Movie Reviews
Titles Covered: Raya and the Last Dragon, Wonderwoman 1984, Mandalorian Season 2, Robot and Frank, Tenet, the Fisher King, and many more...
Raya and the Last Dragon (***)
The end credits thanks the animators for working from home during the pandemic. I genuinely feel for them, having to work under such circumstances, unsure if they’re still making a theatrical film. Is Raya and the Last Dragon a big deal, or yet another streaming product that passes by in the night? I literally haven’t heard anyone talk about it.
And the end result? It’s pretty good, but had potential to be much better.
The story takes place in a fictional Southeast Asia-inspired land that’s been taken over by a magical plague that turns people into stone. Princess Raya travels to different cities looking for pieces of a dragon stone to restore the land. The interesting part of this plot is that the central antagonists don’t take on any definitive form, so most of the conflict is between various characters that should be on the same side, but end up fighting for dominance. This provides a theme about the complex dynamics of trust and cooperation.
I like the idea of this story, I love the world-building, and I like the main character and her rival. I didn’t like the plot progression or pacing. The story takes Raya through 5 different lands, each with a different set of characters to be introduced and conflicts to be resolved. The movie doesn’t have enough time to do this in a satisfying way, so it rushes from place to place. Conflicts are sometimes just “resolved” by Raya quickly dashing away on her roller-bug.
And then… there’s the dragon. The mythology of “Raya” casts dragons as mystical, sacred creatures. The actual character of the dragon is an annoying talking animal sidekick who immediately admits that she’s “not a good dragon.” It was one thing for Mushu from Mulan to be “not a good dragon,” since he was never built up as anything else, and thus got a satisfying underdog arc. This dragon just plain sucks. Her voice doesn’t fit, her “jokes” aren’t funny, and she ultimately doesn’t really do much or have a convincing character arc.
Despite these major problems, I still think Raya and the Last Dragon is worth a watch for its good worldbuilding and emotional moments. The prologue and climax are pretty compelling, and the visuals are very distinct and beautiful. There’s a great moment towards the end in which one of the villains not only helps defeat the monsters, but commits to accepting the same fate as her enemies. Also, the sensitive barbarian man absolutely steals the show. Stuff like that makes the movie worth watching. Just don’t set your expectations too high.
Wonderwoman 1984 (**)
Oh boy, this one’s a mess!
So… The bad guy of the movie is sort of a genie. He grants people’s wishes, but they often go badly. This basically turns the movie into “Bruce Almighty,” but even sillier, if you can believe that. You might wonder: What does a goofy “be careful what you wish for” story have to do with a woman who is super-strong? Pretty much nothing. The film has little action, and the fights that exist end up feeling contrived, hollow, and pointless.
I could look past the dumb premise if the rest of the movie held together, but nothing in this movie feels well-thought-out or properly set up. The entire plot is full of crazy coincidences. The sorta-antagonist “Cheetah” has flimsy motivations, little relevance, and a character arc that might as well be from a Saturday morning cartoon. The reintroduction of Steve Trevor coming back in another man’s body is unnecessarily convoluted. If Steve doesn’t use this man’s identity to his advantage and the characters aren’t going to discuss the obvious ethical issues, then what’s the point? And are we really to believe that Wonderwoman is still hung up on this guy that she knew for about a week?
I’m also going to pick on the movie’s stupidest scene, in which Wonderwoman steals a fighter jet and makes it turn invisible. There’s no reason for her to steal the jet in the first place, it never gets used later, the theft makes no sense (the jet is a museum piece, and is somehow flown by a resurrected WWI pilot), and scene throws contrivances out of nowhere (“Oh look, it’s Independence Day! Also, I can now make things invisible, just because.”) Seriously, this is one of those sequences that’s so unbelievably dumb, you can imagine the entire filming crew shaking their heads and muttering “Honest Trailers / HISHE is going to have a field day with this one!”
Wonderwoman 1984 isn’t boring, and is a notch above the worst DCEU movies (Suicide Squad, Batman v Superman, and Birds of Prey), but it’s still pretty bad. The story structure is an absolute wreck, the “rules” of the film are completely inconsistent, and the whole plot is just a dumb idea. Frankly, just stick with the far superior 2017 Wonderwoman.
The Mandalorian, Season 2 (*** and a half)
The Mandalorian has earned a place in my personal Star Wars canon in a way that the last five movies never did. That said, I think we have to acknowledge the bad with the good.
The bad:
-The overall plot progression. Most of the season is a series of side-missions, with the actual plot of the season (finding a home for Grogu) being only faintly visible in the background. The leads that Mando follows are very dubious, so there wasn't a strong logical connection from one episode to the next. The first half seemed especially illogical... Why does Mando assume that other Mandalorians know about Jedi and Yoda-species?
-The entire ice spider episode is superfluous.
-Most of the action scenes involving stormtroopers come off like a Family Guy cutaway gag. The heroes are too invincible and the bad guys are too incompetent to create any real tension. In the original Star Wars, the stormtroopers defeated Princess Leia's soldiers and sent the heroes into retreat each time they were encountered. In Empire Strikes Back, they easily overran the Hoth base and (again) constantly sent the main characters into retreat. In the prequels, the Clone Troopers were highly effective soldiers who exterminated the Jedi. The only movie in which stormtroopers were this useless was Episode 9 (i.e. the worst Star Wars movie).
The good:
-Use of Star Wars canon. The series almost almost feels like an apology for the sequel trilogy. It ties in well to the prequels, the originals, the TV shows, and even the novels and videogames. I mean, holy cow they let Katee Sackhoff play her animated character in live action! That's awesome! The older, jaded Ashoka was also played really, really well.
-Strong production quality, especially with regards to costumes, make-up, and special effects. It looks like Star Wars through and through, with very little dip in quality from the movies. The acting is also pretty good throughout.
-A few REALLY good action scenes. In particular, I'd like to highlight the battle against the Kayt Dragon (Ep. 1), the canyon chase (Ep. 4), and the one-on-one fight with a Dark Trooper (finale). But my favorite was probably when Mando and Bill Burr are chased by pirates in episode 7, which reminded me a lot of the Indiana Jones series
-The ending. That was perfect. Thank you, Jon Favreau.
Robot and Frank (****)
“Is this you? Is this me?” … Oh god, that scene broke me!
Robot and Frank is one of those movies that makes you slap your forehead and say “Why didn’t I think of that?” Specifically, the idea that AI robots could potentially be used to assist the disabled and elderly is both creative and fairly plausible. That’s the concept behind Robot and Frank, a dramedy about an eldery man with dementia who gets a robot caretaker.
“Frank” (played by Frank Langella, aka Skeletor) is a retired jewel thief who ends up training his robot assistant to help with burglaries. That’s the “quirky” premise that exists to sell the film, but I’d argue that the main character didn’t need to be a jewel thief. The humor of the film is largely found in the dialogue between an emotionless robot and a grouchy old man. The heart of the film concerns the effects of dementia. If we lose track of reality, what do we have left?
Robot and Frank is a “small” movie. There’s not a whole lot to it, and most of the plot is in the trailers. Despite this, it’s insightful, funny, creative, and heartbreaking. Seriously, the big plot twist nearly brought me to tears.
Tenet (** and a half)
OK, Christopher Nolan, you win. You finally made a movie so confusing that even I found it hard to follow.
I feel like I’m always a naysayer when it comes to Christopher Nolan movies. I enjoy most of them, but find them less brilliant and complex than everyone else seems to. A particular example is Inception, a movie in which characters go into each other’s dreams. It’s a good movie, but the dream settings were very simplistic, and the movie nearly went overboard constantly re-explaining everything.
Tenet is based on a more complex concept, raises more questions about the scientific and philosophical ramifications, and does more with its premise. It’s also much worse than Inception because it’s overstuffed, badly paced, and emotionally hollow.
The “over-stuffing” is probably the biggest flaw with Tenet. Besides the time-reversal premise, Tenet includes several “Mission: Impossible” style operations with all sorts of twists, betrayals, gadgets, and the like. The movie rushes so quickly from one to the next that it would be confusing even if time always moved forward. The plot simultaneously has a bad habit of rushing into the action, while also getting waylaid on “sidequests” that don’t need to be there at all. Tenet is 2-and-a-half hours long. It didn’t need to spend time dealing with incredibly niche concepts like “freeports,” subplots about art forgeries, or predictably terrible ideas like “let’s help the bad guy steal what he needs, so we can betray him, because that always works!” The plot is badly in need of trimming.
I hate ripping on this movie so much, because the core concept is interesting, and the slick directing and filming is fun to watch. The time-reversal idea is cool, the small details in the missions are cool, and the actors all do well. But in the end, I just don’t think this was a good movie. Despite the technical polish, I never really felt anything for the characters, because we have no time to absorb them, what we do know about them is often simplistic and cliché. Their motivations are a blur, and the movie isn’t really about anything.
I recommend seeing Tenet once for the novelty of it (and then reading the Wikipedia summary to fill in the plot details), but this was definitely the wrong movie to resurrect the movie theater business with.
The Fisher King (*** and a half)
My favorite monologue:
Disabled Veteran: See... guy goes to work every day, eight hours a day, seven days a week. Gets his nuts so tight in a vice that he starts questioning the very fabric of his existence. Then one day, 'bout quitting time, Boss calls him into the office and says, "Hey Bob, whyncha come on in here and kiss my ass for me, will you?" Well, Bob says, "Hell with it. I don't care what happens, I just want to see the expression on his face as I jab this pair of scissors into his arm." Then he thinks of me. He says, "Waitaminit. I got both my arms, I got both my legs. At least I'm not begging for a living." Sure enough, Bob's gonna put those scissors down and pucker right up.
The Fisher King was made by one of my favorite “weirdo” directors (Terry Gilliam), and it’s probably his most normal film. The premise is creative (Shock Jock accidentally inspires a mass shooting), and the themes of redemption and rebirth are kind of beautiful. One particular oddity is that the film actually ends with a quest for the Holy Grail… which ends up providing a chance for the main character to redeem himself in a very surprising way.
Like most Gilliam movies, The Fisher King has a few cringy scenes an is not completely satisfying. That said, it stuck with me for a long time. And you get to see Robin Williams be off-the-wall silly AND tragic in the same role.
Short reviews of movies that I don’t have much to say about, or saw too long ago to fully remember what I was going to say:
Marnie (***)
Fairly good Alfred Hitchcock thriller that’s… um… “problematic” by today’s standards (Sean Connery basically blackmails the title character into marriage and sex). Good acting and filming make it a decent flick, but not one of Hitch’s best.
Reds (*** and a half)
I learned 2 things from this movie: Jack Nicholson is devilishly handsome with a mustache, and that smart people can easily get sucked into REALLY stupid ideologies. A good movie, but a bit long.
Splendor in the Grass (*** and a half)
Interesting and sad psychological drama featuring a young Commissioner Gordon (Pat Hingle). The “flapper” girl is probably the most heartbreaking and frustrating character. She’s a complete fool, but shows an understandable need to be wanted.
Lego Star Wars Christmas Special (** and a half)
Oh man, this had potential to be absolutely off the walls! Instead, it feels like a very tame rehash of the Robot Chicken Star Wars specials. Still, it’s kind of nice to see Rey get some actual character development for the first time!
Mary and Max (***)
Still not sure how I feel about this one. It’s certainly inventive and artistic, but also frustrating and a bit too dark. Also, I don’t enjoy characters who refuse to improve themselves.
Stagecoach (**** and a half)
Awesome! Stagecoach is a well-written, well-cast, and tense Western with a simple and effective plot. I love movies that force a diverse cast of characters into small quarters (in this case, 7 people crammed into a stagecoach), and this might be one of my new favorites.
Sergeant York (*** and a half)
The movie is interesting, starting off as a story of a man who turns his life around, and ending as a war movie. I think it’s mostly notable because “Sergeant York” is such a perfect embodiment of traditional American values, and apparently he truly was the real deal.
The Quiet Man (***)
I remember reading the short story of “The Quiet Man” in highschool, and wondering how you’d get a full-length movie out of it. I’m still not sure this simple story needed to be a full-length movie, but the scenery, acting, and funny climax make it worth a watch.