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Blade Runner 2049 (2017)
Opens up the universe, but no masterpiece.
Blade Runner 2049 is a worthy sequel. 2049 opens up the universe, but for me felt like it just went from setpiece to setpiece. People that give the movie a 10/10 have rose colored glasses on. Maybe biased or nostalgia is clouding their judgment. The movie opens up the universe, but never feels as good as the original. Plus there is no awesome badguy like Roy in the original that was always looming from the dark(cat/mouse game).
It's gorgeous to look at, has interesting characters and factions, but never fully fleshes out some characters.
Pros: + Gorgeous visually, plus detailed scenery. + Music: even though Hans Zimmer made the music last minute, it worked. But sometimes sounded like a lackluster VanGelis remix, yet it works. + Feels like a living universe. You feel immersed in the world. You could feel the tension between Replicant and human Blade Runners(whenever K passes a human Blade Runner, he looks to the ground) and normal humans vs Replicants. + K and Joi's 'relationship'. + Deckard returns, but only the last 45 minutes. + Never gives us too much answers, and opens up new debate about Replicants + AI.
Cons: - Story could have been more open. Not much room for debate about certain characters or actions. - No 'Blade Running' or interrogation by Blade Runners after first 10 minutes. - Sometimes felt like it went from setpiece to setpiece, with little information. Get information-X, go to location-Y, rinse repeat. - In said setpiece, characters pops up with information with a couple of lines and then vanishes for the rest of the movie. It felt like there was another sequel coming or a tie-in game in the making. - Lackluster bad guy(Wallace) + woman(Luv). While Luv's actress can act(as she has to kill people, be a killing machine whilst crying), her character never felt fully fleshed or even menacing. She was just bad because her maker told her to be, nothing more. Roy in the original felt menacing, but we felt for him, because we knew why he did what he did.
Worthy sequel. 8/10.
Kingsman: The Golden Circle (2017)
2017, the year of John Denver's 'Country Roads'
Let me begin saying this; Kingsman: the Golden Circle is worse in every way as to the original. After Alien:Covenant and Logan Lucky, now it's time for Kingsman to utilize Country Roads as part of the plot or a character. Seems like the song was on sale in 2017.
We begin the movie with Eggsy being as Kingsman, being confronted by the Kingsman dropout Charlie turned henchman. They have an over the top, sometimes nauseating camera-work fight scene and full of bad CGI cars. (greenscreen is used often in the movie).
Henchman's metal arm hacks into Kingsman database. New bad guy Poppy(Julianne Moore) blows up every Kingsman... even Roxy. YOU KILL OF AN AWESOME CHARACTER THAT EVERYONE WANTED TO SEE IN ACTION!? Only Eggsy and Merlin survive. Eggsy's dog JB(the pug) also gets killed, yet Eggysy doesn't shed a tear and in one of the following scenes he gets a new dog, a pug, who of course looks exactly the same. JB is never referenced again, and neither is Roxy. I wanted to see the whole Kingsman crew in action. The hierarchy of that secret service... but no, everyone gets blown up in the first 10 minutes. So it's not even Kingsman anymore, it's more like Eggsy&Merlin; buddy spy movie. The movie truly feels like it was designed to be the third in a trilogy, but they forgot to make the second movie.
The plot is almost non existent. Almost no character has been fleshed out or has been given something to do. Minimal growth through the movie. They don't learn anything or actually do anything.
Eggsy: he has relationship problem with Princess, while juggling his relationship and being a Kingsman. Princess Tilde: Does drugs(for absolutely no reason), gets infected for no reason. Poppy(Julianne Moore): Wants to be recognized, has a dumb evil plot. She isn't menacing or even dangerous. No idea why everyone is scared of the woman... she just keeps two robot dogs. Harry(Colin Firth): back from the dead to mess up sometimes and to tell Eggsy he has to marry girlfriend, because he felt lonely when he died. Roxy: dies in first 5 minutes. Tequila(Channing Tatum): in movie for 2 scenes, yet top billed and advertised. Gets taken out because he does cocaine. Champ(Jeff Bridges): head honcho of the Statesman. Does nothing, rubs whiskey under his nose. Could be left out of the movie, wouldn't matter. Ginger(Halle Barry): Female Merlin counterpart of Statesman, does nothing. Could be left out of the movie, wouldn't matter. Merlin: Best part of the movie, but also killed. Kingsman chaps have mine detector, still step on mine regardless. I read that Mark Strong actually filmed the end scene where Eggsy and the princess get married. But the director rather had the character dead, so that Merlin could sing 'Country Roads'. Good scene, useless death. Pedro Pascal: Fun character. You could tell Pedro had fun making this movie. The only character that had an interesting story arc. I could feel his pain as to the death of his girlfriend. You could tell from a mile away they would fight Whiskey at the end. But he wasn't really a bad guy in my book, they just said he was and had to be killed. Elton John: Says the F-word a lot and has too much screen time as a running gag. The gag gets old quickly. Elton also breaks the 4th wall...
The worst still was the girlfriend of the Henchman... Clara. The woman who has a golden tramp-stamp and gets the finger, yet has no qualities for being a Golden Circle henchman. The movie was 2½ hours long and her story arc took up about 30 minutes, just to justify one action scene in a gondola and the fingering scene for being edgy.
Oh, and the President of the USA is a maniac, has a secretary of State that looks like Hillary Clinton, and gets impeached at the end of the movie. (This apparently was a greater subplot of the movie, but was scrapped by directory because it would affect ticket sales)
Kingsman: the Golden Circle, deserves a 5/10 at best. While it is a fun movie, with fun action scenes. It was in no league of the original(which in my book was 8/10).
The Butterfly Tattoo (2009)
Stunning performance by new actors
My friend brought this movie over on DVD for a movie night. I had no idea what to expect and had never heard of the novel it was based off.
I thought of butterfly as in the butterfly effect. But still i watched this movie with no expectations. As picky as i sometimes get about movies i was blown away by the impact of this movie had on me. Such a beautiful and sad story. Now even after a week of watching the movie i am still thinking about it(this doesn't happen to me very often) as in how much impact this made on my personal feelings. I watched Kick-Ass this week in the cinema, good movie but after the movie was done you still have good laugh about it that evening but the next day i didn't even think about it anymore. With butterfly tattoo it was different for me.
Also i had never heard from the actors but i also thought they had good chemistry together(the 2 main characters), but the guy who played Barry overacted sometimes which made me chuckle at times. Also Jessica Blake was eye-candy to me, such a beautiful woman. As how she acted how can a man not love her. Definitely better than kebab haha.
After watching the movie i went here to IMDb and saw that these actors are somewhat all newbies and that this movie was made with a small budget.
The fact that the 2 main characters are new actors... i was stunned by their performance. This blew me away even more and the only thing i can say about it is: BRAVO! You guys made my evening and i definitely plan on getting this movie on DVD to put it into my own collection! I hope to see more of these actors in the near future, they deserve it.
This movie is 10 times better than that major crap called: Twilight. A major thank you to the team that made this movie.
I have been moved by this movie and hope future viewers of this movie will be too. This is the impact that the movie has/had to make and they succeeded very VERY much.