Rise of the Legend

There are some cool ideas in Rise of the Legend, but they aren't carried out well. The action looks fake, there's a bizarre fascination with poorly done CG fire, and the plot is dull.

I keep watching these Well Go movies, and they're always terrible, but for some reason that doesn't stop me. I saw the trailer for Rise of the Legend, and I thought it might have some interesting action scenes. I guess it did. There was one in water that was kind of cool. And I liked the idea of the fire one more than anything that really happened during it. The dialogue was horrendous, but I think that was partially the fault of whoever did the subtitles. The story probably would have been better if it had been translated differently. All the "F" names were confusing, with Fei and Fiery and Fa, and the first time I saw them I wondered if the subtitles were just messed up (they did refer to Fei as the "forth adopted son" for the entire time). 

I didn't recognize Eddie Peng from Tai Chi Hero at all. He seemed a lot better-looking in this movie than that one. Maybe he was just surrounded by people who weren't as good-looking in this one, though. Overall the action was pretty flat. It all seemed super fake. Even the giant "thoom" sound effect every time somebody got kicked was a bit much. 

Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind

Miyazaki's movies all seem to match the same theme of "stop fighting and respect nature," and Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind is no exception. It is visually interesting, and you can't help but like Nausicaä, so I'd lean towards recommending it even though it's not exactly mind-blowing.

I'm pretty sure my college boyfriend liked Nausicaä, but it's been so long since I've thought about it that I could be totally wrong. I wanted to watch My Neighbor Totoro, which I haven't seen yet, but the plot was too simple for my company and they chose Nausicaä instead. It reminded me a lot of Princess Mononoke. I did like Nausicaä more, though. Except for the name. They pronounce it so weird, with an "sh" for the "s." I do like the animation style, although the hats were really distracting and weird.

Nausicaä herself was a cool character. I liked her outfit. You can't *not* like someone who's basically just nice to everyone/everyone's hero. Again the message is super heavy-handed, though. "Stop fighting and try to understand each other." Okay. I guess it's a good thing to tell kids.

Captain America: Civil War

There wasn't a lot of substance to Captain America: Civil War. It basically left me feeling like, "Was that a movie? Did I just watch something?" Some of the action was cool, and I guess the question it raises is interesting, but it's less than memorable.

I didn't see the first two Captain America movies, so I guess I was missing out on a bit of backstory here (and apparently the second Avengers movie would have been relevant as well, which I also didn't see). But I think I get the idea – the Avengers are destroying stuff, and Cap and Bucky were friends when they were growing up. I think I read a review that said it's an interesting dilemma, the fact that so many innocent people die in these things, and that this movie doesn't really provide any answers.

I think it sort of does. Cap's logic seems pretty sound. I guess it's just like in any war. Ultimately you're saving more lives. It's not like they're out there *trying* to kill innocent people. And putting the government in charge of them wouldn't be good. Although there probably should be some sort of system of checks and balances in case one of them is ever less than altruistic. Maybe it works if they're just self-policing.

The Cabin in the Woods

Cabin in the Woods is kind of interesting. I like the premise, and parts of it are cool, but the ending feels like a cop-out.

When my friend said he wanted to watch this, I thought it was Cabin Fever, and I was like, "Why would I want to watch that?" But it turns out it wasn't. I do vaguely remember that people liked The Cabin in the Woods, but it wasn't ever anything I wanted to see. The first thing I noticed was that Kristen Connolly's hair looked super weird. And I had to look up where I knew her from (it turned out to be House of Cards).