OlieRendch

So Justice League, DC's big superhero team-up movie. The franchise has had major ups and downs in only four years so where does this one fit in?

I'll start with the overall tone of the movie. After the depressing darkness of Batman V Superman, Wonder Woman and had a lighter tone to it; now I'm not saying it's gone all light & happy and copying Marvel but I mean they literally added colors to the screen and moments that made you smile and feel like justice was prevailing. So with that, I'll move onto the characters. who certainly added to my personal enjoyment of the film. this film took some cues from

I really enjoyed the League themselves. Bruce Wayne/Batman has remained largely the same since BvS but seeing him here just felt different somehow, one of my favorite moments of the entire film is with him on a rooftop near the beginning; it felt really comic-booky and how I perceive Batman as a character so I really enjoyed that. Wonder Woman again is a joy to watch and continues to be a highlight of all of the films she's in; her wise and mother-like attitude is really nice to see in this threatening universe. The new members I really did enjoy too. The Flash, while not always funny, was entertaining quite a bit in both his powers and story-arc. Cyborg I thought was going to be really broody and boring the whole time, and while he is a serious character, his struggle with his situation and the power-set that he has was really engaging and unexpected. Aquaman was a really fun-loving brawler kind of guy and although I enjoyed his presence I hope more of his character is fleshed out in his upcoming solo film.

Story-wise, Justice League is not deep or complex, and not too surprising. I think after the tangled mess of BvS, they took a safe route and a bit of a breather with the simpleness of the plot. I didn't mind that at all and welcomed it but I know many will not enjoy the "nothingness" of the story. Part of that has to do with the villain and to be honest, he's not a deeply developed character; another big CGI guy with an army of faceless expendable drones makes for uninteresting stakes. One aspect of the film does involve Superman though, and that's not a spoiler as he's in the trailers and it's no secret. Now I thought his initial return in the film was quite unsatisfactory and it definitely felt like some things had been cut but as the film went on I started to really enjoy seeing him again, especially towards the end. I'd say as far as overall plot goes, it's fairly generic but Zack Snyder's directing does make some interesting visuals along the way.

Another negative I'll point out is the script. Now I know the unfortunate circumstances of why Joss Whedon was brought in to finish the movie and I'm glad he could, but some of the dialogue he injected just did not fit with the characters they were given to. Some of it worked, and I'm convinced Whedon did some good stuff in this but not all of it gelled for me.

In the end, I'd say I personally enjoyed Justice League a lot more than I was expecting but it is ultimately a fluff movie with not much depth and some terrible special effects during the reshoots.

The Thor films have been kind of average so far; can a quirky New Zealander change all that?

Thor: Ragnarok is the third film in its own series and Thor's fifth appearance in the Marvel Cinematic Universe as a whole. This time it's directed by Taika Watiti and also features the Hulk as a main character. For starters I'd like to say I love Taikia's work; his film Hunt for the Wilderpeople is hilarious to me and any interview you watch of his is a joy to behold. He has a very unique style of film so I can see why Marvel chose him to inject some energy and humor into this series. And he does do that. Ragnarok is the most entertained I've been while watching a Thor movie but it's not without its problems.

Story-wise, there is a very quick set-up. You can tell that Taika and producer Kevin Feige wanted to completely dismantle what had been built up in the previous Thor films. I can understand why they wanted to do that but just seeing mythology, characters, and arcs that have been established since 2011 be wiped away or brushed under the carpet was a little disheartening, and this was all during the first act. It was very quick and we were going from scene to scene and location to location very quickly mopping up old plot threads and setting up what this movie was going to be. Once that had happened, and Thor was on the planet Sakar, it became more enjoyable for me. The rest of the movie showcased Taika's style of humor perfectly and had me laughing out loud plenty of times. It did seem a bit like two films at times with one set on Sakar and the other on Asgard as the story kept flipping from one to the other but I was entertained enough with the characters.

Chris Hemsworth has always played Thor brilliantly and we get to see a lot more of his comedic talent here. Mark Ruffalo is always a highlight of any film for me and seeing him here was great both as Banner and the Hulk experiencing this mad Universe. Tom Hiddleston's Loki, of course, appears again and although the character has perhaps lost some of his popularity since everybody loved him in The Avengers, I enjoyed seeing him because I like Tom Hiddleston as an actor. Two new characters I absolutely loved in this film though, were Jeff Goldblum's Grandmaster who is hilarious; Goldblum barely has to act, his own wacky charisma comes through perfectly. And Korg, voiced by Taika Watiti himself had some of the best lines. I'd definitely say the characters were the best part of this film for me.

In the end, I'd say I really enjoyed Thor: Ragnarok. The story is pretty basic and some of the green-screen wasn't great during the re-shoots but I loved the aesthetic and the characters. I laughed a lot too even though I felt some of the emotional beats were lost due to quick jokes. I still look forward to following Taika's work and I'm looking forward to seeing where the character of Thor himself is taken too.

So Valerian is the latest film from French director Luc Besson. It's set in one of those enormous science-fantasy worlds with many aliens, technology, and bright colors, similar to that of Star Wars, Guardians of the Galaxy, or even Besson's 90s cult hit, The Fifth Element. We follow two government agents, Valerian and Laureline, as they try to solve a mystery in the heart of an intergalactic space station inhabited by hundreds of species and cultures.

As you've probably heard already, Valerian looks great. I wouldn't say stunning, I never saw a shot and thought wow, I could frame that; Besson gives us a cool aesthetic but as directing angles and cinematography goes, nothing stood out for me. When I say it looks good, I mean the literal things on screen, the bright colors, the alien designs, the City of Alpha itself, all visually interesting. I could pause the film at any moment and look around to see interesting details that are there, just having a small snippet of extensively-thought out cultures and worlds.

Another thing that was great to see was some original sci-fi concepts I had never seen before. I haven't read the comic so obviously, I don't know how much was taken but there were ideas brought out in Valerian that I thought were really cool and engaging. One particular one that comes to mind is in the first act where our characters must visit a market, and the way they go about this fascinated me and the sorts of things they were doing I really loved watching.

Valerian is played by Dane DeHaan and Laureline is played by Cara Delevingene. I have to say that Cara's performance was the strongest out of the two, she seemed like a real person in this world and I enjoyed her on screen. Now Dane Dehaan, who's acting I really like and have enjoyed his weird, villainess characters in both Chronicle and The Amazing Spider-Man 2; but here, he tries to be some sort of charismatic, best-agent-in-the-company, womanizer and it really doesn't work. It's like getting Michael Cera as James Bond; so as much as I love DeHaan, I feel he was incredibly miss-cast in this. He and Cara had pretty much no chemistry what-so-ever. The rest of the cast were fine and serviceable but nothing outstanding on an acting front. Rihanna was in it however and she did just fine, I've never had complaints about Rihanna's acting and her character itself was really interesting in terms of her abilities but the personality bordered on annoying sometimes for me.

Now as for the story itself, unfortunately, Valerian's narrative is all over the place. I mean, there is a story, you can follow the basic plot I mentioned at the beginning but there are so many tangents and entire scenes and sequences where I'm just thinking, why is this here? Lines of dialogue that make no sense and in the end when you really think about the end result, it was hardly anything major for the Universe or the City of Alpha itself. The premise had us believe our two agents would stop a world-destroying threat and they would have to save the Galaxy but it turns out it was like watching an unused script for a Star Trek episode; you know, entertaining enough, but nothing consequential.

In the end, for me, the high-concept visuals don't quite make up for the all-over-the-place narrative and uninspiring plot.