Chronicle (2012)

Josh Trank will be remembered from this movie and Fant4stic. This is his first feature and Fant4stic could be his last. Fant4stic was disaster but people who had seen Chronicle said it was good. After seeing it I can understand why people like Chronicle. And I can see why having Josh Trank directing big budget superhero movie might sound good idea. But that movie shouldn't have been Fantastic Four movie.

Chronicle is found footage movie. It doesn't have too much shaky camera. Most of the footage is from protagonist's camera. Some footage comes for other sources but it is always camera which would shoot these events in real life. I am not sure if found footage is correct term because no-one would get all this footage. It is the style where all footage look like characters shot them or it came from security cameras.

Protagonist is guy who is abused at home and school. He starts to shoot video of everything in his life. One night his cousin and cousin's friend find mysterious hole in the ground. They want him to shoot it. They went into hole and gained superpowers. Three become best friends when they learn to use their powers. Chronicle likes to play with audience's expectations of superhero movies. It pretend to go into regular superhero movie way until it starts to miss some expected beats or twist them little bit.

I don't want to spoil the twist. It is twist if you expect regular superhero movie. Movie is slowly going there all the time. It is a twist if you expected something else. It sets the movie apart of other superhero movies. First hour didn't work for me that well. It is build up without much payoff. Last half hour work thanks to all the build up of first hour. Found footage gimmick hurt first hour and some of last half hour.

Things making Chronicle good movie are the things which made Fant4stic bad Fantastic Four movie. Fant4stic had other problems too. It was wrong source material for Josh Trank. His style works on darker stories. Fantastic Four should be bright positive adventure. I hope Trank can make more movies which suit better for his strengths. Chronicle is good movie but I expect he could do better with right story.

Another Earth (2011)

I am not sure if I like this or not. It wasn't what I expected. This is one of those science fiction movies which are dramas set into science fictions settings. This is much more drama than science fiction. Science fiction is there to give closure to the story. Another Earth is there from the beginning but it is on the background all the time. Sometimes literally.

If you liked Solaris (2002) or Eternal Sunshine of Spotless Mind you might enjoy this. I love both movies but I wasn't enjoying this all the time. Movie has same tone as both mentioned movies. Phasing isn't as good and budget is much smaller. Budget wasn't the problem. Phasing was. It was like watching a car crash slow motion at times. It was clear where the movie was going. You just wanted it to get there faster for it to be over.

Story was too slow at the times but I wanted to see what will happen with another Earth. Getting to ending was drag. Ending was ok. I not good enough to make this a good movie but it had idea. Maybe not the most original idea. It is almost there but not quite. Like the rest of the movie. Soundtrack had moments but something was missing. Same with cinematography and story.

They had nice science fiction concept suited for drama like this but something was missing. This is kind of movie I usually love. It was close there but not quite. I don't want to get into spoilers. Wondering where this is going made the journey better. It might be better less you know about it before watching it.

Sunshine (2007)

I don't usually spoil movies I talk about but this time I will do that. I didn't like Sunshine that much and telling why I didn't like it requires some spoiling. Sunshine was one of those movie I wanted to see but never found the time or it wasn't available when I remembered it. I like the soundtrack and premise sounded interesting.

Sunshine has hard science fiction feeling without being that exact with the science. It was bit distracting but it wasn't the main problem. Characters and the twist were the problem. Most characters don't have any personality.

Chris Evans is only one who has some. He and Cillian Murphy are main characters. They don't like each others. That was Murphy's characters personality and he was main character. One guy is going crazy but doesn't. His craziness makes him sacrifice himself when it was needed. One guy lost it in one scene and died in next. Others didn't have even that much personality.

Crew is humanity's last hope. They don't act like it. They send two of their most important members outside to fix ship and then turn the ship in a way that puts them in danger. They had only one person who can restart the sun and he is sent to do dangerous tasks because why not. All decisions were done without too much calculations. They wouldn't have had any problems if they acted like professional crew of scientific minds.

I understand what they tried to have with the twist but it didn't work the way they wanted. It was mistake to have two ships and follow the second. Having first ship missing and then appearing didn't bring anything one ship with one guy losing his mind wouldn't have given. At least to what they tried to achieve with the twist.

The twist is first ship's captain lost his mind and sabotaged the mission because "god wills it". He lived alone inside first ship for seven years. When second ship docked to his ship he went to second ship and tried to sabotage it too. Biggest problem was he was made some kind of supernatural villain. He was never show normally like everyone else. There were always effects on him. We never saw him clearly. I am not saying he stayed in shadows. Even when we should have seen him clearly there were heavy effects blurring him.

Having someone sabotaging missions because he thought they shouldn't mess with destiny, god's will or what ever was clever idea. They had one crew member going crazy who could have done that. Having supernatural villain ruined the idea. Having one guy losing his mind would have been interesting. Having crazy guy in other spaceship and coming from there meant one less character arc in movie where there we no clear character arcs.

Sunshine is frustrating movie. It has talented people and good ideas but it fails in few key areas. I might have had too high expectations after waiting so long to see this. Having just average movie was disappointment.

Star Trek Beyond (2016)

I didn't want to pay anything for another movie in series JJ Abrams started. Both of his movies disrespected Star Trek and only used names and story elements without understanding why we liked them in first place. I heard this was best of reboot movies. I am not so sure about that. If you forget movies were Star Trek movies and can look past the disrespect the movies were ok as brainless scifi action.

Star Trek Beyond doesn't have JJ Abrams on board. It tries to bring spirit of old Star Trek back without dropping action scifi reboot brought. There are scenes which remind old Star Trek without taking anything from old Star Trek which is more than first two movies could do. But this only makes it like worst old Star Trek movies with updated special effects.

This is fifth Star Trek movie in a row with some sort of revenge story. I think Into Darkness also had one even when it had something else too. I won't watch it again to be sure. Old Star Trek was good because it had interesting and different stories. Often there weren't any villains. Movies have regressed being revenge stories with clear villains.

When I said I am not sure if this is best of reboot series I mean if you forget disrespect of first two movies they are better than this. This don't respect old Star Trek but trying to be between old and new makes movie quite boring. It doesn't have interesting concepts of old Star Trek and it is not as brainless scifi action as first two movies. If you count disrespect this is best by not having it.

Stranger Things season 2 (2017)

If video is not shown you can find it here.

I didn't like first season as much as most people. It was good but it had issues. Main issue being characters' actions didn't have consequences until something had. Then you wondered why this had consequences and all the other didn't.

I saw second seasons unspoiled. I didn't watch trailers. I didn't read anything which could have spoilers. Even minor spoilers. I say this because until first break at the middle of third episode I had learned almost nothing new.

First few minutes have reveal which was easy to guess if you saw first season. We had few new characters. We learn what happened to Eleven which was what you expected at the ending of first season. Will has same vision he had at the end of first season. And there is something mysterious going on. And the new pet.

When I started second session everything started to work. It was what was good in first season without what was bad in first season. Almost like remake of first season. Plus this was Aliens if first season was Alien.

They learned their lessons from first season. Including not revealing too much at then end of the season. It hurt first episodes of this season. I am not sure is having complete story arc with conclusion each season is good idea. Each season has to establish the story with slower start when previous season ended with bang.

It is problem with most series but with this is was most noticeable. It was only thing I can really complain. New characters were as good as old ones. Story didn't have too many side steps. There was one planted in first season.

You can discuss if the story was too close to first season. I am not sure but for third season they need something different. This worked because it changed enough and did same things better.

I wonder what the third season will be. It surely has to have something new. Much more than including metal fan or any other new music style fan. This season had some build up for third season but nothing which told what it can be.