I haven't been loving the recent Godzilla/Kong movies, but the whole final battle in Godzilla Vs. Kong was extremely entertaining. The humans still are a problem though - I don't want them to have more character, I just want far less of them in the movie. In this one particularly you could completely remove Millie Bobby Brown's subplot (and the two characters who went along with her) and it would immediately be a much better movie. I think the only humans in any of these movies that have bean bearable were Billy Murray and Samuel L. Jackson from Skull Island.

 

Humans in these movies should just be comedy/larger than life actors who are just trying to survive the mess. They have literally nothing to contribute. Which is kinda the point...humans at the mercy of nature.

 

I enjoyed the monster fighting in Godzilla vs Kong (which is really the only thing I watch these for), but all other aspects from plot to dialogue were just absolute cringe. Probably worse than KotM. It actively detracted from my enjoyment of monsters punching each other.

Some of the worst offenders:

Hollow earth, inverted gravity wall, "They hardwired Ghidorah's DNA", magical titan energy axe.

Screenwriter room:

"Hey guys what's DNA?"

"It's uh... stuff inside you that uh... controls you and stuff. I think I remember that from 6th grade bio."

"Can we like... hardwire it?"

"Oh uh... sure? Yeah. Totally. Absolutely. Let's hardwire it. What does hardwiring mean again? No never mind. Sounds smart and technical. The audience won't notice it."


Fuck off with that noise. Even a lazy college English Major could churn out a toilet paper script better than this.

8/10 Monster Punching

2/10 Movie

 

Mortal Kombat was a hot mess. Being absolutely honest, I'd say the 90s movies were way more entertaining adaptations.

 

Eh, seemed fine to me. Felt like they had fun with it.

Every stupid reference made me laugh, and that's all I needed.

Also neat gore.

 

Nothing in the other movies was as entertaining as Kano.

I think the only real problems I had with it are Cole - the reviewers were spot on - being a bit of a nothing character, and how much they tried to do dumb video game shit.

Ironically, I think the fighting was actually kind of shit too, the non-gory parts anyway. Everything felt weightless and lacking 'oomph.'

Sub Zero, Scorpion, Sonja, Jax, LK, Raiden, ST - they're all great. Not as great as Kano obviously, but still awesome.

 

Kano was the only good thing about the new Mortal Kombat

Everything else was mediocre/average.

Even the fights were boringly average.

They should have hired the Raid's Stunt/fight choreographer.

Hopefully the sequel will be better and we will see the actual tournament.

 

I enjoyed MK, but then I went into the movie with pretty low expectations to start with. The biggest flaw was definitely the decision to go with a new character for the main protagonist, since he just felt kinda generic and the script didn't give the actor much to work with. That said, Sub-Zero and Scorpion were both pretty awesome when they were on screen and doing their thing, and Kano was surprisingly entertaining with his general attitude of giving no fucks about anything. A few of the jokes/references cracked me up, like Liu Kang trolling Kano by spamming leg sweep (ah, memories).

The fights themselves weren't the best, but including the hilariously gory fatalities made up for some of that. If the sequel can iron out the story flaws and tighten up the choreography, they'd have a pretty solid movie on their hands.

 

I heard the development of this movie was pretty tortured? Or maybe it just took ages? Agreed Cole needs a lot more to work with... his lines verged on shonen protagonist level or cringe...

 

Yeah, I’ve heard that Cole was an executive mandate, which is why his character was underdeveloped (well that and just not being a character from the games).

 

Yup, Kano was wonderful, and every time he wasn't on the screen all the characters should have been asking "where's Kano" like an unironically good Poochie. The rest was tortured at best, although summoning Scorpion was pretty fun.

The big ending fights were so bad, with absolutely zero stakes to them other than the Scorpion vs Sub-Zero rematch and Kano. Seriously, other than him there was no heart to the film at all

 

This looks like amazing cinematography

 

The DP is Janusz Kaminski who has done most of Spielberg's movies from the 90's onward (I think Jurassic Park is the only he didn't do and that's because Schindler's List came out the same year).

 

Looks...meh? The opening is funny but I just don't find Hardy likable as Eddie Brock.

 

The Green Knight



Looks intriguing. Some proper Arthurian fantasy is always welcome. And I always trust Dev Patel to deliver a good performance, even if the movie is shit.

 

I have faith in A24 to make a good flick.

 

Nothing really grabbed me in that trailer.

 

I liked it but it’s nothing to lose my head over.

 

Of all the parts of Arthurian legend, Gawain and the Green Knight seems to be an odd one to make into a full length film? Just checked one of my old books, and whilst there's multiple different versions, so it's by no means definitive, this one's only eight pages long.

There's more to the story, of course, and it's possible to extend it out - the stay at the castle, and the adventures along the way can all be turned into points to cover - but I also always felt it was more of a standalone story than a lot of the rest of the mythos, only really building towards "they're all good knights, but not the best of them" for the Grail. I suppose that's partly why I remember it - much easier to recall when it's a single story, rather than a re-occurrance of something that's happened repeatedly.

I am never going to turn down more round-table films. However, Camelot itself looks dark and dreary, whereas I'd always imagined it being the best of knights; and the halo crowns seem weird, especially if they're going down the religious route for everyone (which makes sense, given the Grail), but I'm willing to take it on faith that it won't be bad.

Dev Patel, I have to admit, would not have been the first actor to come to mind for playing a Orcadian, but I've generally liked him in stuff. Lowery... I'm sure I recognize the name, but looking through his works on IMDB, nothing springs to mind.

I'm hoping it's fun, although I'm not sure how it'll compare to Ritchie's 2017 one. It looks like this might be a bit more serious.

 

I would shank a considerable amount of people for a continuance to Guy Ritchie's Arthurian films.