This Old Neon Forum

Kong Wen wrote:I also saw Spider-Man Homecoming last night, and I thought it was great. Not quite up to the level of polish and pacing as some of the better MCU films, but it definitely has its place within that group. Michael Keaton was probably the best thing about the film. He put in an excellent performance. I also liked how it portrays Spider-Man as a newbie hero. Tony tells him he's not ready to be an Avenger, and you're thinking "yeah yeah yeah, you're just saying that because you're old, I'll show you!" right alongside Peter Parker. But then the film gradually shows you that he's not ready to be an Avenger. Lots of little things, like bad decision-making, lack of training, not being used to his powers, etc. all show how much room Spidey has left for growth.

Another related strength is how tied-in this movie is to the rest of the MCU. I knew, going in, that it was officially a Disney/MCU film, but I didn't realize just how much of the background and foreground setting would be explicitly nailed to the Avengers. It's definitely more constant than I was expecting, but it works in a big way. It gives the MCU a sense of continuity. There are these big, famous, established heroes, and then there's a new crop of younger heroes (and newer villains) constantly coming into their own.

The final scene to break into the credits was great, so I won't spoil that. The final post-credits sequence was also amazing, and well worth waiting for.

I'll just get into spoiler territory here

Spoiler

The bumbling was my favorite part, how Peter looked up to Tony and wanted to be an avenger just like him, but wasn't ready, and he shows that throughout the film. Almost everything that happens is made worse by Peters involvement, which like you said shows how much growth he has ahead of him.

And then of course to end the movie with Peter refusing the avengers proposal, seeing for himself that he's not ready, from both a Peter Parker and Spider-Man standpoint.

Totally agree, was not expecting the avengers world to play such a heavy part in the story. How fitting is it that the vulture salvages the avengers scraps. It continues to paint Tony in an interesting light as you can see how the middle class feels screwed over by billionaire Tony Stark, while still knowing he's a hero

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So I managed to snag tickets to a press pre-screening of Dunkirk in IMAX last night. It was excellent. Christopher Nolan did so many interesting things with this film that I'm still trying to digest them.

The movie starts in medias res. There's no prologue, establishing sequence, or build-up in the traditional sense. Nolan uses the natural action of the film to establish what he needs to set up.

There's also only very light traditional characterization or character arc. This is not a character-driven film, but an event-driven film. It's not about Joey S. Soliderman, it's about Dunkirk. But Nolan uses the natural action of the film to establish and unfold characters.

There's very little dialogue, to the point where I don't even know what half of the characters' names are. The cast did a fantastic job of conveying powerful emotion and character with their bearing, their movements, their facial expressions, etc. There's one scene in particular when Tom Hardy brilliantly acts a difficult scene and you can pretty much only see one of his eyes.

There are also some really nice Nolanesque big shots of the Channel and beach set-pieces. Lots of great action. The score and sound design are both 100% on-point, ramping up the tension and overwhelming burden of despair and hopelessness the soldiers have at various points in the story. But Zimmer doesn't go too bananas, like some people argue he did in Interstellar. There are also brilliantly-executed moments of absolute silence as well.

And this is all to say nothing of the plot structure Nolan used to follow three separate storylines (the soldiers on the beach, the civilian/merchant navy coming to their rescue, and the air force flying support) while pacing the film perfectly. Some people might try to argue that the three lines were gimmicky, but they allowed Nolan to maintain similar stakes for characters who are in different places and keep the action and tension at just the right intensity.

As I said, I'm still processing this film. I didn't know what to think of it when I first walked out of the cinema because it was intense and overwhelming, but in a completely different way than many war movies (e.g. Saving Private Ryan). I liked it. The more I think of it, I liked it a lot.

John Wick

A great action movie. The way the music tied in to what was happening on screen was really well done, definitely my favorite parts of the movie.

Lego Batman

I loved it. Same Batman as in the Lego Movie. It makes fun of itself, and other movies. It is so over the top that you can't help but take it too seriously. The older Batman movies and shows references are awesome. If you liked the Lefo movie, see it. If you like Batman, see it. The villains at the end are hilarious!

8/10

On Friday I finished watching The Expendables 2 (again (apparently)). This is how memorable the movie is. It wasn't until I got to the action sequence at the end that I actually realized I had already seen this movie!

To be fair, the last time I saw it was Sunday, 3 August, 2014 while I was on vacation and probably not really paying attention, but still, something should have rung a bell before the literal end of the film.

Last night I finished watching Academy Award-winning Zootopia. It was pretty cute. There was a lot of nice subtle animation, especially with eye movements and facial expressions in general. The third act felt a little bit rushed to me, but that's about it. Good stuff.

Over the weekend, I went to see Jackie Chan & James Bond in The Foreigner. Never push a good man too far. In a continuing theme of aging action stars pursuing dramatic turns where their characters want a damn apology, I also watched Arnie in Aftermath (based on a true story). Jackie's film was pretty decent, but the plot structure was a little weird. There were two main narratives running, and Jackie's whole arc almost seemed extraneous. Arnie's film wasn't that great. It was neat to see a totally understated Schwarzenegger, but the film was relentlessly bleak. No tonal variation at all.

The Foreigner: 7.35/10
Aftermath: 3.32/10

I saw Thor: Ragnarok in IMAX last weekend. Great movie. Taika Waititi has done excellent work with this silly franchise. Great performances by everyone involved. It's high on my list of favourite Marvel movies. Comparisons with Guardians of the Galaxy are not unwarranted.

This weekend I watched The Meyerowitz Stories (New and Selected) on Netflix. It's by Noah Baumbach, who's Wes Anderson's friend and sometime writing partner. It has the same kind of dry wit as Anderson, but without the ostentatious auteur framing (i.e. it's a more natural-realist film that focuses on characters). It was good. Adam Sandler was good in it. Yep!

I also watched The Founder. Michael Keaton did a good job. I liked that the movie didn't shy away from portraying Ray as a scumbag.

I watched Thor over the weekend as well. I really liked the style of the movie, some really great moments. I can understand some people feeling like the story was too silly and undercut it's dramatic beats, especially when compared to previous Thor movies.

Personally, I felt almost every joke landed well. I enjoyed it more than the previous Thor movies and I did resonate with the #bigdramticmoment that happened at the end of the movie, and I resonated even more with the joke that undercut it .

Thor is utterly ridiculous. The more they embrace this, the more I enjoy the flicks. Looking forward to seeing this one, but almost certainly won't happen on the big screen.

[EDIT] Totally forgot to mention I caught Blade Runner 2049 over the weekend. This was an excellent, excellent film. True to the spirit of the original, but unafraid to veer out on its own. Loses a point for a slightly shallower experience as compared to the original film, but there was still a lot to digest in spite of a very simple, visually told plot. I loved this film. Anyone planning to see this really needs to ensure they catch it on the big screen.