Dark Phoenix Review and the X-men Franchise

Where do I begin? Let me start by saying that I didn’t think the movie was terrible however it’s not good either. I had a feeling for months that the movie will be okay. I wasn’t overly excited watching it but a tiny part of me thought that maybe it would surprise me. But nope it didn’t. Now before I go on remember that this review will contain spoilers of the movie and all the other X-men movies. So catch up and come back or you will get spoiled.

The problem I have with this movie comes with the whole franchise and how Fox handled it. Sure there were some hits like Logan, Deadpool, X1, X2, and First class. But there were some misses as well. This reminds me Game of Thrones where there were great seasons and the ending just ruined it. That’s what this movie did. Plus, with so many timelines and actors playing the same role, it was like watching DC content. And that is totally wrong for Marvel. This movie didn’t bring anything new to the story. We saw this story in X-men 3 and it looked similar to Captain Marvel. And why kill a character that is one of the most popular characters of X-men? basically, it was a plot device. Don’t waste your money going to the theaters watching it. You can wait.

And don’t forget that in the last movie Jean already had the Phoenix powers so why now it was like she didn’t before? Once again people behind the scenes are not taking this seriously. I am happy the MCU is taking over now but I don’t know how it will work. So the mutants were on vacation while Thanos was destroying everything? I wished X-men were already a part of the MCU from the beginning. Can you imagine Wolverine and Captain America fighting together or Storm and Thor? Maybe we will in the new installment but there will have to be a good explanation? Good luck to the MCU writers.

Now that the Fox version of X-men is over, I will remember the good times I had watching the movies. It made me a fan of X-men and the story of mutants. So thank you for that. Also, it paved the way for superhero movies.  So goodbye Fox X-men we had our ups and downs. And goodbye to the Phoenix storyline, please I’ve seen enough of it.

Rating: C

Photo Courtesy FOX

If the Fantastic Beasts Franchise Started Over

If you haven’t read my review on the Crimes of Grindelwald, you can here. You will see how disappointed I was. This post will be about how the franchise should have approached this story. Spoilers if you haven’t seen the first two Fantastic Beasts movies.

Ideas

• Newt becomes the supporting character and not the main character. I don’t understand why Newt is the hero of the story. His passion is to protect magical beasts and not saving the world. It makes more sense for Tina to be the hero. She is an Auror and it’s her job. Take the fantastic beasts out of the equation and focus on Grindelwald. Instead of news clippings and word of mouth, actually, show why Grindelwald is so bad. Show his crimes. Have Dumbledore in the first movie with a big role of trying to find Grindelwald. Tina and Dumbledore can cross paths and go from there. And at the end of the series, you can have the big battle. If you still want Newt in it, use him where one of his beasts is used for a battle. And that’s how Tina and Newt meet. By then Tina would be an established character.
• Focus more on the characters and not relationships. Characters should be able to carry scenes alone and not rely on relationships. If you have to ask who is the character without another person then you are doing it wrong. Relationships should be a bonus and not everything. I’m not saying to not have relationships at all, I’m saying before Ron and Hermoine got together, we knew who they were as individuals. This franchise lacks that. Who is Queenie without Jacob or Tina without Newt? Who are they? Depth in characters will help the audience understand why decisions were made from the characters.
• Don’t add characters before you establish the ones you already have. This is very simple. Too many characters equal too many stories which causes chaos. This is a movie, not a TV series. So you can’t have too many things happening because you don’t have much time. So keep what is important and throw away what is not.  Ask if they are really needed for the overall story.
• Don’t contradict anything that was already in the Harry Potter series. I think this is already self-explanatory.

Too bad magic is not real and we can’t start over. The franchise is in too deep but hopefully, the next movie will be better.

Photo courtesy WB

The Crimes of Grindelwald Stole My Money

Oh boy, where do I begin? I really don’t how to even do this review. I will start by saying that this is a spoiler review in case you haven’t seen the movie. Do a favor and don’t but if you really really want to watch it, good luck. Also, this is written by a person who watched the movies only. So if hate me for not reading the books, personally I don’t care so you can stop reading if you want. Now that’s out of the way and you have an open mind and want to read my thoughts then let’s do this. I will break this down to the things that were bad and good for the movie. Heads up, there was only one good thing in the movie and plenty of bad. Beware of Spoilers.

The Bad

• No need to watch the first movie because everything that happened was just your imagination. In other words, plot lines were conveniently solved just because. Remember when Jacob’s memories of magic were erased, well not anymore. Somehow he was able to remember because he is a special human. Um sure. Yes, Jacob is a beloved character and fans would love to see him again. But I would rather have a beloved character earn their comeback or just not show up. Jacob wasn’t really needed in this movie. If he was left alone in the first movie then that would have been okay. iIt happens. Another thing Credence is alive. Yeah, apparently that death didn’t take. Its okay for characters to die in a series of movies. Plenty of characters in the Harry Potter franchise died and served their purpose. The story shouldn’t be about Credence but instead, Grindelwald. Or that’s what I thought but the twist said otherwise.
• Too many characters mean too many storylines. Can you imagine if they made Game of Thrones as a movie instead of a TV Show? Talk about a trainwreck. Well, that’s this movie. In the previous movie, it seemed that the story was more focused and you can do that with not many characters. This one’s outline was a few characters dialogue, action, new characters dialogue, action, rinse and repeat. I left the theater complaining to my friends and asking them what was the plot? So many things were happening but nothing at the same time. It was, where is Credence, kill Credence but no save him to Credence figuring out where he is from, to oh no Grindelwald escaped, to Grindelwald trying to get followers, to Queenie wants to marry Jacob but can’t, Leta Lestrange is engaged to Newt’s brother but might have feelings for Newt, Newt has feelings for Tina, Tina thinks Newt is engaged to Leta, Leta might be related to Credence but is revealed she isn’t, a snake lady, a circus, sprinkle some magical beasts, Dumbledore won’t fight Grindelwald because feelings and Queenie joins Grindelwald army. Phew. The crazy part is that this is not all of it. Imagine watching 2 hours of this nonsense.
• One-dimensional characters. I’m sorry, I can’t care for characters or understand their decisions if they are one dimensional. The whole point is to relate to these characters but if you have too manycharacters going in different places, it’s hard to follow. Which causes the audience to try to fill in too many blanks which we shouldn’t have to. That’s not our job. That job belongs to the writers. When bad decisions are made by one-dimensional characters, it’s usually just to move the plot from point A to B. It should be understood why the hero or villain are making their decisions. Why did Grindelwald go to the dark side? What were his crimes? Why is Newt the hero? Honestly, it shouldn’t be his story we should be following but instead Tina or a different Auror. Hero vs villain duh, not guy who collects animals somehow is in the mix of things. This cast is talented and deserves to have better writing and direction. It’s unfortunate they don’t.

The Good

• The action. When the magical action was happening, that was the only few times I felt that the pay was worth it. I enjoyed feeling that I was in this world for a short time. I admit I was jealous that I didn’t have wand or casting spells. Life would be so much easier.

In conclusion, I was disappointed. I expected more and got blah. I don’t see this franchise having three more movies after this one. I see one more maybe two but three hell no. Fans don’t enjoy wasting money for crap no matter what franchise it is. The next movie I won’t even bother watching in theaters. I will stay at home. Stay tuned for part 2 of this review where I talk about what should have happened or what I’ve would have done instead.

Rating D

Photo courtesy Warner Brothers

My Thoughts on Pitch Perfect 3

Let me just start by saying that I do not think this movie is terrible however its not good either. I will talk about the issues I had about the movie so there will be spoilers. So Beware!

Now as a fan of this franchise the last movie was a disappointment. I know the writers of the first two did not write this one and you can tell. Just like TV shows when the show-runners leave the show it is never the same in a bad way. Example of this is that season of Community when Dan Harmon left, it was the darkest timeline. Anyway back to movie. Here are a list of why this movie was not good.

1. Now I wouldn’t call myself a Bechloe shipper but I see why people would ship them. Honestly the only couple I liked in the franchise was Fat Amy and Bumper. They were funny together. I thought Becca and Jesse was so typical and boring. But I did enjoy the Chloe and Beca scenes in the previous movies. So to not have many scenes of them in the new movie was weird. Instead, Chloe was boy crazy and since when she was ever like that. The Beca and Theo thing reminded me of her and Jesse so I thought they would end up together. Happy they didn’t to be honest because I hate when moves do the same story line of boy meets girl and bam they are a couple. If that was always the case nobody straight would be single ever. Plus the queer baiting was not cool either. I won’t go much into it but if you want to read about it check out this article. There are plenty other articles about this.
2. The constant dig at Jessica and Ashley. Sure they were never the main characters in the other movies but the girls never treated them like crap. When Fat Amy kept talking bad about them and even told her dad to kill them first was totally out of character.
3. Another dig was Fat Amy calling Emily dumb. Once again since when she was the dumb one? They loved her in the second movie. It was just a cheap way to make jokes but I wasn’t laughing.
4. Beca never wanted to be a solo artist, she always wanted to be a producer. Making music was her dream. Yes she loves singing with the Bellas but her calling was producing. Did the writers watch the first movie? So the way it ended was crappy. How it should have ended is a big final competition with all the bands and Beca doesn’t take the deal and the Bellas perform and DJ Khaled realizes that Bellas have to stay a group. They all win the deal and make music together. Make an album and go on tour and you see that in the end credits. The last movie shows the Bellas together and it becomes full circle. They are a family, they stick together and they are happy.
5. The music choice was average at best. Some songs were good but not all. I enjoyed the music in the other movies better and plus they had more singing. The movie is called Pitch Perfect so you need better and more music. And the competition was weak, I never felt the other bands were better than them.
6. Lastly the major disappointment was lack of unity within the group. I didn’t feel it in this movie. This supposed to be a reunion but instead it was dissing some of the girls and daddy issues. The dad stuff wasn’t needed instead that could have been used for fun scenes with the girls. There was a scene of the girls going to drink Absinthe. Imagine seeing them trip out instead we got an action scene that did not fit in the movie. In the other two movies I wanted to be friends with them but in this one not so much. Friends don’t bring each other down.

This movie was not perfect at all instead it was a parody of a Pitch Perfect movie. Like  the writers saw the other movies and took it by making a joke. Yes a fan would do a commentary saying certain characters are dumb or hardly ever there but I didn’t pay money to watch that. Well I didn’t really pay my aunt did and she regrets it, she didn’t like the movie. Anyway, she didn’t pay for a parody she wanted to pay for a movie from a franchise we love, about a group of girls that have each other backs and sing together. Instead of a horror film we got Scary movie but at least Scary Movie was funny. This is like the part three of Scary Movie because just like those movies once the original writers left and new ones came and the franchise went downhill.

It’s sad that this is the last movie and it had to end on a bad note.

Rating D

I know the photo is from the second movie but it shows my emotion for this movie.

Bright Movie Review

First can I just say that the movie was not terrible. I don’t know why they are getting bad reviews and sure it could have been really bad but I liked it. Trust me I’ve seen terrible movies and Bright wasn’t one of them. So lets get to the things I enjoyed and didn’t.

Things I liked.

• I really really loved the chemistry of Nick and Ward. I believed their friendship toward the end of the movie. Their banter were hilarious and I loved all their scenes together. Will Smith and Joel Edgerton did a great job portraying two cops who were forced to work together and now after the wand event are great partners. I really want to see more projects of them together.
• I enjoyed the comparisons of Orc/Elves to racism in America especially with law enforcement. It totally reminds me of X-men and how they use mutants to represent racism. I do wished the movie got deeper into subject matter. They could have done so much more.
• The action scenes and effects were really good.

 

Things I didn’t like

• The villains. Now sure they totally kicked some butt and the action scenes with them were great but what was their story? Why were they summoning the Dark One? They had no backstory at all. Very one dimensional. They are forgettable that I don’t remember their names. Actually did the two in the background have names?
• I think the plot would have been from good to great if it wasn’t a movie but instead a limited series. A good 5 episodes that answered some questions like what happened 2000 years ago with the Orcs? What is the Elves and Orcs history? How they got here? Who is the Dark One? Villains backstory. Whats with the fairies? Maybe more on Nick and Ward’s family life. Maybe an episode of them arresting the Orc that shot Ward. Backstory of the FBI magic crew. How other parts of the world dealing with these different races? What happened to the Internal Affairs story? The list goes on and on. I know they are making a sequel but I would have preferred a mini series instead.
• Another thing, how did the safe house not explode? A room full of bombs on fire and no explosion. Not possible.

Other than the things I disliked, I enjoyed the movie and took it for what it was. Like I said before it wasn’t terrible because the friendship carried the movie. I suggest to watch it for yourself first before you judge it.

Rating B

Photo By The Verge