Movies reviewed this week: Ocean’s Eight.
Category: Reviews
I watched Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri the other night, finally, and then (as is my way) devoured as many reviews as possible and man, my take on Chief Willoughby is different.
Before I hit spoiler territory — yeah, this was a flawed movie. Vox has a backgrounder which is mostly pretty good. I agree that Dixon is not redeemed at the end of the movie, but McDonagh’s black characters are in fact just plot devices. It’s a painful flaw. That said, onward.
This is a perfectly good movie about fighting giant monsters, even when judged on an absolute scale. There is a plot with an interesting twist. Steven S. DeKnight has a good feel for action; the fight scenes play out clearly, even the ones in the middle of dense urban centers. I never lost track of where the combatants were.
There are no characters really. I apologize to John Boyega for this but he really doesn’t have much to do. He’s kind of a bunch of swaggering dialogue and charisma draped on top of a mannequin. He does what he can with the role, it’s just not a convincing part.
Our leftover trio from Pacific Rim is the exception. They’re all fine.
The big flaw is that the jaegers and kaiju don’t have any personality either. This is a fatal flaw. In Pacific Rim, it was a huge deal that there was one three-pilot jaeger. It fought differently, the pilots had a different relationship, it was cool. There’s a three-pilot jaeger in Uprising, which gets no exposition. “Oh, that’s where they’re sticking the extra pilot.” Very unfortunate.
On the other hand you get a decent number of fights, which are well filmed and satisfying. The plot is good, as noted, and it sets up a third movie well. I am happy I saw it even if it reminded me that it took Guillermo del Toro to make such a goofy concept awesome the first time around.
Movies reviewed this week: Pacific Rim: Uprising.
Movies reviewed this week: I Walk Alone, Bodyguard, and The Accused.
Movies reviewed this week: The Maltese Falcon, Quiet Please, Murder, Shadow of a Doubt, and Flesh and Fantasy.
Movies reviewed this week: Now You See Me 2.
Movies reviewed this week: Violent Saturday and The Sicilian Clan.
Movies reviewed this week: Suicide Squad.
Movies reviewed this week: The Visit: An Alien Encounter, Shrew’s Nest, Ryuzo and the Seven Henchmen, The Interior, Catch Me Daddy, Robbery, Cub, and Cop Car.