but they actually work surprisingly well. This is exactly how I would've imagined Bebop and Rocksteady would act if they ever got onto the silver screen; they certainly have more character and DEFINITELY more chemistry with each other than they ever had in the cartoon.
Also, I do think that the decision to reject the ooze by the turtles was the obvious right choice, because if they had taken the ooze to become human, there wouldn't have been anything special about them; they would just have been human ninja teenagers.. and.. yeah, it would have been just as dumb as it sounds.
But yeah, again, that was Raphael (ofc, who else) who made the moraly sound choice and took it upon himself to smash the container, again showing that he knows what's truly right and nobody questioned it.. as opposed to when Leo made such a decision and everyone went apeshit over it.. ... you know, I'm surprised the movie isn't called "Raphael and his three turtle-brothers".
The ending... my god is it cringe-worthy! If you thought the ending of the first movie was bad, with the tired "oops, i blew up your car"-cliché... well, here they go all in with Vern doing the sidekick-joke in the crowd that we've seen a million times, how Raph gets his five minutes of mic-time and how Casey and April OUT OF NOWHERE just decide to like one another for no apparent reason other than the fact that they usually get together in the other movies. Because, yeah.. they totally managed to show us a stellar performance in how a romance blossoms in this movie.
No, sorry... that was sarcasm.
Okej, så betyget?
Alltså, jag kan inte med gott samvete ens ge den här två dödsstjärnor av fem möjliga. Det får bli en och en halv.
Jag hade givit den en enda dödsstjärna om det inte hade varit för källmaterialet som faktiskt presenteras här i proper anda.
Men det gottgör tyvärr inte för den enorma mängden av horribla misstag och felaktiga inriktningar. Filmen är en enda röra.
Däremot går den att se, men bara om man absolut inte väntar sig nån direkt autentisk hänvisning till originalen.
Farväl, gamle vän... var du än är...
Snabb uppföljning
1. Jag har fått tillbaka mitt gamla jobb (!!!!), vilket gör att jag har varit upptagen.
2. Jag har återupptagit min prenumeration av World of Warcraft (JAG VEEEEEET VAD JAG SKREV FÖRUT, INTE ETT ORD!!!! :P ).. vilket gör att jag har varit upptagen.
