Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (3-D)

First Hit:  A very long, overly complicated, saga that makes little or no sense and is a waste of 151 minutes.

To make a film where Superman/Clark Kent (Henry Cavill) and Batman/Bruce Wayne (Ben Affleck) meet each other, let alone go to war with each other is a flawed concept because each are heroes in their own towns.

The film begins with a very convoluted sequence of scenes that attempts to build a story. It doesn't do this well. The strongest acting and segments of this film include Jesse Eisenberg (as Lex Luthor) because he’s actually interesting. That we have “Gotham” and “Metropolis” just across the river from each other is even more ridiculous.

Somehow a government Senate committee led by Senator Finch (Holly Hunter) is investigating Superman’s unfettered and unguided way he decides whom to help and when. Given that he is indestructible (faster than a speeding bullet, more powerful that a locomotive, able to leap tall buildings in a single bound…) the government wants to have more control about his deeds. The motivation for Batman's actions against Superman is that he believes that when Superman saved the human race from aliens, his actions hurt his family’s business and all the people inside the family's building that was destroyed.

In the meantime Luther is doing his best to stir the pot because he knows that getting rid of Superman, he’ll have more power. The film also finds a ridiculous way to introduce Wonder Woman/Diana Prince (Gal Gadot).

That the resolution to Batman and Superman’s disagreement ludicrously comes because their mothers’ shared the same name (Martha) seemed far fetched and was telegraphed from the opening scenes in the film.

Cavill is OK as the stiff, socially uncomfortable, other worldly and powerful Superman. Affleck was interesting as the brooding Batman. Many of Batman’s fight scenes seemed stilted with Affleck’s lack of smooth movement. Hunter was wasted in this unneeded role. Eisenberg was perfectly manic, intense, and strong as the antagonist. Gadot was somewhat interesting as Wonder Woman. Laurence Fishburne was wasted in his role of Perry White managing editor of the Daily Planet. Amy Adams was sincerely doing her best in the role of Lois Lane. Jeremy Irons was OK as Alfred, Batman’s gentlemen's gentleman. Chris Terrio and David S. Goyer wrote this absurdly convoluted script that was created only to draw box office receipts. There was no effort to make an interesting film. Zack Snyder directed this mess.

Overall:  All told, the story, the direction, and much of the acting was poorly fabricated and executed.

Deadpool

First Hit:  I enjoyed this tongue-in-cheek somewhat bizarre film.

I know that most of the reviews of this film where not positive, however I was amused and enjoyed the quirkiness of this story and film.

Was this story improbable? Yes, and so what. Most films are improbable. But what works for this film was that Ryan Reynolds was a perfect fit as Wade/Deadpool. As Wade, he’s sort of an enforcer of wrongs done by people and he gets paid for it. He's funny and serious at the same time.

The film does not do a good job giving the audience a background of where these jobs come from nor does it do well in setting the whole group of people who do this sort of work. However, get past this and enjoy. They gather in this bar run by Weasel (T.J. Miller).

Here Wade meets Vanessa (Morena Baccarin), and falls in love. They totally “get” each other and it changes his life for the better. He then finds out he has cancer and is going to die. He takes one final chance to heal himself by an evil scientist, Ajax (Ed Skrein) who promises that he will alter his DNA to heal him of his disease. However, there will be unknown side effects and in the case of Wade, now "Deadpool", it is that he cannot be killed and his skin becomes disfigured.

He doesn’t believe Vanessa will love him with his new look so he’s bound and determined to get back at Ajax. This is the story:  How does he let his love know he’s still alive? How does he get revenge on Ajax? And finally how does he live the rest of his life?

This film uses special effects to its advantage and the best part is Reynolds. He’s self-effacing, brash, and funny.

Reynolds is really good and I cannot think of another actor that would have been able to pull this off as well as Reynolds. Miller was great as the bar owner. He is great as Reynolds friend and confidant. Baccarin was perfect as Reynolds lover and wife. She’s just as quirky and strong and holds up her end of their relationship seamlessly. Skrein was strong as the evil doer. He carries this persona with clarity. Brianna Hildebrand as the Negasonic Teenage Warhead was good. Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick wrote a quirky odd story that, for me, worked. Tim Miller did a wonderful job of getting the most out of this odd story through his direction.

Overall:  I liked and enjoyed the oddities of this film.

Star Wars: The Force Awakens (3-D)

First Hit:  Nailed it. This film immediately took me back to May 25, 1977 when the story first began and I knew it was going to be an amazing ride - this film was no different.

I remember standing in line about 38 years ago to see “Star Wars” and wondering if it was going to be as good as the hype.

As the yellow storyline rolled across the screen fading into a vanishing point while being accompanied by the powerful John Williams score; I sat back and smiled and said to myself, “here we go” and the ride began. Yesterday at the 9:00 AM I saw the 3D presentation of film number 7.

As soon as the story-line started scrolling up the screen, accompanied by the John Williams score, I laughed out loud, smiled, and said to myself; “it’s back and I'm ready". There was no let down in this film. The new characters were perfectly cast, the re-introduction of the original characters amazingly handled, while the story was very interesting and moved the whole set of stories forward with suspense, tragedy, and excitement. The writing was top notch, the visual effects were reminiscent to the first film, yet updated with today’s technology and the characters grew in depth while adding to the legacy. 3-D used perfectly - not a distraction only an enhancement.

Harrison Ford returned as Han Solo. He was wonderfully introduced, exquisitely honored, and ceremoniously pathed. For his part, Ford was amazing. Carrie Fisher came back as General Leia (versus Princess Leia) the leader of the resistance against the First Order. Although less dynamic than Ford, her place and fulfilment of her part of the puzzle was required and perfectly executed. I was happy she was part of the film. Mark Hamill continued as a much older and wiser Luke Skywalker. Although his role was small, it begins a new cycle as well, wonderful. As for the major new players: Daisy Ridley as Rey was superb. She filled her role as an intelligent, physically capable, and believer of her destiny amazingly well. She exemplifies and is the new heroine for this series. John Boyega as Finn was auspiciously wonderful as a new male hero for the resistance. Lupita Nyong’o was fantastic as Maz Kanata the very old wise woman. Oscar Isaac was fun as Poe Dameron a renegade fighter pilot for the resistance. Domhnall Gleeson was perfectly arrogant and heartless as the General Hux, leader of the First Order. Lastly, Adam Driver as dark side leader Kylo Ren was very strong. Lawrence Kasdan and J.J. Abrams wrote an incredibly strong script. Definitely Oscar worthy. Abrams fulfilled everybody’s hope in delivering a very exciting film that kicks off a new era of Star Wars films. The next one will be tough to do – just as Lucas found out.

Overall:  Abrams, Kasdan, and the whole team turn out an amazing story – thank you.

In the Heart of the Sea

First Hit:  Started interestingly, ended good, but the large middle was monotonous and slowly sank into the dark of the sea.

Films based in the ocean with underwater sequences have a higher likeliness of not being good. I’m not sure why except they become dark and slow.

Yet, films shot inside submarines and underwater tend to be better (Like: Hunt for Red October 1990 or Run Silent Run Deep 1958) as my dad would have attested to. He probably watched the latter more than 20 times and could recite the dialogue of every character. Why? Probably because submarine films are character based while ocean films must have ocean characters. Of course the film "Jaws" would be an exception.

This story is about a whale called Moby Dick and how Herman Melville wrote this famous story. The view of the story is from one of the survivors of a multi-year whaling adventure which included 90 days of being stranded on the ocean in a dinghy.

The survivor Tom Nickerson (Brendan Gleeson and the young Tom/Thomas portrayed by Tom Holland) is being interviewed by Herman Melville (Ben Whishaw) about the experience he had when the whale scuttled the Essex after almost 2 years hunting whales. Moby destroyed the ship and left the remaining crew to drift.

The other part of the story is about the disagreements and personality differences between Captain George Pollard (Benjamin Walker) and First Mate Owen Chase (Chris Hemsworth). This initial focus of the film was interesting as was Melville’s interview with Nickerson. However, the rest of the film tried to be interesting through visuals and very little on the strength or weaknesses of the individuals and when they tried it wasn’t very interesting.

Hemsworth was OK but there seemed to be little depth to his character. Walker was mediocre as the privileged captain. Holland was good as the young seaman learning how to me a man. Whishaw was very good in his small part as Melville. Gleeson was the spirit of this film and the best part of the film. Charles Leavitt wrote a so so script for most of the characters except Gleeson and Melville. Ron Howard didn’t come close to creating the masterpiece I think he wanted.

Overall:  The previews I saw telegraphed this uninteresting film.

The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 2

First Hit:  I was barely able to watch, let alone like, the screen for its 137 minute running time.

I thought that Part 1 was one of the worst of this series until I watched this final film of the 4 part series. I enjoyed the original film, the second, “Catching Fire”, was too long and wasn’t up to the first film’s stature.

Part 1 (#3 in the series) was one very long uneventful setup for Part 2 (#4). This series started on a high note and fell into the gutter. For instance, what was the fighting scene in the sewers about? It had no value except to get some people killed and make Katniss (Jennifer Lawrence) feel more pain to spur her on.

The ending was obvious and exposed way too soon. There was no surprise (reminded me of the line from a Who song: Meet the new boss, same as the old boss). The acting in most cases seem stilted and without feeling, like the actors just wanted to get through it.

Watching a purposefully elongated story was absolute torture. It is hard for me to conceive of people with active and useful brain cells objectively watching this film and thinking it is good. There is nothing that I can say that is good about this film except I don’t ever have to watch another Hunger Games film again.

Lawrence was good at times but generally, it felt as though she wanted it to be as over with as I did. Josh Hutcherson as Peeta had one of the most difficult and awkward roles. As a plot ploy, he had to pretend to be both in love with and be a hurtful enemy of Katniss. It’s difficult to pretend to be brainwashed and Hutcherson didn’t pull it off. Liam Hemsworth as Gale was a poorly executed character. His role of hero martyr felt stilted and without soul. Woody Harrelson as Haymitch tried to bring adult thinking to the role – he failed because the film failed to make it important. Donald Sutherland as President Snow, did his job and it felt like it. Philip Seymour Hoffman as Pluarch was painful to watch because it’s a lousy role, his performance poor, and it is the last time we’ll see him in a new film – sad. Julianne Moore as the new President Alma Coin was so below her recent performances that I cringed. Peter Craig and Danny Strong’s script was lazy, without interesting dialogue, and bloated. Francis Lawrence’s direction provided little interest and absolutely no excitement.

Overall:  I wanted to leave the theater so bad that I felt like a runner waiting for the starting gun and when final credits began to role – like a flash I was gone.