Film in 2017: I Just Can't Wait To Kill Aliens

#62: Lion King Sing Along &  #34: Attack The Block

You don't need me to tell you the story of THE LION KING.

The sing along is kind of strange, the text is bulky and awkward and far less seamless than the one for the MOANA Sing Along earlier in 2017.

It was certainly a pleasure to see it on the big screen once again.

A teen gang in South London defend their block from an alien invasion.

Surprisingly, the film only has a 6.6 on IMDB. While some parts are a bit slow and muddled, that's unusually low, I think.

The debut film showing of one John Boyega proved that this young man was one to watch, but we wouldn't see him again until...2013's Half of A Yellow Sun. Which is not a great movie.

But then Star Wars came along so yay. Besides him and Jodie Whittaker (Who is your present Doctor in Doctor Who), I'm not sure most of these kids have done anything else that's crossed to this side of the pond. They capture the spirit of youth very well.

With simply shot, engaging in the dark action offset by the aliens' glowing teeth against a ripping soundtrack by Basement Jaxx, if you haven't seen this yet, give it a try.

Film There and Back Again

What did I tell you?

Pictured: Sir Not-Appearing-In-This-Challenge

So, I've actually shortened the name for round three, mainly because a lot of these are sequels, and also involve people playing similar roles that they've played before.

Other names I've toyed with;

• Same People, Different Day
• Filmmatically Correct 
• Fishing With Oscar Bait

Instead...Welcome to Film There and Back Again! This is looking a bit harder, a bit easier. This list used to be about eleven movies deep, but between moves and other nonsense (I seriously thought The Woman In The Window was this year), it's down to seven. Less than Winter/Spring, more than Summer.

Fun Fact; I wrote the initial draft in May.

You know the rules, one fourth are eligible passes.

Round Three will include;

#61: Brigsby Bear

Art by a maniac turns into meme culture.

A young man watches a show on a ratty, old television. He's maybe in his mid-twenties, sitting in a darkened room that's stacked with VHS tapes. On the screen, two young women and a person in a bear costume are fighting a snarling sun with a face - The titular show.

Next, you see the young man eating dinner with his family, everyone talking animatedly about the show. The father says that his son's essay about a particular story arc is highly implausible because of various show mechanics. At the end of the meal, everyone stands up and shakes hands.

Kind of weird, but whatever.

Outside, you see they live in a bunker in the sands of the middle of nowhere, hidden behind a clear layer of plastic or glass, watching the outside world. The young man firmly believes that the outside air is dangerous, and that's it's death to go outside.

Minutes later, the bunker is raider, the parents are arrested, and the young man is taken into captivity to meet his real family.

#60: Teen Titans GO! To The Movies

Stan Lee cameos as himself. Also, it's time for self-referential animated movies to end.

From what I've seen of this show, I actually enjoy it a great deal.

It's not like the original, or dark as The Judas Contract. It fills a niche, and not one aimed at people who watched the original, although there is something for them too.

The art style and direction is mostly by one Mr. Hipp, who I followed on Tumblr way back when. Man it's a delight to see it on the big screen, peeping at the cameos - Plastic Man (!), Miss Martian, Zatanna (Who we saw a bit of in the DC Super Hero Girls 2.0 short beforehand).

No Booster Gold or Star Sapphire, oddly enough.

The plot is "Everyone else and then some has a movie in development at DC, except the Teen Titans, more specifically, Robin."

As a nod to the real-life Warner Bros. situation, they have The Flash constantly at the lot but never actually filming a movie, perhaps a nod to the "Will they, won't they?" Flash stand-alone film.

No one is really concerned if the other four want a movie, but it doesn't seem like it.

It seems that WAG can only make good movies if they're self-aware (No, Storks was not a good movie), between this and the Lego Movies sans Ninjago.

It's self-referential-ness come from itself. How everyone thinks the new cartoon is a joke, even five or so years later since it started. They play with that and they play it up.

The entire movie can be summed up as "Yeah, you think we're stupid? We sure are! Let's go!"

Film in 2017: I Rolled the Dice and got THREE Guy Ritchie Movies in A Row

#80: Sherlock Holmes, #77: The Man From Uncle & #35: Rocknrolla. 

Why did I watch so many of this man's movies?

The only one that wasn't a rewatch was Sherlock Holmes.

I liked it well enough, the twist on the titular character, though I did spend a lot of time wondering what it would be like if Jude Law was Sherlock instead. Let's be honest, this was Tony Stark with a sweater and a pipe brawling in the alleyways, what's so different about that.

But it's a twist on the original material that makes a lot of sense and fits Ritchie's style wonderfully. This is possibly the only film of his where he adapted some material and it really fits nicely.

 I can't attest for King Arthur, but let's be honest.

Film in 2017: DCeased

#45; Wonder Woman (2009) & #38; Green Lantern

A modern man's trespass of the island of the Amazons enables an imprisoned war god to escape and Princess Diana wins the responsibility to recapture him.

There's a section in this movie which is so awkwardly animated that it's hilarious. She and Steve Trevor are fighting in an alleyway and, in two frames, she lifts up her leg and nails the person in the chest.

Other than that, the entire movie is spent gaslighting Diana. When Trevor tries to get her drunk, he's stymied that he can't - Diana knows about people's bullshit, it happens to her, so basically she's proven right every time. And yet, she's supposed to be seen as narrowminded and looking down on humanity when the one person she's constantly in the company of is a grade-a skeeve.

Reckless test pilot Hal Jordan is granted an alien ring that bestows him with otherworldly powers that inducts him into an intergalactic police force, the Green Lantern Corps.

Taika Waititi is in this movie. That's all I remember, besides the CGI looking odd, but not totally hating it. 

If you haven't seen the Cartoon Network CGI Green Lantern Cartoon, you should.

Film in 2017: Who Killed The Little Mermaid?

#97: The Little Mermaid & #32: Who Killed Captain Alex?

A mermaid princess makes a Faustian bargain with an unscrupulous sea-witch in order to meet a human prince on land.

You know it, you at least love the music, it's the girl who kicked off the Disney Renaissance, and in  2018, people still misunderstand a children's movie and think she traded her voice for a man.

This kinds of reminds me of Brave, where a woman who is supposed to be a big part of the story is muted, but unlike that, this doesn't anger me because it's on Ariel's on volition...sorta kinda.

Under The Sea remains a banger.

The End of An Era

This (okay, last) week is important.

Last week is the first since January 2015, that I haven't watched a movie.

I wanted to see - Could it be done? It has. It feels freeing not to be tied down to a self-imposed challenge, especially when it starts being a chore. I have other stuff to do, stuff that will help me get a job and especially relocate.

Don't expect many movie reviews in August - The only sure fire one is our monthly documentary and Crazy Rich Asians & possibly Operation Finale - but we're not totally movieless over here.

I'm going to look back through my notes for 2017, and see what other movies I can talk about - because there are some I really want to talk about. Check for the Film in 2017 tag.

As for liveblogs, there is a series I really want to liveblog, but I need a Hulu subscription because it just isn't anywhere else.

Book 3: Sozin's Comet: Avatar Aang

Because it's ten years to the day where this first premiered.

Book 3: Sozin's Comet: Into The Inferno

The sky certainly is pretty before multiple throwdowns.
I had to split the two episodes because this one has over 30 images in the post. 

Book 3: Sozin's Comet: The Phoenix King & The Old Masters

The series finale - Two hours long, a bonafide movie in its own right. It's these two episodes then two more.

Book 3: The Southern Raiders / The Ember Island Players

This might be my favorite episode.

Book 3: The Boiling Rock (Both Parts)

Next up on Field Trips with Zuko is...Sokka! With an entire hour-long set of episodes!

"If someone was to get captured by the Fire Nation, where would they be taken?"

#59: The Little Hours

A bunch of Nunsense. Satirical smartass filmmaking 101.

I don't think I've seen an Aubrey Plaza movie since Monsters University.

Nothing against her, I've just never been quite interested in the projects she was in.

This was a bit of an on the whim thing - I remember hearing about it and then forgetting until I came across a reddit comment.

 Still kicking myself for not seeing Ingrid Goes West at the dollar theater (RIP).

Kate Micucci? Oh, she's everywhere. Any thin-lined cartoon on TV today, there she is. It's impressive.

The rolling, twangly and percussion-heavy score got me fired up, which is an odd thing to say about a movie regarding cursing nun-witches.

This movies basically rests on the idea that most people do not know what nuns normally do and have a puritan, chaste version of them in our minds.

It's called 'subverting expectations'. I laughed hardest, not at the parts where "Oh look, the sisters are swearing," but at little shit like Fernanda copying Ginevra's confession and lying about it, or them getting drunk and...harmonizing a hymn.

Like, who expected that?

Book 3: The Western Air Temple / The Firebending Masters

I stop and let the children flee.

#58: The School of Rock

Quintessential 2003.

When I said we'd be seeing more Jack Black, this is actually not what I had in mind. I was talking about Kung Fu Panda. But I've never seen this movie before!

It's really charming, the interactions with the children, the whole story is basically giving children the ability to feel self-empowered and confident while Ned (Black) takes on responsibility.

They're good actors too, surprisingly.

I don't think we see any of them do another high-profile movie or show except Miranda Cosgrove ("iCarly").

Really not a whole bunch to say against this movie except the 'low point' climax is stupid and forced.

There's really no reason for this to be nearly two hours long either with such a typical (but enjoyable!) story. I can appreciate the attempt at fleshing out the stuffy principal.

Entertaining music. Super impressive production design. It's nothing extremely out of the ordinary or from a different time period but it is distinct enough to be charming and personable.

Book 3: The Day of Black Sun (Both Parts)

Hey, where's Nightmares and Daydreams?

It's more of a joke filler episode than anything else. Since I don't like breaking up double-parters of episodes, skip.

Briefly, though - There are Wacky Hijinks with the Gaang, and Zuko realizes that being a person his father likes blows.

Onto The Invasion a season in the making.

#57: Kong: Skull Island

I've always found the Monsterverse to be okay. It got the job done. At least, unlike the Dark Universe, it didn't start off bad and get worse, but simply started off okay and got....okayer. 

So remember when I said in The Last of The Film Ones that out of all the 2017 movies I mentioned, there was one I hadn't mentioned in that post, because I admitted to myself that I hadn't given it a fair shot, and wanted to revisit it?

Well, this is it.

I originally saw this in DBOX, and that was my first DBOX experience.

It was totally worth the 0$ I paid. Normally it's about 18$ but thank you, Fandango's shitty network infrastructure! Glitched out and charged me nothing while giving me a ticket. But seriously, it was fun, and I would totally recommend you try it for action movies.

Also, WB cannot legally use the phrase King Kong in any of their movies. Reason why Godzilla vs. Kong isn't Godzilla vs. King Kong.

And there are technically two Godzilla cinematic universes between three studios, and the Toho Godzilla movies are very different than the Americanized Godzilla movies, as we saw earlier this year.

What were we on about again?

How the production value and design is actually amazing? It is, it really is. I also firmly, firmly believe that this should have won some kind of cinematography award for the Oscars. Really, it's so beautiful. Or costuming. Or set design!

Also a resounding round of applause that while this is a war movie, IT'S NOT ABOUT WORLD WAR II! It's about Vietnam. Parallel to Vietnam.

Oh!

How this movie has way too many good actors squandered.

#56: Won't You Be My Neighbor?

The last of the real ones.

Thirty seconds before the film answered my question, I thought "Wow, wait, why is this rated PG-13?"

Then immediate footage of the Kennedy Assassination.

 Why is it always about the Kennedy Assassination when I wonder why something seems to be rated higher than it is? First Jackie (which, in retrospect, I probably should have expected), then this.

Shocking moments that prove America was Never Great -

• Racism (And Mr. Rogers' quiet rebuttal of cooling off with François in the pool on a hot day and his look at the camera like "Try me, motherfucker.")
• The Challenger tragedy (Which is more of a hugely unfortunate accident)

- pepper an otherwise peaceful and informative documentary about Fred Rogers.

 I don't say 'shocking' in a bad way, because like the man himself, it didn't shy away from hard topics taught to children in a simple and soothing way.

There are plenty of clips from the old show - and they're not remastered. It's mostly fine, but some interviews with Rogers are clearly out of focus in addition to their poor quality, and it's hard on the eyes. I understand not wanting to touch them up to keep the grainy, childhood film aesthetic.

#55: Rio 2

Music and a weaker show.

Rio 2 stars Anne Hathaway, Jermaine Clement, and Kirsten Chenowith, so it's already pretty cool.

It's less annoying on the "Characters have children in movie number 2" than in the Hotel Transylvania series (Seriously, the second movie was awful. Same with Despicable Me 2.)

And this is going to sound weird but props for ... body diversity in Blue Spix Macaws.

If you're going to laugh at me for this quote at least link to my blog.

 Also there's no hiding how many brown people are seen in this movie, even if it's not about them. This is Rio De Janeiro, Brazil, after all.

Though it would take nearly two years until an American mainstream animated production would star brown people.

The story - We have seen this before, loser does not fit in with wife's family and former flame, ecological warfare - but I didn't record and rewatch this for the story. The difference is it focuses on a genuinely endangered species that isn't a made up animal variant.

I rewatched this because the vocal soundtrack is fantastic.

#54: Jumanji: Welcome To The Jungle

How to fight Star Wars and Win.

What was a bigger surprise in December 2017 -

How The Last Jedi slightly underwhelmed, prompting calls for all sorts of over the top things?

The success of The Greatest Showman, a sanitized, saccharine account of the life of P.T Barnum?

Or the success of Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle?

Probably Showman - but we've already talked about that and frankly it's not a great movie.

The rules are amazingly established for operating in a video game world. Character strengths and weaknesses end up being points of growth for the characters. The boys get "be brave" and the girls get "You don't have to hate everybody."

Not quite the opposite sides of a coin, I know.

Book 3: The Runaway / The Puppetmaster

It's all about our girls this time around.

“You’re probably wondering how I ended up like this.”

 Katara has turned Toph over to the local authorities! But why?