What was the last movie you watched ....

Justice League

The good: I love Batman's costume and his moves. It's straight out of the comic books. And I think Ben Afleck is the only actor yet who makes a fine Bruce Wayne and a fine Batman, both. And the special effects are, of course, excellent. I particularly like how they show Flash when he's moving fast.

The bad: It should have been a straight-to-video movie. Taken as a totality, as a single whole, that's where it's at. I've watched enough straight-to-video movies to know one when I see one, and this is one.

There are several scenes that do not push the plot along, but instead slow it down and make it confusing. Like, the family in Russia. One family. Who are they? Why are they there, just one family? What's their connection to anything? Why am I supposed to feel anything for them? Oh, right, Flash needs someone to save later. Really? Did we just waste 5 minutes on an unknown family just so Flash can save them later? Likewise Lois talking with Clark Kent's mother. We never hear from mom again (she shows up later for a hug, big deal), so, what was the point of that, other than to slow down the entire story for three minutes? Was it so that Batman has a reason to call Lois later in the movie? As if he has no reason to call Lois later, unless we show Lois talking with mom? Come on, get real. And on that point, why didn't Batman and team bring in Lois in the first place? Why reserve her as "the big gun" in case their experiment fails? That was just stupid, and the real Batman doesn't do stupid, so that was double-stupid.

Important parts are undeveloped -- like Cyborg's backstory. It's left very vague. What does his father do, again? We don't know, but Steppenwolfe is sure interested in him. How did Cyborg get hurt (when he was a human, I mean)? We don't know. How did his father secretly make him into a cyborg when he works in an open lab with lots of other people? We don't know, but that sure sounds important. And how did Flash get his powers? "From lightening" is all we know. That's stupid. People in real life occasionally get hit by lightening, but none of them turn in to superheroes. And how does this youngster with barely a job (we're at least told that he barely has a job) collect all those computers that he leaves turned on in a secret warehouse of a house? No explanation.

And why didn't the Atlanteans join the fight? They know exactly what the "mother box" is and who Steppenwolfe is and what Steppenwolfe is going to do with their mother box, yet they choose to sit out this battle? Say what? Are you kidding me? Ditto the Amazons. If Diana Prince can leave the magic island, so can the rest of them. For the Amazons and Atlanteans to ignore this war is completely contrary to everything the Amazons said about how dangerous Steppenwolfe is. So the writers are contradicting their own writing. Argh!!! Stupid!!!

And the mood music fails. I'm not supposed to notice mood music. The mood music is supposed to be like the garnish around my food -- it makes the food look better and taste better, but I'm really only supposed to notice and taste the food itself. Here, the mood music takes the forefront over and over and over again. That was annoying.

Direct to video. Yep.

 

Are you kidding? How about Iron Man versus Captain America in that frozen abandoned base? That was epic! How about Black Panther chasing Cap and Buckey through traffic? That wasn't "epic" but it was a far distance from "meh"! And Cap and Buckey eluding all those soldiers in the apartment building? Far from "meh"!

Are you sure you watched the entire movie?

 

I just got back from watching the Last Jedi. It was good- not great. Plenty of Star Wars films I liked better. Not the worst either.

 

(scratches head) Hmm... Okay, that actually makes sense to me. How'd you like "Iron Man 3" in comparison to its brothers? There was a lot of talk, and "down time," by comparison.

 

Ya, children. I know how that goes. I mention Iron Man 3 because it is slower than the others. For a good chunk of the movie Tony Stark is separated from his suit, and the story as a whole is about his crumbling personal life, so we see "Tony" rather than an Avenger with the code name "Iron Man."