Terrible Plan! Movie Reviews

What I liked: The goats. The chaotic energy of 12ft tall screaming flying goats exactly encapsulates the energy of this movie. They tie in well with Norse mythology, they tie in with the comics, they make sense to include. But. They make no sense and are completely absurd. There was a lot of anticipation about Lady Thor and I liked her with a few caveats but what no one was expecting as was much more enjoyable was Bunny Thor. Lady Thor's hammer was very cool and did a good job of distinguishing her from Thor. The court of the gods was fun to see, of course the Greek gods were front and center but I enjoyed gods from other mythologies that I recognized. I liked the battle in the Shadow Realm, very cool visuals. And the battle in the court of the gods and the opening battle. Ok, I liked all the battles including the very brief Thor fashion battle. The shadow monsters were ok but could have been much creepier.  What I didn't: The god butcher had very reasonable motivations and see...

What I liked: This movie has all the things that you could hope for from a scary movie: creepy reflections, actual demons, possession, Dr Strange with a ponytail, evil "twins", extra eyeballs, ghosts (I think), Monsters, some light necromancy, jean jackets. It was fun to have a minotaur wizard and a universe made of paint. My favorite part was probably a very epic music battle. Partially because it was so very unexpected. I liked that Dr Strange was able to make a quick exit from an awkward wedding reception to go fight a giant alien octopus. And that all of his approaches to saving the girl were more in line with portal than a comfortable soft landing. Pizza balls look tasty but pretty messy to eat. Having a flying cloak seems super cool, even cooler if you put all the extra arms to better use. It's like having a bunch of cupholders that could also text, find directions, and knit or maybe shoot arrows. The cameos were fun and I was very excited for the less expected ones...

What I liked: This Batman is different than any other Batman, it feels very different from the very first shots all the way through to the end. I still like other Batmans better, but I do applaud the film makers in making something completely different and presenting new version of very well known characters. This Batman fully embraces the gothic aesthetic. It doesn't just nod to it, it embodies it. Bruce Wayne, as far as I can tell lives in a gothic cathedral as does the mayor and the orphanage. Many of the buildings in Gotham have flying buttresses. This Batman is all about the dramatic spectacle. He poses a lot, which is kind of cool because it makes him look just like panels from a comic book, it's also a little absurdly funny. The Riddler did an excellent job of being manically homicidal. He was creepy and unnerving and much sneakier than Batman. The fights were all interesting, especially the hallway one, and I liked the contrast between Batman and Catwoman's styles. ...

 What I liked: Awkwafina. She made a great friend/sidekick. She was funny and had very relatable reactions. I liked the bus fight. You often meet interesting people on public transit, I have yet to meet a machete armed assassin, but it seems like just a matter of time honestly. I liked the mythical creatures, they were impressive and cute depending on the type. I'm not totally convinced about the moving bamboo maze, it seems cool but also like you could easily sneak past it in an airplane or hang glider or something. I think all the Avengers should go out for karaoke, it could be the new shawarma. I liked the tie in to Ironman 3, but it got a bit too silly for my by the end.  What I didn't: I have to side with Awkwafina, going into hiding and creating a new identity that is only tonally shifted from your original name is not a great way to stay hidden. Neither is using your awesome fighting skills to go viral. Also if you have a whole army of cool assassins does it really matt...

What I liked: The widows were pretty awesome. I got good Jason Bourne vibes from the first scene we see them in. This is the coolness factor I was hoping for from Charlie's Angles. I am now invested in a crossover between the widows, Charlie's Angles and the Amazons. I don't really care if they are working together or fighting each other, it would just be cool. I liked that we got more of Blackwidow's bewildering interrogation techniques and mission impossible masks.  I'm glad that someone finally addressed superhero poses. The Red Guardian was the main comic relief and he did a good job. I liked his action figure, his pep talk, and that they incorporated his rivalry with Captain America as tall tales. Alexi the pig was a fun addition. I like that they took skydiving without a parachute and managed to increase the difficulty by adding obstacles.  What I didn't: These people have not seen land before time clearly a treestar is a maple leaf. I liked the distrust o...

What I liked: The in memoria opening. It was not quite as amazing as the selfie video that opened the previous Spiderman movie but it was fairly phenomenal. The candle shot was particularly nice. I liked that they finally addressed some of the troubling logistics that resulted from Endgame and the basketball game was entertaining. The spidey senses or "Peter tingle" battle was very cool. Nick Fury was far less competent than one might expect. Ah how the mighty have fallen, Nick.  The customs lady didn't even blink, I'm glad she was there to protect Italy from dangerous bananas. The bus driver. I think he used to live in Atlantis and is Aquaman's short relative. He didn't do much but what he did was effective. MJ is pretty much awesome. She is very weird and very awkward and it is great. What I didn't: I agree with Spiderman, there are lots more people who could be called on to save the world before you get to Spiderman. Remember how we had about 800 he...

What I liked: This is in essence a 3 hour long curtain call for the Avengers. I happen to have liked the last 11 years of superhero movies, so I liked revisiting that world. The small fight scenes were mostly fun and the epic fight scenes were satisfyingly epic. We got all the catch phrases we wanted and in mostly entertaining circumstances. I enjoyed zen Hulk and as always the Hulk smash. I was surprised to learn that fixing your hair by lightning turns out better than I thought it would. It didn't look great mind you, but much better than anticipated. That thing we've been waiting for finally happened and it was awesome. The powers were still not balanced or consistent but I was glad that some of the characters that I was very disappointed in before got to have much better power displays. Also stairs, cheeze-whiz, and "it was him or a tree." What I didn't: Lord of the Rings gets a bad rap for having about 85 endings that took up the last hour of the movie. E...

What I liked: If you have been laying awake at night wondering where you can find a Lord of the Rings style battle sequence featuring lava lobsters, mosasaurs, and lasers,  this is the movie for you. Also if you have been dying to see more of the giant mysterious sea monsters from Phantom Menace (one of the few acceptable parts of that movie besides the light saber dual), you have come to the right place. The movie is packed full of over the top ridiculousness, explosions, and bright colors. I liked the underwater world that they created. All of the modes of transportation are pretty cool. I can't decide if I would rather ride a freaky seahorse dragon or a mosasaur. There were also sea turtle, shrimp, and manta ray shaped boat/car/spaceships. Black Manta had just an ok submarine but he did have awesome armor. Any other villain might say, "oh my super cool laser gun works great in my hand, far away from essential body parts." Not Black Manta. But whatever the high probab...

What I liked: I guess I should not be surprised that a movie called the Spider-verse includes every reference to Spiderman ever. The surprising part was that all the references were all presented with the right level of humor so that I liked the Spiderman dance, to the constant origin story re-telling, the ridiculous merchandise, the spider songs, and of course the whole spider family. I really liked all the costumes, both spidey costumes and villain costumes. Prowler was nicely ominous and Doc Ock had a nice twist, the arms appeared to be a pneumatic system which makes them nicely compressible and lightweight so they would fit in an airline overhead bin, The pneumatic system also gives me some concerns about storing the arms in the same suit compartment as their buzzsaw attachments, but I am not a brilliant physicist. I liked the ridiculous onsie and the graffiti. It was fun to have all the iterations of a hero: the new comer trying to figure out the powers, the standard amazing her...

What I liked: The cardboard fort. That was epic. I want one. I am going to spend the next 5 years amassing cardboard so I can build a scale model. And I have to say this is a much better solution to house arrest than what the kid in Disturbia came up with. I also really liked the truth serum, the juke box, the luggage handle, and the tardigrades. Fun fact: tardigrades can survive the vacuum of space, intense radiation, and being freeze dried. Maybe we should have a tardigrade man in a future ant-man installment, he would be even tinier and pretty much indestructible. The arrow bugs were also fun, they made me think of a video game, which is fun, but it doesn't seem like objectively the best plan. I'm willing to bet they wreak havoc with your windshield. What was better than the arrow bugs was the car chase scenes. Chase scenes in most movies vary speed and direction of the cars with the added variable of size the chase scenes got a lot more exciting. Now if they would just in...

What I liked: Jack Jack. Edna Mode. Jack Jack and Edna Mode. Pretty much anytime one or both of those characters are on screen it is awesome. I liked the interdimensional baby monitor and the motorcycle, I can't say it looked comfortable but it was pretty cool. Stretchy superheroes have never been my favorite. I don't know of anyone when we play the "what super power would you have?" game who says they want to be super stretchy. But given that, Elastagirl does an admirable job at bad guy beating. It was fun to have the theme songs in the credits. The Incredobile was fun. 2018 has been a good year for raccoons on the silver screen. There were raccoons in quiet place. A raccoon features in the most recent Avengers film. Now we have a show stealing raccoon in Incredibles. I'm not sure if I should tell the talented raccoons I know to send in audition tapes or encourage them to go to community college because the industry is saturated. What I didn't: Ok, we need ...

What I liked: Infinity War fixed many of my problems with Civil War  and Age of Ultron . For one the scale, if not the time frame, was much more war like. Most people have improved weaponry and suits, Black Widow gets some night sticks which is a huge improvement over the glowstick bracelets and Spiderman gets his fancy schmancy suit. They may have over compensated a bit in the body count but since they are in an 18 movie deficit we can forgive them there. We got to see the Wakandans engage in a much much larger battle, which fuels my suspicions that most Wakandans sat out the Killmonger vs Black panther show down in Black panther. Come on Wakanda, be politically active. I liked the unexpected team ups. Rocket and Thor was a pretty entertaining combination as was Rocket and Bucky. I liked the Star Lord vs Thor stand off and Guardians meeting Ironman and Strange was pretty good. Spiderman is always a favorite, smashing bad guys and being hilarious. There was some good banter and ...

What I liked: Wonder Woman is always cool and she is quite speedy. The flash was funny in an awkward, anti-social kind of way. I was impressed that they actually made Meera cool. It was fun to get a glimpse of green lantern. I liked that when the world is invaded by giant insects that feed off fear, people prepare to battle them with raid. The bat rock crawler was cool but not near as cool as the batmobile. What I didn't: Batman's suit. No it is not just like every other Batman suit. It has a weird texture that makes it look like Batman is a CG computer game character. And there was too much CG happening, real stunts and practical effects are cooler than the completely impossible CG fight scenes. Superman was way over powered. I know that this is the ever present argument against Superman, but this was just absurd. He should not be able to stand alone against the entire Justice League, each of them has defeated him at least once. The core Justice League is an assembly of pe...

What I liked: Most of the Mavel CU takes place in boring places like New York or fake Russia. Real Russia was already copyrighted. Unlike these settings that are essentially genericified giant cities, Black Panther clearly draws from exisiting inspiration but succeeds in creating a vibrant, imaginative world. Wakanda is beautiful, the buildings are cool, the costumes are beautiful and functional, the technology is elegant. This is the kind of setting that most comic book stories need. I also really liked how the women were presented. I think Wonder Woman would have been at home in Wakanda: the general and royal guards are really awesome women warriors. The queen mother and leaders of several of the tribes are clearly respected leaders. Black Panther's Q is his sister, who is spunky and a brilliant engineer who solves every problem from neurosurgery to questionable stablization of probably not unstable metals. The main spy we encounter is Black Panther's ex-girlfriend. I appre...

What I liked: The minions. The pigs. It was a good combination.  I think they could have done more with the pig minion team up, there was a waiting wealth of comic opportunity there. I particularly liked the minions' performance for the tv show. I am however left wondering where they got their props. The gadgets as always. Why carry a normal gun when you could use a fully loaded keytar? Why drive a normal villain car when you can drive a gilded villain car. Why take over the world like a normal person whey you can cover it with bubble gum you shoot from a bazooka? What I didn't: They really should have done more with the fluffy unicorn direction. It seemed like it should have been the culmination of the whole unicorn obsession of all 3 films, sadly it was just an aside. As always the plan was terrible. A secret lair in a giant Rubik's cube is not very secret. Exactly following the plot of a children's TV show is not the best approach to world domination, especially ...

-submitted by Mrs Winston What I liked: Bad haircuts. Willy Wonka music. Revolutions short on pamphlets. Matt Damon. Helmet braids. Executioners of visions. Kids playing with snakes. Prisoners who have jobs. The strongest Avenger. Or Revengers. The movie was hilarious. Much more along the lines of the lightness of Antman and Guardians of the Galaxy than the earlier, more serious Marvel stories. The franchise has matured far enough that it can mock itself and still be cohesive And I liked the family dynamics getting worked out on an epic scale. There is also lots of satisfying fighting and destruction, as you'd expect from a movie with Thor in it.  What I didn't: Talking Hulk. He was much more eloquent than you'd expect. Malificent's wardrobe. Did not need to make another appearance, and definitely not with skintight leather.   Who should watch this? Everyone who loves the Avengers. Anyone who has either recently watched Thor 2 and Avengers 2 or who has a ru...

What I liked: Of the three attempts at the Spiderman franchise in my life this is the best. My favorite things about Spiderman from his brief appearance in Civil War remained true in this movie too. Spiderman is a doofy highschool kid. He is super excited about having super powers (Ha!) and about getting to be on a super team and shows the remarkable lack of judgement that we all recognize and love in 14 year olds. He loves science bowl and builds a giant lego death star with his best friend and has to get rides everywhere. While other superheroes make appearances it doesn't seem too unreasonable that they don't immediately intervene and save Spiderman from his teenage self. The problems and villians that he faces are bite sized (No he isn't fighting an army of bagel bites and pizza bites, though every teenager I have ever met has all the superpowers necessary to vanquish that particular foe). He is still learning not just how to use his super powers and super suit but al...

What I liked: Baby Groot is the best thing about this movies. If you have seen the trailer with the extended conversation between Rocket the raccoon and baby Groot about when to push the detonation button, you have seen the best of the movie and if you're pressed for time, can probably leave it at that. If you have more time you could expand your viewing to include the opening fight scene, with some pretty awesome alien smashing action, rainbows, and classic rock music, and the concluding fight scene, which involves baby Groot, explosions, and Pacman. If you really want to branch out you can watch a fight scene in the middle that mostly involves about 100 mercenaries being beaten by a raccoon in the woods. I liked that Rocky has moved on from his boxing career to being an intergalactic criminal, it really seems like a step up. I predict that in the next movie he will be the underdog in a boxing match with an alien and will make an incredible comeback to win. I liked that the bad ...

What I liked: There were lots of things to like. I like the Amazons. I like that they jump off cliffs and do flips and shoot 5 arrows at once. It does become rapidly apparent that they should upgrade their arsenal but doing flips with a mini gun is a) not a cool looking as doing flips with a sword and b) pretty dangerous. That's probably why the Terminator and the Punisher don't do flips. They just stand there. And they don't have fun split skirts. Yet. Wonder Woman has some pretty awesome fight scenes. My personal favorite involves her taking down a tank. The one at the end is bigger but the tank is cooler. I like the way they used her lasso of truth. It is a pretty effective interrogation tool but also quite handy in a fight and it doesn't look too cheesy. But possibly better than Wonder Woman's awesome fight scenes is her character. She is full of idealism and hope. The recent trend with superheroes is to humanize them by giving them massive character flaws. Wo...

What I liked: Not sure. This was a very not great movie. I guess I could say the Joker was more comical than creepy so it’s easier to watch than the new Batman one with the Joker. What I didn’t: Batman was a jerk and he had a terrible suit. The batmobile was not a tank. Alfred was not funny. Whoever the girlfriend was was annoying. The plot was comical. The whole thing was made in the 80s, the hair, the boomboxes, the denim. All of this was associated with batman, such a tragedy. Who should watch this: no one. Would I watch it again? nope.