Just a side comment about Monster Hunter. I won’t say it’s a good movie, because it wasn’t, but it’s a good adaptation from a video game into a movie. I guess Warcraft probably was too but I never played WoW (I played/play many other MMOs, just not that. I heard from WoW players that they really liked seeing in-game places in the movie, but I digress…). If you play Monster Hunter the video game, the movie makes some sense why the exploding arrows work but our guns don’t, pieces break off the monster (that’s important), and why there’s a cat that cooks. They didn’t bother to explain anything, so that sucks for everyone else.
MILDSPOILERS MILDSPOILERS NOTHINGYOUPROBABLYDON’T KNOW IF YOUHAVEBEENFOLLOWINGTHISMOVIEEVEN A LITTLE
Someone I know told me this was their new favorite Marvel movie. I don’t get it. This is basically a watered-down live-action version of Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse.
The big source of emotional stakes in the movie is really cliche at this point. They need to figure out a new way to mess with Spider-man’s psyche. If you have seen the movie you’ll know what I mean.
I was still more or less on-board until the big battle started near the end. The fight choreography is just really lacking compared to the fights in the Sam Raimi movies. In addition to the choreography issues, it was difficult to tell certain combatants apart—a huge oversight during production. It didn’t feel like I was really watching a large interconnected fight. I guess the audience was supposed to identify characters by the villains they were fighting since they were not visually distinct enough to make out in the chaos. Attempts were made to give a sense of space to the battle with some wide-angle camera shots but they were obviously CGI and failed miserably to connect the fights. The battle was just boring.
Remember in Spiderman 2 when Toby’s spider-man slingshots the piece of the clock back up at Doc Ock? Nothing that memorable happens in any fight in this movie. Actually, I saw Tom’s spiderman land hard a couple of times after being thrown or hit. I couldn’t help but think that in Raimi’s movies he would have had the skills and reflexes to arrest his fall with webbing and acrobatics.
Anyway, following the big battle was the story’s resolution which was predictable, rote, and anticlimactic. It’s also really unsatisfying because unlike the superhero movies of yesteryear, all is not well when the movie ends. There are big problems for the main character to resolve that are as big as any he had when the movie started if not bigger. It all becomes clear what is going on if you watch the 2 end credits scenes. This movie really just exists to set up the main conflict of the next Doctor Strange movie. They are so concerned with stringing audiences along to the next installment that they are neglecting to make satisfying endings for some of their films.
Speaking of Doctor Strange, he behaves like a moron for no particular reason other than that the plot needs him to. Much of his character development has been rolled back in order to serve the overall MCU plotline rather than the plotline serving the characters. Any lessons he learned about responsibility, duty, and humility are thrown out the window so that he can create problemsplot points for future installments.
Anyway, this might be the last Marvel movie I see in theaters. I'm so disappointed that if I could turn back time and not go to the theater last night, I would do it.
Don’t Look UP was weird . Everyone liked it except me. I got the humor but felt it was the same over and over. Maybe I should try it again in a different frame of mind.