Wicked For Good: Making Disabled People The Villain

Dorothy shows up and the Wizard Wins.

Now technically, the witch, Cynthia Erivo, wins as she isn’t really dead at the end, and Jeff Goldblum goes back to the real world in a ballon, but who’s counting.

Now this film struck me immediately as being dumb, characters will sing about how they are feeling when we can already infer that based on what is going on, on screen, they are feeling the need to explain very basic things through song. The metaphors and allegories the film tries to project are likewise basic, and lacking in nuance. It feels as though it assumes the audience are idiots. You could argue maybe they think the main audience is kids, but then why have a whole scene and song about the witch making up for lost time in the bedroom with the Prince.

Also for a film that clearly prides itself, on its DEI, look at any crowd scene and you will see every race made up, there is a strong ableist throughline in the film. So the witch’s sister is disabled, she dreams of being able to fly like she did on one magical evening, this clearly is a reference to walking as her flying is walking on air, then you have her impose laws that mean that the munchkins, little people, can not move freely as she loves one who does not love her back and she wants to restrict his movements. This makes this character outwardly a villain and is a very negative representation of disability, with the character almost going so far as to wish herself out of the chair, which is apparently bad, as it shows that disability is a bad thing rather than something to be celebrated. I don’t know about you but I think the people who made this film are bigots.

The numbers themselves are all as you would expect, it is just musical theatre the movie they all sing and dance in that same irritating talk/sing way and have the same quirky interludes. I must say in this vein Ariana Grande was particularly bad, not only were a lot of the songs, not just hers, full of very noticeable auto tune, but they also sounded exactly the same. She is supposed to be a musician and yet all of the songs sounded like the same thing rehashed, her ‘acting’ if you want to call it that was like wisely wooden, though Erivo’s was no better.

If you enjoyed the first film this one does feel like a less good more of the same version, and it feels a bit anti-climatic as the end to this two part ‘event’, however, for my money I would wager that this is not the end and that is why it did not feel bigger, I believe they will try and push it forward, not directly at first but by the time it is Wicked 5 all of the cast from these films will be back.

Overall, dumb and vaguely offensive.

0.5/5

Pros

It feels shorter than the last one

Cons.

The songs

It is dumb

It makes disabled people evil

It feels like a step back after the last film

It is still too long

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Demon Slayer Infinity Castle: Filler At It’s Most Heinous

Summary

The Demon Slayers are back and now they are having to defend themselves from waves of Demons in the Infinity Castle.

So as the first of the big three Demon Slayer movies to end the series this was better than the previous season, the Hashira Training Arc, which was filler incarnate. Here we got some good fights and the plot advanced along, in many ways that was the problem.

As the plot advanced you were like here we go we are getting somewhere finally things are happening outside of the needlessly long flashback sequences. You had hopes they might even make it out of the infinity castle in this film, and then they hit you with an egregiously long back story for one of the upper rank demons. I understand that the character was important as he had killed the fire hashira in a previous season, but I don’t think anyone was crying out for over half an hour worth of backstory for him.

I would have liked to have seen more from the other characters and see other fights rather than have this one fight dragged out for so long. It did once again feel like filler which is becoming a clear issue with Demon Slayer in both series and film formats as it comes to its end.

Overall, it does advance the plot some and you do get to see some cool fights so I am not entirely cold on it, but I do wish they would work on the filler content and the pacing of these films before they release the next two.

3.5/5

Pros.

The fights

The plot advancement

The scale

The animation itself

Cons.

The pacing

The filler

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Red Sonia: The Last Gasp f The Girlboss

Summary

Red Sonia the famous swords and sandals comic is brought to life in the worst possible fashion.

So this is as the trailer suggested a girl boss Red Sonia film. In many ways this film hates the source material it is based on and those who read those comic books. The Conan esque adventure vibes are replaced with a victim narrative that has Sonia herself seemingly constantly in a state of annoyance.

I won’t dwell on this too long, but the actress who is playing Sonia, Matilda Lutz, looks nothing like the Amazonian physique of comics Sonia and instead looks like a gust of wind could knock her over. If you were going to commit to doing a Red Sonia adaptation getting someone who looks the part is incredibly important.

The story is fairly generic, which is also quite shocking considering that they had decades of past comics runs to draw from. However, this seems to have been made by people who have never read an issue. They were vaguely aware of the IP and so thought they would make a very mid girl boss film and use the IP’s name to sell it rather than actually make a good Red Sonia film that is faithful to the source material.

Overall, a terrible waste of an IP made by people who hate it.

0.5/5

Pros.

Hannah John-Karmen is good

Cons.

It is boring

The lead doesn’t look the part

It hates the source material

It is badly paced

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The Legend Of Ochi: Where The Gremlins Train Your Dragons

Summary

A young woman, Helena Zengel, must return a fearsome creature to it’s lair. However, along the way she realises her whole perception of the world is a lie.

Lets get this right out of the way, the premise of this film is How To Train Your Dragon mixed with Gremlins. There is little new about a child’s innocent love for a creature defying the broader societies view of it.

However, where this film soars, to use the film word of the summer, is in the world around this plot. There is something strange and interesting about it, time period wise it is liminal, it could be present day it could be forty years ago, location wise it could be Eastern Europe, a fantastical reinterpretation of Eastern Europe or somewhere all together different. The oddness of the world these characters inhabit and the flourishes that make it feel truly different to anything else that you will see this year.

Willem Dafoe is of course excellent as he often is though I would say that Emily Watson is the real star of the show, her haunting turn of a woman who gave up her child and then realises her want and need to be a mother again is quite captivating.

Overall, an interesting and rich world with some great performances.

3.5/5

Pro

The world

Watson

Dafeo

The creature

Cons.

The story

The ending is a bit too convientent

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Dora And The Search For Sol Dorado: Boots Finally Talks

Summary

Dora, Samantha Lorraine, is back.

So this is not as good as the previous Dora The Explorer live action film from a few years ago, but that is not to say it is without charm. Whilst yes this one aims younger than the previous film and has a less well known cast, there is still a lot of things to enjoy. For example both Boots and Swiper get more expanded roles and Boots talks, being voiced by Gabriel Iglesias, which is a nice change up. This film does also draw far more heavily on the TV show than the previous film with one key exception, they don’t play the Dora Theme Music, I was waiting for it for the whole film and thought they might play it over the end credits but instead we got Camilla Cabello.

The dialogue and acting in this film are not very good with it sometimes getting pretty stupid for the dialogue and cringe for the acting. However, this is a straight to streaming Dora movie what did you expect? For me these two things add a so bad it is good kind of feel to the film, which I enjoyed.

Overall, a fun addition to the franchise.

3.5/5

Pros.

It is funny

Boots and Swiper

It feels truer to the cartoon

The so bad it is good factor

Cons.

It does assume the audience is braindead at times

They left out the Dora theme music

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How To Train Your Dragons: Dream Works Opens A Slop Factory

Summary

So I was not going to watch this film, but I needed to kill some time and it was on. However, don’t worry I am not trying to put animators out of business, as to make up for seeing this I also rented the original animated film to make sure they were getting money as well.

As I expected before going in to this it is a soulless rip-off of the original animated film, made with as much originality as one can expect from AI Hollywood these days, much like with Disney’s Lilo and Stitch the changes it does make come at the expense of the film rather than as a reason to see this version of it.

The race swaps for Astrid, and the lessening of Hiccup as a character in an effort to give Astrid more to do, and to push girlboss narratives don’t make the film any better and highlight the sort of negative changes I was talking about before.

It is the worst of both worlds both a shot for shot remake but also one that has some small ‘modernising’ changes to it which make it worse. The story is much the same and if you have seen the animation you will just see right through this film for the hollow imitation it is.

Overall, a trend that needs to die in Hollywood

1.5/5

Pros.

Toothless is still fun

It has the same beats as the first film which is good, but they are just hollow recycled parts

Cons.

It doesn’t need to exist

It is inferior to the animated version

The changes make it worse

The live action cast lack any kind of charm

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Minecraft: The Best Videogame Movie?

Summary

A group of people are brought into the game world of Minecraft.

For me this may have been one of the best films of the year, It had the perfect combination of heart, nostalgia and homage. It felt like a love letter to the game without feeling like a tick box list of hey remember this remember that, and the things it did include were incorporated in a way that made sense to the film.

I enjoyed seeing the Nether, although I would have left if for the sequel, I thought it felt as well realised as the actual main Minecraft world itself as well as the Overworld, regular Earth. I do wonder where they will go with a sequel perhaps to the Ender with the sequel villain being the dragon that guards it, who knows.

The only part of the film I was not into was the repeated gag of having Jennifer Coolidge be dating a villager, Matt Berry, whilst I am a Berry fan I thought that this gag went on for far too long and really was never funny, it should have been cut.

Overall, a lovely video game adaption that has respect for its source material and great performances across the board.

4.5/5

Pros.

The references

How well realised it is

It is funny

Great performances

It is pure fun

Cons.

The villager side plot

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In The Lost Lands: Zack Snyder Is That You?

Summary

Mila Jovovich is back for another fantasy action role, but can it live up to her past glories?

I enjoyed this film, I thought it had a great sense of style, and an interesting world rife for exploring. The issue, however, is that this feels like a film set in a world that you are already supposed to know, in other words it feels like a part two rather than a new film. This goes through every aspect of the film from characters to plot points, to the fact that magic and demons exist. None of this is really explored in any detail it is just there.

Jovovich still has it in terms of action and is believable as Sister Alice, however, her chemistry with Batista is none existent. To the point that when they somewhat get together at the end of the film it makes little to no sense.

In a sense despite being directed by Paul W.S Anderson, this feels like a Zack Snyder film. It has a lot of cool looking visuals and a great world ready to be explored, but in terms of storytelling, character development or sense it just is not there.

Overall, style over substance.

2/5.

Pros.

A cool world

Good visuals

The Badlands are interesting

Cons.

The characters are underdeveloped

The chemistry isn’t there

It makes no sense

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Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows Part Two: The End

Summary

The final battle.

So this the better one of the two-parter. They throw everything they have into the Battle of Hogwarts effects wise and that makes for some great action. I would have liked things to be a little more inventive, like these are wizards and witches who can conjure things out of thin air. Hagrid, Robbie Coltrane could have let lose her collection of magical creatures with a number of pay offs to previous films, but no.

I enjoyed that this film took things away the central trio and tried to give other characters moments this helped to make it feel less like another round of teen angst. I did not like seeing the flashforward at the end and seeing where all the characters ended up as I thought that it was underdeveloped and once again ignored world building to focus on the three characters.

Overall, a much better second half but not one that is perfect

3.5/5

Pros.

The battle

Giving other characters some spotlight

The tone

The pacing

Cons.

They could have done more

The flashforward is not explored enough

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Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows Part One: The Love Triangle That No One Needed

Summary

Harry, Ron, Rupert Grint, and Hermione set off to find the horcruxes.

So this film is a mess. From top to bottom.

For two key reasons. Firstly, you have the fact that rather than focus on a world that Voldemort, Ralph Fiennes, has taken over and show us what that is like, or show us the Order of the Phoenix fighting back against Voldemort and his forces, we get to follow Ron, Harry and Hermione as they trapes over the countryside.

Secondly, and very much woven into the first reason is the fact that of the Ron, Harry and Hermione storyline a hell of a lot of it is taken up with the awkward sort of love triangle. This just feels far too YA and is not of any interest to anyone. It feels like needless filler to justify the need to split the book into two films. They could have spent that time showing us more of the world.

Something I will applaud the film for is that it does go to some quite dark places and handles the mature subject matter well. When Hermione is being tortured in Malfoy manner it feels very distressing and real, and in this moment the series really does manage to shed its childlike image.

Overall, forget worldbuilding lets have a love triangle instead.

2.5/5

Pros.

The mature tone

A few good battle scenes

The Deathly Hallows story animated is well done

Cons.

Too much angst

A deeply unnecessary love triangle

Little world building

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