Mega Review by Urizen (Maleficent:Mistress of Evil, Birds of Prey, Sonic the Hedgehog, The Invisible Man, Onward)

 

So, I’m very behind on things. Recently a lot of things have been happening that have made it hard to keep up with reviews. Thankfully it has been a bit of a slow period, so I haven’t seen too many. I was going to try to do individual reviews for all of them, but have ultimately decided that doing one mega review of these would be better. I won't be able to cover as much about them, but still allows me to get my thoughts out and be caught up. With this I should be able to start on the next one I see right away with no worries or stress. So here we go, let’s get started with the first one I saw which was Maleficent: Mistress of Evil.

   Fun fact, I never actually finished the first Maleficent movie. While I thought Angelina Jolie did a killer job and the premise seemed interesting enough, there was an issue with whatever medium I was watching it on and I just never went back to finish it. Still, I found myself wanting to see Maleficent: Mistress of Evil. I never got around to seeing it while it was doing its run in theaters, but ultimately caught it at the dollar theater before its DVD release. I think that was probably the best choice. While overall I enjoyed the movie, it did have a lot of problems and had me questioning a lot of things in it. The effects also weren’t always the best. On top of it all, it was so predictable. I kept hoping for a big twist, but yeah, didn’t really happen. I don’t regret seeing it, and over all I enjoyed it, but I wouldn’t say it is anything great or spectacular.

   Following Maleficent, I went to see Birds of Prey the day before my early morning 16 hours of flying, so that was fun. Overall this was a movie that I really enjoyed. I think that while it could have used a bit more focus on characters, and did a bit of a disgrace to Cassandra Caine, it was a really fun movie. The action and cinematography was excellent with a lot of awesome fight scenes that really had me more hyped for these characters future in the DCEU. The majority of the time the humor was excellent too. It felt a bit like a live action version of the Harley Quinn animated series. All the actors and actresses really killed it. I hope we get to see more of these characters in the future.

   A couple days after coming back home from my trip, I made a point to go see Sonic the Hedgehog. This was a movie I had hoped to actually see while I was in Japan, unfortunately it didn’t come out there until a few months later. While the first trailer had me worried, the redesign and shift in tone of the second one had me very excited for this movie. I’d be lying though if I said I wasn’t still a little nervous as to how it would turn out.  Thankfully, minus some occasional not as good CGI, it was a fantastic movie. The redesign of Sonic really helped. It had the feel that you would hope a Sonic movie would have. While a bit of a different take on the character, Jim Carrey was so amazing as Dr. Robotnik. He was certainly one of my favorite things about the movie. It was great to see Carrey back in prime form and seemingly having the time of his life with this role. I really can’t wait for a sequel.

   With that we get to The Invisible Man. This movie really snuck up on me. Last I had hear about it was apparently a long time ago, when Johnny Depp was attached to star in it. Go forward and we get to Super Bowl Sunday 2020 and I see that a clip was released and the first trailer had been out a while. I was surprised, and the movie actually looked pretty cool. So I went and saw it a couple days after opening night. While I have never seen the original Invisible Man movie, I do know a bit about it. This one is certainly different! That being said, I really, really liked this movie. It did have some CGI problems, and had me questioning a few things, but overall it was just very well done. I think the actors all played the roles well, and the script was adapted in such a good way to bring the character of the Invisible Man to the modern day. I am curious as to how they could have linked this to the Universal Monsterverse  that was being planned, as I don’t know how they could’ve done it. All in all, this movie was super thrilling. It did a great job at handling the suspense and horror without being too over the top. Definitely kept me at the edge of my seat, questioning everything and wanting more.

   To do a last minute addition, I am also going to talk briefly about Disney/Pixar’s Onward, starring Tom Holland and Chris Pratt. This is a movie I wanted to see from the very first time I heard about it. With a story that seemed somewhat predictable, two teenage elf brothers try to use a magic spell to bring their dead father back for one day. Unfortunately it goes wrong and only his legs and feet are brought back. The three go on a journey to finish off the spell and try to get to see their father one last time. Story description wise, it seems fairly predictable and straightforward. The art also has the typical Disney/Pixar look some more recent films have had, but something still stuck out to me and made me really into the idea of this movie. I have to say, I do not at all regret my choice to go see this.  Onward had some amazing performances, and good animation with some cool ideas and visuals, but what really stood out was the story. It has so many emotional moments that I never expected from a kids movie. Pixar and Disney have been dabbling into these emotional moments more and more throughout their movies, but these felt more real. This movie is truly underrated and a must see.

   Well with those short reviews, that is my catch up on films (Minus the My Hero Academia movie…it was excellent). From here on out, things should return to normal. I’m not sure what I am seeing next but with the long list of movies coming out in the next couple months, I may have my work cut out for me if corona virus doesn’t cause some delays. Either way, glad to be back at it and excited to see what the upcoming films for 2020 have in store for me, if we are starting out with such great ones already.