Wonder Woman, Saving the Summer Blockbuster Season

The summer blockbuster season so far this year has had a bit of a rough start. With movies coming out like King Arthur, Pirates of the Caribbean, and Baywatch, it hasn’t started off on the right foot. One of the better movies to come out so far this season was Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2., a superhero movie. And here we are again, Wonder Woman, another superhero movie, taking the summer blockbuster in the right direction.

The Wonder Woman movie is, first of all, an excellent origin story movie. In the past there’s been a problem with superhero movies where the first half has to be their origin, and then halfway through they throw in a random villain because there has to be a villain for them to beat. This has lead to the problem where it comes across that superheroes aren’t about using their own strength to protect people, it’s about beating the villain. It takes away the integral justice away from the just.

Patty Jenkins (the director) saw this problem, and overcame it in her movie. The villain was well established, and posed an active threat that pushed off the plot. It feels so odd to be saying that this is one of the good things about the Wonder Woman movie, because you’d think that should be the case for most superhero movies. It even played around expectations a bit. I feel like the direction it went in should have been obvious looking back on it, but during the movie I was caught completely off guard. Along with all this, Patty Jenkins made Wonder Woman a hero that cares about people. Wonder Woman went out of her way to use her powers for the sake of others.

I could get into the nitty gritty of all the things that made this a good origin story, but the real reason why would be that most of the story elements melded together fairly well.

The characters throughout the movie felt very genuine. Each of them had their own little story we learn about in a natural way. This really stood out to me because while they would tell the stories of other characters, Wonder Woman remained the central focus throughout. They didn’t need to take away from Diana’s story to give others some time to shine. Steven Trevor (Chris Pine) in particular worried me at first, because one way I could see them messing this movie up was by making it all about him. But I actually really enjoyed his character by the end. He played an important role, but it was clear throughout that Diana is the main character. Even as a love interest he was good.

Of course, like most superhero movies, there was a romance subplot. It can get egregious sometimes with how it just has to happen, even if it feels forced. This wasn’t the case though with Wonder Woman. There was a good and believable development in the relationship between the female and male lead.

The message of the movie was a bit cheesy, but I feel like it earned that cheesy ending. It was a bit of a broad message so of course it fit the rest of the movie. But it felt like classic Lynda Carter Wonder Woman, and I couldn’t find myself being annoyed at it. The movie had sold me entirely at that point that the cheesy message was kind of a fun touch to it.

On my scale of Catch the Premiere, See it in Theaters, See the Matinee, Buy the DVD, Rent the DVD, or Skip It, Wonder Woman lands firmly at Catch the Premiere.

Logan

It’s Comic-Con weekend and after a day of seeing super heroes everywhere I went and saw Logan.

(Here I am at the theater, still in cosplay)

In the far future, a sickly Wolverine is one of the last mutants. He is in hiding and is helping an old Professor X. While running away from his past, he is confronted by the first young mutant that’s appeared in years, and must help her against forces that want to use her for their own gain.

Here are my thoughts on the movie after seeing it.

I’ll start off by saying relative to the other X-Men movies, Logan was pretty good. Which I know isn’t saying all that much, but the X-Men have always been those super heroes that have had a harder transition from the comics to the silver screen. It’s not so much a dig at other X-Men movies as it is pointing out that they’re starting to figure out a formula.

The pace was fairly slow all throughout the film. Which surprised me in a pleasant way. It makes sense considering that Wolverine is supposed to be an old man at this point that is slowly dying. 

X-23 was fantastic. She didn’t spend that much time in the film talking, so she just had to express emotion through her actions. On top of that she was really good at being an action star. I found myself enjoying the fight scenes with X-23 more than I did than the ones without her. And I will say I always loved how angry Wolverine gets in all the fight scenes he’s been in, so seeing X-23 deliver that same energy always got me pumped. Which, with the slow pace, was delightful.

Lastly, I feel like there’s a lot that can be said about X-23 having a blank stare and bloody knuckles.

This picture can basically describe the whole movie.

There were some things that didn’t have any resolution to them, and I wasn’t sure if that’s because they want to make a sequel or if it was just a problem with the writing. There was a lot of confusion and a lot of things I thought were loose ends, but it turned out there were answers that were just very briefly mentioned. These answers had to be taken from references and implications, and I felt like it would have helped to have more concrete facts.

At one point of time in the movie there’s this whole sequence that’s shot like a dream sequence, and it was really confusing when it turned out not to be one. I get what they were going for, but the transition to this scene was pretty non-diegetic. It kept going on and on, and I kept thinking there’d be some reveal that none of that actually just happened, but that reveal never came.

There was also this story element that was introduced ⅔’s of the way through that felt like it was just there to add more tension. They gave a reason for why Logan couldn’t use it, and then Logan had to use it, but faced none of the consequences for why they said he couldn’t use it.

Overall, Logan was a pretty alright movie. It was fine and all, and I want to see more X-23 as Wolverine, but this felt like a good last movie for Logan as Wolverine.

On my scale of: Premiere, See it in theaters, Matinee, Buy the DVD, Rent it, or Skip it, Logan lands firmly at just Buy the DVD

Kingsmen the Secret Service

Kingsmen the Secret Service is a James Bond-esque spy movie. It is actually based off the comic book series of the same name. They definitely make it clear throughout the movie that they have taken inspiration from old James Bond stories.

The story was kind of similar to Star Wars (A New Hope) according to my brother. The main character was like Luke Skywalker, his mentor was like Obi-Wan, and the villain has a weapon that'll kill everyone unless the main character stops it. Which sounds pretty generic on paper, but with that in mind, does seem kind of like a retelling of Star Wars.

The action sequences were intense and way over the top. It was kind of like a John Woo movie in that sense. In Kingsmen, the fight scenes were very brutal and I did have to just look away from the screen at times because I'm not a fan of that.

There was a lot of comedy mixed into the movie. It could really catch you off guard too because of how tense the scene would seem to be. Some jokes were a little too much though. Granted, not too many jokes, but those jokes that were kind of bad did leave a bad impression on me.

The pacing throughout the movie was really good. I never felt like time was being wasted with any of the scenes. Everything was when and where it was supposed to be.

So the Kingsmen movie was like a modern day old James Bond movie made by John Woo with a hint of Star Wars.

Sent via the Samsung Galaxy S™ III, an AT&T 4G LTE smartphone

The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water

SpongeBob Squarepants was a large part of my childhood. So, of course, I decided to see the movie even though I had to go alone.

The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water had an interesting sense of humor throughout the film. It rarely relied on cheap gags like a fart joke. I wouldn't go so far as to call the jokes comedic genius, but there were a few that surprised me. They did end up slipping in some jokes for the parents who went with their kid(s).

I understand that it is a kids movie, but that doesn't mean that it can't have better writing. The story structure seemed a bit off and all over the place at times. There's no real clear arc. The climax was a bit uninteresting and the resolution felt kind of disappointing.

When compared to the first SpongeBob movie, this movie sort of pales in comparison. The first Spongebob movie had a good story structure, a clear arc, and a good climax and resolution.

This SpongeBob edition is a fun movie to see. It is enjoyable. But there isn't really anything to talk about afterwards. It's just a kids movie with no real complexity to it. Sometimes it is enough for a kids movie to just be a kids movie.

A long time ago on a Melodrama stage far far away

Original Melodrama "May The Farce Be With You - or - The Empire Sings Flat" - Written and Directed by Eli and Brady Bourgard

For more pictures from this fantastic show visit the Sixth Street Melodrama Facebook page