Reviews Reactor

Rogue One: A Star Wars Story is the first stand-alone anthology film in the franchise and is set right before the events of Episode 4: A New Hope. The story follows a group of rebels which leads the charge for retrieving the plans that could aid the rebel alliance in destroying the Death Star.  Now I was really hyped for this movie ever since it was announced for various reasons: First Star Wars stand-alone film. Gareth Edwards directing it. (I loved Godzilla 2014)  War movie feel which caters to my Battlefront fan side.  Curiosity and anticipation for how they would end it, which, knowing the story, would be great if they don't veer away from it too much.  And suffice to say that the movie met my expectations and more.  The main rebel team i.e. Rogue One was likable. Each character was fun in their own way. They were led by Felicity Jones, who plays Jyn Erso, daughter of the Death Star architect. She did a good enough job in the t...

Blood Father is a movie about a man who is on parole and is living a straight life, but all that takes the turn for the worst when his missing daughter asks him for help. I'm a fan of Mel Gibson's, so I HAD to watch this movie. And it wasn't bad.  Mel Gibson was great in this. He bulked up for the role, he looked and felt raw, and he had some great flip-out moments, you know, the good old Mel Gibson stuff. It was just awesome seeing him back in form. The daughter, played by Erin Moriarity (Sherlock got his eye on her) also did a really good job. Since this is a father-daughter drama, both of them carried the film.  Their relationship was a bit rocky at first, but as the movie went along, I grew to like it more. Hell, I even got some feels at the end. And this is the main reason I actually liked the movie. The movie had some decent action sequences, but if you watch the trailer, they pitch it as a full-on action movie, which this certainly is not. I would call ...

I love movies, or anything in general, dealing with artificial intelligence and the like. It is such an interesting realm to me. Ex Machina is a film about a young programmer in a big company comparable to Google, who wins a lottery of sorts, which entails him to stay at the Boss's place and be a part in his latest project, A.I. There aren't many characters in this movie and for a movie like this to be interesting, the few characters HAVE to do a great job. The main dude was the only one who I felt like wasn't that good. Oscar Isaac, who plays the Boss/Genius, was awesome. He wasn't your typical rich/boss/genius douche. The one who stole though was Alicia Vikander, who plays the A.I Ava. She did a great job of depicting a high level artificial intelligence. Now the movie really doesn't get into much introduction or world building. It actually felt really rushed in the beginning and just takes our protagonist to the place where rest of the movie will unfold. And...

"Everyone creates the thing they fear. Men of peace create engines of war. Avengers create invaders. Parents create children, that will supplant them." It's the kind of movie that I had great time with, even though I will agree to it having tons of flaws. Lets start with the story, it was mostly a mess. Throughout the movie, it felt like so much stuff have been crammed into a runtime obviously not enough for it. Pacing was a hit and a miss. There were some stuff that was really rushed while other sequences dragged on. Ultron creation and character development in particular was rushed like hell, something that would have benefited greatly from getting more screen time. Also, whole thing between Bruce and Natasha felt forced and out of place. Their scenes really dragged on. It would have been better if they went with Natasha and Steve instead as they had great chemistry in Winter Soldier. It just felt like the whole movie needed more time to be polished out, smooth out...

Harper's Island is a show about an island where a couple decides to get married, but soon after arrival, people start dying one by one. Sooooo, I didn't like it. The show was just filled with so many stupid moments that I couldn't take it anymore. There are a lot of characters but most of them were cliched meh. Acting wasn't that good either from a lot of the cast, so that didn't help. The first couple of episodes really weren't doing anything for me, but since there were only 13 episodes in total, I decided to stick with it and end it (would have dropped it otherwise). But I'll give the show credit where credit is due. It increased my interest in the story after several episodes. There was this stretch of 4 or 5 episodes where it actually got good, and I was on-board. The pacing felt fine, the thrills were coming, the situations were entertaining. The characters I did like got better, and the ones that were meh, got less meh. Also, being on an...

"Better to die saving lives, than to live with taking them."  Star Trek Beyond is the third entry into the star trek rebooted franchise, and follows Captain Kirk and team, who are 3 years in their 5 year exploration mission. After following a distress request, they get stranded on a planet encountering a new villain hell bent on destroying the federation.  I'm a big fan of this reboot franchise. I loved both previous parts directed by J.J Abrams, and while I was a bit worried that he wasn't returning to direct the third one, I was excited nonetheless. Thankfully, this is yet another great entry in the franchise. Simon Pegg and his script, Justin Lin at the helm, and with the same amazing team of cast reprising their roles, created one hell of an entertaining adventure, from start to finish. I was completely hooked.  Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, and the rest, gave great performances and made the whole crew dynamic feel natural and fun, once again. I love ...

So I gave it a watch yesterday. Now I actually liked most of the squad in the theatrical release, and one of my biggest issue with the film was that it just didn't give them that many interactions with each other i.e poor development. The extended cut definitely adds or extends some more scenes, which helps develop the squad just a bit more. It's not enough to make a huge difference, but it is better than nothing. Also, there is more development between Joker and Harley here, some added scenes and extended scenes that give you more info about their crazy relationship. Jared Leto's joker on this re-watch still is 50/50 for me. His performance varies so much from scene to scene. In some moments, I actually like what I'm seeing, but then it shifts and cranks up the cringe level and I'm like "NOPE.". So overall, he still doesn't work for me. And those hoping for tons of new joker footage, yeah, that didn't happen. The movie is still choppy, poorly...

Kubo and the Two Strings is a stop motion animated film from the studio Laika, and is about a boy who must go on this journey to acquire a special magical armor in order to defeat the forces of evil. I'm deliberately not putting more in the synopsis since I believe this movie is best watched with as little knowledge as possible, and hence why I'll keep this review short as well.   From start to finish, this was a beautiful, heartfelt, entertaining, often really hilarious, and a magical journey. It's an adventure movie that really reels you in with the aspect of adventure. The world/setting was really interesting, and the mythos, the legends, the stories etc all kept adding to the experience. Just the type of adventure I love.  Kubo was a great character. You feel and root for him throughout. And the supporting characters were just as great if not better. Their relationship with each other, and the way it progresses, was so sweet. Animation quality was outs...

Jason Bourne is a sequel to The Bourne Ultimatum and is set some years after the last film. Bourne is forced once again to come out of hiding and face the CIA, as well as uncover things about his past. Now, I'm a huge fan of this franchise. I love The original Bourne trilogy to death, and I even enjoyed Legacy. So naturally, I was extremely excited to finally watch this film considering Matt Damon is teaming up again with director Paul Greengrass (Supremacy, Ultimatum). Unfortunately, 2016 being a year of disappointments (Big or small), this followed the same suit.  Now, not all of the movie was disappointing. There were some things I liked. I enjoyed Matt Damon reprising his role, he was great again. Some action sequences were exciting and thrilling, like the finale, even if a bit more on the over-the-top side as compared to previous parts. Hearing the score from the previous parts again was so satisfying. The story, while being mostly uninteresting, did have some as...

Sausage Party is an R-Rated animated film about...well...food. Just like how toys were alive in Toy Story but unknown to humans, the same concept is applied here on food, fully utilizing its rating.  Now the concept itself was very fun and entertaining. Just seeing food items stereotyped according to real world traits was hilarious, and the jokes/situations that ensued with it. And there were some great scenes, two in particular, which you've probably seen in the trailers.  Problem is, concept alone is not enough, and that is where this film faltered. Instead of creating creative and fun dialogue that complements the concept, Seth Rogen and the team just added crude humor, tons and tons of profanities and sexual innuendos, in order to raunch it up to the max. And while it does reel you in at the start with the novelty of a 3D animated movie with an R-rating, it all just gets old really fast. Just because the food is saying 'Fuck' for like 200th time doesn't...

Chappie is the third film directed by Neill Blomkamp, the guy who directed the awesome District 9. And while I enjoyed his second film, Elysium, it was no where near as good as D9. And after watching this, I guess I'll have to wait for his next film in hopes of getting something equally good as D9. Now, Chappie is set in a not so distant futuristic Johannesburg where police force is dominated by Robots and one of them gets a new programming which makes it a fully fledged A.I Sharlto Copley did a great job voicing Chappie. Loved him. Hugh Jackman played the main antagonist, and while he was good in it, his character just wasn't fleshed out more. He ended up being cliche typical villain. Sigourney Weaver was totally wasted in the movie. Her role was very limited and could have been played by anyone. Dev Patel was Ok. Those Gangsters were NOT GOOD AT ALL. Sure they had their punk/hip style and all but as actors, MEH. Chappie sets it self apart from most other A.I films ...

"Surviving is not relevant. Living is. We want to live." Automata is a movie set in dystopian post apocalyptic future. Robots or the Automata were created to help humans survive and serve them and are programmed with certain protocols. Antonio Bandares plays an Insurance agent of the company who created these machines and is investigating cases where robots seem to be violating their protocols. In some ways, this movie felt like Blade Runner+I, Robot. The city, the atmosphere, the human condition, all looks bleak and hopeless. The director certainly had a good vision. The execution of said vision left much to be desired though. The thing this movie excelled at was capturing the fear of characters in the movie from true A.I. We, the viewer really do feel a certain creepiness and eeriness when looking at pure cold expressionless Automata and the soundtrack accompanying it elevates the feeling. Went really well with the flow of the movie. Also, the Autmota were clunky and s...

The Nigh Of is a mini-series from HBO and it's about a guy who, on one night, finds himself in a very sticky situation when the girl he was with ends up dead and he becomes the main suspect. From a glance, this might look like another murder mystery type show, but in actuality, it is more about being in this situation, and how the system is flawed.  In usual HBO fashion, the pacing of the show is slow, but the good kind. Everything takes its time and lets you soak it all in. The tension slowly creeps up on you during crucial moments, and builds and builds, putting you on the edge of your seat, without rushing anything. Since there are only eight episodes, there isn't a moment of boredom to be found, even if things slow down to a great deal.  From crime-scene to police stations and trials, everything feels laid out to a great degree of detail. People are simply doing there job, going about their business while the protagonist finds himself in this situation. It al...

"Manners Maketh Man." This is one of those movies that completely takes you by surprise. I enjoyed it immensely. James Bond type-ish british spy film, but with way WAY more wack and awesomeness. Matthew Vaughn is a great director. I've watched all of his films (except Layer Cake) and the guy just has a knack of delivering really enjoyable/entertaining movies (Stardust, Xmen - First class, Kick ass). The cast delivered great performances all round. Colin Firth simply KICKED ASS. Loved his character and how classy yet deadly he was. Taron Egerton, the protagonist, was some nobody to me before I saw this movie. Now, he is a star in the making. Samuel L.Jackson, while didn't stole the show or anything, was a pretty good villain with a funny lisp condition. The plot actually felt somewhat fresh and wasn't your typical 'Take over the world' type scenarios that you see in this genre. Although I have see the main mechanism elsewhere, the reasons for doing, th...

I never thought I would see Arnold in a role like this. And he surely pulled it off. Maggie is a movie about a father and his daughter who has been infected with the zombie virus and how he spends there last days together. The zombie world this movie takes place in was actually kinda fresh and realistic for a genre like this. I mean the virus is all spread and whatnot but society hasn't gone to shit. The authorities, the daily lives etc are still going on, they just have to deal with this new disease. The virus itself doesn't turn you into a zombie in like minutes or hours. It actually takes several weeks. Now both Arnold and Abigail Breslin were great in their roles. Arnold showed that he has subtlety in him, that he can play emotional dramas. And I really liked this side of him. The cinematography in the movie was often great. Now the movie has some good emotional scenes, and the scenes where both father and daughter are together and are just trying to get throu...

Lights Out is a horror movie about a family, that is being tormented by an entity/ghost. The catch is, it can only appear in the darkness. I was really looking forward to watching this because of its premise. I mean let's face it, fear of the dark is a fundamental fear that everyone experiences atleast once in there life. So a movie centered around something like this genuinely intrigued me.  The cast did a uniformly good job. The kid was good, the mother, the sister, and hell, even the boyfriend. Usually the boyfriend/girlfriend character ends up being just disposable copy paste cliches, but this movie did a good job with the character.  Run-time of the movie is short around 1 hour and 20 mins, so the pacing was fast. You don't have slow periods or long build up periods that horror movies usually have. From the start, shit starts happening. That was both a positive, and a negative for me. On one hand, I enjoyed the fast pacing as it kept me on the hook consistent...

Stranger Things is a Netflix original series about a disappearance of a boy in a small town, and the efforts of his family and friends in order to find him, in the midst of strange events. This show's popularity really blew up after its release this year. It was everywhere, and I finally got around to watching it, and to see what all the big fuss was about. And well, the hype is real. I'll be very honest, I don't think I have ever seen a show that got me hooked so badly, so quickly, and maintained that interest throughout with extreme consistency. I started it after midnight, with a plan of watching a couple of episodes that night (Working Day, had to get up early), and continuing the rest next day. But instead of that, I stayed up till morning and completed it in one go. It literally glued me to the TV. Now, the thing that was most prevalent in hooking me to this show, at least at the start anyway, was the setting. It hit all the right points for me considering...

This is a horror film about an entity that follows you after it is given to you by sleeping with someone, kinda like ghost STD. I liked the premise. It's funny when you think about it but it is also something different. The main lead acted really well. I liked her performance and she was really cute too. The rest of the cast ranged from good to meh. The way this film was treated gave it a really different and unique feeling from the current horror films. The cinematography was amazing with tons of lingering shots, slow pans and things happening in the background. The soundtrack was spectacular and really carried the film, I absolutely loved it. The movie just felt fresh and different and I really liked this about it, don't know how else to say it. From the start till the end, the movie had a constant slow pace and this tense atmosphere. This consistency was another thing that you don't see in current horror films as usually they start very slow and build up to an big f...

"Oh what a day.....what a lovely day!". Definitely was a lovely day, and how can it not be when you watch something like this. Prior to watching this, I did a marathon of the original trilogy and didn't liked them very much. They may have been great in their own time but not anymore. No idea why people loved them. And I was of the opinion that this movie won't be that different from them. Luckily, I was wrong, so very wrong. The movie takes place in a post apocalyptic world where nuclear war destroyed everything. Chaos and pure madness is what remains. Now, in the previous movies, this whole post apocalyptic world didn't really interest me all that much. But in Fury Road, I got just the type of execution that clicked with me and the world hooked me in. Story was never the selling point of these movies anyway. Tom Hardy filled in the shoes of Mel Gibson as Mad Max. He played his one of the more typical roles, with less talk and tough guy voice and such, and he...

This movie is about a widow with a single child, who are being haunted by an entity known as The Babadook. After hearing so much praise for this film, honestly, I'm a bit disappointed. The movie was shot well and I applaud it for not relying on cheap jump scares and instead use other means to inject fear into the viewer. Problem was that while there was some genuine creepy moments in the film, it always felt like they were cut short and didn't truly terrify me, leaving me unfulfilled. And while the movie did a good job of using the good old technique of keeping the monster in the dark and using its presence and the idea of it to scare, the movie did show the monster and I couldn't help but find it more funny looking then terrifying, which consequently reduced the fear factor of the scenes that followed. And it didn't help that there was literally no lore or info about the monster whatsoever. Now, on to the good parts. The acting in the movie was fantastic. Essie Da...

This movie is about a search for the philosopher's stone and the horrors they face trying to get it. The movie is shot in a found footage style manner with multiple camera perspective. These types of movies always have that introductory period where characters are introduced and are seen just going about their lives etc and almost always it's boring. This movie however did it in a different manner, using the plot to turn that period into a clue hunt of sorts, and it was interesting. As most of the movie takes place underground, it had a nice dosage of claustrophobic feeling. Some scenes amplified the effect and were pretty tense. The horror aspect was wasn't that profound though. There were maybe a scene or two that actually gave me the creeps. I did, however, loved how it dealt with hell, was just refreshing and great to something different like this on a very common thing. Perdita weeks, who acted as the main lead and the one who was after the philosopher's stone...

Having liked Divergent and its setting, I was really curious to know more about the world they created. Insurgent starts off straight from where Divergent left off. The team is on the run and are looking for some place to lay low. We got another A-list actor in this movie, Naomi Watts, who plays the rebellion leader. So it was Kate Winslet vs Naomi Watts. Her role was wasted in this movie though. Shailene Woodley was again good. I really liked Miles Teller in this. He was again the typical douche bag like he was in the previous film. The story and pacing this time felt a bit more messy because in the previous film, there was this continuous progression that kept the film together. Here, it felt more like a random mix up of high and low points. Now, I'm a sucker for rebellion scenarios and not surprisingly, I liked the said stuff here as well and plot points being associated with it. It did felt a lot similar to Hunger Game: Mockingjay story and I assumed it will progress a cer...

"Monster is a relative term. To a canary, a cat is a monster. We're just used to being the cat." We finally get to go back to Isla Nublar after all these years (22 to be exact). It is a given that creating the same feel and magic of Jurassic Park is impossible. SO instead of just trying to recreate everything and doing it in a lesser way, director Colin Trevorrow went with a different approach and it actually payed off. Jurassic World takes place 22 years after the events of the original film. A new park after the events of the original film, on the same place, was opened and has been functioning for 10 years. They create a hybrid dinosaur as a new attraction but everything goes to hell when it gets loose. Now, I had somewhat low expectations going into the movie and while it wasn't as good as the original, nor did it had its magic and feeling (obviously), it turned out to be a whole another entertaining ride. The movie did a good enough job of paying homage to t...

Being the FIFTH part of a franchise, initially I had some doubts about this film. But after seeing the good reception it got, my hopes were up and rightfully so. Rogue Nation continues off from where Ghost Protocol left, with Ethan Hunt getting a new mission to take down the rogue spy agency called the Syndicate. Tom Cruise is well, Tom Cruise. He was awesome yet again. The one that was surprisingly great was the female lead, Rebecca Ferguson. She acted great, she was sexy, she was lethal and she was a total badass. Best MI girl to date. Her chemistry with Tom Cruise was also great and it is one of those VERY rare times where I ACTUALLY liked the romance/lovey dovey subplot. Movie handled it very well. It wasn't prolonged or anything, it wasn't cheesy or cliched or typical, it was just right. The supporting cast was also great. Simon Pegg's character once again showed how to handle comic relief properly in a movie. He was funny, he was awesome and he wasn't jus...

I was pleasantly surprised by this movie. I was of the opinion that this will be your usual run of the mill action movie but it was infact more drama than action, and I liked that. The movie is about a guy working for his best friend, a mob boss, and must decide where his loyalties lie after a series of events puts his son on his friend's bad side. Liam Neeson did a good job of portraying a father whose beaten down by life, filled with regret and his past sins weighing in him. You feel for him and the condition he is in. Ed Harris plays the Mob boss, who was also good in his role. And these two had good interaction with each other, like you can see that had a proper history and are close. Almost everyone was good in this film. There were a lot of subplots in the movie but instead of getting lost in them completely, it executed them fairly well and gave the most amount of time to the main thing, the father and his son. The resentment of Liam neeson's son towards him and the...

Suicide Squad is the third and latest entry into the DCEU, and is about a bunch of bad guys that are rounded up to fight for someone else. And just like this year's BvS, this movie received overwhelmingly negative reviews by the critics and was divided among the fans. I was super curious to watch it because unlike many, I actually enjoyed the DCEU till this point. Enjoyed both Man of Steel and BvS. But unfortunately, this one's a mess. The majority of the movie just feels choppy, editing was all over the place. Like they had a final product but because of disagreements, they took out a lot of scenes, shorten the runtime, and added others, making a giant choppy mess in the end. Scenes don't properly flow, including the flashbacks. Some scenes feel like they were added later (Probably the re-shoots) and they definitely didn't fit, particularly the elevator scene with Harley. The songs were all over the place as well. Some worked with their respective scenes, but...

Central Intelligence is sorta of a buddy-spy comedy and it's about an average joe hung up on life over past issues, until he meets up with one of his high school batch mate, and things suddenly turn upside down for him. A movie like this only works if the two leads meld together, and boy oh boy did they ever in this movie. Dwayne Johnson and Kevin Hart both were excellent in this movie. I loved their chemistry, their banter and their relationship. They clearly seemed to be having a great time in their roles, and as a result, the movie as a whole became a lot more fun. Also, I liked it more that they weren't playing their usual selves. It was just hilarious to see The Rock play this man-child agent, he always manages to bring so much energy into every role. And Kevin Hart dialed back a lot. He was the average joe, the normal guy in this movie and I liked that. You do still get the usual Kevin hart outbursts/moments, in small doses. Aside from these two, there was a...

The Shallows is a film about a women who goes to this very secluded beach for surfing, where a big shark attacks and strands her in the shallows, where she must find a way to survive. The only shark attack movies you get these days are the likes of Sharknado, so this being hyped as a proper shark attack film was something I was looking forward to. From the start, you could tell that this would be a good looking movie. Yeah it felt like a Go-Pro commercial in those starting minutes, but it looked pretty good, so who cares. The beach itself was beautiful, and the director fully utilized the location. Loved the cinematography, well, minus the slow mo shots. There were perhaps a bit too many of them.  Blake Lively looked very lively, and she did a pretty good job. There were moments where I thought she was a bit iffy, but overall she gave a good performance, especially considering the state her character is in for most of the movie. There was some backstory to her charact...

The Legend of Tarzan is an action adventure film based on the iconic character, Tarzan. Not a huge fan or anything, but I have enjoyed the character and his tale in the Disney animated film when I was young. The other live versions, however, sucked. So I didn't really know what to expect from this film, but I was pleasantly surprised.  The thing I liked the most was how they didn't just remade his origin story as the whole movie, but actually told a tale years later. That, from the get-go, hooked me in. Tarzan is settled in England, with Jane, but due to some events happening in his home, he has to go back. And while the story had its issues, it was decent enough that I wanted to see what will happen next. You do get some of the backstory via flashbacks, which were pretty good. Alexander Skarsgard was a great casting choice as Tarzan. He felt like Tarzan, and he definitely, DEFINITELY looked the part. Margot Robbie as Jane was pretty good as well. She looked gorge...