Category: Action

“Zack Snyder’s Justice League”

8.7

Worth every second of the 4 hour runtime.

Everything lacking from the first go-round or that didn’t fit, fixed. One of the few times I’m thankful for the power of a hashtag. Everything from the color palate to the soundtrack has been redeemed to it’s initially intended glory. I had my doubts, as I think we all did. Zack Snyder went ahead and blew expectations out of the water, and singlehandedly put the DCEU back on the map.

The characters finally get the screen time and TLC they all deserve, leaving each fulfilled to a degree not imagined in the first version. No more odd jokes, no more creeping on Wonder Woman, no more rushing the story to fumble the ending. A well thought out and constructed masterpiece, leaving hope for the legendary stable of superheroes once again, instead of the feeling of doubt and turn back to Marvel. The darkness in this film and unabashed nature of the consequences experienced was refreshing. The finale battle topped by one of the greatest 5 minute finale scenes I’ve seen in a superhero film in some time. The actors seemed engaged, and to fully buy into their roles in this version. You can feel the passion that went into the project. Like a phoenix rising from the ashes, flying off to claw the eyes out of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

It took a couple days to process before I felt fully ready to write this. Great call on the part of Warner Bros. to green light this hairbrained idea, and even better call on Zack Snyder foregoing a salary for complete creative control.

Bravo!

“The Marksman”

6.5

Meh…

If you enjoy the “Taken” franchise and Clint Eastwood’s recent politically-tinged thrillers, then you’ll enjoy this one. Subtlety and nuance definitely aren’t what you’re going to get here. A fairly ham-handed relationship that blossoms between the son and Liam, replacing the daughter he pushes away as the film progresses. I’ve seen worse, I’ve seen better.

“Greenland”

5.5

I’ll save you two hours of your life. Remember the whackadoodle notion that the U.S. was going to buy Greenland? This movie is just as, if not more baffling.

So few f**ks were given, Gerard Butler is Scottish for half of the movie… and his character’s from Florida.

Get ready to snooze your way through the most boring, cheap, light on everything possibly cool disaster movie, where the biggest disaster is that it didn’t end a half hour earlier. Honestly, go watch “Airplane!” or “San Andreas” instead.

“Wonder Woman 1984”

6.2

I expected so much more…

I loved the first Wonder Woman for its nuance and perfectly balanced touch when it came to filmmaking. It was everything that the other DC movies weren’t. You either die a hero, or live long enough to see yourself become the villain.

So many great ideas and scenes, left undeveloped. So much potential, wasted. So much… runtime. So much… 1980s for no reason.

Third time’s the charm, right?