jaredkjacoby

Taking place three years after Superman revealed himself to Earth, he loses his first battle to Ultraman, controlled by Lex Luthor. Though he recovers, Luthor and his cronies invade Superman's home and find a way to have the public turn against the Man of Steel. Superman will go to great lengths to prove he is a hero and not someone who wants to conquer Earth.

I was very pumped for James Gunn's Superman, but I had a few concerns to keep me from being overly hyped about the film. I have watched all of the live action Superman movies over the week leading up to this. I decided to go ahead and see this movie early so I could see it on the biggest screen possible and to avoid spoilers after its release. Even with my excitement for the movie, I was not prepared for one of the best movie experiences I have had in years...

The two words I would use to best describe James Gunn's Superman is pure joy. Not only is this hands down my favorite Superman movie so far, but this might be my favorite comic book movie of the decade. It has everything I wanted from the story and more. Not only is the story consistently fun and engaging, but it is a fresh take on the Man of Tomorrow. The pacing is perfect and the movie is never once boring during a character beat or an action beat. What surprised me is that the humor is spot on in this movie. The gags are timed perfectly and they are often hilarious. This movie has a different type of humor from the other Superman films, but it works here and I never felt it got in the way of the story. This movie has amazing emotional beats that made my jaw drop.

At its core, Superman is a movie about being kind and anti-prejudice. James Gunn focuses a lot on Superman's status as an alien from another planet to show how he is just a friendly man who wants to change the world for the better. This movie is about as pro-immigrant as it can get and it gets its messages across in a clever, but straightforward way. Also, this movie does not shy away from the horrors of invasion and that it is unquestionably wrong. In an age with the pretty depressing political climate we have today, this movie takes on some heavy topics in ballsy ways I did not expect.

The cast is incredible here. David Corenswet is the best Superman we have gotten since Christopher Reeve. Corenswet is great as the awkward Clark Kent, but he is a powerhouse as the Man of Steel. He does a lot of great body language and facial expressions which tell the viewer everything about this Superman, but I love his line delivery. He speaks with confidence and swagger in battle, broken emotion at his worst moments and genuine joy in his happier moments. This is also my favorite version of Superman because this Superman is probably the most kindhearted and human because he genuinely cares about every living creature. He gets heartbroken over a death of a civilian, he stops a fight to help someone about to get crushed and he even saves a squirrel! A squirrel! This guy IS Superman and Corenswet proved to be perfect for the role.

One-upping Superman though is his evil nemesis Lex Luthor played by Nicholas Hoult. I consider Hoult to be an amazing actor as he has given some of my favorite performances recently and this film could potentially be his best. Hoult embodies everything about Lex Luthor from his cruelty, his eccentricity, his intellect and his rage when he loses. He also has quite possibly the best facial acting I have seen from an actor in a comic book movie which again blew me away. This version of Lex Luthor is by far the scariest I have seen of the movies. He is not just a heartless weasel, but he is diabolical and calculating. Lex is clever in his plan against Superman and to keep a positive image of himself while having dark intentions with his plans. He is genuinely terrifying and loathsome, but he is entertaining to watch because of it and you will root for his demise. I love to hate this version of Lex, and Nicholas Hoult killed in this role.

The rest of the cast is great too. Some standouts include Rachel Brosnahan as Lois Lane who is a lot fun to watch and has great chemistry with Corenswet, Edi Gathegi as Mr. Terrific who is wonderfully snarky and a true ally to Superman, Nathan Fillion who is a riot as Green Lantern/Guy Gardener, Maria Gabriela de Faria who is badass as The Engineer, Isabel Merced who kills it as a snarky Hawk Girl and Anthony Carrigan who brings a lot of emotional moments as Metamorpho. Seriously, Carrigan surprised me with his character and performance. Krypton the Super Dog is adorable and feisty here. He is fun in every scene he is in. One thing I will say is that I feared Superman's friends who are also superheroes would steal the show from him but they do not. They make for excellent supporting characters who help Superman, but do not take the spotlight from him. I could go on because this cast is excellent, the characters are great and everyone nails their roles while leaving their mark on the story.

Production-wise, the movie looks fantastic. The cinematography by Henry Brahm is dynamic and slick having some memorable shots, especially when we enter the Pocket Universe. This is a very colorful movie for the most part and it fits the lighter tone of the movie. The set designs are amazing from Superman's home, Metropolis and especially the Pocket Universe. The way this movie looks makes me feel like I stepped into the world of Superman.

The action scenes are awesome in this movie. The fights are some of the best in a Superman film, especially the fights with Superman and his friends against the kaiju which is just so beautifully shot and full of great camera-work. The climactic battle is one of the best climaxes in a blockbuster I have seen in years thanks to the stakes involved, the intensity in the fights and the tactics both Lex and Superman use. Also, Mr. Terrific has an amazing one-take sequence which showcases his powers perfectly. The set pieces in the Pocket Universe are solid showing Superman's need to protect others in danger. Every set piece in this film is memorable here.

The soundtrack is epic too. The musical score by John Murphy and David Fleming is phenomenal and mixes classic Superman music with modern comic book movie music to create memorable music throughout the film. When I think of the music of this film, it immediately makes me think of Superman. I love the song choices in the film too, especially the two songs that play at the credits. I love that this movie made a song by a fictional band here. That is just another element that shows how much heart this film has.

I cannot think of too many issues with this movie. The only thing I would say is that a couple scenes of humor did not quite land for me, particularly one cameo from a certain show by James Gunn. I know that the audience I was with laughed at that scene, but I could not help but groan at it because it felt out of place here. I really cannot think of too many things I did not like about this movie though.

I used to be a much bigger fan of comic book movies, but I have kind of drifted from them. I still enjoy them, but I do not have the same love of them as I used to. Superman is an exception. This movie everything I wanted it to be and more. It is one of the of the most joyful and entertaining comic book movies while being one of the gutsiest out there too. This movie single-handedly lifted my spirits up for the day. It was also cool to be with an audience who was really into the film even cheering and clapping not just at the end, but in the middle of the film! As of now, this is my favorite film of the year and I cannot wait to see it again. See this movie on the biggest screen possible.

Huntrix is a K-Pop band who are musical warriors who fight off demons trying to steal the souls of innocent people. They can use their voices and they have weapons to fight them. However, rhey face their biggest threat with the Saja Boys who seem like a charismatic boy band, but are actually demons. Facing their own issues and personal demons, Huntrix goes to great lengths to defeat the demons disguised as a boy band.

I'm not gonna mince words here. I cannot remember the last time that I thoroughly enjoyed an animated film as much as I enjoyed KPop Demon Hunters. Just about every scene in this movie has something entertaining or engaging going on whether it is a slick action scene, an awesome musical number, funny visual and physical gags and surprisingly dark storytelling moments. This is a perfect package of an animated feature.

Right off the bat, Maggie Kang and Chris Appelhans put the viewer in this crazy world where K-pop stars uses their voices to keep everyone safe from demons trying to steal their souls. This movie has one of the coolest and most original worlds I have seen in a movie in a while. Just imagine if the Spice Girls were secretly fighting demons and *NSYNC were secretly a demon boy band working for an abominable ruler of demons. It sounds crazy, but in the best possible way.

Visually, this movie looks absolutely gorgeous. It did take me a minute to get use to the animation style, but the animation is energetic and expressive beyond words. Watching this movie is like watching a comic book come to life. The action scenes are amazing with how fast the hits are and how beautifully choreographed they are. Each of the three singers have their special fighting abilities and they come to play in the fights. I also appreciate that despite their strength and skill, Huntrix is not invincible as they are shown to really struggle at certain points against the demons they fight. I especially love the opening sequence which showcases everything the movie will be. The colors are spectacular throughout and the character designs are great fitting the world of K-pop perfectly. Every character is full of life and energy with the animation and expressions they are given.

Then there is the soundtrack. I adore the music here. Every single song in this movie is a bop and I cannot get any of them out of my head. My favorite has to be Takedown with how much of a mean diss song it is with Your Idol by the Saja Boys being a close second. I want to add every single song to my playlist because they get me pumped up. The musical numbers themselves are fun to watch with excellent dance choreography and a lot of flashy visuals while showing a lot of what the characters are thinking. This movie delivers on the soundtrack tenfold. Even the musical score by Marcelo Zarvos is pretty solid.

Absurd worldbuilding aside, the movie has a great story dealing with insecurities of characters, pressures of performing to fans and how no one is perfect. Rumi in particular has one of the biggest secrets out of the characters, but she hides it because she worries how it will affect her career, her friendship with Zoey and Mira and her mental health. Her rival Jinu has a dark past that he is not completely honest about which haunts him to this day. The conflict here is very engaging to see how the characters deal with their flaws and overcome them. Underneath all of the crazy action and stylish music is a movie about accepting who are regardless of your imperfections. For a movie about K-pop warriors and boy band demons, it has some compelling themes that I feel will resonate with a lot of people.

KPop Demon Hunters is probably the funniest movie of the year. I was laughing hard at all of the visual gags and physical gags that poke fun of the wacky world this movie takes place in. The dialogue is very clever when it needs to be. The expressions of the characters are over the top in the best possible way just to show how the three musical warriors are three goofballs. One of my favorite scenes is when Mira and Zoey roar to hype themselves with Rumi staring at them annoyed... and then roaring with them. I love the subversion of the only sane man here.

Despite a lot of humor throughout, there are some pretty dark moments here. Rumi's situation of having to hide her secret from her friends is scary, Jinu has a very depressing backstory and the villain is absolutely terrifying. Once the villain gets more focus, the movie gets darker because of how the bad guy preys on everyone's insecurities to take their souls. The tonal shift is gradual and with the movie never losing its sense of humor, it works.

I adore the three main characters. Rumi, Zoey and Mira are the coolest K-pop stars imaginable. In public, they are stylish and graceful but behind closed doors, they are the goofiest trio of friends imaginable. Their friendship is endearing to watch because of how much fun they have hanging out with each other in spite of their differences. Their interactions with their fans are adorable because they definitely enjoy interacting with them despite how much pressure their job is. I also love how nice they are to their manager Bobby showing why she enjoys working with them. This is an extremely lovable group of main characters.

Individually, Rumi is a great protagonist with her flaws and secrets, but also being fiercely determined. I love how despite her marks, she is still a good person who will do anything to protect the people she cares about. Zoey is the funny and supportive friend who hypes up the group the most. She is so much fun to watch with her expressions and how she gets excited over everything. Mira is the most blunt of the group, but she is overall pretty friendly and smart because she is the one person who senses something wrong with Rumi. Mira is very enjoyable to watch because of how snarky yet passionate she is and can be just as over-the-top as Zoey at times. I really like these characters both as a group and on their own.

The villains are not the deepest with one exception, but they work. Gwi-Ma is this body of flames that abuses his own demons when he does not get his way. He is a very effective villain who makes his underlings own afraid of him. The Saja Boys are so much fun to watch from their catchy songs, their fake friendly personalities and their true nature towards the end. Jinu is one of my favorite characters here because of how dark his story is and how he is a lot less misunderstood than I thought he would be. Jinu is one of those villains you do feel bad for in how tortured he is, but I find it interesting that he brought some of it on himself with how it happened. Despite his bad actions, he does genuinely bond with Rumi and wants to help her. This makes him a very complex character morally with his goals. In fact, I really like the moral complexity of some characters, not just Jinu. This movie could have easily been another good guys vs bad guys, but some of the allies turn out to have issues they cannot overcome which hurts one of the main characters hard. The characters are fantastic and the voice cast is excellent.

There are only two things keeping me from giving this a perfect score. There is a predictable trope used and I saw it coming a mile away. There are a lot of moments I did not expect, but this plot point I saw coming with the first 20 minutes which is a bit frustrating. The second is that some of the characters could have been developed a bit more. I think the characters are great, but most of the Saja Boys are pushed to the side aside from Jinu. If there is a sequel to this movie (and I really hope there will be a sequel), it could focus a bit more on Zoey and/or Mira or maybe even go into Celine's backstory a bit more because despite her small role, she is one of the most important characters in the film.

Sorry for the long review, but I have so much to say about this gem of a film. KPop Demon Hunters is absolutely badass. It is creative, original, beautiful and surprisingly deep with some of its themes. This movie feels like that really cool Saturday Morning cartoon that I would wake myself up for just to watch it. This is easily one of the most entertaining movies I have watched this entire decade and I cannot wait to watch it again. I could have watched another hour and a half here. I really hope it comes on DVD or Blu-ray like Mitchells vs The Machines did because I would buy it day one. If you have Netflix, watch this movie as soon as you can!

Sonny Hayes is a retired Formula One racer who suffered a horrible accident that made him retire. In modern F1 era, Hayes is contacted by the Apex Grand Prix Team owned by Ruben Cervantes and is given the opportunity to come out of retirement. Hayes gets the task of mentoring Joshua Pearce, young but talented driver and helping motivate the struggling team to race better in the championship. However, Hayes and Pearce clash when it comes to their teamwork making this more difficult than it may seem.

Joseph Kosinski's F1 has a pretty familiar story with it involving a retired racer coming out of retirement and a young racer who is talented, but a bit arrogant. It has a typical romance story in there that is kind of there for the sake of having one. F1 has a lot of plot beats you might be familiar, but it is the way these beats are executed that makes this movie so refreshing and entertaining.

F1 is an exhilarating movie filled with energy and competitiveness throughout. From the opening scene with Hayes racing and the credits rolling, I knew this was gonna be a lot of fun to watch. It has the perfect opening sequence for a movie about Formula One racing.

I am not 100% sure how accurate this movie is for Formula One racing, but this movie shows a lot of interesting aspects about the sport especially in regard to the teamwork aspect. The movie is about how teamwork is crucial from everyone involved and it plays a big role with how much Hayes and Pearce are at each other's throats despite being on the same team. These two racers have to work together if they want their team APXGP to do well in any of the races and once they work together better, they perform better. Also, I would like to take a moment to appreciate how many people work on one team in F1, especially when changing the tires and working on the vehicle during the pit stops. This movie shows how Formula One racing is more than just driving a race car well.

Beyond the messages of teamwork and loyalty, this feels kind of like one of those old school Hollywood blockbusters we do not see too much anymore. The way the story is structured and how climactic the last race truly is here. A lot of times, movies resolve their climaxes pretty easily or quickly. Joseph Kosinski makes sure that the most exciting and nailbiting part of the movie is the final race and it leads to an epic finish. There is a romance between Hayes and Kate McKenna, the technical director of APXGP that is cheesy, but it kind of works thanks to some decent chemistry between Brad Pitt and Kerry Condon and Condon's sassiness throughout the film. Honestly, all of these elements help the movie feel so fresh because it is a very different blockbuster from what we have been getting lately. It is based off a sport, it is about racing in dangerous ways and the stakes are different here. The movie is about a career instead of saving the world from some sort of evil.

While the tone of the movie is nowhere near as cheesy as Tony Scott's Days of Thunder, it does have several moments of humor. I did get some good laughs out of the natural dialogue delivery here. It relies on a lot of snark and I like snarky dialogue so it works for the most part for me. However, the movie does not shy away from how deadly the sport can be, especially a particularly crash scene which is probably one of the scariest car crashes I have seen in a movie in a long time. Even some of the people in the audience I was with gasped when it happened. The script is great despite some familiarity because of how it handles the beats of the story and the development of the characters.

However, it is the racing scenes that I think most people will go see this movie for. The Formula One racing in this movie is spectacular. This movie puts the audience in the perspective of a Formula One driver perfectly. The race sequences are exciting, they are nerve wracking and they carry a level of unpredictable. I like how Hayes and Pearce struggle a lot despite their talent which helps make the races less predictable and more thrilling.

Visually, the cinematography by Claudio Miranda is immaculate, the camera work is sweeping and the editing is spot on without being too reliant on quick cuts. I love the camera angles this movie uses too, especially with one shot putting us in both Hayes and Pearce's perspectives at the same time. The sound design is excellent too making the audience feel like they were a part of the race. These racing sequences are phenomenal and each one is better than the last leading to an awesome climax.

The musical score by Hans Zimmer is amazing. I actually think this might be one of Zimmer's best scores because it feels very different from his other music. There is more of a techno feel to the music and it fits the tone of Formula One to a tee. Also, it is just fun to listen to even outside of the film. I have been listening to the soundtrack while writing this review to be honest. The movie also has some neat song choices, but it is the score that I will remember from this movie music-wise.

Performance-wise Brad Pitt delivers a lot of old school Hollywood charm as Sonny Hayes. Pitt knows how to act so natural without coming off as too snarky. In my opinion, the standout is Damson Idris as Joshua Pearce. Idris is so expressive and energetic the young driver compared to Pitt's calm and cool nature as Hayes, but it's Idris' body language that I really like. There are scenes where he has to smile for cameras and it is one of the best "I wish I would disintegrate" smiles imaginable. I really enjoyed Idris' performance here and his character Pearce. Hayes and Pearce are very solid characters who undergo a lot of development throughout each act and they feel like different people by the end of their journeys. Seeing how these two grow to respect each other and work together better is really cool and kept me invested in them.

The supporting cast is not too shabby either. Javier Bardem is solid as Ruben Cervantes who is a very chill owner of a teammate and also a good friend of Hayes. Kerry Condon has a pretty simplistic role as Kate McKenna, but I enjoyed her quite a bit for her sarcastic sense of humor and contributions to the team. Condon's character also initiates one of my favorite scenes in the movie where she gets Hayes and Pearce to play poker with her. It is a really interesting scene that shows a softer side to the two drivers and a way for Kate McKenna to bring the best out of them.

I also really like Pearce's mom played by Sarah Niles. She is a good mom who is fully supportive of her son and his career, but will go into mama bear mode when something happens to him. I love the speech she gives to Hayes at one point in the movie. Niles' delivery is awesome and would make any mother proud. The cast is fantastic and they bring everything they have to this movie with each person bringing something unique to the table. Even the character development is really good which makes the movie that much more engaging.

Overall, F1 is pretty awesome. It is a very long movie and I did feel the length a bit, but not in a bad way. It is paced perfectly and it never slows down entirely. This is one of the best movies to go see on the big screen because the experience is so cool. The race sequences truly did make me feel a part of the action at times. This is one movie I do not think you should miss out on even if you are not a big fan of Formula One Racing.