GabrielSymes

As someone who has played a bit of Minecraft, I was absolutely thrilled seeing that universe come to life. And, like me, the characters dumped into Minecraft knowing nothing about the mechanics. They had to learn everything from scratch. The movie resonated with my experiences.

Everything else is simply ridiculous. A warm mishmash of Minecraft mechanics, musical theatre, teen drama, and slapstick. And a bit of action. I can completely understand why opinions are divided. For me, I just loved seeing something from Minecraft come to life. But understand why many others would have liked to see a more coherent story with a bit more depth.

I found the second half of Thunderbolts much better than the first. I think the reason was that it took a while to adjust to what is a quite different Marvels film. I think that if I go back and rewatch it, I will enjoy the whole film much more. A good example is in David Harbour's character. I initially found the accent, mannerisms and overall character to be superficial and, frankly, pointless. But by the end of the film, he was very much part of the story. And this strand of readjustment runs through all the characters. Their chemistry takes time to emerge. Whether that is by design or not, I don't know. But by the end opposites have come together and the Marvel Cinematic Universe is better for it.

I've generally thought recent Liam Neeson movies receive a poor review because everyone wants him to do better. Except for Taken, the films are fairly average action films: watchable, fill a bit of time, but don't make the most of Neeson's acting credentials.

Ice Road: Vengeance has some spectacular scenery. And that is about all there is in this film worth watching. It's like one scene from the original Taken has been diluted and stretched out into a whole movie. It really is a chore getting to the end of this Ice Road.

Bingbing Fan and Grace O'Sullivan turned in decent performances, despite the lack of material. The rest of the cast were wooden automatons, following the B-movie programming. Having never seen this film before, I instinctively knew what was coming next. And I trust in other reviewers and steer clear of dismal Liam Neeson action films.