One great movie and one disappointment
As I mentioned last time, my movie previews site has been paying dividends. The latest is a movie I'm glad I got to see for free, because I would have paid for it otherwise and that would have been a mistake. I cannot recommend:
#56: Now You See Me - An FBI agent and an Interpol detective track a team of illusionists who pull off bank heists during their performances and reward their audiences with the money. [imdb]
"Hot mess" is maybe a slight exaggeration, but boy, was it messy. It was entertaining, but all over the place. It had a large number of strong cast members, but no worthy characters. It played the misdirection theme so hard that the audience ends up looking in the right place most of the time, when they'd rather be looking at the show.
And it's such a disappointment, too, because the premise is strong. I totally want to watch magicians pulling off bank heists and such! I wanted it to be The Prestige plus Ocean's 11. It starts out that way but quickly shifts much more of the focus onto the investigative side. There are Reasons for this, but they are dumb. Mark Ruffalo, whom I normally enjoy very much, overplays it badly. Melanie Laurent does what she can; unfortunately, it's not enough, and the attempt at a Mulder and Scully-ish romance arc between them falls flat. Meanwhile, you also have a Morgan Freeman story that's just annoying, some nonsense about real magic, and somehow the magicians you thought the movie was about have become background noise. The movie is scattered, reaching, and underdeveloped.
There's humor, mostly courtesy of Woody Harrelson being Woody Harrelson. There's clever tricks and snappy dialogue, mostly given to Jesse Eisenberg. That's about it. The more I think about it, the worse this movie becomes. :-/
Skip it.
On a much more positive note, I finally got around last night o seeing:
#57: Iron Man 3 - When Tony Stark's world is torn apart by a formidable terrorist called the Mandarin, he starts an odyssey of rebuilding and retribution. [imdb]
Fun, entertaining, more than worthy addition to the Marvel movieverse. This movie engaged my brain in a good way with effective character development, thrilling action, and a solid plot. It had a lot of the UI porn that's often my favorite part of the Iron Man movies, and I actually enjoyed Tony Stark quite a bit more than usual, too. (Sorry! I am a Thor girl.) Even the kid sidekick was non-annoying.
Of course, I loved seeing Rebecca Hall, and Ben Kingsley's role was extremely well done. Unlike other movies we can name, that surprise and complication was handled in a great way by the entire production. The character was excellent, too. Even Guy Pearce's character didn't fall too much into cliche until near the end.
The end was a bit rough. Did anyone really think Pepper wasn't going to go all phoenix? Also, I can accept that the various Extremis Soldiers' durability depended mostly on plot needs, but Killian's ultimate destruction became tiresome. It also seemed a real shame to blow up all the Iron suits because again, does anyone really think they're not coming back the next time he's called up? It was a waste of good work. Just put them in the closet and stop making more if you need to, dude.
Also, I feel like if the President gets threatened/kidnapped, you at least call in Captain America. They could (and did) explain the rest away pretty well, but that required a higher degree of suspension of disbelief.
Despite those issues, it was a great thrill ride and I'm glad I saw it (and stayed past the credits).
#56: Now You See Me - An FBI agent and an Interpol detective track a team of illusionists who pull off bank heists during their performances and reward their audiences with the money. [imdb]
"Hot mess" is maybe a slight exaggeration, but boy, was it messy. It was entertaining, but all over the place. It had a large number of strong cast members, but no worthy characters. It played the misdirection theme so hard that the audience ends up looking in the right place most of the time, when they'd rather be looking at the show.
And it's such a disappointment, too, because the premise is strong. I totally want to watch magicians pulling off bank heists and such! I wanted it to be The Prestige plus Ocean's 11. It starts out that way but quickly shifts much more of the focus onto the investigative side. There are Reasons for this, but they are dumb. Mark Ruffalo, whom I normally enjoy very much, overplays it badly. Melanie Laurent does what she can; unfortunately, it's not enough, and the attempt at a Mulder and Scully-ish romance arc between them falls flat. Meanwhile, you also have a Morgan Freeman story that's just annoying, some nonsense about real magic, and somehow the magicians you thought the movie was about have become background noise. The movie is scattered, reaching, and underdeveloped.
There's humor, mostly courtesy of Woody Harrelson being Woody Harrelson. There's clever tricks and snappy dialogue, mostly given to Jesse Eisenberg. That's about it. The more I think about it, the worse this movie becomes. :-/
Skip it.
On a much more positive note, I finally got around last night o seeing:
#57: Iron Man 3 - When Tony Stark's world is torn apart by a formidable terrorist called the Mandarin, he starts an odyssey of rebuilding and retribution. [imdb]
Fun, entertaining, more than worthy addition to the Marvel movieverse. This movie engaged my brain in a good way with effective character development, thrilling action, and a solid plot. It had a lot of the UI porn that's often my favorite part of the Iron Man movies, and I actually enjoyed Tony Stark quite a bit more than usual, too. (Sorry! I am a Thor girl.) Even the kid sidekick was non-annoying.
Of course, I loved seeing Rebecca Hall, and Ben Kingsley's role was extremely well done. Unlike other movies we can name, that surprise and complication was handled in a great way by the entire production. The character was excellent, too. Even Guy Pearce's character didn't fall too much into cliche until near the end.
The end was a bit rough. Did anyone really think Pepper wasn't going to go all phoenix? Also, I can accept that the various Extremis Soldiers' durability depended mostly on plot needs, but Killian's ultimate destruction became tiresome. It also seemed a real shame to blow up all the Iron suits because again, does anyone really think they're not coming back the next time he's called up? It was a waste of good work. Just put them in the closet and stop making more if you need to, dude.
Also, I feel like if the President gets threatened/kidnapped, you at least call in Captain America. They could (and did) explain the rest away pretty well, but that required a higher degree of suspension of disbelief.
Despite those issues, it was a great thrill ride and I'm glad I saw it (and stayed past the credits).