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Glass Onion

What I liked: The three things you need for any murder is the means, motive, and opportunity. I was delighted that they pointed that out and even made a little chart to narrow down the suspects. If only there had also been a scene of the murderer using it as a checklist to see if they could commit the murder, then I would have be superbly happy. The mom. The mom is definitely the best character. Followed closely by the friend who is just visiting. I think we all need to acknowledge how wonderful Blanc's swim suit is. The movie set itself very firmly in 2020 for the first 20 minutes. I liked seeing all the different characters' approaches to their masks and watching them play among us. It was both a bit of a time warp and a very fast way to learn a lot about these people. I liked the caricatures of influential people and cheered for Andi's approach to opening the box. Unlike the last one, that had creepy little skulls hidden everywhere, this one had glass sculptures hidden e...

Avatar 2: The way of water

What I liked: Like the first one, the graphics in this movie are incredible. As one would expect from a movie called the Way of Water, there is a lot of water. The splashes, ripples, and movement in the water are all faultless. When you stop to remember that all of it is CG it's pretty staggering. I also liked that most of the 3D added depth to the film rather than sending 3D effects flying at your face. Our favorite blue family relocates to an island village so we get to meet sea creatures and the island clans. I liked that the sea people had rudder tails and broad hands. And I liked their springy walkways between their houses. Also like the first one, the animals were cool. I liked the plesiosaurs, the shark thing, and the tiny glowy jellyfish things. I really liked the underwater fairie wings. In addition to cool creatures we get cool robots. I  liked the crab robots but am unclear on why they were crabs other than that crabs make cool robots. The plot was better than the first ...

Old

What I liked: In the words of Glad-OS "This was a triumph, I'm making a note here, huge success... for the people who are still alive." This is essentially the justification the bad guys have for their actions. It turns out it doesn't make much of a difference if it is a homicidal robot or some homicidal people singing the song to you, it still doesn't seem like a good excuse. But it does get stuck in your head, it's a very catchy tune. I like that if you invent a fantasy world you get to make up completely non-internally consistent rules for your world. What is affected by accelerated time? Living things-yes unless you're bacteria in which case no unless you are tetanus then yes again. Dead things-yes. Unless it's food or paper or clothes. Never alive things- no but also maybe yes. A single bolus dose of Magnetic waves, which are notoriously afraid of calcium carbonate.  What I didn't: So, on a completely different topic, that has nothing to do wi...

Vengeance

What I liked: The premise is absurd. A complete dumpster fire of a person from New York teams up with a Texan red neck to avenge the death of the sister. ... by making a podcast. If that approach to revenge is not the most terrible revenge plan I'm not sure what is. Oh wait, it's Dracula kidnapping a historian to catalog his personal book collection, but that is off topic. Along they way the character gets wildly out of his depth and does things that are definitely bad plans. Like meet with a cartel leader alone in a shed, drive a Prius, visit a music producer, more than once, and give an off the cuff eulogy. Certainly at the beginning it carries the awkward discomfort of The Office but it quickly expands to explosions and the conviction to a podcast found only among the certain portion of the coffee shop population. I thought they did a good job of picking fun at both the rural Texans and the big city New Yorkers. I think they really nailed the "intellectual" bros in...

The Woman King

What I liked: Remember how one of the best parts of Black Panther was the Dora Milaje? And definitely the best thing about Wonder Woman 1984 was the Amazons? This movie focuses on equally awesome women warriors with the added bonus that they actually existed. They are fierce. They are highly skilled. They are strategic and clever. I also liked the emphasis that they earned the respect they enjoyed. At least in the film they led as much with their sound judgement as their bravery and determination. There were many different political groups, ok like 4, and multiple characters with conflicting motivations. they did a good job of presenting the complexity and making it easy to follow. Viola Davis was great of course but I also really liked the actress who played Izogie, her expressions were excellent. I really liked the joy that came through in the dances and the sisterhood the women enjoyed with each other.  What I didn't: I didn't really understand why some of the subplots were ...

Chaos walking

What I liked: The constantly hearing everyone's thoughts thing was cool, and they used it well both to move the story and to make jokes. Space western is an underused genre, always good to have a new addition. Tom Holland, as always makes a pretty delightful dorky teenager. Also the orange overalls, way to subvert my expectations of space fashion. What I didn't: Cool title, but I don't understand what it means. What was even the point of the aliens? What happened to the aliens? Surely, in a massive planet colonization there is some form of judicial system that transcends settlements. It seems like that would have been a very good thing to make use of. It also seems like moving would have been a good idea, given that there were in fact many other available places to move. I refuse to believe that no one noticed a spaceship crashing. That would be really bright and really loud. Someone must have seen something. A third alternative I could suggest is that he could go with her,...

Where the Crawdads Sing

What I liked: I liked that for a feral child she was exceptionally well socialized and educated. Her art really was quite beautiful. I liked that they made it a mystery and a pretty good one. The people I went with were flabbergasted walking out of the theater. I liked the friendly couple in the store, their kindness and involvement made it much more believable that she was able to survive in the swamp/marsh all by herself. In most movies narration does not work it's just boring and a lazy, but efficient, way to tell us a lot of backstory very quickly. It worked ok here since she was talking with her lawyer.  What I didn't: Where were the crawdads? The titular character had exactly 0 screen time and was mentioned only once. What does a crawdad song sound like? Do they have like a little nightclub or something for Karaoke? The most important mystery of this movie went completely unaddressed. Much less important, in a town of 300 if the quarterback was cheating on his fiance with...