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Guardians of the Galaxy Vol.2
(2017)
Director: James Gunn
Chris Pratt as Luke Skywalkman
Kurt Russell as Darth Vaderbilt
Bradley Cooper as Jar Jar Blinky Eyes
From the beginning, having not yet seen part 1, I was a little surprised that the film makers seemed to have great taste in music, using Electric Light Orchestra to open their picture with. I'd already heard Looking Glass's Brandy minutes prior, so.....so far, off to a good start. I really had no intentions of liking this film, and only decided to watch it because someone at work seemed to think I would enjoy it, not knowing what my taste was in movies.
I started battling through some obnoxious CGI camera movement, being slungshot at high speed through dips and twists of angles around flying fighting space craft. The colors were throwing me because there was no real uniformity. It was as if production design and the VFX artists just decided that all colors of the rainbow would do. I think this was a tonal mistake, but I wasn't going to crucify the movie as long as it didn't continue to make stupid mistakes like this. And, it didn't, at least not as much.
A few scenes were surprisingly touching and there was humor at just about every turn which soon warmed up to actually being funny once a few minutes had passed. The initial jokes weren't that great, but once Rocket laid that line down about the gold queens being douche bags and winked with the wrong eye, I busted my gut and loosened right up.
The young Kurt Russell prosthetic job was superbly done. Not creepy like Tron Legacy where Jeff Bridges looked like an android. This was EFNY era Kurt, and he was dashing and dimpled.
All in all, the movie worked for me. Some sequences involving a whistle controlled heat seek missile were really well staged and allowed us to spend some QT with Rooker, who is an actor I really enjoy in movies. In fact, it was really nice to see some of my old school faves all congregated into one place, punching the clock for this blockbusting ballbuster of an action picture. Stallone, Russell, Rooker; all seemed at home and really gave some much needed credibility to this otherwise kind of silly adventure tale.
It definitely rips off Star Wars and Star Trek II but I didn't mind. I'm not huge into pop sci-fi anyway, but it's hard not to notice the "homage" being paid because the story is very similar in some respects (See above credits).
I have to say that I did enjoy the movie, and think it would be a definite accessory for a get together or a movie night with a friend. I watched it alone and still had a reasonably good time with a solo viewing. But it is a movie to kind of talk through. It's light weight stuff. Plenty of action and goofing around, which is quite funny in many parts of the film. I appreciated that. I went in thinking the jokes would be cringe inducing, but more often than not, they were actually written to my taste, which makes me think, maybe I'm not such a grumpy old man...maybe it's just that most movies like this do suck, and this is an exception.
+
(2017)
Director: James Gunn
Starring:
Michael Rooker as The Deceased Mr. SpockChris Pratt as Luke Skywalkman
Kurt Russell as Darth Vaderbilt
Bradley Cooper as Jar Jar Blinky Eyes
From the beginning, having not yet seen part 1, I was a little surprised that the film makers seemed to have great taste in music, using Electric Light Orchestra to open their picture with. I'd already heard Looking Glass's Brandy minutes prior, so.....so far, off to a good start. I really had no intentions of liking this film, and only decided to watch it because someone at work seemed to think I would enjoy it, not knowing what my taste was in movies.
I started battling through some obnoxious CGI camera movement, being slungshot at high speed through dips and twists of angles around flying fighting space craft. The colors were throwing me because there was no real uniformity. It was as if production design and the VFX artists just decided that all colors of the rainbow would do. I think this was a tonal mistake, but I wasn't going to crucify the movie as long as it didn't continue to make stupid mistakes like this. And, it didn't, at least not as much.
A few scenes were surprisingly touching and there was humor at just about every turn which soon warmed up to actually being funny once a few minutes had passed. The initial jokes weren't that great, but once Rocket laid that line down about the gold queens being douche bags and winked with the wrong eye, I busted my gut and loosened right up.
The young Kurt Russell prosthetic job was superbly done. Not creepy like Tron Legacy where Jeff Bridges looked like an android. This was EFNY era Kurt, and he was dashing and dimpled.
All in all, the movie worked for me. Some sequences involving a whistle controlled heat seek missile were really well staged and allowed us to spend some QT with Rooker, who is an actor I really enjoy in movies. In fact, it was really nice to see some of my old school faves all congregated into one place, punching the clock for this blockbusting ballbuster of an action picture. Stallone, Russell, Rooker; all seemed at home and really gave some much needed credibility to this otherwise kind of silly adventure tale.
It definitely rips off Star Wars and Star Trek II but I didn't mind. I'm not huge into pop sci-fi anyway, but it's hard not to notice the "homage" being paid because the story is very similar in some respects (See above credits).
I have to say that I did enjoy the movie, and think it would be a definite accessory for a get together or a movie night with a friend. I watched it alone and still had a reasonably good time with a solo viewing. But it is a movie to kind of talk through. It's light weight stuff. Plenty of action and goofing around, which is quite funny in many parts of the film. I appreciated that. I went in thinking the jokes would be cringe inducing, but more often than not, they were actually written to my taste, which makes me think, maybe I'm not such a grumpy old man...maybe it's just that most movies like this do suck, and this is an exception.
+