Star Wars: Episode IX - The Rise of Skywalker

The constant barrage of emotional moments is a bit much, but aside from that, I liked the tone of The Rise of Skywalker. There isn't a whole lot to the plot, but the characters are likeable and it looks good, which is about all I expect from a Star Wars movie.

I wasn't really into the first six movies, so I don't have any allegiance to what "Star Wars" is supposed to be. I did like the two new ones, though.

I can appreciate that it's a closing of the arc, but I didn't like how every 5 seconds they hit you with saying goodbye to another big character. There was also a constant barrage of triumphant moments. Somebody described the movie as being waterboarded. Sure you like water, but that's too much water. I kind of agree.

Leia looked kind of weird. I always like Rey's outfit, though. I liked the new droid, but it's kind of weird that they keep introducing new ones.

The Man Who Killed Don Quixote

The Man Who Killed Don Quixote is a cool movie, if you're in the mood for that sort of thing. The tone hits all the right notes; it's farsical and, dare I say, quixotic. Jonathan Pryce and Adam Driver bring a lot of charisma, and the side characters are interesting, too.

I read excerpts of Don Quixote in school, but I haven't read the entire thing. I remember liking it, though. I don't think I've watched anything Terry Gilliam has been involved with, other than Tristram Shandy, which I felt like was one of the worst movies I had ever seen.

Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald

Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald is a fully "okay" movie. I still like the magic and the creatures. It raises some questions about characters I previously thought of as "good," like Dumbledore and Queenie. I'm interested to see where they go with the rest of the series.

I had a lot of problems seeing Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald. I wanted to see it in a theater on my birthday. It was only playing into theaters by then, one in Shoreline, and one in Tacoma. The one in Shoreline only had one showing a day. I don't see movies in theaters very often (in fact, it's about once a year, on my birthday). I didn't realize that a lot of the theaters have switched over to having you pick your seat when you buy the ticket.

I didn't get to the theater until about five minutes before the movie started. The only tickets that were left were in the front row. I tried it out, but it was impossible to see anything. I should have just seen a different movie, but I wound up not seeing anything at all, which really sucked.

I wound up waiting until Grindelwald came to the $4 theater to try again. I normally sit in the back row of the theater, but the screen at the Crest was so small that I wanted to sit in the middle. I ended up not being able to do that, even though there were open seats where I wanted to be. So I had to sit all the way in the back. For about the first third of the movie, I felt like I couldn't even see it, and I kept missing a bunch of dialogue because I couldn't hear it, either.

I read a review that said Newt's affect gets really annoying. Maybe my perception was just colored by that, but I definitely agreed. Like, just stand up straight at least.

Doctor Strange

Doctor Strange looks good and the magic stuff is fun to see, but it’s still a pretty unremarkable movie, and Dr. Strange himself is a jerk.

I didn't know anything about Doctor Strange before I saw this movie, other than his scenes in Thor: Ragnarok. They really set him up in the beginning of the movie as a complete jackass.

Swiss Army Man

Swiss Army Man is a weird movie. It makes a valid point, but the presentation is pretty rudimentary.

Swiss Army Man didn't pique my interest when I saw the trailer for it. I think any reviews I saw about it said it was "okay," which certainly didn't motivate me to see it. When I started watching it, I was pleasantly surprised to see that it starred Paul Dano. I remembered that Daniel Radcliffe was in it.

They kind of beat you over the head with the theme that we're really all the same, and we all do embarrassing things that wouldn't be embarrassing if we would stop making people feel bad for doing them. It's a valid idea, but the way in which it was conveyed wasn't terribly entertaining.

The Dark Tower

It's baffling why they even made this Dark Tower movie. It has nothing to do with the books. The characters and plot are completely different. That makes it pretty painful for someone who's read the series, and I'm not sure there's anything there for someone who hasn't.

I knew The Dark Tower wasn't going to be good, but I figured I might as well see it anyway. I read all the books, but it was a while ago, so I don't remember much about them anymore. When I saw the trailer, my reaction was, "what was that, there was nothing there." Reviews said it was just painful to watch because there was so much potential, and they didn't do anything with it. I definitely agree with that.

Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales

I've liked all of the Pirates of the Caribbean movies, and Dead Men Tell No Tales is no different. It's not going to win an Oscar or anything, but Javier is appropriately menacing, the plot holds things together well enough, and overall it's fun and familiar.

I like the Pirates of the Caribbean movies. I used to like Johnny Depp, but that's getting more difficult with all the "personal life" stuff that's been happening with him recently. I like the tone of the movies, though. And they're so familiar, with the music and everything. I like the "pirate adventure" angle, and seeing Jack running around doing crazy stuff.

The witch was super weird. I couldn't get behind her at all, or figure out if we were supposed to remember her from one of the other movies. They kind of overdid it with the makeup on the pirates. They all looked like they had some hardcore sun damage going on, and I felt like it wasn't necessary.

2010

I'm not really sure what anyone was supposed to get out of 2010, the sequel to 2001. It was just kind of weird.

I didn’t really have any interest in seeing 2010 (the sequel to 2001), and I was really tired when I watched it, so pretty much the entire time I was just waiting for it to be over. It was kind of weird.

King Arthur: Legend of the Sword

You pretty much know the plot of King Arthur from the trailer – Arthur has to kill the evil king – and Guy Ritchie’s style doesn’t exactly mesh seamlessly with the genre and tone. But it’s fun to watch anyway; Charlie Hunnam is a charismatic lead, there are some great musical choices, and it looks amazing.

 
I like Guy Ritchie’s movies, and I knew I wanted to see  King Arthur: Legend of the Sword as soon as I saw the trailer. His style of dialogue doesn’t 100% mesh with the tone of the movie, but it wasn’t disastrous, and I like it, anyway. It was kind of funny to see them setting up the assassination attempt like a heist. The whole “here’s what everybody’s going to say” schtick isn’t my favorite, though.

Man of Steel

We all know Superman’s story already, so I didn’t really get what the point of watching this was, but it was fine.

I never had any interest in seeing Man of Steel; or in fact, any Superman movies, because I’ve never seen one. And this wound up being another one I was only halfway paying attention to. I like Michael Shannon. He was good in Boardwalk Empire, and he did well playing Zod. Henry Cavill is fun to look at, and that’s pretty much my overall opinion of the movie.

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 is a little campy, and I’m still not a fan of the makeup, but there’s something likeable about the characters, and I enjoyed the story.

I got to see Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 in the theater, which was pretty cool, although I had to sit closer than I would’ve liked (even though we got there almost an hour early and there were seats available in the back). It does kind of make you feel like you’re more “in” it when you sit six rows back, I guess.

I’m still not a fan of the bold colors. I guess that’s just the look they’re going for. But the greasepaint aspect is annoying. Groot looked pretty good. He didn’t really stand out as CG. I guess everything is a little cartoon-y, so he blended in. Rocket looked super scruffy.

I do like all the characters, especially Drax for some reason. Mantis’ outift was cool. I liked how it resembled an insect. They kind of lost me in the opening scene. I felt like the level of camp or just the general vibe wasn’t my thing. But I either got used to it or they toned it down, because I didn’t notice it after that.

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them

There isn't a whole lot more to the plot of Fantastic Beasts than "the guy has to get his creatures back," but I do always like the world of Harry Potter, and it's interesting to see it in a different country, in the '20s, without Harry Potter or any kids at all. It's a pleasant starting point for the series.

Last movie of 2016, in which I saw eight more movies than 2015. Still didn't quite hit my goal of one a week. I'm glad I saw Fantastic Beasts in the theater, although a lot of the CG was slightly off. I wasn't expecting much, and it delivered on that; another one of those where it's pretty much all in the trailer. Newt was a likeable character. He reminded me of The Doctor, probably because of the hair, the blue coat, and being British. All of the characters were likeable, though, especially Queenie and Jacob.

The Secret of Kells

The Secret of Kells has an interesting feel to it, but I wasn't into the animation style overall, and the story didn't really go anywhere.

I liked Song of the Sea, so my friend thought I might also like The Secret of Kells, but I didn't think it was as good. The animation was still interesting, although I've always been bothered by those Samurai Jack-style square fingers. And the cat and the wolf had spiky points for feet, which was really weird. And the cat's "X with a circle around it denotes the nose and mouth" bothered me, too. And I didn't like the linework on a lot of people's faces, like how the same line for Aidan's beard turned into his ear. Okay, maybe I really wasn't into the animation on this one.

Song of the Sea

Song of the Sea is the best movie I've seen this year. The animation style is unique and captivating; the main characters are surprisingly charismatic for being animated children; and the plot is both whimsical and poignant.

I knew about Song of the Sea when it came out, but it didn't seem like anything I needed to see. I was skeptical about the animation style when I first started watching it, but it got better, and I wound up liking it a lot. It's one of those styles that kind of becomes a character of its own.

Guardians of the Galaxy

Guardians of the Galaxy has its moments, but the plot is uninspired, the dialogue doesn't always work, and something about the way the character design is executed makes it look like everyone is just playing dress-up.

Everybody said Guardians of the Galaxy was good, but I didn't see the point, and I kind of feel the same way now that I've seen it. It was okay. I always have a rough time with different-colored people (like pink, green, or blue) for some reason. They just don't seem natural. Maybe because they're weird colors. So I was kind of turned off by Zoe being green, and I never got past that or the other weird-colored people.

I forgot that Rocket was Bradley Cooper. I knew he was "somebody," but I couldn't remember who, and I didn't recognize his voice. I saw Vin Diesel's name in the opening credits, and I spent about a third of the movie looking at Drax and going, "I don't think that's Vin Diesel." I had no idea that Nebula was Amy from Doctor Who, so I guess she did a good job with that. All of the makeup was so crazy and over the top, it just looked like everyone was playing dress-up.

I'm glad I didn't see it in a theater. People would've been laughing so much and ruining everything. Yondu's arrow weapon thing was cool. I'd be interested to know more about how it works. The Ravagers didn't seem very scary. Everybody acted like they were intimidated by them or something, but then they all had this "comedic/stupid" thing going on, so it was confusing.

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.

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.

Star Wars: Episode VII - The Force Awakens

The Force Awakens really is just like a re-hash of the original Star Wars movies with different actors, and the whole thing is slightly "off," but it was still fun to watch.

I'm not really a Star Wars fan. I made the mistake of watching the first six movies in episode order rather than chronological. Hayden Christensen was terrible. And I didn't get much out of the originals, either. But I kept seeing posts about this one, and I realized you don't get many chances to see a Star Wars movie in the theater, so I went to see it on the big screen.

I'm glad I did; it was worth $3. It's cool that Harrison Ford and everybody is still around to reprise their roles. I don't really see Carrie Fisher as Leia, though; I pretty much just see her as the actress Carrie Fisher. I liked that it felt like a reboot with young actors, although I guess the series in general has been about young people. I didn't recognize Adam Driver at all as Kylo. He looks a lot younger in the movie. BB8 was pretty adorable. His name sounded a little awkward when people said it.

The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King

The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King is about the same as the other LotR movies. They changed some things from the book that I don't agree with, but it's still fun to be able to see the story.

I didn't think it was going to work out, but I actually managed to watch all three LotR movies in a row. I wonder what I would've thought of them if I hadn't read the books. There are a lot of things that don't make sense or are just wacky, like what goes on with Denethor, that don't bother me in the movies because that's just how it was in the books. I guess it doesn't all jive 100% in the books, either, though. I just kind of accept them for what they are. The story isn't perfect, but it's still interesting.

The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers

The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers is obviously a middle movie. It's a little bit grueling, but they're on a long journey. It's still interesting, and it definitely leaves you wanting to see how it all ends. 

I actually saw The Two Towers a week after the first LotR movie, so it was a nice continuation of the story. I pretty much have the same thoughts about this one as I did about the first one. I like hearing all the language, and seeing how they represent everything. Liv Tyler makes a pretty good Elf. They changed a lot more things in this movie than the first one. I didn't think they were necessary changes this time, either.