TBJCSKCNRRQTreviews

I don't want this review to be nothing but showering it with praise so I'll start with areas where it's a mixed bag.

2 thirds of the time the characters feel real and in general there's a sense of authenticity. The last bit is full of cliches and slang about the generation depicted and I'm not entirely sure if it's Someone poking fun at the way they were when they were that age or if it's that age old Frustrating Generational conflict.

This is definitely primarily for fans of the original. Not just because of all the nostalgia. And considering that these did not have anywhere near the same pop culture impact as Scream and Halloween which have also gotten soft reboots in recent years An argument could be made that it should have done more to invite newcomers in. You can definitely tell that this was a labor of love made by people who adore the 90s entries. Yeah we don't talk about the third one.

To clarify I think that one is over hated if not necessarily underrated and it made some creative decisions that I think were necessary by then. It suffers for various reasons including not having the original cast. This one doesn't really reference it, it seems to have been retconned out of existence.

In some ways this is closer to aforementioned slasher behemoths than the 97 entry. For sure the exploration of trauma returns with a vengeance. And since today movies like this are allowed to be smart and complex, yeah they do that. It doesn't feel as one note as it did in that one.

But there are more suspects and red herrings to the point where it almost feels like any second now Sydney Prescott is going to pop up and argue for copyright infringement. And while this definitely does not have anyone who is as heartbreaking as Laurie Strode was in the 2018 entry it does take steps in that direction.

Beyond that the way you feel about this will depend a lot on how you feel about legacy sequels. Because when it comes to those and the slasher subgenre this delivers about what you'd expect and pretty well.

The cinematography and editing are amazing. It manages to make settings and situations feel either completely safe or loaded with hidden danger. This creates a very effective contrast that makes for a much stronger impact when bad things happen.

The violence is plentiful enough to satisfy not so frequent that it becomes numbing. There's not an awful lot of actual gore making what there is feel bigger. The tension and suspense is gripping.

I watched this with about a dozen and a half others in a theater and there were screams, squeals and people jumping out of their seats. It did enough to make me care about everyone that I was supposed to, including ones that we love to hate.

Cameos and such are done very nicely and they do that thing that we've seen a bunch of these where characters will have changed in between films since it's been so long since we last saw them in ways that can be argued to feel true to how they were depicted before.

And rest assured the returning faces are still very talented. Freddie Prinze Junior is aging like a fine wine. If you haven't already watched Star Wars Rebels he helps make that so much more than it would have been without him.

It does also deliver on the front and back of having conventionally attractive young women in situations where they are sexual and or not wearing a lot of clothes. I could not tell you if this is what people of that age would wear in these contexts. Female gaze though!

I love how sex positive this is. And also that it uses these scenes to communicate things similar to the Marvel Netflix shows perhaps especially Jessica Jones. It's great that there is now a proper ongoing fisherman theme so he'll use Spears and cages. An upgrade from the reasonable level of poetic justice in the very first of these. 8/10.

This will be based on the first season as right now it seems unlikely that they're making more.

We met Riri in Wakanda forever but here we get significantly more depth on her. Her best friend and step dad died in a meaningless tragic way and she's suffering PTSD from witnessing it.

This is some of the first that we see here thus solidifying how fundamental it is to her and her story. Since it has more running time Than Iron Man Three it is able to dive more into this serious condition that we know every so often leads to suicide in the real world.

They really don't sugarcoat it at all. She has nightmares and panic attacks. It has negatively affected her life for 5 whole years and yet she continues to insist that she's fine and not get psychiatric care.

This can hopefully help shine a light on how much it hurts to struggle with this. Since last time her let's call it extracurricular activity of selling homework has been discovered and combined with The Occasional occasional property damage caused by her work it has led to her being expelled.

She's not quite Tony though primarily because she doesn't have his wealth. This does also address the privilege we white males are born with. Let's be honest he got away with significantly worse.

It's also worth noting that where he decided the solution to weapons was the best one yet hers is a tool to help people. Essentially she built an armored jetpack powered Swiss army knife in the hopes that what happened to her can be prevented from happening to others.

There had been rumors that she wouldn't use it all that much in this and I'm happy to tell you that is not at all the case. It's also not overused. Something does happen in the pilot that means she has to fix it but it doesn't take her very long.

They haven't run out of cool and unique things to do with a suit like that either and this frankly has some of the very best material with that.

Hands down it has the very best of the montages of working on it. A very effective one that conveys how much time it takes and how much work goes into it. And it takes care to challenge the individualist idea that drove Stark's three solo films a lot of the way and is in general an ingrained idea in American culture that we have to get rid of because it's caused significant damage.

This features at least one heist that is very enjoyable. I know the Ant Man movie wasn't considered to have quite enough of that and I suppose this one doesn't go that much further. Certainly I can appreciate that these don't reach the level of Ocean's 11.

There's a lot of tension and suspense. They manage to create scenes where we're worried despite the armor. The action is solid and nicely varied as well.

There are 2 young women here who Engage in martial arts. Since they are not the most muscular efforts are taken to make it credible that they are as effective as they are.

For example they usually use what I understand is called luchador methods similar to Black Widow after her first appearance basically using their entire body weight against their opponent and other times they will do things like grab the enemy by the back of their head and slam it into a hard surface such as wood or even steel.

Of course this did not do much ultimately to slow down the anti woke chud Youtubers. At this point I doubt anything will. To be clear it is absolutely a lie when they claim that this is meant to replace the character we love played by Robert Downey Junior.

She is inspired by him but she has other goals, better ones - healing. It is absolutely not random that part of her alter ego's name is heart.

She has people around her that want to help her grieve. Xavier who is the brother of her dead BFF takes a fairly hands on approach and their chemistry is palpable.

Honestly I would say that last bit goes for everyone. Her mother Ronnie can be strict and overbearing but is written with a lot of empathy. She clearly does care; she just wants her daughter To be able to process this.

I cared about absolutely everyone on this. The gang that carries out Aforementioned crime all have distinct personalities and you cannot mistake any one of them for any of the others.

The dialog really gives everyone their own distinct voice and this is one of those cases where you could read a line intended for any specific 1 of them and even if you didn't know who it was meant for you'd be able to tell.

Whether or not the representation here is all good I leave up to the members of those communities to determine. All I will say is that there definitely is clear evidence that they realized working on this that diversity is our strength.

One of them goes by they/them pronouns and from what I understand the ethnic makeup here is accurate to Chicago as are many of the cultural aspects in general.

A lot of this was shot on location and carefully crafted sets avoiding overusing the volume unlike other fairly recent Disney Plus shows.

The special effects are astounding. This looks as expensive as it was, which is not as much as the movies or something like Falcon and the Winter Soldier. It is somewhat more down to earth; the stakes are not the end of the world.

I agree with the Nando cut on a great many things but not quite his assessment of the ending of this which I am not going to give away.

He is of the opinion that they will not follow up on it or at least not in a satisfying way. I think it's likely that they will.

I absolutely understand why one would be frustrated if they didn't think so. Considering that I do, I would make a case that it is a very interesting direction to go in and I can hardly wait to see them deal with it. 8/10.

This one was one of the most hated of the series. It is said that it spends too much time on the wedding. I think it shows remarkable restraint there. It's constantly showing new parts of the wedding and certain things are trimmed about as far as they'll go where they'll still have an impact such as the vows.

The running time devoted to it is in part because it is a celebration because these characters have been through so much and also it lulls us into a false sense of security only to pull the carpet out from under us when it makes a sharp turn into horror.

This split the final book into two movies. If there hadn't been so many such compelling things happening here then I would agree that it felt unnecessary. I disagree that it is badly paced. Like other cases of this such as the Hunger Games I would argue that this is the first time that no major stuff is at all rushed through.

Considering how many characters this has to juggle it is impressive that it continues to give all of them something compelling to do. Some get significant growth. This adds more to the lore including some of the coolest stuff. Yes it does also have what might be the worst bit of that.

I won't give away what it is but I will say that it is very clearly there because Stephanie Meyer was trying to make sense of the values of Mormonism and you don't have to know that much about The Conservative Christianity to know that you're always going to end up with something Really messed up when you attempt to justify it.

There is really interesting and effective exploration of important ethical issues. The special effects have really gotten great by this point For example the Werewolf stuff. This has a lot of the best of those of these and part of that is a willingness to use practical stuff and not rely entirely on CG. 7/10.