Reviews

Let's get this out of the way first -- this film is good and non-preachy. All of the internet panic about it being a vehicle for feminism and Brie Larson being a horrible actress and the wrong choice and politically motivated was, of course, crap. The dogfights are cool, the effects on Fury and Coulson (who's barely there) are fantastic, and the movie offers an interesting if predictable twist on the first movie origin story (let's face it, if you've seen a trailer, you can guess with a reasonable accuracy how the plot will fall out). Where the film falters, though, is its villains and references. Without getting too spoilery, there's a few previously seen characters who could have been replaced in this by a random new character and nothing would have changed. There's also an appearance of something that I'm pretty sure is already in S.H.I.E.L.D. custody when this takes place (1995), so its appearance here, while impactful, may have a brief timeline hiccup. Also also, the name Fury gives the report he's typing at the end and what it references is just a little too much of a gimme. Of all the ways to come up with the needed name, that had to be one of the dumbest and most infuriating. Overall, the movie harkened back to the good old days of phase one, before the movies got so bogged down with connectivity and could just stand apart. That's not a bad thing, exactly, it just seems to be holding the character from going as high and as far and as fast as she really deserves to. Regardless, the movie is still good and worth checking out, both for putting it in the saga appropriately and for that super-cute, super-awesome kitty.

Was interested in this from the second I saw the trailer. Chloe Grace Moretz is a great young actress and the film looked real intriguing. On it's side, there are the performances of Moretz as Frankie/Frances/Francesca and Huppert as Greta, the lonely older woman who just wants to love and be loved....no matter what. The film does move along at a good clip and doesn't waste too much time getting to the point, so there's not really any scenes that drag. It's tightly shot, which helps to add to the sense of entrapment Frankie slowly starts to feel. Against it, the ending (in general, if not exactly) is able to be called from twenty minutes out, and there's more than one character engaging in questionable actions....by which I mean (SPOILER ALERT! SPOILER ALERT!) a scene where Greta gets a table at the restaurant Frankie works at. Frankie tells her boss the lady is stalking her and she doesn't want to serve her or even have her there, and instead of asking Greta to leave or switching servers or....anything, really....the boss simply tells Frankie to serve her, because "She has a reseervation." WHAT. No boss worth his job would just brush aside a report about a potential stalker in that situation. Even if they don't fully believe the employeee, they'd at least find some way to keep both parties "happy". There's a couple other examples, but that's the most outlandish. Still, the movie did keep me interested, and the ending wrapped things up nicely. I'd give it a higher rating if it had ended with Greta getting away with it and Frankie either dying or becoming fully conditioned to be Greta's "daughter", but as it is I still like it enough to give it a six.

First off, this is not a horror movie, despite what the description says. There are some elements to it that briefly flirt with that description, but they lie. At best, it's suspense bordering on thriller. That said, it's remarkably well done. The acting is fairly decent, and the script manages to keep things tight and light without veering too far into absurdity. When things turn dark, it's done with a believable hand, although the twist is an extremely predictable one. Additionally, there was a distinctly positive tone (for the most.part) and it did something few movies of this type do by showing real world consequences (as an example, when one of the girls uses magic to get a new car, it eventually gets pointed out that there's no payment made for the car, making it essentially a stolen vehicle rather than something created) and offering an explanation for the haggard appearance of witches. All in all, it's a surprisingly enjoyable movie and would be a good pick for young kids that are looking for something along the lines of The Craft but are too young for something that intense (ages 8 to 14, say)

It's not that they have a problem with synthesized music or a reusing of the theme song, although I do, admittedly. Heck, I don't even mind messages not so subtly hidden within a movie's script, especially when that movie is mainly targeted to younger kids anyway. My problem is that the movie was marketed on the promise of one thing and ultimately didn't even try to deliver on that. The writing and acting that was present in the Marvel Rising: Initiation short seems to have taken a huge step backwards. Spider-Gwen/Ghost Spider is nowhere to be found and won't even appear until the sequel next year, which makes one wonder at her inclusion in so much of the advertising. Leaving her absence out of it, though, the movie still suffers from less-than-great writing, a few audio sync issues, and characters who don't really develop, even when they do. Spider-Gwen deserves better for her Disney XD premiere.

Okay, let's get one thing out of the way: this will never be a well-regarded horror film, like The Exorcist or Paranormal Activity. It probably won't even be remembered as a campy fun horror film, like The Blob or every slasher movie ever. That said, the film did have its high points. The story was good, the creature and visual effects were fantastic, the and I oddly enough found myself entertained for the full ninety minutes. The setup for each shot once the scares started was effectively done, particularly in the forest chase scene halfway through where we can only see what they see during a rescue attempt of their missing friend, so credit to the director and cinematographer for that. Where the story falls apart, thougn, is the actual script itself, which fills the situations with so many familiar characters from the Hollywood Background Machine. Worse, it becomes so concerned with scaring you that it starts to forget its own rules (more on that later). In the end, the best thing I can say about Slender Man is that the end may have given us an excellent preview of the end battle in It: Chapter Two, and that while it was entertaining, you'd probably be better off making sure there's nothing else you want to see first.



*SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOI?ERS*

So by the time the end sequence rolls around, the last two girls have figured out that the sacrifice they tried to make to get their missing friend back earlier should have been a blood sacrifice. Stuff happens, they both die, and the little sister of one of the girls (who had been tricked into 'helping') is the only survivor.....and missing friend is still missing for some reason. I guess Slendy liked her so much he decided to make her his new live-in housewife?

I don't know why so many people are saying that this was a bad movie. I saw it 5 years ago and I still remember it, which to me makes it seem like at least an okay movie. The costumes were pretty good, and it always struck me that the way the characters behave in this movie is exactly how me and my friends would behave if we ran into something like that. I'm a little disappointed that there was never a sequel or spin-off miniseries, since the three lights at the end saying that there's another attack happening elsewhere kinda suggested a possible series that would be right at home on the Sci-Fi Channel. All in all, I enjoyed this movie and would love to get it on DVD...you wouldn't happen to know where I could find it, would you?