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Movies

Movie review: Blade Runner 2049 happily does not suck

This past weekend, Dara, Paul, and I, along with our pal Jenny, saw Blade Runner 2049. As a household, the Murkworks had varying levels of consternation about this movie. Paul in fact told me that he couldn’t bear to go see it if it turned out to suck, while Dara and I were somewhat less nervous. Even though we both have healthy respect for the original Blade Runner, it’s never been a movie we frequently go back and rewatch.

Hell, I’m a Harrison Ford fangirl, and I’ve maybe seen the original Blade Runner at most four or five times. Compare and contrast this with how many times I’ve rewatched the original Star Wars trilogy. And especially how many times I’ve rewatched Raiders of the Lost Ark!

That said, I did always rather like this particular Harrison Ford pic:

Deckard

And, well, the prospect of seeing Mr. Ford in a movie that didn’t suck was tempting indeed. Fortunately for me, Blade Runner 2049 doesn’t suck!

We all agreed afterwards that while it was too long, it ultimately stood as a worthy successor to the original. I’m not sure I like it better than the original. But its story is definitely compelling, and I’ve kept thinking about it since seeing it.

Usually when I do a movie review post, I’ll talk about spoilers behind a cut tag. This time, not so much. After seeing good reviews on both Tor.com (very mild spoilers) and The Mary Sue (specifically avoiding as many spoilers as possible), I’m rather inclined to the latter approach. This movie offers a lot to think about, both within its own context and in how it links back to the original. And I’m reluctant to interfere with a viewer’s ability to get at those things without any preconceived notions.

I agree with the Mary Sue that this movie is gorgeous. Likewise, with Tor.com’s dissatisfaction that the women in the cast ultimately function as little more than plot propulsion for the male leads. And yeah, the movie is kind of too long. Yet on our way out of the theater, we couldn’t nail down where exactly there should have been less movie. It did indeed need to take its time and let everything build.

And while I’m a trifle cranky about how the movie treats its women, I can at least say that there are multiple interesting female characters. Seeing Robin Wright as a police chief is particularly satisfying, after her turn as General Antiope in Wonder Woman earlier this year. Plus, the movie passes the Bechdel with one of her scenes, so there’s that! Plus, I can say that multiple female characters inspired the pondering I’ve done about this movie since we saw it.

Worldbuilding-wise, the movie does an excellent job showing how the world has progressed since the first film. As of this writing, I haven’t watched the shorts that cover some of this backstory in more detail. But the movie didn’t make me feel like I need to.

Director Denis Villeneuve, it turns out, also directed Arrival–which I quite liked. And he’s from Quebec, which adds another thing to my list of Awesome Quebecois Things. He has certainly produced a gorgeous movie here, so he’s now two for two on films of his I’ve seen and liked. This bodes well for further encounters with his work.

And Harrison? Let’s just say that goddamn, it was satisfying to see him. Gruff, crufty old Harrison. I still love him to bits. And those of you who know me and my musical affections will know instantly which of his moments, once he finally shows up on camera, is my absolute favorite. (For that matter, those of you who know my history with CrystalMUSH also now have on-camera evidence of what exactly I had in mind when I was playing Tance Vokrim! Because old Harrison? Yep. That’s Tance.)

Old Deckard, Who Could Also Totally Be Tance

So yeah. Go see it, if you haven’t already. Maybe keep your expectations down a tad. I’m not a hundred percent sure Blade Runner 2049 achieves greatness, or brings anything truly new to the table that the first one didn’t already present for us. But it was still a fun viewing and I’m quite glad I saw it.

If you have seen it, drop me a comment or two about your thoughts! (Everybody else, beware of comment spoilers!)

October 9, 2017 by Angela Korra'ti

Movies

Movie Review: Wonder Woman

Wonder Woman

Ever since I heard that there was finally going to be a standalone Wonder Woman movie, I’ve been living in anticipation of seeing it. Last night, my household went to do so. Picoreview: goddamn, you guys, that was satisfying. 😀 I had a few quibbles with it, but they were minor quibbles at best. I teared up twice during the movie. Chris Pine is now certainly my favorite of the small sample set of versions of Steve Trevor I’ve seen. And most importantly, Gal Gadot was a complete delight to watch, from start to finish.

I shall also note for the record that even at our showing at the local iPic theater, we had two different women in full on cosplay, one as Wonder Woman and another as Supergirl. And I spotted a third woman wearing a Wondy tiara. Because we are a nerd town. It’s TRUE.

Spoilers lie beyond the veil that hides Themiscyra from the world of men! And I DO MEAN SPOILERS.

June 4, 2017 by Angela Korra'ti

Movies

Movie Review: Rogue One: A Star Wars Story

Rogue One

I now get to say this twice in a row: that? That was a goddamned Star Wars movie.

Dara and I went to go see this thing in 3D IMAX today, and when the credits rolled, we took off our glasses and looked at each other. We’d both been crying. And we nodded knowingly to one another as we realized that, and came out of the theater talking about how we both had ALL THE FEELS.

Because yeah, even more than The Force Awakens (which, let me remind you, I quite adored), this movie grabbed hold of everything I loved from A New Hope and brought it roaring back to life.

Open the shield for transmission because I am about to broadcast SPOILERS.

December 25, 2016 by Angela Korra'ti

Movies

Movie review: Captain America: Civil War

Divided We Fall

Dara, Paul, and I went and saw Captain America: Civil War last night, and I can say without reservation: gracious, that was satisfying.

Now, Cap’s name is in the title of this thing (and Dara opined that its title should have been Captain America: Why Don’t Any of You Fuckers Listen to Steve?, or perhaps Captain America: He’s Not Perfect, Except For His Abs). But really, this is way more of an Avengers movie. Though granted, it also has a huge focus on Cap. I mention this though because if you go in expecting this to have the same focus on Cap that the previous movies did, you might be a bit disappointed. But if you think of this more as an Avengers movie with a focus on Cap, it works way better. Particularly given how so much of this movie’s plot draws from the events in Age of Ultron.

But of course, it’s also drawing on events in Captain America: The Winter Soldier. This is not a good movie to come in cold to the MCU, is what I’m sayin’ here. If you haven’t seen either of those movies yet, this one will make way less sense.

I’ve seen a lot of enthusing about the new kid playing Spidey. Of whom I mostly have this to say: I’m having a hard time mustering much giveadamn for yet another iteration of Spidey, particularly when pulling him into the MCU delayed Captain Marvel. Marf. Though, even given my crankiness about that, I’ll cheerfully grant this kid was charming and fun. Yesterday I put up a post on Here Be Magic about why I love Supergirl, and one of the things I call out there is how DC’s doing such a lovely job bringing a tone of brightness and optimism to that show. This iteration of Spidey is helping do that for the MCU, I feel, and I can’t help but appreciate that.

Still, though, I think I would have been way more on board with another Spidey if this one had been Miles Morales instead of Peter Parker. Which is why, when it comes to the new faces introduced in this movie, I was way more excited by Black Panther. His character was amazing, and I am 100% ON BOARD with his forthcoming movie.

Before I get into spoiler discussion, here are some other reviews from sites I regularly follow, which I just doublechecked now that I’ve seen the movie myself. I’m pretty much ON BOARD with everything these links have to say, too. Particularly the parts about the biceps. 😀

Captain America: Civil War is the Emotional Pinnacle of Superhero Movies on Tor.com

Review: Captain America: Civil War Is Good (but Too Stuffed to be Great) on The Mary Sue

Movie Review: Captain America: Civil War on Smart Bitches, Trashy Books

And now, for spoilers! ALL THE SPOILERS behind the fold!

May 15, 2016 by Angela Korra'ti

Movies

Movie review: Star Wars Episode 7: The Force Awakens

Dara and I, accompanied by friends Mimi and Layna, have finally seen The Force Awakens.

YOU GUYS. That? That right there? That was a goddamned Star Wars film. And let me put this in perspective for you: do you all know the last time I would have walked out of a movie theater entirely emotionally satisfied with a Star Wars film? That would have been 1980–the year The Empire Strikes Back came out.

And I can say this. Even having had a major plot point spoiled for me (and I am STILL cranky at the player on Dungeon Boss chat who blew that for me, grr), I was still full of the feels. And I have many, many thoughts on what I just witnessed, and I shall now share them with you all!

Needless to say, SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS OMG SO MANY SPOILERS YOUR FLEET CANNOT REPEL SPOILERS OF THIS MAGNITUDE AND DID I MENTION SPOILERS? If you’re coming over from one of the social media networks or from LJ or Dreamwidth to read this, I beg you: please stay right on angelahighland.com if you want to drop comments. Because there will be spoilers and I want to minimize their presence anywhere this post gets mirrored. If I see you drop a spoiler-related comment on any of my social media networks where this post goes up, I WILL DELETE THAT COMMENT. Do not make Han cranky!

Han says NO.

Thank you in advance for your patience and understanding! Let’s get to it, shall we? And did I mention OMG SPOILERS?

December 25, 2015 by Angela Korra'ti

Movies

Movie review: Jupiter Ascending

Jupiter Ascending

So Dara and I finally watched Jupiter Ascending, and, since fellow Here Be Magic author Joely Sue Burkhart has a review up today, I thought I’d talk about my own thoughts on the movie as well!

I gotta say, Dara and I both found this movie far more coherent than we were expecting, given the overall “THIS MOVIE IS SO TERRIBLE AND YOU SHOULD WATCH IT ANYWAY!” reactions we were seeing. If somebody has that reaction to a movie, what that says to me is, “this movie is a riffable MST3K fest”. ‘Cause y’know, Dara and I have a long history of loving us some crappy movies. So we went into this movie totally expecting to have to break out the booze while we made with the riffs.

And honestly? That’s not the movie we got. Neither of us felt the need to point and laugh at anything we saw, which was a pleasant surprise.

Dara mentioned to me that it totally played for her like a version of the Dune movie only with a female protagonist–and that in her view, people had been interpreting this movie as a “Chosen One” plot, when it’s not. It’s a “Hidden Princess” plot, which is not one we’ve seen much of in popular media the last several decades. So it’s kind of unsurprising that a lot of audiences aren’t entirely sure how to react to this plot.

Overall, we both found it perfectly easy to follow, and there were quite a few bits of it that I in fact actively liked. Jupiter’s father, to my surprise, was played by James d’Arcy; when I saw that, I was all “HEY that’s the guy who played Jarvis!” Which was great fun. I liked him as a character, and outright loved that his love of astronomy led him to want to name his daughter after the biggest planet in the solar system, because of that same sense of love and wonder.

And I loved that Jupiter’s family on her mother’s side had a lot of on-camera actual Russian dialogue.

And as a bit of worldbuilding-in-dialogue, I quite liked the concept of “when genes reappear in the exact same order, that’s reincarnation”. It was a single quick line, and rather deftly tossed out a tasty new way of looking at reincarnation that I hadn’t thought about before.

And okay yeah, Channing Tatum was pretty tasty as Caine, I’ll admit–as y’all might guess from my books, I’m rather a sucker for guys with pointed ears. But what I found most appealing about him? The flying boots. Because that? That was pretty awesome.

The three siblings contending for mastery of the Earth were all pretty over-the-top, sure. But given the interstellar society they’d set up, and given the plot reason they specifically set up for WHY they were considering the Earth as a resource, I was willing to buy that these were all reprehensible people in their own individual ways.

Sure, there were a bunch of silly contrivances in the plot, but nothing particularly sillier than anything else I’ve seen in SF movies over the years. All in all I filed this in the category of “Big Stupid Fun”, akin to Brendan Fraser’s The Mummy. Which is to say: kind of fluffy, but absolutely entertaining. Enough so that I’m considering buying my own copy to add to my library, ’cause yeah. I’d like to see this again.

June 9, 2015 by Angela Korra'ti

Movies

Movie review: Mad Max: Fury Road

Imperator Furiosa

I’m someone who grew up in the 80’s–I graduated high school in 1987–and yet somehow managed to never see any of the first three Mad Max movies. My only real memory associated with any of them is Tina Turner’s Thunderdome song and the video that went with it, ’cause yeah, that song was pretty awesome.

This meant, though, that I came into Fury Road with pretty much no preconceptions of what to expect in a Mad Max movie, other than the buzz I’d seen all over The Mary Sue and Tor.com about it. It’s that buzz which sold me on having to see the movie, since if I hadn’t heard in advance how well it treated the female characters, I would have had no interest in seeing it. It helped, too, that my housemate Paul went ahead and saw it before Dara and I did, and reported to us that it was the most metal movie he’d ever seen and that he was absolutely ready to see it again with us. Likewise, another local friend of ours, gfish, spoke very, very highly of it–and had gotten to the point of considering a fourth viewing.

So what did I think? Picoreview: gracious, there sure was a lot of driving in this movie! And shooting! And explosions! I didn’t find it quite the religious experience that the Mary Sue reviewer or the Tor.com reviewer did. And I do have to admit that I found the non-stop action a bit too wearying for my personal tastes, even though I could also see the cinematic artistry involved in portraying it.

But I was mostly there for the female characters, so all that was rather okay. And I was definitely quite satisfied with them–not only Furiosa, who was awesomeness incarnate, but also the escaping Wives and the Vuvalini. Of the Wives, I think my favorite is Capable. Not only because of her name, but ALSO because I just discovered that the actress who plays her, Riley Keough, is Elvis Presley’s granddaughter. 😀

Additional interesting commentary I found on the film:

And now, some spoiler-specific commentary of my own behind the fold.

May 31, 2015 by Angela Korra'ti

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