What Movie Did You Just Watch

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

I meant to comment on it earlier, but yeah, Furiosa was a great time. I think I'd give the overall edge to Fury Road for it's tighter pacing, but this is one of those rare cases of a prequel film being genuinely good.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Kind of mixed in my opinions on Alien: Romulus. I have a number of issues with it but also found a fair amount of things that I liked about it as well. After a single viewing, I'd say for now that I lean more positive than negative. At the same time, I can't really say that the best things about it weren't already done better by the first two films.

That's kind of par for the course with a Fede Alvarez film for me. He comes off as a perfectly "alright" horror director to me. He has competent enough story-telling skills and has a good sense of pacing, but I can't say that any of his films have left a particularly strong impression on me.

The callback lines from previous films were pretty cringe, but at least the movie wasn't overly reliant on those (and I have a feeling that may have been more of a studio push).

Some sequences in thus movie were both very creative and suitably intense, though, so in that way it at least feels like a suitable Alien film.

[Dr. Insomniac]

Yeah, I've heard mixed things. Oddly enough, I've seen more than a few people mad that this isn't the third part of Ridley Scott's David trilogy.

[Avaitor]

I just can't get myself interested in Romulus, even as someone who still finds the David movies mid. I also am not in Alvarez's court, I didn't like Evil Dead 13 very much at all. Rise was better, but I still don't care for the franchise's recent direction. At the same time, I grew tired of Ash Vs. partway through its run, so maybe it's a franchise best left dormant?

Alien shouldn't have to be, and I'm interested in Noah Hawley's series. But at this point, I'm more interested in another Predator movie closer to Prey.

[Dr. Insomniac]

So, Beetlejuice Beetlejuice. Yeah, it's not as good as the first one, and the middle part of the film with Jenna Ortega feels a lot like reheated first draft scenes from Wednesday, but it was nice seeing this version of Tim Burton back after so many phoned-in adaptations. The return of the Burton who regularly did homages of the B-movie giallos and horrors he watched as a kid. I read someone pointing out that Lydia here is basically a self-insert for modern Burton, a celebrity sell-out who's only goth on the surface these days and has a revolving-door love life. And that combined with reading a lot of Burton's recent interviews where he admits he's as frustrated with his recent projects as we are made it one of the more fascinating sequels to old 90s family movies.

Spoiler

Kinda odd they gave a whole subplot to Lydia's dad even though he died before the movie starts and his actor doesn't show up due to being blacklisted.

[close]

[Avaitor]

I loved Beetlejuice Beetlejuice myself, although I can see how it might read weird depending on your relationship with the original. If you're turned off by the character's sex pest tendencies, seeing him contribute to something almost kind of good and positive while not going fully into animated series territory may not work... but I dunno, it lands for me. Feels like your funky uncle bringing the weird back when you need it the most. Hopefully this wasn't just a fluke, and we can get fun, audacious Burton back on the regular.

As happy as I am to see Keaton still have it as the ghost with the most and to get genuinely good performances from Ryder and Ortega (although I agree that the latter's material felt a little too Wednesday-ish for my tastes), I was especially surprised by Catherine O'Hara. I was worried that she was still in Moira Rose mood from everything I'd seen before, but she matched her energy in the original to a T.

[Dr. Insomniac]

Well, The Crow 2024 was just as bad as everyone said. The most damning is how the movie spends half its runtime setting up Eric and Shelly's romance, and while it's meant to give substance to their tragic deaths, it also felt like if a Spider-Man movie made you go "Jesus, can Uncle Ben fucking die already so we can get to the main story?"

I don't want to be one of those guys who thinks the movie sucks because it changes things, especially since any remake or reboot will have to deal with how the first movie's been mythologized thanks to the tragedy surrounding Brandon Lee and how the story of a guy in the prime of his life getting shot and killed makes it almost impossible to separate the fiction from the real-life context of the production, but it's such a downgrade from the '94 film. The absence of Sarah and Ernie Hudson's character are heavily felt, and given what we know about why the comic was made, it feels kinda crass to turn Eric and Shelly into drug addicts who meet in rehab.

And it's not enough that this version of the Crow looks like the Jared Leto Joker, he spends other parts of the movie dressed either like Billie Eilish or a Soundcloud rapper. It's a movie very devoid of fashion sense.