[bullet point movie reviews] Super 8 + X-Men: First Class
For some reason I felt strongly about reviewing these 2 films. Maybe I'm just in an Opinions!!! mood. I did enjoy them both immensely though :)
Super 8
I'm not gonna bother with pros and cons on this one cuz as far as I'm concerned this is a perfect movie. Or at least a perfect JJ Abrams monster movie.
- this movie, to me, is like ET of our generation. Our generation as being characterized by explosions, CGI, EPICNESS!!1, swear words, lens flare, and super dramatic camera work.
- it's even a perfect family film, even when it pretty much falls into every movie genre category EXCEPT "family films".
- it mixes the fear of the unknown, nostalgia, a coming of age story, family values, standing united in a time of crisis, the potential danger as well as benevolence of a higher being, and people being good old-fashioned Good.
- I'm doubly impressed cuz I thought it was written by Orci and Kurtzman as usual, but the fact that JJ wrote it himself makes me appreciate it more, cuz 1) this makes him both a badass director AND a badass writer 2) this movie comes from a really personal place and JJ truly cared for it. And it shows.
- how fucking good are those child actors? SO FUCKING GOOD. It's been how many years since Haley Joel Osment in Sixth Sense? And now times that amount of talent by 5. I was like OH DUH when I learned that Alice was Elle Fanning. Cut from the same Fanning cloth, she's got a ton of street cred already, of course she's gonna be brilliant. But that shouldn't take away from the simple fact that she was jaw-droppingly amazing. But Joel Courtney, oh my god. Riley Griffiths was also incredible. I am mortally afraid for these kids cuz we all know what happens to child actors, and I would hate for it to happen to Joel Courtney and Riley Griffiths. I just love these kids so much ;_;
- I guess I'm not done talking about kids. Children in movies! It is so refreshing to see an all pre-teen main cast and see a "grown-up" sci-fi disaster film made from kids' perspectives.
- adult characters were also awesome. Except for Fowlerface (sorry Noah Emmerich you will forever be Fowler from White Collar to me) but he was written to be pointedly not-awesome.
- DIVERSITY PARTY \o/ \o/ \o/ cuz JJ loooooves diversity.
- Bawww Point: when Mr. Dainard drives drunk and seemingly furious after a runaway Alice, and shouts "I'm sorry!" before crashing into a car. Time From Dry-Eyed to Bitch Tears: 0.5 seconds.
- very happy with the monster design. Not gonna say any more to avoid spoiling the reveal.
- THE ZOMBIE STUDENT FILM, EVERYTHING ELSE IS IRRELEVANT
- just, so happy for JJ to be on the helm of something like this. The man puts his heart into it and has the right priorities. Interviews with Ryan Lee and Joel Courtney show how much thought went into the auditions and how clearly JJ knew what he wanted.
- JJ JUST TAKE MY MONEY, ALL OF IT, FOREVER
Wow that was a lot longer than I expected to write. Oops.
X-Men: First Class
Pros
- what everyone with BL goggles or even a BL monocle have been talking about. I'm sure I don't need to go into this.
- but in all seriousness I really loved the chemistry and closeness and Brotherhood!!1 of Charles and Erik
- at the same time I also found the dynamic/relationship between Erik and Shaw to be deeply intriguing despite what a complete evil asshat Shaw was
- fuck yeah NICHOLAS HOULT AS HANK!! He looked soooo familiar but I couldn't recognize him. He's so different from Tony in Skins.
- loev Banshee :> my squawky slightly uncomfortable-looking ginger
- "GO FUCK YOURSELVES"
- the whole latter half of the movie, basically
- airlifting a whole fucking submarine. That was the #1 AWESOMEST scene in the entire movie
- COIN TOSS FOR GREAT POETIC JUSTICE. I looooved the elegance in the simplicity of the act. Added on top of the complexity of Charles inadvertently having to sit through the whole ordeal via telepathic link. That was sick.
- Chaaaaaaarles ;____; I cried.
- LOVE THE ENDING CREDITS. Unf moving graphic elements alluding to genetics and biology
Cons
- o hai person in my house that isn't my mom -- oh you're blue! You're just like meeeeee! Let's be best friends and NOT get into 1) how did you get into my house 2) who are you 3) where the fuck did you come from. Because a sense-making opening scene to a movie is no fun.
- did not really appreciate how it was Hank/Raven for a bit which was cute and then SUDDENLY ERIKAVEN
- Emma Frost. At first I liked that they tried to justify her uh inexplicably skanky canon personal style? And I guess her sexualized minion portrayal makes sense in the era of the film, but. Then the movie kinda undermined the core essence of Emma Frost's character :[ Needs to be HBIC! What does IC stand for? In charge. No minionizing Emma Frost pls.
- theeeeee CGI could've used more work (or money.) The diamond texture on Emma's face was the worst of it.
- sloppy writing and clumsy camera work (which is weird since I thought Matthew Vaughn did just fine with Kick-Ass)
- Rose Byrne was sadly underused
- y u kill Darwin :'(
- the first half was generally a bit silly; again, would've come across less like a blunder and more like a choice made to befit the tone if the setting were clearer stylistically. Everything (besides Emma's hair and the occasional automobile) was so modern that I kept forgetting they were in the 70s.
Lolz
- Kevin Bacon.
- lolol Hellfire Club is a strip club
- Team Shaw = Team Minority, especially after Angel defected. I'm sure this wasn't intentional, but it's still kinda hilarious and at the same time, annoying.
Okay even though I love to lovingly make fun of this movie I did enjoy it tremendously. Just, some parts of it are kinda :T or just cringe-worthy. Needless to say, Fassavoy/McBender made what could've been a terribly mediocre movie actually a pretty good watch. (Sadly tho nobody else in the cast had acting chops much worth talking about.)
Super 8
I'm not gonna bother with pros and cons on this one cuz as far as I'm concerned this is a perfect movie. Or at least a perfect JJ Abrams monster movie.
- this movie, to me, is like ET of our generation. Our generation as being characterized by explosions, CGI, EPICNESS!!1, swear words, lens flare, and super dramatic camera work.
- it's even a perfect family film, even when it pretty much falls into every movie genre category EXCEPT "family films".
- it mixes the fear of the unknown, nostalgia, a coming of age story, family values, standing united in a time of crisis, the potential danger as well as benevolence of a higher being, and people being good old-fashioned Good.
- I'm doubly impressed cuz I thought it was written by Orci and Kurtzman as usual, but the fact that JJ wrote it himself makes me appreciate it more, cuz 1) this makes him both a badass director AND a badass writer 2) this movie comes from a really personal place and JJ truly cared for it. And it shows.
- how fucking good are those child actors? SO FUCKING GOOD. It's been how many years since Haley Joel Osment in Sixth Sense? And now times that amount of talent by 5. I was like OH DUH when I learned that Alice was Elle Fanning. Cut from the same Fanning cloth, she's got a ton of street cred already, of course she's gonna be brilliant. But that shouldn't take away from the simple fact that she was jaw-droppingly amazing. But Joel Courtney, oh my god. Riley Griffiths was also incredible. I am mortally afraid for these kids cuz we all know what happens to child actors, and I would hate for it to happen to Joel Courtney and Riley Griffiths. I just love these kids so much ;_;
- I guess I'm not done talking about kids. Children in movies! It is so refreshing to see an all pre-teen main cast and see a "grown-up" sci-fi disaster film made from kids' perspectives.
- adult characters were also awesome. Except for Fowlerface (sorry Noah Emmerich you will forever be Fowler from White Collar to me) but he was written to be pointedly not-awesome.
- DIVERSITY PARTY \o/ \o/ \o/ cuz JJ loooooves diversity.
- Bawww Point: when Mr. Dainard drives drunk and seemingly furious after a runaway Alice, and shouts "I'm sorry!" before crashing into a car. Time From Dry-Eyed to Bitch Tears: 0.5 seconds.
- very happy with the monster design. Not gonna say any more to avoid spoiling the reveal.
- THE ZOMBIE STUDENT FILM, EVERYTHING ELSE IS IRRELEVANT
- just, so happy for JJ to be on the helm of something like this. The man puts his heart into it and has the right priorities. Interviews with Ryan Lee and Joel Courtney show how much thought went into the auditions and how clearly JJ knew what he wanted.
- JJ JUST TAKE MY MONEY, ALL OF IT, FOREVER
Wow that was a lot longer than I expected to write. Oops.
X-Men: First Class
Pros
- what everyone with BL goggles or even a BL monocle have been talking about. I'm sure I don't need to go into this.
- but in all seriousness I really loved the chemistry and closeness and Brotherhood!!1 of Charles and Erik
- at the same time I also found the dynamic/relationship between Erik and Shaw to be deeply intriguing despite what a complete evil asshat Shaw was
- fuck yeah NICHOLAS HOULT AS HANK!! He looked soooo familiar but I couldn't recognize him. He's so different from Tony in Skins.
- loev Banshee :> my squawky slightly uncomfortable-looking ginger
- "GO FUCK YOURSELVES"
- the whole latter half of the movie, basically
- airlifting a whole fucking submarine. That was the #1 AWESOMEST scene in the entire movie
- COIN TOSS FOR GREAT POETIC JUSTICE. I looooved the elegance in the simplicity of the act. Added on top of the complexity of Charles inadvertently having to sit through the whole ordeal via telepathic link. That was sick.
- Chaaaaaaarles ;____; I cried.
- LOVE THE ENDING CREDITS. Unf moving graphic elements alluding to genetics and biology
Cons
- o hai person in my house that isn't my mom -- oh you're blue! You're just like meeeeee! Let's be best friends and NOT get into 1) how did you get into my house 2) who are you 3) where the fuck did you come from. Because a sense-making opening scene to a movie is no fun.
- did not really appreciate how it was Hank/Raven for a bit which was cute and then SUDDENLY ERIKAVEN
- Emma Frost. At first I liked that they tried to justify her uh inexplicably skanky canon personal style? And I guess her sexualized minion portrayal makes sense in the era of the film, but. Then the movie kinda undermined the core essence of Emma Frost's character :[ Needs to be HBIC! What does IC stand for? In charge. No minionizing Emma Frost pls.
- theeeeee CGI could've used more work (or money.) The diamond texture on Emma's face was the worst of it.
- sloppy writing and clumsy camera work (which is weird since I thought Matthew Vaughn did just fine with Kick-Ass)
- Rose Byrne was sadly underused
- y u kill Darwin :'(
- the first half was generally a bit silly; again, would've come across less like a blunder and more like a choice made to befit the tone if the setting were clearer stylistically. Everything (besides Emma's hair and the occasional automobile) was so modern that I kept forgetting they were in the 70s.
Lolz
- Kevin Bacon.
- lolol Hellfire Club is a strip club
- Team Shaw = Team Minority, especially after Angel defected. I'm sure this wasn't intentional, but it's still kinda hilarious and at the same time, annoying.
Okay even though I love to lovingly make fun of this movie I did enjoy it tremendously. Just, some parts of it are kinda :T or just cringe-worthy. Needless to say, Fassavoy/McBender made what could've been a terribly mediocre movie actually a pretty good watch. (Sadly tho nobody else in the cast had acting chops much worth talking about.)