by Kush Bansal | Sep 23, 2019 | Opinion & Reviews
I don’t need to talk much about this movie. It’s the sequel to 2017’s It. It’s 3 hours long. It’s also double the budget. And it is one of my most disappointing movies of the year.
The plot: Defeated by members of the Losers’ Club, the evil clown Pennywise returns 27 years later to terrorize the town of Derry, Maine, once again. Now adults, childhood friends have long since gone their separate ways. But when people start disappearing, Mike Hanlon calls the others home for one final stand. Damaged by scars from the past, the united Losers must conquer their deepest fears to destroy the shape-shifting Pennywise — now more powerful than ever.
This movie was okay. The acting, however, was great. Bill Hader as Ritchie was hilarious as well as James McAvoy who brought his best in portraying the best version of Bill. The acting kept me riveted and interested throughout the film. The special effects (well most of them) were very good. The makeup for Pennywise was fantastic and brought chills when you saw him on screen. The music was fitting and overall cinematography and look of the movie was fitting for the setting and was excellent, and while the runtime was long, the pacing was well done.
My main issues with the movie were the adaptation from book to the screen — it focused too much on subplots that were not relevant to the overall plot of the movie. I do know that a 6-hour supercut of the movie will be released at some point, but I’m reviewing what we got, not what we will eventually get. Another issue was the fact that I was never scared throughout the movie and expected more thrills for a longer movie. Also, the lighting was atrocious in some scenes because the action set pieces, flashing lights and constant movement distracted me from the scene and it could potentially cause seizures for those with epilepsy. The reason why these aspects of the movie disappointed me is that I expected more from a longer runtime as well as the fact that It: Chapter 2 was a sequel to the far superior It. Still, not everything can be perfect and what we got was acceptable.
Overall, while I don’t think the movie is awful, I did expect more and was ultimately disappointed in the final product. I’m going to give It: Chapter 2 a B. Thank you for reading my review and be sure to be on the lookout for more coming soon.
by Kush Bansal | Mar 12, 2019 | Opinion & Reviews
It’s that time of the year, Marvel released a brand new movie. Yay. Going off of the new trend of female leads, they created a movie about Captain Marvel. Who is Captain Marvel? Let’s just say that she’s that one character in a video game that is overpowered, but never gets nerfed. All jokes aside, this movie has recently been getting lots of hate. Captain Marvel is pretty controversial to some, with some reviews on Rotten Tomatoes even protesting to boycott this movie. While some reviewers say that this is the weakest of the Marvel movies, I believe that this movie is enjoyable.
The action, dialogue, music, and most of the special effects were fantastic. From scene one, I was captivated, as the protagonist Captain Marvel, played by Oscar-winning actress Brie Larson, is wrapped as a mystery. As the movie proceeded, we get bits and pieces of who she is, as well as what really happened in an incident which causes her to lose her memory. The movie is also the set-up Avengers: Endgame which is coming out next month, and while this is done in a post-credits scene, it still flows very well.
The main flaws I have with Captain Marvel is that the movie could have been shorter by about 10 minutes, as nothing was done in that 10 minutes to progress the movie. Another issue was some of the CGI isn’t as good as I hoped it would be, which is an issue, as Marvel has million dollar assets to improve this. Finally, the main villain is slightly predictable, and Captain Marvel did not have the focus to create a compelling antagonist of the film. All that being said, I still really like this movie.
This is my final opinion on Captain Marvel and I am going to give it a B+. Thank you for reading my review and have a great day.
by Kush Bansal | Mar 2, 2019 | Opinion & Reviews
Netflix. Netflix. Netflix. Hm. Interesting. Killed Blockbuster. Brought streaming to all mobile devices. Has great shows like Friends and The Office. Canceled every Marvel show. Hm. But they did spend billions of dollars on original content. I mean, who wouldn’t want to watch Bird Box? The best movie of 2018?
No. No. No. This movie was subjectively and utterly terrible and a sin to mankind.
Bird Box is about Russian aliens who, when they look at you, make you commit suicide. Weird premise but okay. Sandra Bullock (who won an Oscar) is pregnant and goes around avoiding these monsters, and eventually seeks shelter at John Malkovich’s house. Then the alien gets in, kills everyone, and Sandra has to run. Will she survive?
I don’t know. I switched off the movie after an hour.
This movie was bland, unoriginal, and dull. Sure, it looked nice and all, but nothing made sense. It was too convenient and the acting was awful. Now, I’m only reviewing this movie because people told me to. And to that, I said, “Thanks guys, you really are amazing!” All sarcasm aside, I need to get better friends, and also, I need to give this movie an F.
I apologize for being so negative, but I hated this movie. All that being said, thank you for reading my article and I hope to see you next time.
by Kush Bansal | Jan 29, 2019 | Opinion & Reviews
In the year-long class Intro to Video Production, we recently watched Forrest Gump to look at the countless special effects used in the film, headlining into our next unit. I had never seen Forrest Gump until this week, but I have to say that it is probably my top 10 favorite movies. Here’s why!
The movie is about Forrest Gump, played by Tom Hanks (Toy Story, Catch Me If You Can) marvelously. Forrest is waiting for a bus while narrating his life story to the people who sit by him. He describes his role in the Vietnam War, Watergate, being a ping pong champion, and more, all the way to his experiences with his best friend, Jenny.
You may be asking yourself as to how special effects fit in with this movie. In 1994, it was monumental for blending in stock footage and real-time footage. In layman’s terms, there could be a documentary of JFK playing but Tom Hanks would act in dead space or as an extra. Then, the subjects of the footage would be dubbed to say as to what is being conveyed in the story. This would make for entertaining scenes and would go on to win an Academy Award, along with others, for its special effects.
This movie is also amazing because of the acting. Tom Hanks’ acting is amazing as he had to be someone who isn’t the smartest (low IQ) and has to go around making choices that would otherwise be straightforward. What was so awesome about the performance was that he found a balanced performance, where he could make scenes funny with his stupidity. The story and the soundtrack are also very good and fit perfectly with the setting of the story. The movie was well-paced and constantly entertaining. Also, I don’t have experiences where I cry over movies, but I have to say that this movie’s ending had me slightly choked up, as it wonderfully concludes a fantastic plot without ever needing to set up a pointless sequel or “extended universes” (looking at you, Disney).
I am going to give Forrest Gump an A+. Thank you for reading and I’ll catch you next time with my next review.
by Kush Bansal | Jan 27, 2019 | Opinion & Reviews
Recently, I saw Spiderman Into The Spiderverse. This is the first animated Spiderman movie and takes a different approach to the story, as the movie centers around Miles Morales, not Peter Parker. The movie is about the daily life of Miles Morales and his life around another Spiderman, Peter Parker. But when something happens that changes Miles’ identity, he must overcome the negative to become the new true Spiderman.
An interesting thing about this movie is that it is set across new universes, where the Spiderman we know is in another universe, and the “Mile Morales” Spiderman is actually from another universe — the universe we focus on. I’m not going any deeper into the story because I want you to experience this “amazing” movie (no pun intended 😉 ) if you haven’t seen it.
All jokes aside, this movie was very well handled. First off, the animation was spectacular. The visual effects team needed to create a new technique of animation to get the film to have a “comic-book” feel. And coming from the studio who made the Emoji Movie, I was genuinely surprised at how good this movie looked. The characters and story were also phenomenal. For mainstream audiences, Mile Morales isn’t exactly the well-known Spiderman we know, so during the first half an hour when we see Miles, we can almost connect to him on the same level we connected with Peter Parker in the earlier Spiderman movies. The side characters, like Peter Parker, were also extremely hilarious and also were pivotal to crafting the character arc Miles goes through. The music was also spectacular, as artists such as Post Malone and Vince Staples lead an amazing soundtrack.
If I had one flaw with this movie, it is that the villains could have been fleshed out more. I felt that I didn’t care for them, which isn’t all bad, as that time for the villains was perfectly used to create interesting side characters that Miles would interact with.
In the end, I’m going to give Spiderman Into The Spiderverse an A. Thank you guys for reading this review and have a fantastic rest of your day.
