Apologies for this being my first post in over two months. University has really started to demand a lot of my time, both academically and personally, so I haven't really had much time to myself of late, except when I wanted to play the Sims 4, which I bought when drunk.
As it's the Easter holidays, and for the first time this week I have found myself with nothing to do, I have decided to catch up on a load of films that I didn't get a chance to see in the cinema last year, because I only went twice in 2017.
Based on this, I thought I would do a little review of each of the films I've watched recently, because I have enjoyed most of them at first view.
A little notice should go here: all the opinions in this post are my own personal opinions based on previous knowledge of the films, the actors, the acting, the storylines (or lack thereof), and the overall quality of the movie. I'd just like to point out that I am in no way a movie expert, so please don't take everything I say at face value. Also, this post will contain spoilers, so if you haven't seen the movie and you don't want to know anything about it, please just skip past it!
Also, the pictures I use in this post are not mine, so copyright goes out to Marvel, Universal, and Disney.
Onwards we go!
Black Panther (2018)
Potentially one of the greatest films I have ever seen, and definitely in my top three Marvel films of all time, 'Black Panther' honestly surprised me with how fantastic it was. I really did have high hopes, and it blew them out of the water.
The storyline (which has been compared to that of 'The Lion King') was interesting, the moral of the whole film that the Black Panther wasn't solely T'Challa but everyone working together to protect Wakanda was empowering and inspiring to say the least.
The cast had an unforgettable chemistry (particularly that of T'Challa and his eighteen-year-old sister, Shuri), and the acting from everyone involved with phenomenal. And don't get me started on the quality of the music, which was composed and performed by all Ethnic Minority musicians.
My favourite character by far was Shuri. She was a typical teenager in most ways, concerned with her family's welfare and what fashion choices T'Challa was making ("what are those?" was one of my favourite moments from the film because Chadwick and Letitia's chemistry was beyond believable), but she is also the smartest person in the canon Marvel universe. She designed T'Challa's suit, as well as he own weapons to defend herself with - I can't wait to see how much she kicks butt in Infinity War, which comes out in less than four weeks !!!
I also can't believe how emotional the film made me, particularly in scenes involving Michael B. Jordan who shone in his role as Erik Killmonger, the cousin of T'Challa and challenger to his throne in Wakanda, and his father. There were several scenes that nearly made me cry.
And the end credit scenes: we finally find out where Bucky has been hiding since Civil War (even though Black Panther is set a week after Civil War took place).
Overall score: 10/10 - I am not sure what else I could have wanted from a film that had so many black actors, particularly female black actors, getting to demonstrate how equality in the film industry works, with such an empowering message throughout. I can't wait for the second film (and Infinity War)!
Life (2017)
Jake Gyllenhaal fully captured my attention after I watched 'Brokeback Mountain' (which I would recommend that everyone watch because it's so beautiful), so I'd been wanting to see this for a few months.
The film, overall, was pretty good. It had a good cast, a storyline that was slightly different from other space-based films that are already out in the World, and a plot-twist at the end that was totally unexpected and poses the question as to the survival of humanity if this sort of event were actually going to occur.
The film follows a group of astronauts who are studying 'Calvin', a sample collected from Mars that, at first, appears to be completely harmless and a sign that there is life beyond planet Earth, a question most people want to know the answer to.
But, true to horror film and space-based films such as these, everything goes wrong very, very quickly.
Before you know it, Ryan Reynolds is dead, Jake Gyllenhaal is wrestling in an escape pod with Calvin set to get as far away from Earth as he can, but it turn out that the pod that makes it back to Earth is the one with him in... who knows what happens after some friendly fishermen open the door to the pod, but I can't imagine it was good.
Overall score: 7/10 - The plot twist was the best part of the film for me - just when you thought that everything would be okay, besides 5 people being dead and alien life once again proving to be more harm than good, Calvin struck again and potentially destroyed the entire planet. I enjoyed it very much!
The Mummy (2017)
Now, before I talk about this one I have to say that, as I excited as I was for a new spin on a classic film (especially with a female actor playing the role of said Mummy), I was slightly sceptical about how well the film would be executed considering how fantastic the films from 1999 and 2001 were.
It was a pretty good storyline, don't get me wrong - Ahmanet, betrayed by her father when he has a son with his new wife and removes all possibility of Ahmanet ever taking over the throne of Egypt, makes a deal with the God of Death and promises to give him a mortal form. She kills her father, his wife, and their child before attempting to perform a ritual.
During the ritual, the King's guards kill Ahmanet's 'chosen', and mummify her alive.
Cue Tom Cruise's character, Nick Morton, who survives a plane crash because he is the new 'chosen', and has to try and stop Ahmanet before she puts the God of Death into him.
The film was okay generally, but the one part I didn't get was the whole Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde angle with Russell Crowe that the film tried to implement but didn't quite achieve. As soon as I heard his name, I couldn't stop asking myself, 'why can't a film focused on an Egyptian Mummy that can suck the very life out of people and is chasing Tom Cruise down to turn him into a God be enough for people?'. I didn't really understand why Jekyll/Hyde needed to be there. At all.
Overall score: 5/10 - it was okay, but really not anything more than that. I'm not sure whether I would recommend this film, particularly to people who enjoyed the other films, because they can never, and will never, be remade or improved.
Pirates of the Caribbean: Salazar's Revenge (2017)
(Also known as 'Dead Men Tell No Tales' in everywhere but the UK, I think)
I was a bit iffy about this film because the last two Pirates of the Caribbean films weren't as great as the first two, and because of the whole scandal surrounding Johnny Depp and my general dislike for the man now (apologies if you like him).
Again, the film was okay. The jokes were relatively funny, but eventually a drunk Captain Jack Sparrow became a bit too much for me to endure. The acting was pretty good, the storyline was a bit complicated and didn't really fit in with the rest of the films, particularly because Jack had given away the compass before, not just this one time, and they killed off the only remaining interesting character (Captain Hector Barbosa) after he finds out he has a daughter, which I thought was a bit weird, personally, but there we go.
Overall score: 5/10 - I definitely don't think it was the best Pirates of the Caribbean film they have ever made, and I probably won't be watching it again, but it would be okay if you hadn't seen any of the other films and still really love Johnny Depp, which I don't, so.
I might do another one of these in a couple of months when my exams are over - I can't believe I've only got three weeks of lectures, and then three weeks of exams left of my first year at university. Doesn't time fly! Let me know if you want me to write about a particular film that you enjoyed.
I have a few films I want to see this year, so I would be happy to write about them (this includes, 'Infinity War'; 'Wonder Woman'; 'The Incredibles 2'; 'Deadpool 2'; 'Venom'; 'Love, Simon'; 'Fantastic Beasts 2' and 'The Grinch' among many others).
I hope you enjoyed this little impromptu post. Please let me know if you have any feedback for me. Unfortunately, I won't be able to guarantee me being able to write anything properly until the end of May/beginning of June when I finish uni, so until then.
I hope you all have a lovely few weeks - don't work too hard and be sure to take care of yourself properly!
Chlo x
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