The Last Witch Hunter (2015)

I was interested about The Last Witch Hunter when I first heard about it. After that I haven't heard about it that much. After seeing the movie I understand why. There is not much to remember. I never got invested. It felt like movie expected to know everything from get go and like Vin Diesel's character before we knew anything about him.

I usually like Vin Diesel but this time I can't get behind his character. He is immortal witch hunter. Movie's plot resolves around secret related to his immortality. Even when he loses immortality he doesn't seem to get hurt. But biggest problem is we never quite know what he or the bad guys are capable of. We just watch what happens to know what they can do. Couple things had some build up but both times the thing was important on first time when we didn't know what it was.

Ending had little build up for sequel but I doubt this will ever get one. Even after this movie we don't know these characters. We know almost nothing of the world either. They just made stuff up as they went. Probably they didn't even have any idea what the organization Vin Diesel worked for was.

In one scene Vin Diesel explains how things work now to Michael Caine who has worked with him last fifty years. He probably knew how things worked since his predecessor knew. He had been on retirement for couple days at that point. Maybe Michael Caine needed to be reminded how things work. His words and his plan didn't make any sense when you know he knew the secret behind Vin Diesel's immortality.

Movie had couple interesting ideas but it was so badly written all the good ideas were buried by all the nonsense. Few more rewrites and overall darker tone would have done this good movie. Now I had problems staying focused. Even during the ending I didn't care and had to force myself to focus on what is happening. Story was boring and all the lens flares and other digital effects started to get annoying.

Jonah Hex (2010)

I am not sure what this is. This is little too good to be pilot of tv series which never got made. You don't get John Malkovich, Michael Fassbender and Megan Fox for tv series. Granted first two won't make it and Megan Fox wouldn't be regular. But movie don't feel serious effort even with these big names in it. It feels more like long tv episode.

Malkovich and Fassbender does good job with what they are given. Almost everything else is the problem. Characters are paper thin. Story is full of cliches and you can easily see where it is going when it doesn't get weird. Weirdness is there for weirdness' sake. There are strange dream sequences and unnecessary flashbacks like we wouldn't understand what is happening and how Jonah Hex feels without them.

Jonah Hex is based on DC comic. I am not sure how connected this is to DC's superhero universe. Jonah Hex was in couple episodes of Legends of Tomorrow. In there he was more normal. In this he has powers because he almost died once. Now he can talk to the dead and is pretty hard to kill.

Movie is quite average bad comic book movie. It was done when there were good comic book movies but it feels like all the bad comic book movies. This dark historical fantasy adventure thing has been done better in other movies.

The Expanse - Season 1 (2015)

If you can't see the video you can find it here.

This is spoiler free review of Syfy (/Netflix?) Original series The Expanse. In Netflix it looks like Netflix original. At least first season Syfy original and they have published trailer for second season. I don't know how this goes. I just hope I get to see second season on January.

Even though The Expanse is from Syfy it is not like Sharknado. It is good hard science fiction. Watch the video to know more about my thoughts.

Constantine (2005)

Constantine is another guilty pleasure of mine. I learned I shouldn't watch my guilty pleasures for reviews. I see all the flaws and they don't feel as good as when watched less analytically. Constantine is based on Hellblazer comics. I know there is comic named Hellblazer but nothing more. I can't say how faithful this is to comic or does Constantine ever take his helmet off. Sometimes movie adaptions work better when you don't know how much better source material is.

Movie tells about exorcist John Constantine and plot to bring devil's son to Earth. Earth is playground of half-angels and half-demons. God and devil have bet which one gets more souls. Constantine is going to hell because he committed suicide. He died only for couple minutes and got back to life but that counts as suicide in this movie. He can't go to heaven because he can't have faith. He knows so he can't believe. I liked this idea of you can't believe if you know.

I wonder if Keanu Reeves acts the same guy in every movie or do I only watch his movie where he is the same guy. He seems to have very limited range. I enjoy many of his movies but he is not the reason. I always feel someone else would have done better job but at least he doesn't ruin the movies.

When watched without thinking too much and not knowing the source material this is entertaining dark pseudo christian fantasy. If you start to think too much you see the flaws and inconsistencies. I recommend not thinking too much.

Doom (2005)

Doom is one of my guilty pleasures. I know it is bad but it is entertaining for the most of the time. It is action horror in style of Aliens and Predator without being as good. When I think why it is bad I can only think two main reasons of which second relates the first one. The Rock was miscast. Another thing was the ending. It didn't work because The Rock was miscast.

You would think The Rock is perfect for action roles. Most of the time he is. This time he played dead serious character. It just didn't work when you expected him to do something funny. Be more like he is in everything else. In the end he is supposed to be more serious and darker but it just doesn't work. Usually he is best part of the movie but this time he is the worst. I think he and Karl Urban should have changed the roles. Karl Urban could have been good also in The Rock's role. The Rock would have been better in Karl Urban's role where he could have added more humor. Or then chemistry between characters wouldn't have worked. Now The Rock felt miscast.

I am not completely sure is The Rock was the only problem in the ending. Ending changes the tone. I understand why minutes long FPS scene was there. Doom introduced FPS genre to the world. But the tone changes when it starts and never really gets back to what it was before.

Movie changed Hell theme to science experiment gone wrong and took dark look from Doom 3. Most of the time it is more of a horror than action. Ending is closer to original game than anything before. I just happen to like what happened before more.

Doom is bad movie with continuity errors and general stupidity. It doesn't have charismatic characters. Soundtrack is good. Other than that I have hard time finding reasons why I like it so much I get back to it every now and then. I just find it entertaining for one reason or another.

Doctor Strange (2016) video review with spoilers

If you can't see the video you can find it here.

This is my spoiler Doctor Strange video. I was talking the truth when I said this is forgettable movie. After editing and rendering this I remembered I should have talked about ending and how it made fun of all the destruction in superhero movies.

That was one reason this is shorter video. I probably forgot many other things I should have mentioned.