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Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem (2023)
Mixed bag
Very mixed bag for me...a lot to like and a lot to dislike. I loved the look of the thing, but was so keenly aware of the debt it owed to the Spider-verse films for its aesthetic that I couldn't help but be taken out of the film quite a lot on that basis alone. I love the look of these movies, but I'm dreading the day when animation trends so hard that way that we see nothing else and we have to wait another twenty years until somebody else lands on an innovation popular enough to send the whole industry in a new direction again.
- I liked the personalities of the turtles and am totally on board with the turn to making them actual teenagers.
- A lot of the humor worked for me, but (as with Barbie) a lot really didn't.
- I was trepidatious about the new take on Splinter, but they won me over with that almost immediately, which makes sense given my utter devotion to Jackie Chan.
- I did not like their take on April at all. She was a statement...not a character.
- The plotting was very weak. The decision to have all the mutants turn on Superfly was not earned at all. They also failed to really establish any set of criteria whatsoever for why we ought to think the Turtles were right and Superfly was wrong...going so far as to acknowledge that Splinter basically thought the exact same way. It's lazy writing that procures this kind of result.
- Overall, an enjoyable experience, but fraught with issues.
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 (2023)
It's alright, but, overall, a very disappointing experience
I liked it alright for the most part, but man oh man was I disappointed. Why am I hearing all this stuff about it being "the perfect send off for the team", "profoundly gut wrenching" and "Gunn's masterpiece" et cetera et cetera et cetera?? It has some emotional moments for sure, but nothing that comes even remotely close to the send off that Yondu received in the second installment or "We are Groot" from the first. This movie felt very much the same as Thor Love and Thunder in that it seemed to just keep pushing jokes out at us indiscriminately, hoping some of them would stick. It did have its moments for sure, but it all just felt so contrived. Also, the VFX were not good...on par with everything Marvel's been doing as of late...everything just looks so cartoonish, not a hint of practical effects or an attempt to try to anchor the cartoon to reality. I'm also just not really into Marvel's style of camp and its commitment to emulating (homaging?) 60s style sci-fi television. All of the Dr. Seuss styled, purple faced, geometric haired people just seem so lazily designed and constructed...it all just fell a little flat for me.
There was a lot I did like. There were some good emotional beats, especially surrounding Rocket's arc. I just generally love these characters and Gunn is always able to squeeze tears out of me. The scene where Nebula first hears Rocket's voice over the com-link wrecked me. Karen Gillan positively nailed that scene.
My biggest issue, however, was with the end. There ended up being absolutely no stakes in this movie at all. I just don't understand how they could've done that. With Gunn's exit and the commitment to an entirely new Guardians team, the decision to feign and manipulate some kind of an emotional response instead of actually bringing some real emotional capital to the table was just a major faux pas. So disappointing.
Avatar: The Way of Water (2022)
A Visual Feast the Likes of Which You've Never Seen
Look, I get that it's not a perfect movie. The script could be a lot tighter and there's no doubt a bit of bloat, and, along with some plot holes, you do have some character motivations that don't make a ton of sense, but if you grade this film like you would a figure skater, where difficulty of routine and ingenuity is going to increase potential score well beyond that skater that has great technique, but doesn't take risks, then this one is an all timer.
Visually, it is simply the best looking computer generated film of all time. Every second, I was in complete awe of the beauty of the dang thing, and the incredible, painstaking attention to detail that made an almost entirely animated world come to life. The water scenes in particular were breathtaking...I felt like a child oohing and aahing at every single image, calling out to daddy James Cameron to "Do it again dad! Do it again!"
And I never tired of it either. One of the weakest moments of the film was when Jake decided the family needed to leave the forest and find a new home, a move that called into question the motivations of all sides of the conflict. I could've easily been sidetracked by this oversight, but it was obvious that Cameron was just looking for any old reason to get the Sullys out of the forest and into the water. Once they do get there, though, this transforms into an hour and a half long hang out movie, where you just spend time with this family as they acquaint themselves with their new surroundings and develop relationships with the Metkayina.
I can't even imagine how a pitch like this might go to a Disney exec:
"So, i want these characters to just go to some tropical land, ingratiate themselves with the natives, learn their ways and spend a lot of time underwater, where I can showcase this new technology that makes computer generated water look absolutely real. What's that? What's going to happen? Just what I said. They're going to hang out and learn the environment. Yep...for an hour and a half. No sir, nothing is actually going to move the plot of the movie forward during this time. Yes. I'm confident that it will be incredible and people will pay out the nose to watch it in 3D in IMAX. What's that? Why should you trust me on this? Because my name is James Freaking Cameron."
And you know what? I, for one, am here for all of it. I could've handled another two hours of chilling in Hawaii with the Sullys. Could've been content to leave it all there for the rest of the movie tbh, but, you know Cameron had to go ahead and throw it all together with the greatest CGI action finale I've ever seen. The dude is an absolute mensch.
The thing that impressed me the most about all of this, was that Cameron has actually...unbelievably...here... right now...in 2022 given us a grand, sprawling epic, with unbelievably well constructed action set pieces and choreography, perfectly integrated with the greatest imaging ever put to celluloid and it's going to make bazillion dollars and it is not rooted in IPs that are more that fifty years old that have been culturally defining, vehicles of nostalgia. He actually created something that is his own, and he's poured almost twenty years of his life into making it something great and he doesn't really care what expectations the pundits and critics and execs (or even public for that matter) are attempting to place on his shoulders. He's just making something that he loves, that includes all of the stuff he's interested in and all the themes he wants to reflect on. It's his movie...and it's a game changer. I can't predict how everyone's going to take it, but man I sure do hope this thing has legs. I hope Cameron keeps getting all the money he needs to finish making this series. I'm in James. IN!!!
One more thing: I love that, as it expands in grandeur, it contracts thematically, moving from global issues to family ones. This film is ultimately a reflection on family: what it means to be in one and what our collective responsibilities are to each other. I fell absolutely in love with each of them and can't wait to see where their stories take us in the next few years. The strengths and weakness of each one weave perfectly together and contribute to making the collective strong.
"Wherever we go, this family is our fortress. A father protects. It's what gives him meaning."
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever (2022)
I don't get it
I've really loathed Marvel's post Endgame output and have been on the verge of abandoning their projects altogether (it's hard though...many of these characters and their storylines run deep in my bones). I wasn't a huge fan of the first Black Panther film...didn't hate it, but found it quite middling, particularly the direction of the film, which I found a bit odd as I was quite a fan of the other Coogler films I'd seen. The thing that worked for me in the first one was Bozeman himself, who played T'Challa with such charisma and force that he carried the day in spite of its other flaws (Michael B. Jordan was great too). Given these things I had half a mind to avoid this altogether, but was so moved by the emotion of the trailer and the apparent funerary and elegiacal nature of the film that I just had to watch. If nothing else, I wanted to see these artists pour their hearts into honoring their friend.
That being said, I really want to be sensitive and considerate in my remarks on this issue, because my first problem with this film was with that very matter. The elegy that was this movie, just did not connect with me. I believe these artists wanted to honor him and worked hard to make something great and, it seems, that in the estimation of many, they accomplished that, but emotion is a very subjective thing and, for me, there just wasn't any (or very little at least).
It's not that the film seemed insincere, rather it's that it failed aesthetically. Case in point: consider the prelude during T'Challa's funeral, during his final send off. A Wakandan ship flies above the bier and tractor beams the coffin up into its nave, flying away immediately after. What a very odd choice. Pretty much all people throughout history have done one of two things as a culmination to a funerary rite: they either bury (on land or at sea) or cremate the body. Any other choice (especially the one they landed on) is going to elicit one of two responses: 1. Laughter at the absurdity of it or 2. Confusion as to the why of it. I didn't laugh on account of the solemnity and sincerity of the moment (although it struck me as an extremely odd choice) but I was very confused and it completely took me out of the moment. I found my mind wandering to questions about where they were taking him, about why his loved ones weren't with him, as well as the whats, wherefores, and whys of Wakandan burial practices. These things interrupt what should be the central goal of the scene, which is to let the viewer mourn along with everyone else.
While there were some affecting bits in the funeral scene (particularly the slow mo dancing at the terminus of the procession), the whole thing mostly felt rushed due to some clumsy and choppy editing. Also, the hue of the sequence (and the whole movie really) was so ugly. I get that it was meant to be dreary and that the light should've been a bit muted, but it looked bad...as bad as anything I've seen Marvel put out.
Also, the decision to kill off Queen Ramonda seemed really ill advised. I get that you need to create a story arc whereby Shuri comes into her own in taking on the mantle of the Black Panther, but killing her mother seems like a relentless (and unnecessary) cruelty to her character, but even more important is that it set up a really unfortunate contrast with the central emotive purpose of the movie. Chadwick Bozeman died. For real. And part of what made us all feel so much about the loss of King T'Challa was the reality undergirding the fiction. To then include another fictional death, seemed so wrong. How could it possibly do anything but take you out of the narrative of the movie by making you keenly aware that it was fake...not at all real...and that Angela Basset is very much still with us today? It seemed in poor taste to me, and it was unnecessary...they could've given a different narrative device to undergird Shuri's arc.
I feel genuinely bad criticizing something that clearly was and is meaningful to people...particularly people who would've been close to Bozeman and had a real relationship to him. On that account, I want to be careful and try to moderate my response and acknowledge that this was no doubt a meaningful approach for many people, including the feelings of those who matter the most, but it didn't work for me at all at a personal level.
Aside from that more serious consideration...a few other observations:
The good:
- Winston Duke: he filled the charismatic hole left by the loss of Bozeman. He was the only one who could bring any levity or humor to this film (even though many others tried) and he could bring the gravitas to bear when he needed to. I am very interested to see a story that puts him at center.
- Lupita Nyongo: she's wonderful, but way underutilized. We needed so much more of Nakia in this film.
And...that's all I can think of. I'm sorry, but I really couldn't find much to like about this.
The Bad:
- the length: this movie was interminably long and you really felt it. This, perhaps above all, is why I have a hard time understanding why people like this movie. The scenes and sequences that filled that run time were so boring to me. It was one of those movies in which I just wanted to leave and do something else.
- action: the action scenes are really poorly done: badly composed vfx with little noticeable stunt work and practical effects, very short takes and quick cuts that often left me confused as to who exactly was fighting and who wasn't. I remember one sequence where I thought M'Baku was fighting in the melee on the carrier and got knocked off, only to find him fighting in a different area onboard on the very next sequence.
- the script: so poorly written, with little coherence. Very rarely did scenes work to move the story forward and the motivations of the characters made little sense.
- for example: why did Namor have to find and kill the scientist? Why her specifically? Why not the leader of the mining operation? Why not the officer in charge of the military operation? Why not the president of the US? Why did it unquestionably have to be the 19 year old college girl that moonlights as a US contractor? And why is he so stubbornly committed to it? It seems like nothing could put him off of such a silly goal. Also, why is she called "the scientist"? Isn't she more of an engineer? It's a little thing, but it really grated on me.
- Why were Shuri and Queen Ramonda so committed to protecting Riri at all costs? There's no clear reason why they should have been so committed to protecting her as opposed to any number of other innocents who lost their lives in these battles. I'm not saying that they shouldn't have protected her...only that there were lots of threats and lots of people's lives at stake and their only concern was to save the life of this college student they didn't know.
- Or what about the plan to kill Namor? They're going to get him on a ship that has the ability to dry out his skin and that will somehow take his power from him. Something, incidentally, not set up in any way by any action of the plot, but only ad hoc mentioned in a fifteen second bit of exposition that gives them the solution they need. But after getting him on said ship, he just takes his spear and plunges it through the motor. How did they not make a provision for this? How could they're planning have been so short sighted?
- Also, why at the end of the movie, does Namor tell his friend that the most powerful warriors on the surface have just become their allies, when his people had just utterly dominated them? What about Wakanda impressed him and made him think they had military value for him and his people?
- Also, I love Martin Freeman and Julia Louis-Dreyfus, but there was absolutely nothing that they added to this film...and every scene they were in was a nuisance.
- And what was that at the end? Why did M'Baku come out and challenge for the throne and then "end scene"? What were they trying to tell us? Did this mean that Shuri has abdicated the throne? Does it mean that M'Baku is challenging her and their alliance is broken? Did she ask him to do it? Did she run off because she didn't want to be Queen? They just didn't tell us anything at all, and that seems, again, a really odd choice to make.