Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016)

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Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016)

(spoilers!)

Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice has an appropriately silly title for a movie that is so bad, it could easily work as an unintentional comedy or a drinking game or a thesis on how not to make a comic book movie. It is that bad, one of the worst movies I’ve seen in a cinema in a long time. Granted, I expected not to like it but had to see it anyway, mainly because its predecessor Man of Steel was one of the kickstarters for this blog. I’m not sure BvS:DoJ can solicit as deep an analysis as Man of Steel did, but there is plenty to discuss anyway. But let me stress one more time: this movie is really, really bad, worse than Man of Steel, incompetently bad and a really bad sign for DC’s attempt at creating a movie universe. And I say that as a confessing comic book and superhero fan. This movie is stupid, incoherent, annoying, laughable and boring. I’ll keep my bets on Civil War and X-Men: Apocalypse even more than before.

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Ex Machina (2015)

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Ex Machina (2015)

(spoilers)

Ex Machina fulfills the expectations I had after reading and hearing so much about it in the last couple of months. It continues Alex Garland’s streak of writing thought-provoking stories that challenge common perceptions we have about ourselves and our society. The movie uses amazing performances (Isaac, Vikander and Gleeson are all excellent), impressive visual effects and its gorgeous locations to generate a very effective movie that is intriguing from beginning to end. Just when you think it becomes too conventional it takes an extra turn at the end to become even more than we thought. It might not be an absolutely amazing movie (it’s not Looper), but it nevertheless is very good.

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Behind These Castle Walls, Part III: Fantasia (1940)

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Behind These Castle Walls, Part III: Fantasia (1940)

It’s been clearly too long since the last installment and I blame today’s movie for it. Fantasia is a difficult movie to approach because it has no larger story and is also not as well known today as all the other movies. Yet again, it is clearly a technological achievement with astonishing visuals and an unusual concept for its time, mixing animation, classical music and live action footage for what must have been really confusing to audiences in 1940. I had never seen it before but only the Fantasia 2000 sequel. I thought about talking about the original version that includes the racist scenes that have been removed since 1960 and while this is interesting, I decided not to because a) this problem is obvious and has been dealt with by Disney (with only a 20 year-delay) and b) I’m doing this to discuss the effects these movies still have today, so I might as well go with the current version. There are still enough issues to look at in this one and I can’t wait to move on to get to the next ones (of which there are still officially 53 left).

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The Revenant (2015)

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The Revenant (2015)

The Revenant is a breath-taking movie, a visceral experience that not many movies can provide and while it may not be super-deep (as some critics accuse it to be), it resonated deeply with me on a pure emotional and symbolic level. Leonardo DiCaprio gives a great performance, but then he always does, so a real surprise for me was Tom Hardy. His performance is impressive in the many layers he finds for his character and put him on my radar (where DiCaprio has been for a while already). But no review could ignore the director Alejandro González Iñárritu because the movie is really noteworthy for its amazing filming style. The incredible long takes, the beautiful shots of snow and forests and mountains and horizons, the savageness of many scenes and at the same time the courage to analyze how we depict others as savages. Emmanuel Lubezki must be one of the greatest cinematographers of our time and he would just with this movie and Children of Men alone (and I loved the similarities like the blood on the lenses). The score by Ryuichi Sakamoto (and many others) is great, even the visual effects work quite well for such a seemingly naturalistic movie. I loved it and wasn’t bored for a second of its 152 minutes, even if not that much happens.

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Comics Are for Everyone: 1988 Edition [1988 Week]

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Comics Are for Everyone: 1988 Edition [1988 Week]

Because of the amazing comics that have been released in 1988, I decided to have another comics section in this theme week. Grant Morrison and Alan Moore are big enough names for this, I guess, but we shouldn’t forget Jamie Delano. I’ll just focus on the issues published in that year, since that’s enough already. Let’s go!

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