Legion, The Losers, and Iron Man 2 and GREYS FINALE
Let's start with the very very bad because then the only place to go is up.
Legion is possibly one of the worst movies I've ever seen. Which is saying something because I've watched a LOT of movies. The concept is really interesting so it's not as if it didn't have potential. I thought the fight scene between the two angels was really cool looking. And...that's all the good stuff. Everything else is a cliche. The dialogue, the characters, the scenes themselves. And I know this is a "fantasy" movie but there has to be some sense of believability in the sequence of events but sadly, the writers chose to string a bunch of random events together and called it a story. It's not even a very good story. And it doesn't help that the writers/Michael (their mouthpiece) keep holding back information that any sane person who's leading a group of terrified people in a situation like that would have shared immediately. They're not safe. Why? Angels are trying to kill the pregnant lady. Why are the angels after her? They want to kill the child. Why? The child will save humanity. How? Not important right now, just shoot. Why can't we leave? It's not safe until the baby is born. Why are you telling us to leave now? Oh sorry, forgot to tell you, the possessed can't go near the kid. Getting information from Michael is like pulling teeth. I got more info from the trailer than I did from the entire first half of the movie. It's as if the writers think that by "revealing" new facts, that will make up for not tying up the major plot holes. For example. If people are getting possessed by angels, what makes the people in the diner immune? What makes anyone immune? That's never addressed. If Michael is able to get back into heaven, why is God continuing with his "plans?" The writers treat their audience like we're morons. Which is a shame. If they had just been honest with the audience up front about what the characters were facing and then given the characters a fighting chance against the possessed, we might have actually cared about them and rooted for them and been satisfied even if they'd all gone up in a blaze of glory. Instead we're just like, oh hohum, another one bit the dust. This could've been a good action movie or even a decent suspenseful survival movie. Instead it's a cliched mess that I hope you don't ever have the displeasure of watching.
The Losers was a good action flick. The characters were interesting and likeable (Zoe Saldana, in particular, is riveting) and the overall plot makes sense. The action scenes are really great looking and there's plenty of humor. Unfortunately, it suffered from two major problems: 1) lack of a decent villain, and 2) a crap ending. The villain, Max, is made out to be a twisted guy with a God complex and non-existent morality. He's supposed to be scary and practically omniscient and close to unbeatable because he has all these resources and knowledge and money, etc. The actor who played Max, Jason Patric, just isn't up to the task and neither are the writers. The writers gave him dialogue that was supposed to make him sound debonairly evil. They failed and he comes across as weak and boring and almost stupid. And the ending...this had fishing for sequel written all over it. Very little ties together, there's very little resolution, so it's almost anticlimatic after all the cool action. The reasons why Max betrayed the Losers to begin with are rather weak, too. If they had just given the story a little more oomph, this could have been a good franchise. As it is, I have to grade the Losers as decent, but fairly forgettable.
Iron Man 2 was a good movie. It's not as good as the first one but it's a decent sequel and RDJ is an excellent actor. The movie has a few problems that you probably won't notice until afterwards when you're thinking about it, but while you're in it, it's a very enjoyable ride. I like Terrence Howard and I think he was a good Rhodey but Don Cheadle was definitely an upgrade. He came across as someone who could be best buddies with Tony Stark while also being a very badass military colonel. The action is great and the Black Widow's fight scenes were especially well filmed. One major problem I had with the Black Widow though, is that she's kind of superfluous to the plot. She doesn't actually add anything other than some visual appeal. She isn't actually a love interest, she doesn't bring new info to the table. Her sole job is to look pretty and mysterious and kick butt while fixing Rhodey's suit in one scene. That's it. I wish they had come up with a storyline that actually utilized her. I also wished the final battle had been a bit more climactic. Just a teeny tiny bit. I thought that one thing that the movie did right was the character of Justin Hammer. He's not a scary villain, not like Vanko. But he's both hilarious and nuanced. He wants so badly to be Tony Stark and it shows in every thing that he does. Double kudos to Sam Rockwell for a job well done. It's hard to top Iron Man (which I still maintain is one of the best superhero movies that's been made so far) but I'm just glad Iron Man 2 didn't tank (like X3 *shudder*).
And just to add a bit of spice. A TV review! (With mild spoilers) I watched the Grey's Anatomy season finale last night. Wow. Just...WOW. I'm not one of those fans who's been watching the show from the very beginning. I watched the first two episodes when it first came out and then quit because I had no time for another drama. I saw a few random episodes every so often (maybe one a year) so I missed what's considered the golden seasons (1 & 2). I started watching it last year with a few friends and I got hooked. Sure, it has its problems. Since it's a typical American drama, the story isn't actually building anywhere because there's no ending in sight. So sometimes it just feels like we're cycling through relationship issue after issue and no one's ever going to be happy. But the characters (some of them anyway) are so interesting that you keep coming back for more because you want to see them happy and growing and just LIVING (Cristina is by far my favorite, with Lexie as a close second, and Alex coming in third). I guess what I'm rambling on about is that I have no comparison to base this on since I've only been watching for about one and a half seasons. But there are 2 episodes so far this season that have really blown me away, the episode that told the story backwards, and this one. I haven't been so wracked with nerves while watching a TV show in a long time. The way they wrote this episode was so suspenseful. You had no idea what would happen next. And there was so much character development. I liked how they didn't cheat the audience. The characters are going through a crisis and they change as they work their way through it. I don't cry that easily and I was bawling while Bailey was pounding on the elevators. I think the greatest strength of the episode was that it didn't come across as melodramatic. It was intense instead. The violence was shocking but it wasn't over the top and it wasn't violent just to be violent or specifically just to shock the audience. And best of all, no cliffhanger. After an episode that great, with such great storytelling and development and tightness, the audience is left wanting to come back to see the aftermath. See, TV execs? You don't always have to dangle cliffhangers in your finales to get people to watch next season. If you're going to do something catastrophic and devastating, this is the way to do it. With good storytelling and class and believability and intensity without relying on angst and obviousness and cliches. I was so worried at the beginning that they would do something super predictable (my guess was that Meredith would get shot and survive but miscarry which would've been super obvious) but the show surprised me again and again. And that's the other thing I really enjoyed, being surprised in a good way. The surprises were believable. They weren't surprises of convenience or surprises to shock. You just didn't know what was going to happen. This one episode is excellent TV and if they can keep it up, Greys might be a viable TV show again next season. Here's hoping!
Legion is possibly one of the worst movies I've ever seen. Which is saying something because I've watched a LOT of movies. The concept is really interesting so it's not as if it didn't have potential. I thought the fight scene between the two angels was really cool looking. And...that's all the good stuff. Everything else is a cliche. The dialogue, the characters, the scenes themselves. And I know this is a "fantasy" movie but there has to be some sense of believability in the sequence of events but sadly, the writers chose to string a bunch of random events together and called it a story. It's not even a very good story. And it doesn't help that the writers/Michael (their mouthpiece) keep holding back information that any sane person who's leading a group of terrified people in a situation like that would have shared immediately. They're not safe. Why? Angels are trying to kill the pregnant lady. Why are the angels after her? They want to kill the child. Why? The child will save humanity. How? Not important right now, just shoot. Why can't we leave? It's not safe until the baby is born. Why are you telling us to leave now? Oh sorry, forgot to tell you, the possessed can't go near the kid. Getting information from Michael is like pulling teeth. I got more info from the trailer than I did from the entire first half of the movie. It's as if the writers think that by "revealing" new facts, that will make up for not tying up the major plot holes. For example. If people are getting possessed by angels, what makes the people in the diner immune? What makes anyone immune? That's never addressed. If Michael is able to get back into heaven, why is God continuing with his "plans?" The writers treat their audience like we're morons. Which is a shame. If they had just been honest with the audience up front about what the characters were facing and then given the characters a fighting chance against the possessed, we might have actually cared about them and rooted for them and been satisfied even if they'd all gone up in a blaze of glory. Instead we're just like, oh hohum, another one bit the dust. This could've been a good action movie or even a decent suspenseful survival movie. Instead it's a cliched mess that I hope you don't ever have the displeasure of watching.
The Losers was a good action flick. The characters were interesting and likeable (Zoe Saldana, in particular, is riveting) and the overall plot makes sense. The action scenes are really great looking and there's plenty of humor. Unfortunately, it suffered from two major problems: 1) lack of a decent villain, and 2) a crap ending. The villain, Max, is made out to be a twisted guy with a God complex and non-existent morality. He's supposed to be scary and practically omniscient and close to unbeatable because he has all these resources and knowledge and money, etc. The actor who played Max, Jason Patric, just isn't up to the task and neither are the writers. The writers gave him dialogue that was supposed to make him sound debonairly evil. They failed and he comes across as weak and boring and almost stupid. And the ending...this had fishing for sequel written all over it. Very little ties together, there's very little resolution, so it's almost anticlimatic after all the cool action. The reasons why Max betrayed the Losers to begin with are rather weak, too. If they had just given the story a little more oomph, this could have been a good franchise. As it is, I have to grade the Losers as decent, but fairly forgettable.
Iron Man 2 was a good movie. It's not as good as the first one but it's a decent sequel and RDJ is an excellent actor. The movie has a few problems that you probably won't notice until afterwards when you're thinking about it, but while you're in it, it's a very enjoyable ride. I like Terrence Howard and I think he was a good Rhodey but Don Cheadle was definitely an upgrade. He came across as someone who could be best buddies with Tony Stark while also being a very badass military colonel. The action is great and the Black Widow's fight scenes were especially well filmed. One major problem I had with the Black Widow though, is that she's kind of superfluous to the plot. She doesn't actually add anything other than some visual appeal. She isn't actually a love interest, she doesn't bring new info to the table. Her sole job is to look pretty and mysterious and kick butt while fixing Rhodey's suit in one scene. That's it. I wish they had come up with a storyline that actually utilized her. I also wished the final battle had been a bit more climactic. Just a teeny tiny bit. I thought that one thing that the movie did right was the character of Justin Hammer. He's not a scary villain, not like Vanko. But he's both hilarious and nuanced. He wants so badly to be Tony Stark and it shows in every thing that he does. Double kudos to Sam Rockwell for a job well done. It's hard to top Iron Man (which I still maintain is one of the best superhero movies that's been made so far) but I'm just glad Iron Man 2 didn't tank (like X3 *shudder*).
And just to add a bit of spice. A TV review! (With mild spoilers) I watched the Grey's Anatomy season finale last night. Wow. Just...WOW. I'm not one of those fans who's been watching the show from the very beginning. I watched the first two episodes when it first came out and then quit because I had no time for another drama. I saw a few random episodes every so often (maybe one a year) so I missed what's considered the golden seasons (1 & 2). I started watching it last year with a few friends and I got hooked. Sure, it has its problems. Since it's a typical American drama, the story isn't actually building anywhere because there's no ending in sight. So sometimes it just feels like we're cycling through relationship issue after issue and no one's ever going to be happy. But the characters (some of them anyway) are so interesting that you keep coming back for more because you want to see them happy and growing and just LIVING (Cristina is by far my favorite, with Lexie as a close second, and Alex coming in third). I guess what I'm rambling on about is that I have no comparison to base this on since I've only been watching for about one and a half seasons. But there are 2 episodes so far this season that have really blown me away, the episode that told the story backwards, and this one. I haven't been so wracked with nerves while watching a TV show in a long time. The way they wrote this episode was so suspenseful. You had no idea what would happen next. And there was so much character development. I liked how they didn't cheat the audience. The characters are going through a crisis and they change as they work their way through it. I don't cry that easily and I was bawling while Bailey was pounding on the elevators. I think the greatest strength of the episode was that it didn't come across as melodramatic. It was intense instead. The violence was shocking but it wasn't over the top and it wasn't violent just to be violent or specifically just to shock the audience. And best of all, no cliffhanger. After an episode that great, with such great storytelling and development and tightness, the audience is left wanting to come back to see the aftermath. See, TV execs? You don't always have to dangle cliffhangers in your finales to get people to watch next season. If you're going to do something catastrophic and devastating, this is the way to do it. With good storytelling and class and believability and intensity without relying on angst and obviousness and cliches. I was so worried at the beginning that they would do something super predictable (my guess was that Meredith would get shot and survive but miscarry which would've been super obvious) but the show surprised me again and again. And that's the other thing I really enjoyed, being surprised in a good way. The surprises were believable. They weren't surprises of convenience or surprises to shock. You just didn't know what was going to happen. This one episode is excellent TV and if they can keep it up, Greys might be a viable TV show again next season. Here's hoping!