Set in the 1960s, Elisa works in a secret research facility as a janitor. Elisa is a rather lonely person. Mute, her communication abilities are limited to those who take the time to learn how to sign. Her only friends are her next-door neighbor, Giles, and her co-worker, Zelda. She goes about her days in a routine, but it’s clear that she yearns for more. One day a mysterious specimen from South America is brought into the facility. It’s a large, fish-like being, and Elisa quickly finds out that this creature is far from a dumb animal that the handlers think he is. It’s an intelligent being that can communicate and understand her.

The Shape of Water is a fairy tale made for adults. Leave it to master director Guillermo del Toro to make a story like this work. It’s a tough idea to sell, a woman falling in love with a fish man. It’s so weird but I think it works because of the careful steps that are taken to get to the end.

Elisa’s character is set up well right away. We get a good idea of her wants and needs in the first few minutes and we get to see what space in this world she occupies. The characters of Giles and Zelda are strong ones, filling in the gaps of communication and feelings for the viewer.

The creature is frightening at first, one that is totally foreign to the above-ground world. But in time, as Elisa gets closer, so does the audience. It’s slow at first, how all good courtships go. Every day, Elisa makes hard boiled eggs and her first outreach to him is to offer him one. And that leads to the first communication: she signs “egg” as she gives it to him. From there she goes to visit him whenever she can, keeping their meetings as secret as she can. When the life of this creature she deeply cares about is threatened, she goes to great lengths to save him.

This movie got way more adult that I thought it ever would. There’s cursing, violence, nudity…this movie doesn’t hold back its punches. del Toro wanted to make a complete movie about love and yes, she does have sex with the creature. It’s all done rather beautifully and nothing explicit is shown, but you know exactly what’s going on. It’s a believable relationship and Giles and Zelda are used as guidance in understanding Elisa’s actions. They don’t judge her and the scene with Elisa begging Giles for his help to save the creature is one of the most effective parts of the movie.

The cast and production go a long way to make this world seem so real. Fantastic acting and the work done to make Doug Jones into the creature is absolutely top of the line. Lots of prosthetic make up make the creature a real presence and subtle CG augmentation puts that final touch of life into him. It’s a good trick, designing the creature to share strong male human traits while making him look completely foreign.

Guillermo del Toro often makes decisive movies. You either dig ’em or you don’t. Everyone agrees that they always look gorgeous but wether you go along for the ride is another question. I think this is one of del Toro’s strongest movies. It’s a take on the surreal, but one that revolves around one of our most powerful emotions and universal need: love.

I think I read Stephen King’s IT twenty years ago or so. It’s probably in the top three of his most well known novels. It’s a massive and weird book and the TV mini-series (1990) did it’s best to adapt the tome. So twenty seven years later Pennywise is given another crack at turning Derry, Maine into an all you can ear buffet.

In 1988, a lot of kids start disappearing in the small town of Derry. On of those kids is Georgie, little brother of Bill Denbrough. He was last seen next to a storm drain during a big rain storm. His body is never found leaving the Denbrough’s with a lot of questions. Bill thinks he could have been swept into the storm drain but no one will listen to him. When his friends help him try to find Georgia in the summer of ’89, the rag tag group of kids discover that a shape shifting monster lives under their home town.

Some (wise) choices have been made with this take, moving the story from the 50s to the 80s being the most obvious. I don’t remember all the details but watching this brought up a lot of memories so I think the movie is succesfull in hitting all the most important parts of the book. It focuses soley on The Losers Club when they’re kids, there’s no time jumping to adulthood. That keeps the direction of the story clean and straight forward.

The casting of IT is absolutley perfect. In a movie that is 99% kids, the whole film rides on the finding the right actors. All seven of The Losers is spot on. They’re believable, they act the hell out of every scene. They all have a legit chemistry with each other so that makes their friendship on screen come across as geniune. Friendship is what the movie is about so that’s insanely important for this project to work. Right down to the small moments, like when they are shooting quick insults at each other (Richie and Eddie are hilarous) are really endearing. The joy, sadness, and fear that the kids get whipped through feels real. Jackson Scott, the kid who plays Georgie, is adorable. He’s the quintecential little brother and when IT pulls him into the sewer as he sceams for his big brother’s help is absolutley heart breaking.

So is IT scary? A shape shifting monster is something to behold, but it depends. If you are scared of clowns, yeah. It’s nuts. Otherwise, not really. They got me once in the garage scene. There’s some really wild imagery and great set ups. Pennywise in the sewer talking to Georgie is riveting. It’s brilliantly shot (as is much of the movie) and Bill Skarsgard’s choice of voice is fantastic. It’s this childish…meanace that’s hard to forget. Pennywise looks striking so the voice completes the movie monster. A big reason why I liked this was because it’s very Nightmare on Elm Street. Pennywise knows it’s victims fears and it dredges them up in fantastic and horrible ways. The creativity for when IT goes after each kid is awesome. I found the problem to be that (much like the NOES remake) the filmmakers relied on the same scare tactic too much. Pennywise feeds on fear and they make it very clear that IT loves scaring people. Probably more than actually eating them. There’s this glee to it that’s a great monster character trait but it gets undercut by the constant bum rushing IT does. I think in every scene Pennywise is in, they had Skarsgard do the “shake your head while you run and we’ll speed it up in post” thing. That’s effective two or three times until it gets routine and dumb.

That grip asise, I thought IT was a ton of fun. Really looking forward to Chapter Two.

I remember seeing the ads for this and later seeing this up for nomination for the Academy Awards. Considering that endorsement it caught my interest and I went into this not knowing what to expect. A film that lives on it’s interesting characters and propped up by it’s terrific cast, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri is a thought provoking piece.

Seven months after her daughter’s murder, Mildred (Frances McDormand) is still looking for justice. In order to put pressure on the local police, she pays for three billboards to publicly shame them. It works…sorta. The move certainly gets attention and Mildred find that she gets little support from her community. The police are certaintly none too pleased.

When the credits rolled, I wasn’t sure if I liked it or not. The story basically just ends and on first impression, I felt ripped off, left in a lurch. There’s no closure and what’s shown in that last scene has a lot of implications. Ending at two hours or so, there was definetly more story to tell.

After thinking on it for a few days I’ve realised that the story of Three Billboards had been told. This movie is very much a slice of life. A mother still in mourning, her family broken apart. Her ex-husband is no help, nothing more than another source of stress. Her son has been devestated and she struggles to keep her relationship with him. Mildred is angry. Knowing that her daughter’s killer is still out there is infuriating. She feels she has to do something or her anguish is going to eat her alive.

I think this movie is a good reflection on life. Everything doesn’t work out. Sometimes the pit you get shoved into doesn’t get filled in and the rescue ladder that gets put down for you isn’t long enough. You have to find a way to claw your way up and the marks you get in doing so don’t completely heal. Life isn’t fair and people are flawed.

Mildred feels like the police have given up, or worse, don’t care about the case. Police Chief Willoughby (Woody Harrelson) explains to her why the investigation stalled and they are very good reasons. But that’s not good enough for Mildred. Her daughter is gone, the killer is out there, and she’s still furious.

Willoughby also has his own problems he’s dealing with in his own life. Terrible and unfair things happen to everyone. Officer Dixon (Sam Rockwell) is his own problem. The guy is a terrible person and has a lot of growing up to do.

Through the course of the movie, Mildred wades through pushback the entire way. Some people stand by her side and she ends up pushing some of them away with her own shortsighted and arrogant behavior. Dixon isn’t the only one who lashes out at whomever is nearest.

I think at it’s strongest moments, Three Billboards tries to show that we’re all messed up people. By upbringing or circumstance, your world view can skew to see things a certain way. When you make up your mind on something, it can be easy to dismiss the facts around you. Anger can make you do stupid and bad things. It might seem like the right (and justified) thing to do at the time, but afterwards you’ve changed who you are and that has consequences. But we’re all people. And people can change, the possibility is there for everyone. That change isn’t immediate though and it takes a lot of work. You have to listen to other people sometimes.

The movie ends on a twisted note. One of darkness that may or may not play out. A road has been chosen but the chance to stop, go a different route, or turn back is there. Your choices make you who you are.

Peter Parker is alive and well!

Spider-Man has had quite a few movies in the past decade or so and this one is the start (ignoring Captain America: Civil War) of a new run with a new cast and crew. Put simply, this is a great movie.

A large part of how good Homecoming is the casting. Tom Holland as Peter is perfect. He’s awesome and adorable. We finally have someone playing a high school student who is actually the appropriate age. This kid is basically ripped right out of the comic pages, he’s got the perfect attitude and line delivery for Peter and Spider-Man. Tony Stark is used just right (I was afraid he’d be used too much and overshadow the main character) and gadzooks they made The Vulture cool! Spider-Man’s rogue’s gallery is more or less a collection of people wearing animal costumes and they’re pretty goofy. Brilliant move getting Michael Keaton to play the part.

The plot is terrific too. It sidesteps Spider-Man’s origin story and gets right into Peter’s struggle of being a kid with superpowers. His awkward balance of social life, school, and his desire to fight crime while he waits for Stark to “bring him up” to the big leagues. He’s learning with every step he takes and it’s a joy to watch.

This movie puts Spider-Man in the MCU so the story can play off of everything that’s happened. Peter was a little kid during The Avengers movie so he’s grown up in a world where these heroes have made a name for themselves. Peter was there for the invasion and he admires The Avengers. And with that event comes the idea of what happens when the superheroes leave? There’s all of this cleanup and trauma to a place so how do we deal with that? One of the things is the scrappers who come in to clean up after the fights. All that tech from other worlds is just left behind smoldering in the streets. Adrian Toomes (Vulture) makes a company to clean it up and when he gets the boot when the feds push him out of his job, he decides to pivot his business. I’ll keep skimming everything I can and make weapons out of this tech to sell. He manages to keep this business secret for awhile but when his employees get a little too loosey goosey with the tech, it catches Spider-Man’s attention.

It’s a nice and condensed story that’s easy to follow. The whole world isn’t at stake (yet), but Peter’s world is. It’s a personal story wrapped in homemade webbing with great comedy and action to keep it humming along.

The movie looks great in every way and Spider-Man is realized really well. The big thing that makes him stand out from other heroes is how agile he is. With the benefit of being super strong as well, what he can physically do is much different than anyone else and that makes for some big action set pieces that are really creative and unique.

Like this a lot, it might be my favorite MCU movie (I’d have to watch Captain America 2 again to be sure). This Tom Holland kid has a bright future!

I forgot to put this up a few days ago! We’re down to the final 4.

We’re guaranteed a new Champion this season and we have quite the selection. I’ll always lean towards the east coast and right now my favorite is the Washington Capitals. They’ve been red hot for years and have kicked themselves in the head for years so they are overdue. It’s been 20 years since the team made it this far and they’ve never won the Cup. I vote for Tampa solely for all the ex-Rangers on the team. Tampa Bay hasn’t won the Cup since 2004 so that’s a long enough time for a team to pounce!

I have no affinity toward Vegas aside for the fact that they’ve done so incredibly well in their inaugural season. But it’s their first season, they have plenty of time to hold the Cup. A Canadian team hasn’t won the Cup in a very long time and Winnipeg, in this franchise form, has never made it all the way. Of the West, I’d like them over Vegas. Winnipeg started strong but Vegas has put their skate down firmly these past 2 games to take the lead 2-1. I’d be surprised if any of these series went less than 6 games. Incredible talent is on the ice every night.

Avengers: Infinity War is a monster of a movie in every aspect. The culmination of 18 movies this project boasts a massive cast of beloved characters that are spread across the universe. In a race to save half the population from mega-villain Thanos, there is a lot on the line.

As far as superhero movies go, Infinity War checks all the boxes, so I think expounding all of the spectacle and bombast would be a waste of time. With the number of characters at play, the matchups are varied and are done with the budget needed to make them a riot. My only complaint is that scenes can get too dark and too close up so it can be hard to see what’s going on (and there are a few times where things don’t look like they have the right weight and mass so collisions look odd).

What strikes me most is the size and complexity of getting this movie done. With so many characters this could have easily been a trainwreck. But everyone gets their turn in front of the lens and everyone gets a great introduction. Everything gets off to a good start. While some get pushed to the back  (Ant-man and Hawkeye were…busy…and couldn’t make it? Groot takes a long time to do something useful) it’s a pretty remarkable accomplishment. Groups of characters are in reasonable sizes so it’s easy to keep track of where everyone is. Having the narrative revolve around Thanos, essentially making him the main character, was another smart move.

There are a few suspect plot points and ‘beat you over the head with this theme to make sure the audience gets it’ moments. Things go wrong because characters make stupid choices. While it can be easy to say that a writer made X do Y to make a certain result happen to get to his next planned event (looking at you Starlord) those actions aren’t done out of character (still looking at you Starlord) so it isn’t too obnoxious. It also comes down to a main point of the story: being human means you are flawed. You live, love, and make mistakes. While empathy and compassion are seen as weakness and stupidity by villains, those aspects are integral to humanity and our heroes because that’s what makes us great. It’s a powerful message that is constantly being tested. I was also happy to see that Tony Stark isn’t the cause of everything bad that happens, for once. Seriously, the guy is a walking problem.

As I’ve thought this over for the past few days, I’ve come to an unusual conclusion. The next direct sequel, Avengers 4, due in 2019, will ultimately cement how good Infinity War is regarded in the future. This movie ends with huge loses. But will it matter? It’s a comic book movie after all and easy solutions (many of them bad) can undo everything easily. The series this movie is based on basically erases the destruction that happens at Thanos’ hands. Comic characters never really die. And in film, that’s a problem. So the question is will anything that happened in this movie matter? If it doesn’t, that takes away all the impact of the end. Choices were made, tragedy was the result but it turns out there are no consequences because everything was put back the way it was a little while later. If that happens, Infinity War is disposable and it won’t hold up. That’s not good.

With how much work was put into this, I’m going to say the writers aren’t going to get lazy with the next installment, the end of Marvel’s “Phase  3.” The Avengers won’t simply get hold of the gauntlet and rewind time (and please no alternate dimension nonsense). The steps needed to obtain the Soul Stone, some possible trickery with the Mind and Time Stones, hint at some much-needed complexity and stakes (i.e. no easy outs). With some all but guaranteed sequels coming (Black Panther) there are a few “x MUST be coming back” which taints expectations.

Still, Infinity War is a crowning achievement for Marvel and all the talent that has been making this universe possible. The only thing holding them back is themselves. Or maybe should I say, some executive who forces a dumb idea on the creative team based solely on chasing an easy dollar.

I’ve watched some action movies recently and here’s a rundown.

Atomic Blonde– An action movie with a female lead! We don’t get many of these. The great Charlize Theron plays MI6 agent Lorraine Broughton. During the Cold War, she assigned the job of going into Berlin to recover a list of double agents. James McAvoy co-stars as David Percival, a fellow agent tasked to assist Lorraine. It goes wrong right from the start where Lorraine is ambushed by the enemy right when she gets to Berlin.

Starting off, I felt Atomic Blonde was a paint by the numbers action movie. While that’s pretty true to the end, I found the beginning to be mostly dull. It gets much better as it goes a long. Once things come together and the last 35 minutes hit, the movie really takes off. While there is excellent action scenes throughout, that final chase scene that spans a large part of the city and is presented as one single shot is some riveting cinema. Director David Leitch has an extensive stuntman/stunt coordinator career and it shows here. John Wick was his breakthrough director gig and that launched him directly into this and the upcoming Deadpool 2. He knows how to frame action and move the camera well so action is impactful, believable, and easy to follow. Impressive work that’s getting him bigger gig, I think this is just the start of Leitch becoming a big name in Hollywood.

Baby Driver– I like Edgar Wright as a director a lot. The planning that goes into his films to make them edit the way he wants is often stunning. Baby Driver is a simple story that uses car stunts as it’s main action focus. With most franchises focusing on gun and fist fights, it’s refreshing to see a throwback to the classic days of action cinema. I’m sure you’re thinking the Fast and Furious franchise is all about vehicular set pieces but they ignore the laws of physics and CG everything to get it done. Baby Driver does it au naturel with on set stunt driving. Often remarkable to watch and the heavy integration of music to lead the way makes it even more fun.

Baby has been forced to work as the getaway driver for a crime boss (Doc) after they crossed paths many years ago. Baby is the only driver Doc has used as he’s got a 100% success rate. Everyone he first meets thinks Baby is weird and amateurish for listening to music all the time, but it’s what helps him cope with his tinnitus. Each job gets Baby a little closer to paying off his debt to Doc until his final heist ruins his plans. Add in a boy meets girl scenario and you’ve got a neat protagonist with a heart of gold. Baby Driver keeps things tight and simple and I think it’s all the better for it.

Kingsman: The Golden Circle– When the Golden Circle crime syndicate makes it move to hold the world hostage with poison, they destroy the Kingsman agency first to keep anyone from stopping them. Fortunately for the world, they don’t kill them all and the remaining Kingsman agents go to America to get help from an allied spy agency called Statesman.

Matthew Vaughn, much like Edgar Wright, is a kinetic director. The camera gets you into the middle of he action, flinging you head over heels each throw and explosion. I like much of his work but this one left me wanting something more. I liked the first Kingsman a lot as it was new and took me surprise. I love the spy genre and I’m all about new takes and spins on the staple elements. This movie resurrects a character in the middle of saving the world so there’s a bit of a family reunion in there. While Golden Circle expands the Kingsman universe, it still feels closed in to me. I think it’s all the CG. It’s (clearly) all over the place and very distancing in the end. Sure it’s used to make wild and unique action set pieces but there’s rarely a sense of danger in what’s going on. It’s a very similar the problem I have with the Fast and Furious movies. A saving the world plot is rather mundane these days too. Even though I think the hook they come up with is a good one, maybe keeping the scope smaller would have helped? I thought I’d end up liking this more than I did. While I did enjoy it, I prefer the original more and I’d recommend watching Atomic Blonde and Baby Driver over this.

The Fate of the Furious– Eight installments! That’s how far this franchise has come and every time they need to come up with a decent reason to get the band together. This time Dom switches sides when a mysterious woman shows up to blackmail him into a terrorist plot. It’s an idea that gets Dom back on the other side of the fence and makes his friends not just work to foil The Big Bad but a friend as well. A good dynamic to make a fun enough sequel. This one was a little more reserved in terms of making the impossible possible but still retains that bombastic and fantastical Xtremeness that fans show up for. As the credits rolled I said to myself, “Yes that was another Fast and Furious movie” and I think that’s all most people ask for. For myself, this franchise has turned into a kind of Friday the 13th where all the movies blur together and I can’t remember what moment is from what movie. The one story that does stick out to me is the 5th, which I think is head and shoulders above the rest.

Gotham by Gaslight is one of the better DC animated films to come out recently. The story is an adaptation (not a direct recreation) of the one-shot comic book by Brian Augustyn (writer) and Mike Mignola (artist) published in 1989. An “Elseworlds” tale, Gaslight is an alternate universe take on Batman. This means while some elements are familiar (character names and roles are largely the same) it isn’t a slave to the mythos so a lot is changed. Think of it as a “What if…” way of storytelling.

Set in Gotham City in the Victorian era, the vigilante Batman is after a terror of the city: Jack the Ripper. The Dark Knight vs The Night Terror, if you will. With a guy running around at night dressed as a bat, the people think he is the murderer when women turn up butchered on the streets. Of course, Bruce Wayne is on the case as soon as the first woman is discovered and he works the cast to catch the real killer. When Batman first encounters Jack when he goes after Selina Kyle, he quickly realizes that this guy isn’t a random thug, he has serious training. A game of cat and mouse, Batman must quickly put the pieces together to stop this serial killer.

I like these types of stories because it offers great freedom to the writer to take an established character and do something interesting and unexpected. Staple characters are given altered roles and backgrounds and I find that to be pretty engaging as it makes for new character interactions that can play with what’s expected. A taught 74 minutes long, Gaslight doesn’t waste any time.

Gotham has always been presented as a gothic looking city, but altering the setting to resemble the Victorian era offers great visual changes. The backdrops are different, Batman’s outfit is much simpler, as are his gadgets. Sure it’s still top of the line stuff since Bruce Wayne is still from a wealthy family, but it’s a paired down to fit the time. I think this is one of the more striking Batman animated films as it harkens back to the look of the Bruce Timm led 90s Animated Series. While that was aesthetically set in the 1950s, this is similar in that the era frames all the events and resulting action.

Great voice work tied to solid animation and a powerful score made this one of the more enjoyable DC animated films for me. I really liked the simplicity of it. Batman isn’t kitted out in military-style gear. He’s pretty new to the vigilante gig so his instincts aren’t entirely honed. All of the action is up close and personal with an emphasis on more boxing for hand to hand combat than weapons or crazy martial arts. The fights show off some of the best animation and the rooftop chase with the out of control blimp is a real stand out.

The supporting characters are great, the stand out being Selina Kyle. She’s not Catwoman in this, but she has the same personality, abilities, and most importantly, strong drive and motivation. She doesn’t wait around for things to happen and she is no pushover.

I was surprised by how adult they took this. Of course, Jack attacking prostitutes sets the stage for what’s going on, there was more cursing than I ever expected to hear (Jack has a certain view of women and isn’t shy about sharing his thoughts when it comes down to it).

I dug this a lot, it scratched an itch that I’ve had for awhile.

Justice League has been in the works and been worked over, for a while. A book could be written about the troubles this movie went through in post-production. A studio and director unhappy with the rough cut, rewrites, the director leaving the project due to family tragedy and extensive reshoots crammed in to meet a looming release date. That’s a lot inside baseball so let’s focus on the final product. As much as I can anyway. I’m going to get into it so SPOILERS are coming at ya.

I’m a mark for DC comics and The Justice League is one of the biggest and best works in the company’s stable. The animated projects, Justice League Unlimited to point one out specifically, is phenomenal. I had high hopes for this movie and came away disappointed but I did get to watch a fun comic book movie with some of my favorite characters.

Let’s me lay this out first: Justice League is without a doubt better than Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice. The hard as nails negative stance some people are laying on it put in a much worse place than I think it is. It’s more coherent and way more fun than BvS. There’s a lot to cover here so I’m going keep this simple and break it into two sections: the good and the bad.

The Good

I love the cast. While I may have problems with some of the dialog here and there, I found the character portrayals to be spot on. I like Ben Affleck as Bruce Wayne and I think he embodies the cowl side of him well. He’s been in the grinder for 20 years and it’s taken a toll. His view of the world was skewed going into BvS and that experience changed him for the better (great line when he’s talking to Alfred about Superman, “He’s more human than me.” He perseveres in the name of good and while he’s always been a loner, he realizes that what’s coming is way too big for him. He needs help and he must work with others. Diana is that first bridge and I liked seeing them work together to assemble a team. His mentorship to Flash is awesome and one of the best character moments in the film. His opening scene is exhilarating and it looks amazing. The Batman: Animated Series come to life. It’s everything I’ve want in a Batman movie (much like the warehouse fight in BvS).

I loved Wonder Woman from this summer and she remains a bright spot in the DC film universe. She gets her own fantastic action scene, in the beginning, her spirit shines through when she tracks down Victor and constantly stands tall and proud through the whole movie. I love what she represents and she’s one of the biggest highlights of this universe. I’d just like to see her do more. When she sees villain Steppenwolf for the first time she doesn’t hesitate for a moment to throw down. She’s in there going to toe with this monster and it’s awesome.

I’m a big Ezra Miller fan and I love him as Barry Allen/The Flash. Perfectly cast and portrayed. He’s weird, funny, scared, and has no confidence. He’s just a kid with these new found powers when we meet him and he really comes into his own through the movie. The kid has flaws and a tainted past that makes him really human. The interpretation of his speed powers are brilliant, often the most impressive VFX in the movie. He probably has the greatest moments in the movie. I’m all about his upcoming solo movie (please don’t do Flashpoint. Much like pulling so much of The Dark Knight Returns into BvS, it’s way too soon to do that story. You have to build up to that, it’s too complex and major an event to do in a film right now. We have to see The Flash be comic book Flash first).

Jason Momoa rules as Arthur Curry/Aquaman. I knew it from the moment he was cast and it all came through for me. He’s such a fun guy to watch, his underwater scenes looked fantastic and I think he gives a lot of life and personality to a character most people easily dismiss. With James Wan behind the camera for the Aquaman movie, I’m really looking forward to it now.

The big surprise for me was how much I liked Cyborg. I’ve never seen Ray Fisher before so he’s a new actor to me and I’m rather lukewarm about Cyborg/Victor Stone. I’ve never read any of his comics and I know him more from Teen Titans where I think he’s overshadowed by other more interesting characters. His introduction in this movie is I think the strongest out of anyone. We meet him in an apartment hiding out with his father talking to him. He’s all covered up and you can see parts of him glowing in the dark. He takes heavy metallic footsteps around the kitchen and it’s an arresting introduction to a character that’s scared of himself. He doesn’t know if he’s human anymore, every day his robot parts are changing on their own giving him new capabilities (the shock from his father has he hovers with boosters in his legs is perfect). I really liked his part of the story and I think Ray Fisher really brought this tough to translate character from paper to real life. Most of the VFX work on him is very good too. There are a few suspect shots here and there but I’m happy with how he turned out.

I like Henrey Cavill as Superman but he’s often given the short stick on screen due to things completely out of his control. I’ll get to this in a bit.

Justice League also has the best action of any DC movie made to date. The aforementioned opening with Batman sets the stage. The present day sequence on Themyscira with the Amazons on defense is some of the wildest stuff I’ve ever seen. The most epic run of keep away imaginable and it’s another highlight outside of the Wonder Woman movie of how amazing these people are. They take their trusted roles in keeping the world safe seriously with a plan if they lose control of a situation. They do everything possible to keep Steppenwolf at bay, sacrificing themselves at every breach. I mean some of them lock themselves into the vault with a force of nature to buy the escaping Queen Hippolyta more time to get away. It’s intense. Then there’s cool full battle flashback of Steppenwolf’s first invasion attempt, the underground war of the Justice League meeting Steppenwolf for the first time, Superman going buck wild when he’s resurrected by the team (Flash vs Superman is a treat with one of the best reaction shots in movie) and the ultimate battle at the end with everyone team member using their special skills to contribute.

The Bad

I think most of the glaring faults are technical. This movie looks like it’s not finished at points and that’s a frightening problem. The reshoots apparently replaced a lot and it’s rather obvious what those scenes are. Insane close-ups the look like they were done really fast and done that way to cut corners (money) in production. Put a green screen behind the actors, insert a blurry background of nothing behind them in post-production and move on. You can clearly see what major VFX was planned and worked on from the very beginning (all the work done for Flash, Aquaman under water, the fight on Themyscira) as those parts look very good. The bad work is so bad it sucks all the attention away.

The worst is what they had to do for Henry Cavill. He was filming the next Misson: Impossible movie and he grew a mustache for the role. He was needed for Justice League reshoots at this time and (reportedly) Paramount wouldn’t let him shave it off. Since Superman never has a mustache (and you can’t grow one when you’re dead) they had to digitally remove the mustache. It’s going to go down as one of the worst digital effects in history. His mouth is too small, his nose is screwed up and you can clearly see the line where flesh ends and digital skin begins. A great actor (and character) looks inhuman. It’s so distracting it takes away from whatever Superman is talking about. The first scene in the movie is of him talking to the camera and the effect stares at you like a festering wound. It made me look at Henry Cavill’s mouth in every scene he’s in to see if it was fake, the most obvious tell of reshot footage. It crushes suspension of disbelief in many scenes. Josh Whedon obviously though the effect wouldn’t be a problem because he shoots Cavill so close many times. It just makes it worse, there’s no way to hide it.

And then there’s Steppenwolf. He’s also not finished at times. He’s completely CG (fantastic voice-over work from Ciaran Hinds at least) and he goes from good to what happened. His movement animation is very good, it’s up close where he can fall apart. In the beginning of the movie, there’s a section where it looks like his face is using temporary textures. Like blurry, low-resolution textures from a videogame made 8 years ago. And his lip movement doesn’t work at all! It looks like it’s the first pass at facial animation. You can’t take this thing seriously it looks so off. Ruins the illusion of a real character. This all as to come down to the digital teams not being giving good source material to work with and not enough time to do it.

The two best case scenarios that come to mind for these effects are easy to point out. Compare this mustache debacle to the work the nose replacement effect for Ralph Fiennes as Voldemort in the Harry Potter films. That’s how CG replacement is done. That complicated effect was planned from the very start and had enough time to be perfected. And let’s look at Hulk in the recent Marvel movies. He’s too big to not be CG. His body animation is very good (like Steppenwolf) but it’s the motion capture of Mark Ruffalo that sells him as a living, breathing entity on screen. He emotes in a way that a person can recognize and the lip-synching is correct.

Outside of these tech issues, there is also basic story complaints. The movie is too short, it feels compressed (which sounds like is a direct studio reaction to Zach Snyder’s movies tending to run well over 2 hours). The movie just races forward with little logic in mind. Characters just show up when they need to. Major plot devices get rushed through with side remarks. “Have you found the kid yet?” “I have a lead.” Cut to Bruce Wayne in Barry’s hideout. Could we at least know how you got that information? I’d like to see the World’s Greatest Detective be a detective. I’d like to more background of Flash and especially Aquaman (and I know the Aquaman stuff exists). While I appreciate skipping over the doldrums of covering lengthy origins, it’s often done in one sentence here (“So you were hit by lightning?”)

The plot is as bare bones as you can get. Steppenwolf’s motivation for collecting the Mother Boxes barely goes beyond, “I conquer worlds, that’s what I do. Now that Superman is dead, Earth is going to be easy pickings.” And when he gets mad that they are standing up to him, “Why are you bothering with this, you’re weak and will never win.” He’s a dude that’s used to getting what he wants. That’s it.

Lois is disappointing again. She doesn’t contribute anything and more or less stands on the sidelines. We see her in this movie still in mourning, retreated from her career as a journalist. At the start of the movie, we find out that people are being kidnapped. How about Lois digs into that and gets in touch with Jim Gordon? Jim Gordon is also more or less a cameo, I want more of him too!

Having Superman’s first scene back being a fist fight with the other heroes is a bizarre decision. That’s not the Superman people want to see and it more or less feels like it was shoehorned in just because it was a comic book what if? wishlist idea from some random person on the street. Like, “What would it be like for these guys to fight off Superman? That could be cool!” While the logic to get to the fight kinda works, it’s a reach. Batman’s emergency solution is for Lois to be there in case Clark cones back violent. But he waits to bring her out. The logic makes no sense. Why wouldn’t you have her there right from the start? That way she brings him to his senses right away or he’s fine and he gets reunited with the love of his life right away. No matter what, the “love conquers all” motif still works. And good lord is he mean to Batman when he comes back! He’s not supposed to remember things (hence his confusion/anger when he’s resurrected) but he certainly remembers the past when he says “Do you bleed?” to Batman (there are a few strange dialog choices scattered about the movie). And Superman’s face looks like a mess in the ultra close up with the digital mustache replacement. That makes it even more of a horror show.

After two major scenes defending the theft of the mother boxes, the third is stolen without much of a reaction. That third defense should be the action scene that replaces Supes v JL. If he just came back to life, he wouldn’t have been at full power because he hasn’t been in the sun for months. That’s the out for Supes not being strong enough at the time to keep Steppenwolf from taking the last Mother Box.

And In The End

There’s a ton of “why didn’t they do this?” everyone can come up and that’s easy to say when you’re not in the production, the one financing it, or the one with the deadline. It’s easy to look at this from the outside with 20/20 vision. All of the behind the scenes drama and resulting jumbled “fixes” make me want to see Zach Snyder’s full version of this movie. For better or worse (as seen by the choices made with BvS) the movie probably would have felt complete at least. I appreciate trying to get Superman back on course but it wasn’t handled well.

With all of this said, I ended up having fun watching this because I got to see the actual Justice League on screen saving the world. Even the stuff that I think is weird, I rather liked watching. For example, Superman vs JL is a wild action scene, to watch. Flash and Cyborg digging up Clark’s body is morbid as hell but their dialog is strong and builds them both as characters with a great fist bump call back in the final hero shot. I really like the quieter scenes. Barry with his dad, as brief as it is, is great. When Barry sees Steppenwolf for the first time and panics, Batman steps up as the veteran to give him the talk that cements why we love superheroes, regardless of how “powerful” they are. “Go in and save one.” “Then what do I do?” “You’ll know.” That’s beautiful! Cyborgs alienation and fear of the unknown is very poignant for today. I want to hang out with Aquaman, he’s a scream! I want to do volunteer work with Wonder Woman because she’s an inspiration!

I do think Justice League is a springboard to greater things. Let’s slow things down, get some more solo movies done in the spirit of each character and then we can come back for another team up a few years down the line. And a final note to WB for the best way to make everyone happy: Slow down. Hire comic book writers to write the scripts. They know the material, they know what makes the characters tick. A Paul Dini Batman script could get you an Oscar.

Lights Out is a decent ghost story. With a PG-13 rating, it goes for jump scares above all else. The age-old ‘afraid of the dark’ motif gets put to use here.

Rebecca’s little brother, Martin, is having trouble sleeping. Rebecca left home long years ago as she doesn’t get along with her mother after her father walked out on them. Martin calls Rebecca from school and she comes to pick him up, a child service worker says he keeps falling asleep in class. His behavior mimics problems Rebecca had in her childhood and she’s immediately suspicious of mom. It turns out their mother has a rather disturbing friend following her around, one that gets very angry when she doesn’t get her way.

At 80 minutes long, Lights Out zips along. We meet the ghost in the first scene and get a sense of her powers. From there we meet Rebecca and Martin and their mother’s problems become known. Due to the short run time, Rebecca puts things together fast. She finds background info in the first place she looks, she finds a way to harm the ghost more or less by accident and then it’s a matter of protecting her brother.

It’s all a little convenient but it works well enough. The special effects are really good and using darkness as a scare tactic is always effective. The threat of the ghost comes with a flicker. Lights on she can’t do anything, but in the dark, she’s free to move about quickly (she might have had ninja training when she was alive) and do harm. Neat monster design (even if it is too close to the witch in the Left 4 Dead games) that has a great silhouette. The old technique of hiding the monster until the final act is done to great effect.

Good cast and a solid ending, even if it is predictable. Good character building, the script hits all the checkpoints at the typical page count. A good scary movie for those new to the genre as there is not much here for the vets.

I admire writer/director Don Mancini for keeping his horror franchise going for this long. Seven movies in about 30 years, Chucky manages to keep coming back every few years with his trademark bad attitude. Figuring out how to get a two-foot tall doll to murder people is quite an achievement.

The last movie, Curse, was surprisingly good. Really creative, got every dime of the budget on screen, and they managed to make Chucky a real threat and the end was solid.

Cult follows Nica, the main survivor of the last film and Chucky’s main obsession (aside from Tiff), to a new psychiatric facility. Once again, no one believes Chucky is real, the murders from the last ordeal were done by Nica. She’s mentally ill and isn’t criminally responsible for the murders. After the trauma and intense (shock) therapy she believes Chucky isn’t real either. And then the doctor brings a Good Guy doll to the facility and people start dying again. Andy (the longest running human character in the series) finds out what’s going and rushes to help Nica.

Much like Curse, Cult is pretty much locked into one location. It offers a sense of claustrophobia and the foreboding sense that there is no way to escape. Only one person knows of the threat in the building and Chucky is free to sneak around causing mayhem and confusion. It’s classic 80’s horror set up (like Nightmare on Elm Steet, the parents don’t listen to the kids until it’s too late). Mancini has a knack for coming up with new scenarios to make his little monster work. And he has to because if Chucky doesn’t get the jump on people, a swift kick is going to hinder his plans. The doubt, the questions of sanity, the snowballing of events with Chucky’s new trick, the great special effects work to make Chucky a menace all come together well. It’s not a scary movie, but twisted and fun. It fits the franchise. There are quite a few deaths and there’s a good amount of blood, but nothing terribly creative or memorable (Chucky has always been a fan simplicity, stabbing usually gets the job done).

There’s a significant time jump between movies so there is some confusion at the start about how this is all came together. Most of it is answered though. Fiona Dourif is once again fantastic as Nica, she carries the movie. Her work in the final scenes is fantastic stuff.

Child’s Play is an easy horror movie franchise to forget but every time it comes around I’m happy to give it another go. After a super wacky mid-section (Bride and Seed) I like the path Mancini has found now. The doors are wide open for a sequel and I’ll be there for part 8.