We’ve seen four movies of late, and they left some impressions. Some of the impressions were better than others, and all of the films but one were big budget flicks. We are a family headed by a lover of comic books, so I’ll start with those. The last film is one that can only be considered an artistic wonder, and it’s something original, unlike most of what filmmakers churn out these days. I’ll put the trailer at the end for those who haven’t heard of it. If you’re an art lover, you’ll want to try and find one the few theaters new you which is running it.
Thor: Ragnarok was an attempt to lighten Thor up, infuse some humor into the franchise, and reunite Loki and Thor in an interesting but shaky alliance to fight off their evil sister whom they never knew about until right before she showed up. Were it not mot for my general enjoyment of Mark Ruffalo and particularly Idris Elba, I wouldn’t have found it very entertaining at all. I give it a ‘C’ and don’t recommend that you see it if you haven’t already.
Secondly, we saw the new Justice League movie. My husband has always preferred DC to Marvel comics anyway, so it stands to reasons that we would like this one more. It was pretty good, and there weren’t any obvious attempts to shove PC narratives down your throat. At least, there weren’t any that one doesn’t expect in a typical Hollywood film. They stuck to the spirit of the comics mostly, unlike Spider-Man: Homecoming which was a disaster of a film more concerned with meeting a diversity quota and opening the minds of its audience.
As an aside, I noticed that the Aquaman of my childhood got a major upgrade in the Justice League. My childhood Aquaman is on the left, while the new and improved Aquaman is on the right.
It just occurred to me that my characterization of this as an improvement it pretty subjective. As for the film itself, I give it a ‘B’.
We also saw Coco, Disney-Pixar’s latest. it was visually stunning and well presented. Because our kids have been taught and understand all the inherent theological falshoods and problems connected to the Mexican Day of the Dead, they saw this as fantasy and nothing more. Read the review for this one at the Christian movie review site Plugged In for more information. The worst part of this experience was the 20 minute Frozen “short” at the beginning, which was not only long, but tediously boring.
On to more highbrow stuff.
Below is the trailer for Loving Vincent, a film in which every bit of the animation, and it feels like undervaluing it to call it animation, is hand painted by 100 artists in the post-impressionist style of Vincent Van Gogh. The film is an exploration of his tragic and short life which celebrated his art from beginning to end.
It was original, which sets it apart from most of what it out there today, and it was well done. I highly recommend it for art buffs and hisory lovers. You just have to find theaters which are running it if you’re interested.
Thus ends our recent foray into the movies. We have no intention of seeing the new Star Wars so thus ends our uncharacteristically busy movie stint for quite a while.