Movies watched in July 2017

Posted on August 4, 2017 by shannifin

Here are the films I watched last month. I mostly keep reviews on my Letterboxd account now, but I archive them here every month as well. Various reviews may have spoilers.

★★★★★ : One of the best movies ever, I will love for the rest of my days
★★★★½ : Awesome movie, almost one of the best
★★★★ : Great movie, worth buying to own
★★★½ : Above average
★★★ : Average, not bad, but not great
★★½ : It’s almost just OK, but not quite
★★ : Pretty silly movie, meh!
★½ : Simply ridiculous movie
★ : Bad movie, what were they thinking?
½ : Woah! Absolutely awful, I feel dumber for having watched

La La Land (2016)

★★

I enjoyed the music and the camera work with its wide angles and long shots. I liked what they were trying to do, but unfortunately it just didn’t work for me. The actors were not great singers or dancers. The story was meh. The characters were too naive and their dreams were too selfish to invite much sympathy, and their emotional conflicts felt very forced and relatively simple to overcome. Though the look and feel of the film was certainly something unique, managing to capture the charm of a classic studio musical in a modern setting, the overall story just didn’t live up to its potential at all.

Time of the Wolf (2003)

★★½

Like Haneke’s “Amour”, I found this to be continually engaging, as well as continually depressing.

The Amazing Spider-Man 2 (2014)

★

Even by Marvel superhero movie standards, this was pretty bad. Bland characters, conflicts, dialog… nothing worthwhile here.

Dragonheart: Battle for the Heartfire (2017)

★★

Not quite as bad as “Dragonheart 3”, but still a cheesy fantasy with silly cheesy fantastical nonsense. Had some interesting twists in regards to secrets the characters kept from each other, silly though they were, and the film gave me some interesting story ideas, so I’ll give it a little credit. But the dialog was very bland, and the story moved along very awkwardly, each new development in the story feeling rather a bit forced.

Cars 3 (2017)

★★★

The best Cars movie yet! Though the Cars movies have been my least favorite Pixar movies so far, so I’m not sure that’s saying much. It’s rather obvious from the beginning just where the story’s going, and it’s sometimes a bit agonizing waiting for the characters to get it when the setup is so blatant. Still, it delivers a good message… sort of (I still don’t like these movies that romanticize defining success as being better than others, but I guess that’s inherent in a movie about racing). And, like all Pixar movies, this had some good humor, made me laugh out loud multiple times. Overall, I enjoyed it, though it’s far from Pixar’s best.

Before I Fall (2017)

★★

Interesting take on the classic Groundhog Day scenario, but too many of the characters were just too agonizing to watch, I had trouble taking them seriously. And I didn’t much care for the ending at all; I predicted it as a joke, and it wound up being right. Bleh!

Beauty and the Beast (2017)

★½

I may have enjoyed this more if I didn’t have the far superior animated classic to compare it to; just about everything about this remake is worse than the original. The comical whimsy allowed by stylistic animation simply does not translate to live action. I can’t think of a change to the story / screenplay that didn’t make this retelling worse.

I felt the biggest problem with this remake was simply the pacing. In a well-made film, the tension rises and falls. After moments of intense action or drama, the audience is given a time to breathe and reflect before rising another hill of tension. Of course, you only notice subconsciously as your mind travels through the emotions. This film only had such rises and falls in tension in so much as it repeated the main formula of the first film, so I suppose it worked well enough for some. But for me, the whole thing just felt too rushed, and thus fell flat. Moments of tension (or even comic relief) weren’t given enough “breathing space”, so it felt like the characters were simply going through the motions, like a bunch of high-schoolers reenacting a favorite film. I think perhaps if they had ventured even further away from the source material, instead of trying to recapture the original magic, it may have felt more true to itself. Instead, it feels like a live-action parody.

The other big problem: These CGI characters are simply terribly designed. I imagine some concept artists thought they were being quite clever designing different parts of furniture to serve as different facial features, but the end result is that you can’t easily read emotions on hardly any of these CGI characters. This isn’t the fault of CGI in and of itself, but rather with the choice to represent the furniture as realistic as possible, without any white in any eyes. It just made almost all the CGI characters unsympathetic and dull.

Finally, Emma Watson just did not feel right as Belle. She’s too modern and independent. She saunters around like a modern young woman. Her character did not seem like the sort who would have any need of a love interest, so her love for the beast did not seem at all genuine. Just going through the motions of the source material. I don’t know whether or not they used autotune on her voice, but something about it doesn’t sound quite right. Didn’t care much for her singing at all.

Quite a few other problems, but these were the main ones, in my opinion. So, overall, this remake mostly just annoyed me. The animated classic is just so superior, this just feels like a sad parody.

I am, however, forced to give at least one star for the new songs from Alan Menken. I admit that I did enjoy those. They are probably the only thing I liked about this film.

I Am the Pretty Thing That Lives in the House (2016)

Completely stupid. And why does the main character move so unnaturally slowly? Far from being unsettling or atmospheric, it is just annoying and stupid. Awful film.

The Silenced (2015)

★★

Weird.

A Dog’s Purpose (2017)

★

Not really a bad movie, just way too cheesy for me. (Do you think the director likes dogs?)

The Zookeeper’s Wife (2017)

★★★

Good World War 2 film based on a true story.

The Lost City of Z (2016)

★★★½

Overall a good movie. The ending was a bit anticlimactic, but it’s based on a true story, so what can you do? The spiritual aspect, with the main character having flashbacks at important moments, was well done. You can’t help but fantasize about the ancient wonders of the lost city along with the main character. Although it certainly does not make me want to travel.

I didn’t realize how long it was until it was over; I was constantly engaged for its 2+ hours running time. That’s always a good sign.

Billy Jack (1971)

★★

Listen, children, to a story… It’s hippies and Native Americans vs stupid evil racists. The racists have got some racist cops and council members on their side. The hippies and Native Americans have their selective pacifism and Billy Jack, a violent vigilante with ninja skills. Who will win? Rather a cheesy film. It perhaps tries to have a good message, but just doesn’t quite deliver. The racism and little speeches about peace are just too blatant. The overall concept isn’t bad though, the overall film just comes off as a little too fake to really stir the emotions much. Anyway, watch it in the name of Heaven and you can justify it in the end.

Come watch, children, this old movie,
That was filmed decades ago
About some racist cops and people
And Billy Jack, who was their foe.
He had some cool ninja skills,
Protecting those on a reserve.
When trouble came they called his name,
He gave them what they deserved.

Go ahead and watch this movie,
Go ahead and rent the disc.
(Don’t watch an illegal copy,
Pirating’s wrong, and it’s a risk.)
Their won’t be many tears from your eyes.
(The writer’s just a bit of a hack…)
But when cam zooms out at the end….
You’ll remember Billy Jack!

There, I hope you like my song…

Dunkirk (2017)

★★★★

Was lucky to go to a special screening the day before its official release. Very much enjoyed it. It focuses on the journeys of three different characters, whose storylines merge in the end, both action-wise and temporally. (Nolan cuts across time quite a bit, as he likes to do.) The whole thing felt like almost non-stop action, never a dull moment. It is similar to The Dark Knight in that regard. It doesn’t quite have the wit of his other movies. I don’t think there’s one joke in the whole thing, it’s all very serious in tone. It’s a war film after all. Even so, the best bit of writing is a Churchill quote. But clever dialog really isn’t needed; the focus is on the action. The cinematography was also fantastic, and Hans Zimmer’s signature pulsing score adds wonderful tension. Overall, though it’s not my favorite Nolan film, it was a great film nonetheless.

Mirrormask (2005)

★

Very boring.

Get Out (2017)

★★½

Fun movie, a lot more humorous than I expected. The premise is so outlandish and silly that it’s hard for any of the attempted suspense to actually work. It reminded me a bit of the Stepford Wives, where everybody in a small town is acting weird and creepy, especially the few black people. (If it’s trying to make a social statement about race, I have no idea what it is.) Overall, I give an extra star for the humor… but then I take it away for characters using bing… I can accept a lot of far-fetched impossibilities for the sake of story, but having characters using bing is just taking things too far!

Collide (2016)

★½

Rather generic and forgettable action thriller. I guess I don’t find car chases all that riveting.

Black Butterfly (2017)

★★★½

Decent little thriller about an alcoholic screenwriter who’s held hostage by a stranger in his own house until he finishes a new story. (Sounds a bit like “Misery”, but I never saw that movie so I can’t compare.) Why would this stranger be so interested in a story? And isn’t it interesting that he shows up just as local women are being murdered? What’s really at play here? Bum bum bum! Featuring very few characters and mostly one location, it could actually make for a pretty decent stage play.

The final “twist” in the final shot was a bit ridiculous, cliche, and obvious, but other than that, fun movie.

A Cure for Wellness (2016)

★★

A man is sent to a remote spa, or “wellness center”, to get his boss. But something doesn’t feel right about the place, and he finds he has trouble leaving. Unfortunately the whole thing was a bit long-winded for the somewhat simple (and rather cliche, obvious, and ridiculous) explanation for what’s really going on at this wellness spa. Certainly establishes a creepy atmosphere though, reminded me of the superior film “Shutter Island”.

Movies watched in June 2017

Posted on August 4, 2017 by shannifin

Here are the films I watched last month. I mostly keep reviews on my Letterboxd account now, but I archive them here every month as well. Various reviews may have spoilers.

Sergeant York (1941)

★★★

Definitely reminded me of the more recent “Hacksaw Ridge” in its execution: start with character development in home life, including a love interest, go on to being a man of faith struggling with how to save lives during a war while still keeping a clear conscience, ultimately save lives and be rewarded.

This movie was just a bit too old-fashioned for me; the story is so simplified that the struggles, especially the war scenes, never feel quite real, but too Hollywood-ized. York’s solution to his struggle between fighting a war and keeping true to his faith seemed rather convenient and not as profound or as deep as I would’ve imagined. By the time we get to the actual war scenes and the aftermath, the film has already spent too much time on the character development, so the pacing begins to feel a bit rushed.

Despite these criticisms, I can’t help but appreciate the morals of this film, as cheesy as their old-fashioned manifestations may have come across. York is portrayed as a fine upstanding honest guy who’s always trying to do the right thing. None of that moral weakness or heroic flaw or self-doubt or indecisiveness Hollywood seems to be more fond of these days. So that was refreshing. It mostly just needed a better screenwriter.

The Shack (2017)

★★

On the one hand, I appreciate the film’s themes of dealing with tragedy and forgiveness from a Christian perspective.

On the other hand, I’m always a bit wary of films in which God Himself (Herself?) is a human character, and this film had certain moments that left me annoyed thinking: “No, God wouldn’t say that.” The human portrayal of the trinity got on my nerves quite a few times from a theological point of view. For example, one of the foundations of Christianity and the idea of the Holy Trinity is that Christ, the son of God, is the human incarnation of God; He refers to a father figure in scripture because God the Father is too “meta” and ineffable to be thought of as a part of His own creation. So portraying the Father as also a human who’s going to speak English, make pie, and be “especially fond” of everybody, it just felt… theologically silly at the very least.

There’s a lot of talk on the problem of suffering, a conundrum so agitating it serves as the foundation for some people’s atheism. This film offers very little in the way of insight into this problem, as far as I could tell. God just dances around the issue and asks the main character to trust Him. Which I suppose is all He can do in a screenplay written by humans. But it was annoying having God Himself be a character who takes part in such discussions but never offers any real insight into the issue. At least, were I an atheist, this film would hardly serve as a compelling portrayal of the divine.

Finally, the premise took a bit long to establish. I never read the book, so I wasn’t looking forward to anything in particular happening, and so it got a bit boring at certain moments.

So overall I think this film may do a good job of helping some people to deal with tragedy and forgiveness in a Christian way. But it unfortunately just didn’t really work for me.

XX (2017)

★

Meh.

The Deer Hunter (1978)

★★★

I had already seen the Russian roulette scenes (though I can’t remember where), which were certainly the most intense. The rest of the film I thought was a bit… er… boring. But it wasn’t entirely my fault. I was watching the movie with a 2-month old kitten who was distracting and more entertaining. Anyway, I can definitely see why this film would make it to IMDb’s top 250 list; it was well-made, great acting, terribly tragic, and felt honest. But the 3-hour running time and the slower moments just left me to be distracted by a playful kitten. Unfortunately the kitten will now grow up to be disturbed and troubled because he’s seen some s***.

The Tree of Life (2011)

★★★★½

These slow-moving more meditative films are usually hit or miss for me. “Knight of Cups” for instance was, I thought, incredibly boring.

But I loved this one. Loved the themes encompassing the beauty and mystery of life, and I could relate to spiritual prayers, ponderings, and struggles. The visuals were stunningly beautiful and inspiring, as was the constant use of glorious classical music.

Beautiful film. Loved it.

Expelled from Paradise (2014)

★★½

The story was OK, if a bit bland. The CGI-anime blend looked bizarre. The machines and robots looked fine in CGI, but the humans appeared too robotic. It was annoying throughout, though I imagine I could get used to it if I had to.

The Space Between Us (2017)

★★

Too cheesy for me. The female love interest was also too annoying, too cynical and moody and angsty. The main character loses hope near the end far too easily. The space physics was also silly, especially how they faked 0 gravity. After space travel classics like Apollo 13 and The Martian, the cheap-o effects in this film just don’t work at all. The tone was also a bit too muddled; the balance between action and romance just didn’t work. They should’ve focused more on one (probably the romance) and less on the other. Still, I give it a star for some of the humor, cheesy as it was. And, overall, I’ve seen far worse; I appreciated the story they were going for, it just failed to execute.

The Riot Club (2014)

★

Dumb.

The Garden of Words (2013)

★★

Great animation, some of the background effects were especially beautiful. Story-wise, it was just a bit too cheesy for me, the characters’ relationship just didn’t come across as deep or as poetic as I think it was meant, maybe some of it was lost in translation. At least it wasn’t needlessly stretched out to longer than it needed to be.

Excalibur (1981)

★★★★

A great cheesy 80s fantasy in all its cheesy 80s glory, complete with a soundtrack by Trevor Jones. (I also like how the score wasn’t overdone; a lot of modern action films put in way too much music as though the audience needs to be constantly reminded what to feel. It gets very monotonous and annoying. I like a film like this, where scoring is used more sparingly to highlight intense moments. It’s more effective that way, in my opinion.) Although the screenplay is pretty bland dialog-wise, it still manages to capture the spirit of “Le Morte d’Arthur” rather well, I think, especially in the first half. Fun movie, I really enjoyed it!

Deadpool (2016)

★

Bleh! Just not my type of humor. Even without the vulgarity, it’s mostly shallow culture references and fourth wall breakage.

Ugetsu (1953)

★★½

Of the three I’ve seen, this is my favorite Kenji Mizoguchi film. An interesting story, but some of the characters were so foolish that they were annoying to watch.

Live by Night (2016)

★★

Fun action sequences, but the story in between them felt empty and pointless. I found myself not caring much about any of the characters at all. And any moment any character talked about something spiritual, it just came off as silly at best. “This is heaven” is a repeated line. What? Is that supposed to mean something profound? It comes off as stupid writing. Just didn’t work for me. Bleh!

Oh, and what a stupid nonsense ending. “Repent!” Oh brother.

Logan (2017)

★★★½

Great Wolverine movie, probably the best. (I’d give it a higher rating if I was a bigger fan of X-Men.) As I’ve heard others say, it feels more like a western than a comic book movie (and there are some direct references to “Shane”), which somehow works surprisingly well. Despite its 2+ hours running time, it’s very economically written. Each and every scene is meaningful and moves the story forward, either in regards to action or character development or both, so that I found myself fully engaged throughout. Some of the plot turns were a bit obvious, but still worked. Very nicely done.

Big Trouble in Little China (1986)

★★

Just plain silly.

Movies watched in May 2017

Posted on August 4, 2017 by shannifin

Here are the films I watched last month. I mostly keep reviews on my Letterboxd account now, but I archive them here every month as well. Various reviews may have spoilers.

Ocean Waves (1993)

★

Too boring for me. :(

Gantz:O (2016)

★★★

Aaaah, an evil giant rolling head for my nightmares! Truly some creepy demonic monsters in this. I wish I could go back in time and show this to my five year old self just to screw up my own mind forever. Visually, this film was a lot of fun. Story-wise, it felt pretty silly. (I am unfamiliar with the source material.) I didn’t entirely understand the whole concept, why the “game” had such arbitrary rules. Oh well.

Gold (2016)

★★★

Loosely based on actual events, this film is one of those tragic rags-to-riches stories, where when the riches come, the hero gets over-confident and falls again. Much of the wall-street business-oriented conflicts were a bit lost on me, as I have little understanding of that sort of stuff. Still, fun movie, about average I’d say. Not terrible, but not great either, not terribly deep thematically, just OK.

The Nightmare (2015)

★★★

I’ve gotten sleep paralysis a few times before, so I was interested to watch this documentary on it. Some people’s experiences were much creepier than others, some seemed more silly than creepy. Still, overall, a rather creepy documentary. And, of course, it gave me a sleep paralysis nightmare with an evil cat and evil electric static noise, so thanks a lot for that!

Winter’s Bone (2010)

★★½

Interesting premise, a young 17-year-old searches for her missing father so she and her family won’t lose their house. Unfortunately much of the movie was a bit too boring, as she just goes around asking questions and not finding out much. Ultimately she’s saved more by other characters than her own actions. There’s a somber tone to the whole film that just leaves you feeling a bit depressed.

Shut In (2016)

★½

Silly, predictable, boring.

The Disappointments Room (2016)

★

Woah. And I thought “Shut In” was bad. This was just plain awful.

Particle Fever (2013)

★

The physics might be interesting, but as a documentary, this was boring. It felt like it was mostly the camera following some random uninteresting scientists talking about the Large Hadron Collider mixed with shots of people walking around buildings and snippets of mundane conversations. Nothing of any real substance here.

The Red Turtle (2016)

★★★

A rather bizarre story, but I enjoyed the slow quiet pace and the dialog-free storytelling, it was quite refreshing.

Hidden Figures (2016)

★

The true stories behind the film might be interesting, but far too many dippy Hollywood moments of oversimplifications and dramatizations ruined this for me. Really, Euler’s Method? “But that’s ancient”? No. If Euler’s Method provided a solution to a problem that perplexed a room of NASA workers, then they must’ve been pretty darn stupid. Similarly the scene in which one of the women gets a computer to work by adjusting a cable. For Pete’s sake… the screenwriting was just dumb. Both NASA and the real “hidden figures” deserve better.

King Arthur: Legend of the Sword (2017)

★★★½

Had some pacing problems, felt longer than it needed to be and a bit slow to get going. It was also annoying to see the main character struggle with self-doubt for too long, it’s such a boring conflict whatever movie it’s in. Would’ve been interesting to see him making more decisive decisions by the second half of the film. Also, the whole “you must learn to control your powers!” is an annoyingly overused cliche. Finally, the director’s style of cross-cutting different scenes could be annoying; I didn’t find it all that stylish.

All that said, I overall really enjoyed the film. The story was still a lot of fun. I enjoyed how they combined different versions of Arthurian legend and made something unique out of his world and character. The scars on his hand and how he got them was a nice touch. The visuals were fantastic, especially in 3D, from the gritty dirty look of the world, to the epic battle sequences. The action sequences were very well done and kept me constantly engaged. The climactic final battle left me quite satisfied. The pulsing pumping soundtrack was also great. I especially enjoyed the use of “The Devil & The Huntsman”.

So, yes, the story had its weaknesses; the pacing was off and it wasn’t very deep thematically. But as far as an action-packed sword and sorcery film goes, this definitely hits the spot. It was great fun! Wish they’d make more films like this.

Walking with the Enemy (2014)

★★★

A bit cheesy at times, and I’m not sure they really needed to fake accents throughout the entire thing, but overall not a bad WWII film, if you don’t mind all the tragedy that comes with it.

Split (2016)

★½

The whole concept of “The Beast” as a personality, along with the ending, was just a bit too silly for me.

The BFG (2016)

★★

I’ll preface this by saying I never read the book. When I was a kid, I read Roald Dahl’s “The Witches” and hated it so much I never read another book by him. (And I still hate that book.) So I can’t judge the movie by its faithfulness to the book.

Cons: The giants’ character designs. The CGI was just too cartoony and ugly for me. The BFG’s deformed head and neck and body proportions ruined his innocent personality’s lovable-ness. It was just bad character design. Like you know when crappy puppeteers try to make Muppet-like puppets, but they just come off as ugly and creepy rather than charming? It’s like that.

Secondly, Sophie is quite a dull character. She has very little personality, other than she’s lonely. But we never meet anybody at all in her own world, other than some drunkards she tells to be quiet, and she’s whisked away to giant country so early in the film that we never really get much time to know her. Once in giant country, she has no goals whatsoever (why would she?), so the story just sort of meanders as she and the giant talk. But there is hardly a real story.

When Sophie risks suicide by jumping from the balcony to get the giant to come back, I could only shake my head thinking, “Don’t you know it is written: You shall not put your giant to the test?”

Finally, the climactic solution of asking the queen for help is so long and drawn out that it’s just boring. Granted, I’m in my early-30s, so I fully recognize I’m not the target audience for this. Perhaps I would’ve enjoyed it more in my youth (if the giant’s face didn’t give me nightmares… I was easily scared as a child). But the gag-filled dinner sequence was just pointless and boring; I wanted to get on with the story, with the action! But the climax was rather anti-climactic anyway, so… meh.

Pros: I enjoyed the giant’s humorous way of talking, and I enjoyed how dreams were something he caught and gave to people. I wish the story had revolved more around that; there’s tremendous story potential with that sort of magic.

Some of the waxing poetic about hearing the secret whisperings of the world came off as a bit forced and cheesy for me, rather than magical and charming. Didn’t feel quite genuine to me.

There’s also something that really bothers me about this film, but I can’t quite put my finger on it. I may have to watch it again to figure it out, but I don’t really want to do that anytime soon.

Lone Wolf and Cub: Baby Cart to Hades (1972)

★★★★½

Watched the first two films of this film series last year, renting them from Netflix, and enjoyed them so much that I couldn’t resist buying the Criterion blu-ray set when it came out. Very much enjoyed this one just as much. I love all the clever surprises, the cheesy violence, the calm pacing, the stoic hero, the ever-surprising baby cart, the use of music and silence. These are just great films, tons of fun. I love it! I look forward to seeing the next three films in the series.

Brotherhood of Blades (2014)

★★

A bit too confusing for me to follow as well as I’d’ve liked.

The Protector 2 (2013)

★½

Not nearly as good as the first. Too much ridiculous looking CGI and green screen, and the fights were not nearly as nicely choreographed. Overall a disappointment.

DMT: The Spirit Molecule (2010)

★★

A bit boring and not very in-depth. It did manage to make me want to do drugs, which I never thought would happen. Well, at least the title psychedelic. Any scientists doing more studies? We need to do more research for a better documentary…

Innsaei (2016)

★

This might be OK if you’re in a more meditative mood, but if you’re hoping to actually learn something practical, books will probably be more useful.

Mr. Pip (2012)

★★★½

Good movie. Started out a bit cheesy, but definitely became more moving as the drama intensified. What a sad film though! Prepare for tragedy. :-(

Mythica: The Dark Spore (2015)

★

Woah, even worse than the first. I think I’m done with this series…

Death Rides a Horse (1967)

★★★★

Great spaghetti western. Gotta love the Leone-esque eye close-ups, and Morricone’s score is awesome as always. The dialog is a bit bland, but it makes the story easy to follow. And it’s a fun story, two quite different men out for revenge for different reasons against the same group of criminals, promising some good old western fun: gun battles, duels, a bank robbery, a prison break, and the plot moves fast enough that the two hours fly by.

Unfortunately the quality of the film on the DVD I watched it on was complete garbage; it was edited to fit the TV and the digital compression looked awful, worse than an old laserdisc. It’d be nice to get this film on blu-ray, but alas, no North American release as far as I can tell, would have to import it…

Happiness of the Katakuris (2001)

★★★½

Definitely one of the weirdest films I’ve seen, but it was hilarious. I enjoyed it.

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 (2017)

★★★★★

Loved this even more than the first. Since the characters are already established, we’re able to dive right in and start having fun. Some of the humor was a bit raunchy for me, but most of it I found hilarious, especially the exchanges between Mantis and Drax, they had me on the verge of tears. Baby Groot was also awesome in every scene he was in; adult Groot should just go ahead and continually sacrifice himself so we can get infinite Baby Groot incarnations.

The overall story was not very deep or profound, which I doubt would’ve worked with such overloads of comedy anyway, but it still managed to stay fast-paced and engaging throughout so that the 2+ hours running time flew by. And I thought the more serious moments still worked extremely well.

Finally, I’m a huge fan of 3D (it’s often what lures me to the theater these days), and I thought the 3D conversion was particularly well done; the film was visually fantastic. Many times shots of vast landscapes and starry skies become too flat when 3D-ized, but with this film, each scene really popped and had depth; I appreciate the stereoscopic artists’ attention to such things. There were still some weaknesses here and there (such as foliage and glass reflections that artists always have trouble with), but this is definitely one of the better 3D films I’ve seen.

I don’t much care for most Marvel films; they’re often bland and the humor in them just makes me groan, but I thought the first Guardians of the Galaxy was fun enough to try seeing this one in 3D, especially after it earned several good reviews from friends. Even so, I was quite surprised by how much I loved this.

Great film! Awesome hilarious epic fun from beginning to end.