“People only know what you tell them, Carl.”
Spielberg in microcosm. An earnest and sorrowful reflection on human failure and loneliness, boxed up in an outrageously entertaining piece of filmmaking. This film has got it all, and it balances all the pieces so well. It may not be his very best work, but none of Spielberg’s films thus far exemplify his ethos as a storyteller better than this.
Success and sorrow, mingled in the clouds.
1. Simon Kinberg shot the hell out of this. The opening feels like something out of Interstellar or Gravity, and the fight on the train near the end was so exciting, creative, and *coherent*, reminding me of X2’s elegant set pieces.
2. Hans Zimmer rules.
3. My boy Quicksilver is wasted in a nothing role, but Nightcrawler (the original scene stealer) shines.
4. McAvoy and Hoult.
5. Did I watch the same movie as everyone else?
6. I’ve always loved the X-Men movies. Sad to see them go out like this, when “nobody cares anymore”.
Way better than the first one!! They actually hired a competent director and assembled a likeable cast! And it actually feels like its own story instead of just making fun of better movies! Wow!!
Comic Book Movies will fade but Zazie Beetz is forever.
Doesn't come close to the grandeur and terrifying scale of Gareth Edwards' masterful 2014 film. As a direct sequel, this is a massive disappointment, sacrificing nuance and clever direction for straightforward monster mayhem. As a whole, this is a sloppy mess.
But when it's at its best, it comes close to becoming something beautiful in its own way, asking some really interesting questions about our treatment of the environment and the existential questions that come with Gods and Monsters awakening…
Seventeen years ago, this would have been a box office smash. Delightful stuff. Looks at the ugliness of the world we live in today without sugar coating anything, and chooses to be inspiring, honest, and full of hope and humour. This felt like something I would have adored watching when I was a kid, and it makes me sad seeing how rare a movie like this is in 2019. Add this to the growing canon of films that deconstruct “the hero’s journey” in meaningful ways, alongside The Last Jedi and Into the Spider-Verse. And please watch this with your kids.
You know what they say kids...there's nothing stopping you from going out and making your dream movie right now. All you need is your iPhone.
..and a script by a recent Oscar winner, an A-list cast, decades of success in the industry, and a good relationship with Netflix. It's easy!
“The future is so much more interesting than the past, don’t you think?”
Nobody warned me about Minority Report, a film that had me on the edge of my seat for the entire running time. This is a truly engaging action picture, one of Spielberg’s fastest paced, while also managing to be equally complex, scary, emotional, and exciting.
There are so many different ideas, genres, and situations being juggled in this thing, and of course, it’s edited so perfectly that…
Ok hear me out. This is the best one.
The first two were just warmups for this absolute banger of a motion picture, where Keanu Reeves is dropped into a neon and rain drenched New York and must kill pretty much every sorry sob he comes in contact with.
The first thirty minutes of this film are some of the most well executed and essential minutes of action cinema I’ve seen in the last decade, featuring John Wick using a…
“Is fifty years a long time?”
“I don’t think so.”
Beautiful. Haunting. Mystifying.
I’m too emotionally exhausted to write about this.
Somehow stands out as Spielberg’s least flashy film. It’s obviously one of his most perfectly executed films, but he makes it look so easy and natural as if he’s shooting a documentary. His use of long takes in the third act is jaw dropping, not in a Scorsese or Iñárritu kind of way where the camera draws attention to itself; but in a truly Spielberg way, where the camera has been used in such a naturalistic manner that you don’t even realize the whole scene has been shot in one unbroken take until it finally cuts. Still a colossal achievement yet to be surpassed.
“Sounds like you had a pretty special and intimate relationship with this hammer and that losing it was almost comparable to losing a loved one.”
“In the courtroom, whoever tells the best story wins.”
Ruthlessly engaging. Yet another solid historical drama from Steven Spielberg that doesn’t shy away from the horrors of humanity’s past and present.
This film doesn’t quite carry the same electricity as Spielberg’s later historical dramas, and Morgan Freeman is wasted in a disappointingly small role; but Amistad holds its weight, breezing through a 155 minute runtime with ease, holding the viewer’s attention through incredible dialogue from David Franzoni and typically excellent direction from Spielberg.