X-Men: Apocalypse

There's not much to say about X-Men: Apocalypse other than if you like the X-Men, you'll probably like it. The action looks cool, the plot is interesting (albeit simple), and you get to see more characters in their younger iterations.

I begin this post about X-Men: Apocalypse with the disclaimer that I've never seen an X-Men movie I didn't like – although that could be because I've strategically avoided X2 and X3. And I knew I didn't want to see The Wolverine. And it's not even listed as an X-Men movie, so I'm not counting it (I didn't like it. But I did like X-Men Origins: Wolverine, unlike everyone else). I watched and liked the animated series, and the X-Men are definitely my favorite superheroes.

Apocalypse got a lot of bad reviews. It seemed like no one really liked it. I liked it. I didn't think it had too many characters or anything. A lot of them were people we already knew. I can't stand Sansa as Jean, though. I just don't like that actress. Then again, I felt the same way about Jennifer Lawrence, and I'm getting more used to her in the role now I guess.

Cave of Forgotten Dreams

Cave of Forgotten Dreams is Werner Herzog's look at the oldest known cave paintings. It's intriguing just from the perspective of the fact that basically no one ever gets to see them in person. He explores some other facets of life back then, like the landscape and other forms of art, so it's not only about the paintings. It's interesting to think about.

I wasn't interested in Cave of Forgotten Dreams when it came out, but someone (hi, ZT) said it "literally (literally)" blew their mind, so I figured I'd check it out. I watched the same way I always watch documentaries – in 10-minute intervals over the course of a day. It's a little slow sometimes. And it bugged me when they were first exploring and getting lots of shots of them shining lights on the drawings that were so bright that you couldn't actually see the drawings. But they eventually stopped doing that.

Her

"Her" kind of gets more interesting when you reflect on it. The relationship stuff is slightly profound, although it does mostly just make you think again about things you already knew or realized. It's cool to see an imagining of the near future and the evolution of AI, though.

I'm a bit late to the game on "Her," but I wasn't really interested in it. Everyone kept saying it was good, though, so I checked it out. I do like Joaquin Phoenix. Not sure what everyone's doing with the Chester mustache and the super high pants in this movie. I guess it makes sense – the wardrobe as a whole is kind of futuristic and at the same time reminiscent of the past, and fashion always references the past.

There are a lot of good quotes in the movie. Although I couldn't hear half of it, so I'd probably have a better feel for it if I had been able to. "The past is just a story we tell ourselves" is a good one. It is true. Nothing's objective; you never really know what other people's feelings or motives were. I read something once that said every time you remember something, you're actually just remembering the last time you remembered it, so the memories you think of the most are actually the least accurate.

And specifically Samantha was referring to how something Theodore said about her made her feel, which means she was actually talking about "our perceptions of ourselves are a story we tell ourselves," which is also true. I've always thought that you create your own reality, though.

Alice Through the Looking Glass

Alice Through the Looking Glass was cool to see in the theater, but I wouldn’t recommend it outside of that. It could’ve been a lot better. Aesthetically it alternates between gorgeous and freakish; the plot’s largely contradictory and uncompelling; the dialgoue is trite; and Mia doesn’t quite have the presence to pull off the Alice they’re trying to portray.

Roeper warned me that Alice Through the Looking Glass wasn’t going to be any good, but I didn’t listen. It looked pretty, so I wanted to see it. It was pretty. Although the Hatter and the Red Queen looked really freaky and screwed with the aesthetic appeal for a lot of the movie. Alice’s outfits were really cool, though. I loved that crazy thing that she wore to the ball.