Batson's Blog

I was not looking forward to seeing this movie. I thought about skipping it until it was released for renting, but I caved in and saw it in the theater. I'm glad I did! Rise of Skywalker was a good movie. J.J. Abrams fixed a lot of what Rian Johnson messed up in The Last Jedi . I mentioned my disappointment on The Last Jedi in my review two years ago . Now, I wouldn't have disliked that movie so much had it not taken such an odd turn from The Force Awakens . Also, I would've had a different reaction if there was some indication that some of the unanswered questions I and a lot of other fans had were going to actually be answered. That wasn't the case. There was no hint that there's more to come. I remember walking out of the theater when the movie was over and everyone was just silent. No applause. Nobody talking about how good it was or discussing their favorite part. The excitement was drained out of all 100+ people in that theater. I gave ...

I'm torn on the Disney live action movies. There are a couple ( Maleficent , The Jungle Book ) that have been surprisingly good. Some ( Cinderella , Beauty & The Beast ) that have been just OK. Then there are some ( Aladdin , Maleficent 2 ) that haven't been that impressive at all. The Lion King falls into the 'OK' category. While those in charge of this movie didn't make the same mistakes that Aladdin did in deviating much from the original script, they had mistakes of their own. If you're not telling a new story (like in Maleficent or Dumbo ), then why exactly are you making the movie? If I want to watch The Lion King , then wouldn't I just watch the 90's version? What's the point? So that I can see overdone CGI instead of colorful animation? Sure, I guess it has the 3-D aspect going for it, but I couldn't care less about that. Disney is really in a no win situation. They can make a live action version of the same 90s cl...

Where to start with this one, huh? When I heard that Will Smith was cast as Genie , I was actually pretty happy about it. He is close enough to Robin Williams in the ability to deliver an over-the-top performance but he's not a complete replica. He's got his own style. Then I saw the horrible Entertainment Weekly cover with no blue makeup and I, like many others, was not irritated that they weren't making him blue. Then I saw the horrible makeup job with the blue paint and I thought, 'Maybe he shouldn't be blue.' Besides Genie and his lack of blue / poorly done blue makeup, the costumes looked like cheaply made (but still overpriced) Halloween costumes you'd find at The Disney Store. Lastly, the casting is way off here. Mena Massoud looks like Aladdin , but he doesn't have half the style or swagger that the animated version does. Marwan Kenzari neither looks like Jafar or has his demeanor. Oh --- and the animated version of Abu  >...

I like to stay pretty out of the loop these days when it comes to superhero movies. I don't want to know who is playing what characters will be in the movie or who is expected to live and die or who makes a cameo. The superhero movies have improved so much that I have enough faith it will be good without having to go to the spoilers. I went into Dark Phoenix the same way. I knew it wasn't going to be a gigantic blockbuster, based on the preview I'd seen, but I was hoping for the best. Let me say right out: this movie was awful! It's the only movie I can remember seeing in the theater where I sat there and thought 'Is this movie over yet??' It was that bad. I'm not even sure where to start. I was excited about seeing the Dark Phoenix saga told well -- even if it was crammed into one movie. Instead, we got a strange half-reboot of X3 (because that worked so well the first time) and poor man's Captain Marvel . I've read some reports ...

All the controversy about Captain Marvel . Who knew? If you've been paying attention to Twitter and other forms of social media, you probably did know about it. I heard bits and pieces a couple of weeks ago, but didn't bother to give it much research. I did take a look at the reports. I guess actress Brie Larson said while she was on a press tour promoting the movie that she wanted more diversity (specifically women) in the reviewers who get to see movies early. I can see why that may make some people upset. But then she clarified and said that she's not asking to take anyone's seat away from the table --- just asking for more to be added. I don't see an issue with that. That's a good way to put it. Then people tried to bomb the movie on Rotten Tomatoes, which caused the website to make some changes. Ehh, it is what it is. Let's get to the movie (no spoilers in this review). First, I really liked the way the movie handled the flashb...

Melissa McCarthy was on fire for a while — several years. Has her time subsided or is it unrealistic to expect someone to stay on top of a particular field for so long? Especially a field that can be as fickle and wishy-washy as show business? Those were the thoughts going through my head as I watched this movie. Probably not a good sign when you’re watching a movie and not actually paying attention to it. The movie started off normal enough. It almost seemed understated compared to some of McCarthy’s other films. I thought it could end up being a family comedy at first. But that soon changed ... somewhat. The problem with this movie is that it straddled the line between family-friendly comedy and ‘outrageous’ comedy. McCarthy is great at playing those potty-mouthed characters. But she’s kind of a one trick pony in that sense. I get the impression she’d like to break out of that mold a bit. McCarthy’s acting was fine in this movie — good, in fact — but her character flopp...

Thanksgiving is the official start to the Christmas season, right? So why not watch a Christmas movie? That's exactly what I decided to do this weekend. I've watched a few of Netflix's cheesy Christmas movies, mostly just to have some sound in my house as I go about chores here and there. Most of them have a facepalm moment or two, but The Christmas Chronicles had multiple facepalm moments. What a horrible movie! I'm typically fairly lenient on the Christmas movies, but it seemed like the writers didn't even try with this movie. It wasn't really bad enough to be funny. It certainly wasn't funny enough to be funny. It was like a bowling shoe: just plain ugly. I was somewhat surprised because with Kurt Russell and Kimberly Williams-Paisley on board, I figured it may be decent. It started off with a heartwarming video montage that made it easy to predict exactly what was going to happen to one of the characters who was in that montage. ...

It took me a while to check out this movie, mostly because it was another unneeded reboot of a popular franchise that wasn’t even that old yet. Angelina Jolie was the face of that character for so long that it felt strange seeing someone else do it (though I think Alicia Vikander may have done a better job). I kind of avoided it out of protest. But I saw it for free recently (that’s always the best price). It was ok. It was a nice set-up for a franchise — the ‘how Lara Croft became Lara Croft’ tale. That would’ve worked well had anyone wanted a new franchise or had Tomb Raider been successful enough to warrant a second film. Unfortunately these days, writers are always planning on trilogies and franchises. They don’t put enough effort into the beginning movie. That’s kind of how this movie played out. It wasn’t bad. Alicia Vikander did a great job actually. Her obvious dedication to the role and believability made the movie much better than it otherwise would have been ...

There's a non-spoiler section here and a spoiler section. There's no way to properly review this movie without the spoilers. First -- the NON-spoiler section : I was eagerly anticipating this movie. I re-watched The Force Awakens to get prepped for it. I was even more excited after watching that just the other night. What is going to happen with Luke Skywalker ? Who are Rey's parents? What is going to happen to Princess Leia (now that Carrie Fisher passed away)? Who is Supreme Leader Snoke? All questions that I was hoping to get answered. I got some of those answers (I think). Still, there was a lot left unanswered. Unfortunately, I'm not sure if that's because the writers are building to answers in the final installment of this latest trilogy or if it's because of absolutely awful writing in this movie. The best scenes of the movie absolutely involved Luke Skywalker. You won't be disappointed in anything involving Luke. The rest of it...