Fantastic Beasts: Crimes of Grindelwald

 

The second installment of the Fantastic Beasts franchise brought back the main characters from the first film, but not together as we would like, except for Newt and Jacob who were joined at the hip like they were in the first movie.

I will not reveal how Jacob comes into the movie, in the last movie we last see him at his bakery doing well with the business and then Queenie visits his shop.

The introduction of the new characters and the development of the story will make you think of present time with the Harry Potter series.  Some will make sense and some will be a little confusing.  The timeline is a little off with one of the professor at Hogwarts and the class that Dumbledore is teaching is a bit confusing.  In the cinematic universe it may make sense, but if you remember what is in the books it may be confusing, and hopefully somewhere it would be explained.

In this installment you get to see the relationship between Dumbledore and Grindelwald.  Also it is revealed the ties between Newt and Albus.  You will find out what happened with Katherine after the events at New York.  You will finally meet the Lestrange that Newt had a picture of.

The title of the movie is the Crimes of Grindelwald, the movie left me with the question of what are the crimes?  He broke out of prison, but is that the basis of this story?  Maybe in the next installment it would expand on his backstory a bit.

The cliffhanger is a bit confusing, if you have read the books and see the Harry Potter movies it does not make any sense.  It left me with “Whaaat??”

I do love the franchise, but I am teetering between like and ehh with this movie.  Watch it for the great CGI, but for me it left too many open question on how does that fit in?

Crazy Rich Asians

Was a bit wary about the hype that this movie has been getting.  I wasn’t rushing to see the movie, but when my cousin suggested in going we decided to go.  I was pleasantly surprised, I really enjoyed the movie, I laughed, raised an eyebrow and even got teary eyed.

The premise of the movie is Nick is going back to Singapore for his friend’s wedding and standing up as his best man.  Nick is in New York and dating Rachel who is a college professor, who grew up in the states by her single mother who immigrated from China before she was born.

Nick comes from a very wealthy family and Rachel did not know.  You follow the story through Rachel’s eyes, seeing how crazy rich these Asians are for the first time.  Rachel is helped by her roommate from college to fit in.

The movie is beautifully shot, you get to see parts of Asia that you have never seen and amazed with the street food, buildings, nightlife and the country.  The most beautiful scene for me was the wedding and is also the part where I got misty eyed.

The movie, which is 98% Asian cast (the 2% is in the beginning when they are in NY), portrays Asians in a different light, you see the glamorous and crazy life of those who are wealthy.   At the same time, you see the culture and traditions that are engraved in many Asian cultures.  Of course there is Mahjong scene, and it is one of the scenes that you cannot miss.

Overall, this movie is a hit in my book and it is one that should not be missed on the big screen.

Christopher Robin

Winnie the Pooh fans would love this movie. Especially if you are an adult and grew up with Pooh. This movie is not your typical Winnie the Pooh movie. It is based on the viewpoint of Christopher Robin as an adult and how Winnie the Pooh relates to him as an adult.

The movie starts as Christopher Robin is a young boy and he says goodbye to his friends in the 100 acre wood before he is sent off to boarding school. In the prelude of the movie we quickly see the events that happen until Christopher Robin becomes an adult. It is pretty dark, it involves a death and war, but it then brightens up where he meets his wife and has a child, but then it becomes dim and that is where the story starts.

The premise of the joining of Pooh and Christopher is that Pooh has lost his friends and he goes and through the tree that transports him to London to find Christopher. Throughout the movie you see Christopher is helping Pooh with his predicament, but he also finds out that he also needs Pooh and his 100 acre friends to help him as well.

The movie works well, because the characters of the 100 acre wood stays true to their mannerism. There is a lot of reference to the past Winnie the Pooh movies that makes the movie endearing. The quotes that Pooh gives are quite simple, but yet they are very deep, which makes his character so appealing and lovable. For a bear with very little brain, Pooh is very wise in the simplest sense.

I can see that there may be a lot of people that may not like this movie, because it is very different than the past movies that featured Winnie the Pooh. If you go with an open mind, and watch the movie for what it is, you will be pleasantly happy with the story and the visuals.

This is a great addition to Disney’s live action repertoire, and I hope that you are like me and will enjoy this story of Christopher Robin and the Silly old Bear.

Ant-Man and the Wasp

Marvel has done it again, they produced a fun, entertaining, action packed movie with a storyline.

The prologue brings us back to events just after the first Ant-Man movie with Dr. Pym and Hope, which cuts out and the Marvel Logo appears.

After the title scene we are now a couple years after the events of Captain America Civil War. We see Scott under house arrest because of the events in Civil War. This also explains why Ant-Man was not present during Infinity War, and what happened to Dr. Pym and Hope during this time.

To summarize what is happening without exposing too much of the plot line, Scott (Ant-Man) is faced with balancing between being a super hero and being a father at the same time as being under watch by the FBI. There is a lot of comedy that works and some fun action scenes.

As revealed in the end credit scene in Ant-Man, Dr. Pym shows Hope the Wasp suit, so you know that she was going to be a major role in this film. Besides her name is in the title, so definitely The Wasp (Hope) has a lot of screen time in this installment. There is a mission which they need Ant-Man to participate in, which brings Ant-Man and the Wasp together to complete this mission.

It was good to see that they brought back Scott’s friends, Luis, Kurt and Dave. The four ex-cons trying to make it without slipping back into crime, they all started a business and also helped the super heroes. They also brought back Scott’s ex-wife and husband as well as their daughter Cassie, who defends her father and encourages him along the way.

There are new characters from Dr. Pym’s past that are all mixed into this story, as the saying goes the past will haunt you, and Dr. Pym your past is here to haunt you. This time around you get a little more history on Dr. Pym and start to understand him better.

Overall, this was a great addition to the Marvel Cinematic Universe and would recommend this to anyone that like superhero/action movies. Remember to stay for the mid-credit scene, it ties their storyline to what is happening currently in the Avengers story…Thanos’ infamous snap! There is also an end-credit scene, so stay for the whole thing!

The Incredibles II

The Supers are back! The Incredibles II (I2) picks up where we last saw them, getting ready to fight the Underminer. It’s been 14 years since we last saw Bob, Helen, Violet, Dash and Jack Jack, along with Lucius and Edna Mode. At the end of the Incredibles you probably thought that the ban on Supers was lifted, in I2 we find that they are still illegal. Their house got was destroyed when Syndrome’s plane crashed into it, and now they are in trouble with their involvement in fighting the Underminer.

I2 main plot is trying to get the Supers back into light and lifting the ban on Supers so that all Supers would be legal. In the previews you see that it is Elastigirl who is the face of the Supers and her new job is to help the cause. This leaves Bob (Mr. Indcredible) to be a say-at-home dad. Violet is having problems with boys and entering adolescence, Dash needing help with his math homework, Jack Jack is showing a lot of his super powers, all at the same time Bob is reassuring Helen that everything is going well at home.

I2 has the same feel as the first movie, and it continues the storyline. I enjoyed the sequel, it’s been a long time coming. There were rumors way back that they would be coming out with I2, and finally it is here. If you liked the first movie and the magic of Pixar, you would enjoy this film. It ran over two hours, but it didn’t seem like it and I still wanted more.

Jurassic World – Fallen Kingdom

From the previews of the movie premise of the movie is that the volcano on the island where the last movie took place became active and our heroes Claire and Owen are back to help save the dinosaurs from the volcano.

It is much more exciting and action packed than I thought it was going to be. I was glued to the screen throughout, well except when I had to tell the girl to my left that her cell phone was very distracting.

At first when I saw the preview and it showed that Jeff Goldblum was reprising his role as Dr. Malcolm, I was worried that it may end up like Jurassic Park II, which was the weakest in the franchise. Also, I am not a big fan of Jeff Goldblum’s acting and characters. I was glad to see that it was a minor role in the movie and he wasn’t part of the whole storyline.

This new installment of the franchise brings in new characters, a storyline that ties in the last movie as well as the original trilogy, and brings up a bunch of questions on what is going to happen next?

The start of the movie brings you back to the island and sets up what is happening in the movie, although you do not know what they are exactly doing until later in the film.

It is hard to say what I like most about this film, without writing any spoilers. The story is one of the things that I liked. It brought another twist to the dinosaur universe, you basically know that something is going to go wrong, dinosaurs are out to eat people, pretty much what you have seen in previous installments. This one still has the basic elements, but it shows you a different side of the story and that show us as watchers that there are so many different stories that can be told…it is not all centered around John Hammond and InGen.

Overall, as a fan of the Jurassic Park movies, this one is very entertaining. The 2 hour 4 minute movie is one that is filled with adventure, drama, comedy and dinosaurs! I would definitely recommend this movie.

Avengers: Infinity War

We went to see Avengers: Infinity War last night and 2hrs 40min later we were thoroughly entertained, boggled and impressed. Not to bombard this blog with spoilers, I will just describe what these feelings mean.

Entertained
The movie was filled with comedy, action and drama. As you have seen in the trailers that The Hulk comes back to earth, so no big spoiler there. He left Earth at the end of Age of Ultron, and we don’t see him until Thor: Ragnarok. He missed everything that happened in Civil War and the break-up of the Avengers team, so there was some comedic relief there.

Marvel action scenes are always entertaining. Infinity War introduced us to new characters that the Avengers have to fight and many tense fighting scenes. Marvel always tries to sneak in comic lines during the action scenes and again they added it here. The action started right in the beginning and it remained constant.

Finally, we get to see what all the end-credit scenes were all about! In the dramatic sense, there were enough scenes that brought more dimension to the characters and for some their relationships. Some were drawn out and some were quick and you may have missed. For example, in Guardians of the Galaxy pt. 2 you start to see the caring sister side of Gamora and Nebula. There are a few scenes in Infinity War that Nebula really cares for Gamora.

Boggled
I already had some “Whaat?” moments even before the title screen came up. The movie starts soon after the end of Thor: Ragnarok, and when you see it you will understand.

Another issue was the absence of a couple of characters. In Age of Ultron we knew that Thor and The Hulk were both off world, Thor dealing with Ragnarok and we saw The Hulk fly away. But the two characters that were missing in Infinity War are both on Earth. They did make an excuse why they were there, but seeing that that the world is coming to an end, I thought that they would appear. Maybe they will make an appearance in the next installation, but we will have to wait and see.

When you see the end…I will just leave it there.

Impressed
I was impressed that the movie didn’t seem that long. Actually I wanted more! As mentioned above the action was continuous and that helped the flow of the film.

The movie took place in various places around the universe and it didn’t feel disjointed or took away from the others. Although, there were some areas where I thought they could expand more, but that is just me wanting more!
I liked how they joined together the Avengers, Guardians of the Galaxy, Spiderman, Dr. Strange and Black Panther. When you bring that many beloved characters, I am sure that it was difficult to make sure that each one had enough screen time. I thought that it was well balanced and that they worked well together.

Overall the movie lived up to the hype. There was even a slight reference between the Marvel and D.C. rivalry. If you haven’t seen it yet, I would recommend it.

Shape of Water

I have to say, I went into this film with no expectations. When I finished it I was amazed that I liked it more than I thought. You may have read some of the reviews about how unbelievable this story is and so forth. I usually don’t agree with most of the reviews, so I got the movie from Netflix and decided to give it a change, it did win the Academy Award for best picture, so it should be good…right?

First off I usually like movies that have Octavia Spencer, ever since her role in “The Help”, so when I saw her appear I was hoping that I her performance would be just as good. And yes she did deliver. Another actor that I usually like is Michael Shannon, he always plays those odd characters and again he did so here. Richard Jenkins did a great job and I did like him in the series “Six Feet Under”. Sally Hawkins, the main character, I have never heard before and she gave a great performance as the mute leading lady.

The cinematography is what really brought you into the movie. Guillermo del Toro is one of those directors that really focuses on the cinematography and uses that to get you engulfed in the film. There were many scenes that was like “wow that is beautiful” and the details of the creature was amazing.

The premise of the movie is about a mute woman, that was raised in an orphanage since she was found by water. She has scars on both sides of her neck, which was thought was the cause of her muteness. She befriends her lonely neighbor and make sure that he is taken care of. She works the night shift at a research facility as a cleaning lady where she first meets the creature.

The movie touches on social norms of the 1960’s, such as racial discrimination and sexual norms. Makes you reflect on how much it was impacted back then, and yet it is still apparent today. It touches on the social norms of a person that feels like an outsider through the main characters, the mute heroine and the creature.

Overall, I thought that it was a very well done movie. It kept made you feel like you were in the 1960’s. The acting was very good and I thought the story was well thought through.

***SPOILERS***

This is what I thought of the main character. I believe that Elisa Esposito was a mermaid herself. She is unable to speak, kind of like when Ariel left the ocean she did not have the ability to speak. Unlike Ariel, Elisa lost her memory of being in the ocean, so she grew up not knowing about her past. But in the beginning, I believe we were experiencing Elisa’s dream of being underwater. When she approaches the creature’s holding tank he approaches her without hesitation, because he can sense something different about her and that is when their relationship progresses. In the end, those three scars in both sides of her neck open up as gills. This is when I truly believe that she was once a mermaid, and now she has found her true love and her origin.