Justice League (2017)

I didn't see this in theaters because I have no faith in DCEU at the moment. Now I have seen it. This review has spoilers. If you cared you have already seen this or being spoiled by someone else. There wasn't big unexpected twists anyway. Everyone knew Superman will be back, Justice League will assemble and beat the bad guy in the end. Writers were content to have those happening during the movie. There wasn't much else. Yes it looks good at times but the writing is not at bar. I write this next day after seeing the movie but I have almost forgotten what happened.

There was moment when I wondered why this got so much hate. It was at the beginning when Batman fights parademon at Gotham. It looked interesting. Then Batman calls Alfred by his real name next to criminal who hears the whole discussion. It wasn't only time they used real names before other people. Superheroes have this secret identity thing. That is why they use masks. Calling each others with real names this often makes their identities not so secret in short time.

Steppenwolf is worst villain of all the time. He didn't have any personality. I have no idea what his powers were. He just wanted to destroy earth. He reminded little bit of Sauron from Lord of the Rings movies. Sauron works because he is mysterious. He doesn't say anything. Steppenwolf talks which destroys the character. His voice doesn't suit the looks and words doesn't suit his actions. Everything not Sauron ruined the character.

Story and characters are all over the place. Dialog is terrible at times. Character arcs miss parts where they decided to join the group. Flash doesn't even think when he says he wants to join. I honestly don't remember when or why Cyborg joined. Aquaman joined after they lost their motherbox. He just appears when others fight Steppenwolf. Characters just do things and say words.

Batman's suicide mission at the ending wasn't built at all. He made plan which would have killed him if others had followed his plan. There was no build up Batman being suicidal. Wonder Woman told others to save Batman. Otherwise he would have died fighting group of parademons. This is not my own thinking. Movie says this. I haven't seen anyone else complaining this. Maybe because it was during the best part of the movie.

Ending was best part of the movie because the action worked. I wish I cared about these characters. They worked together and used their powers. Other action scenes worked if you didn't think too much. Amazons had stupid way to shut doors to their motherbox vault. Shutting doors meant six people had to starve to death between closed doors. Two of them got easy way out because they closed door too early and they had to keep the door open long enough to their leader to escape. Then they were crushed under stone door.

Justice League is a mess story and dialog wise. I can understand why Ben Affleck wants to leave after I heard the lines he had to say. Movie looks good and action scenes work mostly. There were couple posing parts which I didn't like. Movie is step up from Batman V Superman but nowhere near to Wonder Woman.

And Henry Cavill's upper lip thing. I noticed it in first shot but not after that. Maybe I had lost interest at that point.

Boogie (2015)

I am not sure is Boogie tries to have some kind of message or is it just ultra macho fantasy. Main character is hitman who doesn't care about anything but money. He is rude and violent. He kills people all the time. Did I mention this was really bloody and violent animation? It makes it easier to disconnect what is happening.

I assume this is based on one of those ultra violent comics. Movie wasn't originally in English. I watched English dubbed version without subtitles which made me miss few texts. But I don't think those made movie different. This is story of best hitman there is when his customer want to use cheaper competitor and he doesn't like that. This is a movie where main character and antagonist kill about 80% of anything living. Our hero kills more than antagonist. This is that kind of movie.

If there is a message it is you shouldn't be around this kind of people. Almost everyone who talks to Boogie or even is near him suffers from it. I think that is too clever for this movie. It was made for ultra macho fantasy with hero who likes violence and does what ever he feels like at the moment. Everyone else is just there for him to abuse.

Death Note (2006-2007)

I was going to tell Death Note (2006-2007) is one of best tv series ever made. But I didn't write this when I was watching the series or right after watching it. I have same problem with J.J. Abrams' work. When I watch his tv series or movies I enjoy them but afterwards I forget why I enjoyed them or what happened in them and don't even want to see them again. Death Note is the same. You want to see what happens next because how the story is told but the story is not that interesting in the end. This has more to tell than Abram's work though.

Death Note tells about notebooks which kill anyone whose name is written in them. One student, Light, founds one and start to kill criminals with it. Soon he gets task force trying to catch him after him. Series becomes mind games between Light and L, the leader of the task force. These mind games are driving force of the story. However they lose impact by the end when characters have to be really stupid to not see what is going on.

Series is bit too long for its own good. Settings change enough in every few episodes to keep the story interesting but you can do it only so many times before it starts to lose impact. Biggest problem was the ending when mind games went too far to be believable. Series has few amazing moments. My favorite was when Light tried find real name of a woman who had information which could get him caught. It happened early on which might be reason it was so impactful.

This was better than Netflix's Death Note but if I feel like watching Death Note I will probably watch Netflix's one because it is shorter. Some people hated it not being like this but I see it as good thing.

Annihilation (2018)

Annihilation is best one of current dumped to Netflix movies. It is shame something like this gets theatrical release only in United States because someone thought this was too clever for general audience. It probably was but it should have given theatrical run other countries too. It looks amazing. I hope one movie festival in Helsinki picks this to their program. I really want to see this on big screen even after seeing it already.

Annihilation is really weird. Some say it is one of the best science fiction movies lately. Being weird is not enough. Director Alex Garland's previous movie Ex Machina is better than Annihilation. There are few others too. Annihilation is close to best science fiction movies. After second viewing I might put it among the best. I wouldn't be surprised if this will become cult classic.

I want to tell as little as possible because story revolves around mystery. If you need reference what to expect you can think mix of 2001: A Space Odyssey, Apocalypse Now, Solaris and Alien movies with all female cast and without too much action. I didn't realize it had all female cast until I watched Red Letter Media's review which pointed it out. Don't worry about all female cast. It doesn't matter. Movie doesn't make it a big point. It isn't even explained why the group contains only females.

Annihilation is almost among best science fiction movies. It had many elements I don't remember seeing before. It looks amazing. But there are couple things which prevent it from being among the best. There were few plot holes and I didn't last moments. I won't spoil last moment. If you have seen the movie you can probably guess why I didn't like it. Those are little things in otherwise great movie.

Sharknado 5: Global Swarming (2017)

Sharknado 5: Global Swarming is fifth annual Sharknado movie. I have already reviewed first, second, third and fourth movie. First was ok but by the third one they stopped caring. They didn't start caring for this one. They know there will be next movie no matter how bad this one is. This even ends with cliffhanger.

This is first Sharknado movie I hated. It is just 90 minutes of waste of your time but you need to know the ending in case next movie is actually interesting. I will get to the ending. It was only interesting thing and then movie ended. 85 minutes before that was same sharknado bs every sequel have been. This time difference is they reference other movies all the time and get transported from country to country.

Movie starts with Fin and Nova indianajonesing ancient artifact from shark god's temple. This starts global sharknados. Movie becomes series of short cameos one after another before they get killed by sharks. There are no characters. Only people in front of camera saying something before they get killed by sharks. Space between camoes is filled with bad cgi and action. It is just scene after scene. Some scenes are stolen from other movies.

I hated movie before ending but ending made me hate it even more. I might have stopped watching Sharknados after this if this didn't have ending which set interesting premise for next movie. I don't go through everything what happened. Sharknados destroy everything and kill everyone. April dies stopping Sharknados. Only her head is left behind. Fin search around the world other survivors carrying April's head. Adult version of Fin's son Gil comes there with backtothefutured car.

Before I wrote this I could see how next movie could be interesting. I visioned post-apocalyptic movie without constant cameos. But there is time travelling which means they will jump from one place to another. Time travel means they can steal scenes from historical movies not just current movies. Same things I hated in this movie but more of them.

Godzilla: Planet of the Monsters (2017)

Godzilla: Planet of the Monsters is first part of Netflix trilogy. I assume it is collaboration since this was seen in Japanese theaters long before it entered Netflix. In Netflix it is called Godzilla. Mankind has left Earth when they could not stop Godzilla and other monsters. They tried to find new home but they haven't been successful. They come back when one of them has idea how to beat Godzilla.

I liked space part more than fighting Godzilla part. They were refugees desperate to find new planet before they run out of resources. I would have liked to see whole movie or few episodes of longer series of that. When they get back to Earth it is mostly exploring and fighting. All the interesting themes we had in space are forgotten.

Godzilla: Planet of the Monsters mix two anime styles together. Monsters look old cgi and almost everything else drawn. I have never seen this works. This is not exception. This is tried every now and then with similar results. It looks too distracting. Second part comes later this year. End credit scenes showed not all human left Earth. There might be something other than fighting in it.