MontyD Reviews

Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021)

Pure fan-service...not much else

[5/10 · 28 March 2022]

There's not much to this unless you are a huge fan of Spider-Man...it's two and a half hours of references to other Spider-Man movies, but unless you have a nostalgic connection to them, there's nothing really interesting going on here.

The plot, such as it is, is just an excuse to have the different Spider-Mans and old villains interacting. I'm sure it's all very entertaining to some people...but not for me.

The Big Emotional Ending felt contrived; it wasn't clear to me why it needed to happen or how it was even possible.

So if the above sounds like fun, this is the movie for you. Not so much for casual MCU fans.

Ran (1985)

Big fan of other Kurosawa films but this just isn't the same.

[6/10 · 25 July 2021]

The flaws of this film are numerous; the cinematography seems intentionally primitive, with lots of static wide shots and zero, I mean ZERO closeups in the entire film. It really feels like a stage play on film, with lots of overacting and melodrama.

The lead character of Hideotora goes mad about halfway through the film and then there are endless scenes of him being wide-eyed and crazy, and it gets old fast.

The battle scenes are a huge swing and a miss, endless shots of horses and men running around aimlessly, followed by endless shots of them getting mowed down by gunfire. It gets old fast. And the rate of fire of those guns simply is not accurate to the times.

In short, if you want to get into Kurosawa, watch his black and white classics, Rashomon, Seven Samurai, Throne of Blood...not this, which, IMO, is a sad endnote to a great director's career.

Star Wars: Episode VII - The Force Awakens (2015)

Disappointing

[4/10 · 22 December 2015]

Yes, it's better than the prequels. But this film is still not what Star Wars fans have been waiting 30+ years for. Did we really wait 3 decades to see a remake of A New Hope? Because make no mistake, that is what this movie is. Episode VII? Hardly. It's Episode IV 2.0. There's barely a single original plot line in this movie.

Ah, the plot. There is next to no explanation for what happened during the 30 year gap, but somehow the Empire is back and the Rebels are back to being the underdogs. It just seems like a clumsy attempt to reset everything back to the original Star Wars...which it is. The climax is nothing but a rip-off of the original Death Star battle, just with updated 2015 visual effects which somehow makes it much less interesting.

On the positive side I liked the new characters, the performances and the humour, something sorely missing from the prequels. The practical special effects are nice to see, but there are still some boring and unconvincing CGI characters.

In summary, this is almost what I expected from Jar Jar Abrams, a safe, take no chances remake of the original Star Wars, that is competently made and entertaining enough for the masses. Go into it with low expectations and you'll like it. But if you've actually been expecting a worthy follow up to the OT that takes the story in new directions, you'll be sorely disappointed.