Multi-Review!

I’ve recently been able to catch up on relatively newer and/or bigger movies - which I often don’t manage to see until they’ve been around a while, and usually not so many within so few days of each other - but rather than put together a sizable review for each, I figured I’d keep it short and drop them into the world wide web as a collective bunch. Not only because I simply don’t have the energy to write that much in-depth for all this, but who’d want to read it? So here are the few new(ish) films now viewed and a reaction to each.

Interstellar

Great look & sound for a dull story, poorly told. And don’t try telling me I have to see it in IMAX to get the full effect; I already said it looks good...but if the story doesn’t work as a whole, I can’t care how pretty it is. If it doesn’t follow through on the issues it raises, drags on for long stretches (time dilation indeed) without progressing, and major events are brushed off without a word while insignificant details are mulled over repeatedly...all I’m left with is an ordinary “meh.”

Whiplash

One terrific performance from one always terrific performer, amidst an abundance of directorial inexperience and lackluster proceedings. Plus there were a couple major story elements done exactly the wrong way, which lessened their dramatic impact. Still a decent movie, just not worth raving about.

Birdman

Excellent acting & technical artistry applied to a pretentious, predictable & otherwise pointless effort. That’s overall, but one small detail indicative of the film’s creative failures: a movie which makes great effort to hide its transitions and edits shouldn’t be using the same lame gimmick twice, as it did tilting up to frame a building as night turns to day (or vice versa). 

Gone Girl

Looks as nice as any Fincher film but misses the mark in most every other way, aside from Rosamund Pike’s pleasant presence. The story structure is full of holes, half-assedness, and bad choices, plus none of the characters present a compelling portrait of an actual person. Please, people...let’s not encourage them.

The Imitation Game

Nothing terribly wrong with this, but not sure why it was up for so many big awards - full of unlikely and unbelievable motivations, mostly in small ways...unexplained or unnecessary shifts in character attitudes, unneeded framing devices...it’s decent enough, but nothing special or impressive.

The Giver

Nothing has anything to do with anything, most of what happens is unmotivated and stupid, some of what happens is ridiculous magical bullshit, and Jeff Bridges doesn’t open his mouth to speak for the third film in the last few years. I never read the book, and can only hope it isn’t such a horrible clump of dumbness.

Maleficent

As terrific as Angelina Jolie is, even her tremendous strengths as a performer (and movie star) are nowhere near enough to support this weak, silly, occasionally melodramatic mess. Oh yeah it’s also startlingly and unnecessarily violent at times; yay Disney! It does have a few good ideas, but without the ability to properly dramatize them using decent story structure and character motivation, they don’t add up to much.

Big Eyes 

While the two leads give absolutely outstanding performances, and Tim Burton applies his particular style in a classier, more realistic manner than his typical weirdness (both of which I like, by the way), the end result is an ultimately forgettable portrait (no pun intended) of a family drama that need never have occurred in the first place. The fact that these things did actually happen to real people doesn’t excuse the film from creating a sense that everything could have played out so much better, with much of the conflict being so easily avoidable.

I'll be back soon with slightly longer reviews & reactions to a few more movies!