2017 is shaping up to be a great year for me watching movies. I’ve already seen a few theatrical releases, I have a few more planned, and I keep taking classes where we watch movies and talk about them. Let’s look at some of the films I’ve watched recently (April and May).
2017’s Power Rangers – I still haven’t written my article about this, so it counts! Power Rangers had a mix of good and bad, and definitely seems like it would be better as a CW show than a film (which may be why this was planned to be 7 movies). A lot of interesting things are hinted at but not being delivered (Trini’s backstory) and a lot of things that could have been really interesting (Rita as Green Ranger) were simplified for the sake of time (Goldar being a golem/putty instead of a demon). I’m seriously hoping the DVD has some deleted scenes, especially with some of the questions around Kimberly’s plot. 7.5/10.
Hell or High Water – You can probably tell the movies that were picked by non-Sci-Fi professors, huh? This movie features Chris Pine as a Texan bank robber and is altogether pretty interesting. There are just the right levels of tragedy and ambiguity here. 8.5/10.
Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy: Volume II – I recently did a review of this over at Fantasy & SciFi Lovin’ News & Reviews. 7.5/10.
Marvel’s Captain America: Civil War – After watching Guardians of the Galaxy II, I happened to come across this one on Netflix. I didn’t find it surprising: like the trailers, the entire moved hinged around a small number of action scenes where we got to see a variety of heroes fight one another. With the way the arguments were presented, I really couldn’t get behind Cap’s argument; like in Winter Soldier, I found Black Widow to be the most reasonable of the bunch (when are we getting her movie?). 6.5/10.
1951’s The Day the Earth Stood Still – This is one of the Sci-Fi classics that I never got around to watching on my own that I finally watched for class. I will be publishing an article about the writing (probably on this blog, possibly elsewhere), but this film is also pretty unusual from a production standpoint. This film combines scenes that are also paced more like a ‘70s or ‘80s film than a ‘50s one (this may be more director choice than trend; I don’t think I’ve seen more than a dozen 1950s films) along with moments straight out of late silent films. I really enjoyed this juxtaposition and I think the closest thing I’ve seen in another movie is an ‘80s-style montage or an in-movie music video scene. 8/10.
Insomniatic 