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benjaminpweaver
Reviews
Star Wars: Episode VII - The Force Awakens (2015)
It's hard to believe this movie is actually real!!
I saw the Thursday evening premiere with the highest of anticipation!! I was 12 years old when I saw my first midnight screening at Revenge of the Sith. I will never forget that experience. And although I've grown up and found how flawed the entire prequel trilogy is, the Star Wars universe still means so much to me.
Now for this first installment of the Star Wars sequel trilogy, this is just a masterful reestablishment of the franchise. I felt so tense during the whole movie. The audience was so fun. We laughed and cheered at so many moments.
I can see why Luke was kept such a secret because he is a major role in the movie. The very first sentence in the opening title crawl was "Luke Skywalker has vanished."
I would like to describe the plot now for anyone who doesn't care about spoiler warnings, because it's fun now that I can describe it.
The Rebellion, now the Resistance, is searching for Luke Skywalker. X-Wing pilot Poe Dameron has found a fraction of a map on the planet Jakku to Luke's whereabouts, but is captured by the remnants of the Empire known as the First Order. He gives the map to his Astromech droid BB-8 before he is captured. He escapes with the help of a rogue stormtrooper of whom Poe gives the name Finn, and they crash a tie fighter back on Jakku. Finn wakes up on the planet and runs into Rey, a scavenger girl who has found BB-8 and all of them escape the First Order and journey to find the Resistance and unravel the mystery of Luke Skywalker. They also find out about the super weapon of Starkiller Base.
My only minor problem was how they revealed the big details such Kylo Ren actually being Ben Solo, and the death of Han Solo being too predictable. But I realize that the strength of J. J. Abrams secrecy is to the big reveal of how things play out, not to what is revealed. Experiencing this movie with a fresh perspective was absolutely wonderful.
If any of you want to absolutely love this movie, but you still have problems with it, don't deny it. Just accept it and understand that we have got a pretty great Star Wars movie here.
Strange Magic (2015)
The Best "January" Movie I've ever seen!!
I went to see this movie not expecting much. I thought the trailer for it had a couple of funny moments, and that was enough to make me see this movie. I thought it was going to be just "okay".
I... LOVED... THIS MOVIE!! I loved every aspect of it! And it was so much better than the terrible movie "Epic" from two years ago.
Epic was a movie that looked like it could be a cool fantasy, but was ruined by its obnoxious comic relief and tonal whiplash. With this movie, it is an actual fantasy comedy that is not only consistently hilarious, but it also has characters and situations that I cared about.
To add to that, this movie is gorgeously animated and is incredibly creative with its setting and fantasy elements. I wish I could go into detail of this movie, but really I need to process it for a while.
I don't understand why this is getting so much negative reception. I'm guessing it's because it's a George Lucas production and it's a January flick. None of those aspects prevent it from being one of the best movies of 2015 (so far). Go see if this movie is worth your time too.
P.S. Floop from Spy Kids is the bog king in this movie, and he is awesome!
S.W.A.T. (2003)
A fun well-made genuine anti-cynical 2000s action movie.
Remember when movies in the 1980s weren't very self-aware, but they were still genuine, solid, and had a real sense of fun that didn't pound you over the head with loud dumb mindless action (you know, something that was mostly lost in the 1990s and 2000s)? This is an example of that kind of '80s movie, only it's in the early to mid 2000s. And I mean it, this movie shows the 2000s in a really good light. The real sense of fun this movie is displayed in the attitudes of the characters. Being a member of S.W.A.T. is a very serious and dangerous job, and these characters do understand that, but they still try to enjoy any moment of their training that they can showing why they love this job. As an adaptation of the original show, this movie very clearly demonstrates the respect it has for it and doesn't approach it "ironically" or say that it was "so ridiculous and cheesy back then". It properly adapts the material and modernizes it in a way that is fitting. If you want to see how cool it was to live in the early 2000s, S.W.A.T. is a really good example of that.
Brother Bear (2003)
Disney almost had the perfect movie!! SO CLOSE!!!
I'd like to start off by saying my favorite Disney movie is The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996). Not saying it was the best, but it's a movie that appealed to my interests in a lot of ways. Also, it's one of Disney's more different films and took a lot of risks to adapt the original story in a respectful and unique way. The Disney Renaissance and even the 2D films from the early 2000s will always remain a significant aspect of my childhood.
That said, Brother Bear is one of the few Disney films that I actually didn't see as a kid. I remember seeing the advertisements for it and thinking it look all right. I didn't think it looked bad, I just never got around to seeing the whole movie.
(Just to note, I was born in 1993. So you can imagine my disappointment when I found out there was no 2D Disney film from 1993. So Brother Bear was released in 2003, and I'm glad there was at least one Disney film released in a '3 year in recent years.) So I decided, since it's now 2013, I would finally watch Brother Bear for it's 10 year anniversary, and for the first 24 minutes or so, it was like something I had never seen from Disney before! It centered around this Inuit tribe who's culture was so fascinating and these three brothers who were very likable and relatable characters. The movie wasn't bogged down by having to appeal to kids with awkward comic relief. It was a genuinely good story that was equally as much a kids film as it was an adult film. The tundra imagery and landscapes were gorgeous, the animation was top notch, the lighting was magnificent, absolutely everything was just perfect! Honestly, if after the point when Kenai becomes a bear, the movie were consistent with the first third, this would have easily been my favorite Disney movie of all time! Now, I saw the Nostalgia Critic's Disneycember review, so I knew the rest of the movie wouldn't be as good. It wasn't, but I think it's not as bad as he makes it. I think some parts are really good, but what really brings it down is the fact that the movie thinks it needs to appeal to the kids in a modern way. So all of the animals talk like modern people, and it just comes off as lame and jarring where the people in the early scenes talked in a more timeless way. Not to mention it does end up having awkward comic relief.
I was wondering what I would do to make the second and third acts consistent and just as good, and I thought of something.
First, since the Inuit culture was one of the best things about the first act and we won't see the tribe until the very end, I would make the animals' culture just as interesting. The Inuits have their culture, and the animals have their own which actually is similar in a lot of ways as Kenai would discover.
Second, both Kenai and Denahi would BOTH be the main characters. This would just as much be just as much Denahi's journey as it is Kenai's. Basically both characters would share about the same amount of screen-time and we would see more of Denahi's survival tactics as opposed to just seeing him when he is attacking Kenai as a bear (which, by the way, are actually some of my favorite scenes, the set up is brilliant). We could even see him doing some other things like meeting the sister tribe to restock on supplies and health so we don't abandon the Inuits altogether.
Third, get rid of all that modern crap. The story is supposed to be in the style of an old folktale with a hint of Shakespearean style drama. A story that can appeal to anyone on an emotional level. Since this was Disney's last real effort in hand-drawn animation, I think they should have really gone all out and made something unique since it was an almost certain guarantee that the movie wasn't going to do that well at the box office.
All in all, I think this movie is just good, and could have been amazing. But for what it is, I would definitely watch it again. The ending was was at least really good. Personally, I would have had Kenai stay a human and have a bittersweet ending for him and Koda, but I still like this ending okay.
At least Disney ended their animation with something even slightly spectacular. Until then, I'm just waiting until the do bring back their animation and do something incredible with it.
High School Musical (2006)
This movie should have been about Troy and Gabriella
A while ago, I saw a review by the Nostalgia Critic of thatguywiththeglasses.com. It was part of a series of short reviews about all the hand-drawn animated Disney films. One of them was for Lilo and Stitch, about how it was a movie that was trying to be one thing, but did one element so well that the thing it was going for works against it. I believe that's the same with High School Musical. It's basically a live action Disney movie that was trying to renew the modern day musical and make it for the young audience of the 2000s. In other words, it was making a musical for the hip audience, but the aspect I think this movie did the best was the romance. Here we have Troy and Gabriella, two young attractive docile high school students who are now going to the same school. Despite their different lifestyles, interests, and goals in life, they fall in love and find out through conversations that they really have more in common than they would have thought. You know what, that's all the movie needs! Just the life of these two people, seeing them in love, and the problems they have in this hostile teenage environment. You don't need it to have silly characters and comedy, or a blatant villain for that matter. Just show us a couple in love. And whenever they run into problems, it's not about whether or not they'll stick together (because you know they will), it's about them supporting each other no matter what. Now even though this movie doesn't go in that direction, it's still okay. The songs, even though they mostly come out of nowhere, are catchy and memorable. It's still a decent story despite it's annoying clichéd plot contrivances, like the misunderstanding when Troy and Gabriella think they don't love each other any more (gosh, that pisses me off!). If you want to watch it. it's possible you might find some things you like. It's just that wish they could have done so much more with the romance.