[EphelDuath666]

4 Oscars for The Shape Of Water (VERY happy for GDT) and 2 for Blade Runner 2049 (VERY happy for Deakins)....yay!

Pacific Rim Uprising.

More adolescent in tone than its predecessor, relying mainly on action and one-liners. It doesn't quite have the philosophical undertone the first brought, nor the strangeness unique to del Toro's direction.
What it does bring are fun action scenes, a few neat twists and impressive monsters, along with robots to fight them. Character development is also fairly decent.
It's not the smartest movie but you don't have to turn off your brain to enjoy it. It's eye candy and it knows it, and that suits me fine.

Ready Player One.

Delightful in every respect, this is a love letter to gaming and pop culture, particularly for the last 30 years of the twentieth century. All the while it holds up a mirror to modern society, online interaction and our obsession with nostalgia, effectively striking the balance without being too heavy-handed with commentary. Despite being directed by Spielberg, it also comes across as more Spielberg-esque, which may have been the intention.

Every character was relatable, the humor was timed wonderfully and although the suspense was formulaic at times, the action and payoffs were definitely earned. This is unapologetic spectacle with real heart beneath it and deserves to be watched more than once, not only for the story but to catch references that you will likely miss the first time. Though I did catch plenty, and they were good.

Highly recommended.

[EphelDuath666]

I read the book and LOVED it so I'm eager to see the movie to see how it holds up in comparison.

Tomb Raider.

I agree with the consensus that it is one of the better, if not best, live action adaptations of a video game.
As a movie in of itself, it's ordinary and formulaic. Thankfully never boring and rarely pulls punches but you can see the twists coming. The ending spells itself out needlessly but isn't as bad as, say, Assassin's Creed.
Alicia Vikander plays Lara Croft as grounded and relatable, at least so far as the movie allows her to be. Both Dominic West as Richard Croft and Walton Goggins as the sociopathic Vogel match her energy and it's a bit of a shame the story doesn't support them as well as it should.
At least visually the movie hits its marks, and though it falls prey to jumbled editing and video game logic, it makes room for necessary weight.
Overall, I'd say it's on the right side of middle of the road.

[EphelDuath666]

A Quiet Place

one word.....wow.

if you like horror and suspense then by Devin go and watch it! What are you waiting for...I said go and watch it!



but in all seriousness, it's a terrific movie. There are hardly any words spoken but the movie is incredibly intense with excellent performances. This is NOT a movie that relies on jump scares and unnecessary action BS. This one burns slowly and steadily.

Spoiler: show

Marvelous creature design too. Threatening as hell and beautifully designed.

I cannot praise this one enough. It's good to see that every once in a while, someone makes a modern horror movie that is actually GOOD, movies such as It Follows, The Babadook or The Witch. And this one is a welcome addition. Considering how successful this movie was domestically (so far) I hope this is the start of something great! A new wave of GOOD horror.

I saw A Quiet Place twice in a week. This was just when it came out (the forums were down).
Definitely lived up to my expectations and had a few nice surprises. Highly recommended.

Spoiler: show

My sister and I have had some debates on the creature design. I rather enjoyed them and although found parallels in at least five monsters I've seen before, I thought the direction they took suited the story well.
Her argument was that she'd seen too many monsters like this and that it should have been more 'trustworthy' in appearance, like a dog that suddenly goes bad. No, not for this film.
At least we could agree that it was scarier not seeing them, or not completely.

Avengers: Infinity War

Up until now, the highest score I've given to an MCU movie is 9.5, for Iron Man, Black Panther and Captain America: The Winter Soldier. Quite a few nines as well but never a 10.

Until now.

For my money, this simultaneously pays off the build up and raises the tension in the MCU higher than it's ever been. I cannot wait to see where they go from here and will say no more so as to not give anything away.

For those who have seen it:

Spoiler: show

I am so glad they went full dark. And not DCEU dark where you can't take it as seriously as they want you to, even if Wonder Woman did it right.
This was the fucking gut-punch that fans have been waiting for. Hail Thanos.

Edit: it has now been a full day since this was posted and I have watched the movie again. And I have had an epiphany: this movie either completely dispels the myth that love conquers all or proves it in a most grievous fashion.

[Victimlas]

LOVED Infinity War as well. Can't wait to see what comes next

Spoiler: show

I loved how Thanos was a multi faceted villain. Some of the the other MCU villains have been rather weak in motivation and execution

Deadpool 2

Holy shitballs. I laughed myself raw and enjoyed every scene from start to finish. Heavier on the references and jokes but they were used in all the right places. Good story with some fun twists as well, with bigger and more violent action scenes to satisfy those still hungry after the first. Josh Brolin as Cable was the perfect foil for Deadpool and got quite a few laughs of his own.
Will need to see again but I'm calling this one better than the first. Stay until the credits are done rolling.

[EphelDuath666]

Deadpool 2

Holy shitballs. I laughed myself raw and enjoyed every scene from start to finish. Heavier on the references and jokes but they were used in all the right places. Good story with some fun twists as well, with bigger and more violent action scenes to satisfy those still hungry after the first. Josh Brolin as Cable was the perfect foil for Deadpool and got quite a few laughs of his own.
Will need to see again but I'm calling this one better than the first. Stay until the credits are done rolling.

I'll see it on May 30th. That way I can watch it in English. Can't wait!

Solo: A Star Wars Story.

Predictable and underwhelming, and though mildly entertaining it was more vacuous than fun.
Lando, his robot and a surprise cameo at the end were the best parts. Chewie was good as always. The story otherwise played it far too safe, the direction was often bland and although Alden Ehrenreich tried his best, he is a far cry from Harrison Ford.

Spoiler: show

The Kessel Run was easily the most disappointing sequence, being over too quick and offering little more than them trying to escape from a lazy Cthulhu monster. Nice to see Darth Maul show up. Hopefully the next "story" movie gives him something to work with.

Overall, about on par with Episodes 1 & 2.

Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom.

Thankfully not a retread of The Lost World but while there are a few similarities, as well as common tropes and call backs from the prior films, this instalment is distinctly its own story. I'd rank it on par with its predecessor and in some ways better, though I'd be lying if I said it was more fun. It's definitely darker and a bit more creative, with a better balance between animatronics and visual effects than the prior film. However, although it can be suspenseful, the direction tends to emphasize more on spectacle. People outside the main cast are mostly there to be dino fodder; not always a bad thing but you can tell fairly easily who is going to get chomped, and the leads only receive some development.

The primary theme of mankind's irresponsibility with nature throughout this series is glaringly loudest here, with the antagonists showing little to no interest in learning from past mistakes; to paraphrase Lost World, they're making all new ones. Of course, this arrogance leads to good pay-offs but you have to wonder just how idiotic these people can get. On the other hand, the subtle jabs at the state of the world today do give this aspect of the story weight.

All up, Fallen Kingdom is entertaining and worth seeing in cinemas. Ideally the next movie will evolve the themes brought up here rather than just show how many creatures they can throw on the screen. They'll need to if they want to keep it interesting.

Spoiler: show

I'm going to guess right now the scene where the raptor Blue actually sheds a tear is going to become a meme/divisive talking point soon enough. I don't mind it but I also thought, "Really? Since when do raptors cry?"
Funny how in the first two and maybe third movie they were the scary villains but now we have one who is as much a hero as the T-Rex, in a manner of speaking. Let's see where they go next.
Also, I have some justification in my mind as to why they didn't take the dinosaurs to Isla Sorna, other than allowing the events of this movie to take place. Sorna has been abandoned for about 20 years at this point and the last two times it was visited, disaster happened. After all, when they took dinosaurs from there to the original Park it was a manned facility that was left to rot once InGen had the animals and material they needed. It wouldn't make much sense to them to unleash a bunch of dinosaurs into the wild on an island where the handlers could be attacked the moment they touched down, let alone safely release the animals without them turning around and attacking. Then again, that would have been a cool sight to see but we have this movie and its consequences now, for better or worse.

Ant-Man and the Wasp.
I liked it better than the prior Ant-Man however it doesn't reach the heights of Black Panther or Infinity War. Nor does it try to really, as it's more comfortable as a smaller movie.
It's light, fun, has rounded characters and a pretty good story. Some aspects of the plot could have been better but others that were left ambiguous or unexplained I feel will be explored in the next Avengers, and I am ok with that. Definitely worth watching on the big screen.

Sicario: Day of the Soldado.
It was fine. It had the same dark feeling and realistic violence of the original but lacked the moral compass. Less brooding and more aggressive; thankfully nothing too far-fetched but I found the quiet suspense of the first wasn't as strong in this one. A few things certainly bugged me (including that gun move from the trailer) but there was enough good material and solid acting for me to recommend it on its own merits.

The Mission: Impossible series.

I had watched the first one a few times back in the 90's but hadn't seen it for maybe 20 years.  I hadn't seen any of the sequels out of sheer lack of interest.  However, considering the buzz around Fallout and curiosity regarding Henry Cavill in the movie, I rented all five to watch during the week before watching the newest in cinemas tonight. Here is my verdict for them all.

The original: still pretty damn good, emphasizing the characters and espionage over the action.  Tom Cruise wasn't as ego-driven here as he was in later films.  Although I find the villian's motivation lacking (there is seriously no good reason offered beyond implied insecurity that drove him bad), I enjoyed every character, loved that the more iconic scenes still hold up and had a few giggles at the outdated technology.  Worth revisiting.

M:I 2: Jesus fuck, what an inflated, illogical and stylistically gratuitous hunk of cheese.  Everything wrong with Tom Cruise and even this series is on full display, with only the "so bad it's good" qualities keeping it watchable.  John Woo might have seemed like a good idea at the time but his direction was better in Face/Off; this is Mission's equivalent to Die Another Day (yet is somehow still better than that piece of shit).  In its favor, it had better end credits music than the third movie but that isn't saying much.  Skip.

M:I III: brings the story back to Earth in a fairly decent way.  It's one of the darker entries in the franchise and keeps the characters largely believable.  However, it doesn't quite have the weight of the first and could've used more Philip Seymour Hoffman, who is still one of the best villians in the series.  The ending is also too sappy for its own good.  Still, it does its best to keep you hooked and doesn't go too overboard. I'd recommend it.

Ghost Protocol: elevates the movies back to the tone of the first while upping the ante in spectacle.  You can tell this is where the films really start to try and out-do previous stunts and action scenes, not only from their own priors but other movies as well.  The air of mystery in the movie is also more effective than the last two.  Sadly, the main villian is little more than an episodic maniac.  At least the rest of the film makes up for it and there is a good build up for the next movie.

Rogue Nation: about on par with the 4th but more cavalier with the stunt work.  It's impressive to see Cruise hanging off an airplane; how he gets there seems less convincing than most of the other stunts seen before or since.  The story is certainly grittier and there are nice twists and turns, not to mention a much better bad guy.  However, although it improves on Ghost Protocol in some ways, the former did it better on others.  Hence on par.

Fallout: arguably the best of the series.  There were a few callbacks to each of the prior movies but not many, focusing mainly as a follow-up to Rogue Nation.  Thankfully the story is told well enough to be self-contained and easy to pick up, though I'm not sad to have done my homework.  Cruise was his usual self but put the character first and with a great level of nuance.  Henry Cavill and his mustache stole the show, giving one of the best antagonists in this series and (mostly) making up for Justice League.  Excellent fight scenes, genuinely great twists and probably the darkest tone of lot.  I'm glad I saw this on the big screen.

Not sure if I'll come back to these movies anytime soon but if I do, I know I'll have something fun to watch.