‘Transformers: The Last Knight’ review: Some things never change
Just finished watching Transformers: The Last Knight. I have so many questions I forgot half of them by the time I finished the film. Here are the rest.
Just finished watching Transformers: The Last Knight. I have so many questions I forgot half of them by the time I finished the film. Here are the rest.
Before I start on this review proper, buckle up for a not-so-brief history of how Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (from now on referred to as BVS) came to be. It'll help you understand why BVS rubbed me wrongly from the get-go, and why I went into it with derisive feelings. My friend accused me of being biased against the film, and so even if it was good, I wouldn't say so, but that's not true. *If* it was good, I would admit it -- in tones of absolute surprise, yes, but I would.
'Mockingjay - Part 2' follows the book pretty much faithfully -- except for all the subtext that they could not (dare not?) translate to screen, which Darren Franich from Entertainment Weekly explains in a brilliant analysis.
If The Martian was the optimistic, feel-good movie of the year celebrating the tenacity of mankind, Everest is the exact opposite, showing that the elements do what they want, no matter what man wills, and woe betide whomsoever dareth challenge Nature!
I just saw The Martian last night and I desperately want people to watch it, so I'm posting a quick review of the film first.
Many people went to watch Jurassic World last weekend; and by many, I mean the whole world. It had the biggest global opening weekend ever at US$511.8 million -- though I'm pretty sure the Avengers would have come out tops if Disney hadn't staggered the global rollout of The Avengers and Age of Ultron, whereas Universal Pictures released Jurassic World in all territories at once except Japan.
In the words of one of the numerous reviewers raving over Mad Max: Fury Road: "See. That. Damn. Movie."
Half the world -- excluding North America and a few other unlucky foreign markets who only get it after May 1 -- went to watch Avengers: Age of Ultron over the past weekend. If you are the unicorn who intends to but hasn't yet: GO WATCH IT NOW. Because here there be (minor) spoilers, unless you don't mind reading them.
There are movies that I like, movies I love, and movies I *love*. The first are movies I think are good and will watch again, maybe once, at the most twice, such as Kingsman: The Secret Service, Birdman, The Divergent Series: Insurgent. (Anything else is overkill.) The second are movies I’ll gladly watch a few more times, like The Lego Movie and Whiplash, though I need some distance between each viewing. The last category belongs to the films that have won my heart and mind entirely, the ones which after I finished watching them for the first time in the cinema, I immediately wanted to go back in and rewatch them a second, third, fourth time. Cinderella belongs squarely in the last.
Whiplash is an awesome, AWESOME film. Go watch it.