Hey everyone, Jack Drees here! Yesterday I just got an alert of some big movie news, which is the release of the all new Last Jedi trailer. Right now Star Wars Celebration is happening, it just premiered there on Friday, it was uploaded to the Internet around the same time, and I click on one of the videos showing the trailer just 6 minutes after it was uploaded. I’ll be completely honest, this is one of those trailers that I want to review right away, but I felt that I couldn’t because I still needed to process everything. Do I love it? Do I hate it? Do I think it is mediocre? I mean, to start off, it looked cool and I thought there was gonna be some cool fights in the movie, but I wasn’t entirely sure how I felt about it. Now that I have had a day to process my thoughts, I felt I should make this post before it gets washed up in obscurity.

So the trailer starts off fading up from black, then all of a sudden Rey appears. There are two things that come to mind when I see this. First off, Rey is training to improve her skills as a Jedi, she appears exhausted from strenuous work. Or the second possibility, and to me this seems much more likely than the first, Rey has had a force vision and it was a rather unfortunate one. Remember how in “The Empire Strikes Back” Luke had one too when he was training where he saw a sad future for Han and Leia? Maybe Rey has experienced something similar to this. Perhaps it may apply to Finn. Although this thought, kind of worries me, and this will apply to a future paragraph in this post.

Next up, we have the Lucasfilm logo appear, then when it disappears, Luke is saying “Breathe. Just breathe.” Interestingly enough, that could increase the possibility of the first thought I had towards the scene in the previous paragraph. Throughout this moment, we get some shots of the island where the end of “The Force Awakens” took place, which just looks beautiful. If there is one thing I admire about various “Star Wars” films, it’s the locations the crew chooses to shoot the movies. We also get a shot of Rey in front of the water, standing on the cliff of the island, which looks cool, but kind of reminds me of the beginning of the “Justice League” trailer that just came out not too long ago. Luke continues on saying “Now, reach out, what do you see?” This increases my second thought of being correct because, well, you know, force visions, seeing, get it?

Next up we get a shot where a map is shown, quite possibly the map that was missing a piece in “The Force Awakens,” and it seems that Leia is in front of it, by the way, RIP Carrie Fisher. I really want to know how Leia’s role is going to play out in this film now that Carrie Fisher is dead, a part of me hopes this doesn’t bring some sort of cliffhanger that must be resolved in “Star Wars Episode IX” because chances are that they’re probably they’re gonna have to find someone to bring in and they’re gonna have to CGI old Carrie Fisher’s face onto this person. And based on the reactions to CGI Tarkin and CGI Leia in “Rogue One,” I wonder if something like that would end up getting a similar reaction. Want to know my two cents about it? I thought it was fine, I mean, CGI Tarkin was more noticeable the second time I watched it, but CGI Leia looked OK to me in that movie.

Going back to dialogue, it’s around this time where Rey replies to Luke saying what she sees. She replies, “Light, darkness, the balance.” Luke then says “It’s so much bigger.” With what Rey just said, I don’t know if you guys noticed this, but I heard these random tidbits of words being uttered, you could BARELY hear them, I don’t know how many people heard this during their first time watching this, something comes out of someone’s mouth just before Rey says “Light.” I think it is Rey saying, “You.” Then it continuous on, right before Rey says “darkness,” somebody, presumably Kylo Ren, says something, but it ends with “the dark side.” To further my point, we get a shot that shows what seems to be Kylo Ren’s helmet on the ground. After that, I’m hearing more stuff, it doesn’t really sound like words at this point though, just before Rey says “the balance.” At this point, we get a shot of what seems to be a Jedi related book of some kind. Once again, all of this may be supporting my force vision theory. When Luke says his words, we get a shot featuring Rey and Luke, Rey is moving her lightsaber around, while Luke is just standing still watching her.

Then we get a shot of some ships in a location we haven’t seen before, which looks like the lightest desert I’ve ever seen in my life. In the distance, it almost looks like there are some AT-ATs. So I guess maybe that this is the Hoth battle on a desert? One funny thought I had in mind is, what if this is Hoth and it melted? This movie takes place 3 decades after “Return of the Jedi,” but what if Hoth, at some point between the original trilogy and this movie, had melted? Like, global warming style, although much faster than it would be on Earth, I wonder how that even would be practical, but still, it’s just a funny thought I had in mind.

Then we get a shot of Finn, he has his eyes closed, he’s still in the previous state we saw him since the end of the last movie. And if you’re wondering if he’ll actually do something in this movie, John Boyega says he will. I wouldn’t be surprised if he wakes up at one point and we see him in action somewhere, despite how he wasn’t exactly a master at it in “The Force Awakens.” Plus there’s gonna be a whole toy line released based on this movie months before it comes out, and the packaging for the toys are gonna contain an image with Rey, Poe, and Finn on it.

You’ve also got a shot of Poe and BB-8 quickly moving through a hallway, then the next shot shows an explosion, I’m not sure what exactly is receiving the explosion, but the explosion looks like it is growing and moving towards Poe’s X-Wing ship, which can’t be all that good. These shots, for what I know, seem to be displayed during the same scenario, but aren’t right next to each other in the movie’s runtime.

Afterwards we get our first shot of the Millennium Falcon in this trailer. It’s being chased by some TIE Fighters, while at the same time, it just took one out. I wonder who’s in the Millennium Falcon, it might be Chewbacca. After all, when Rey was going to the island where Luke was in the last movie, Chewie was in the Falcon with her, so this assumption might make sense.

 

Then we get a shot of Rey running with her lightsaber on, her face is almost a silhouette, which then cuts to Kylo Ren, and just look at him, he has a scar now. Just goes to show you, lightsaber duels can do some rough things to you. I wonder if he’ll even wear his mask anymore throughout this movie, or even the series for that matter. Although before we get to that shot, Luke starts saying, “I only know one truth,” which ends at a shot of R2 standing alongside someone, maybe Chewbacca or possibly a new character, right in front of a burning building. If I had to guess, I’m assuming that’s a base. We then get some more cool shots, including our first look at Captain Phasma, which means she made it through the trash compactor, then we get a space battle that looks sick, then all of sudden the trailer cuts to black. Luke then finishes his quote, he says “it’s time for the Jedi, to end. We then see Luke not really looking like the most optimistic or happiest person in the universe, then we get a look at our red title. When Luke says that it is time for the Jedi to end, that is kind of what is making me confused. Why should they end? Does Luke think it is time for darkness to consume the universe? Is there a better light title to be determined than a Jedi? What does this mean? Besides, if it is time for the Jedi to end, why do we even see Rey training in the first place? Although I will say, she did seem to know some Jedi skills in the previous film, I heard she learned a bit about the art of the Jedi in some Star Wars book. I don’t know, I feel like I’m digressing.

At the beginning of this I mentioned the force vision possibility, and how I view it as worrisome. Why do I feel this way you ask? Because I feel like this movie is just going to rip off “The Empire Strikes Back.” Granted, “The Force Awakens” ripped off the original “Star Wars” film, but I thought that was justified, because the intention was to pay homage to “A New Hope,” while at the same time giving people something they haven’t seen before. I thought that was masterfully done and pretty reasonable because there were some people who loved the original trilogy but hated the prequel trilogy, and this was essentially a reminder that “Star Wars” was gonna go back to the way things were without as much CGI and all of that stuff. Although if this rips off Empire, I’m gonna take some points off of the movie’s score when I see it. If Rey’s hand gets cut off, then I’m probably gonna lose it, maybe not, we’ll have to see what happens.

Well, that’s the first trailer for “Star Wars Episode VIII: The Last Jedi,” I didn’t get the same feeling for this trailer that I got after watching the trailer for “The Force Awakens,” I couldn’t wait for “The Force Awakens,” this trailer, got me somewhat excited in various ways, but in some ways, made me fearful for how the movie will be as a whole. I probably will go see this movie the day it comes out, after all I don’t want any spoilers, but I don’t think this will be as good as “The Force Awakens.” If there’s one thing I like about this film, it seems to hide a bunch of key plot elements, much like the trailers for “The Force Awakens.” Will this movie be good? Hopefully, but there’s no guarantee. Thanks for reading guys, be sure to keep your eyes open because pretty soon I’m gonna review “The Fate of the Furious,” I’m also gonna possibly review “Mission Control: The Unsung Heroes of Apollo,” and maybe one more movie next week, depending on what happens. Stay tuned for all of that coming soon, and I just want to know, what are your thoughts on “The Last Jedi” teaser? Also, are you at Star Wars Celebration? How is it? Did you see the trailer there? Let me know! Scene Before is your click to the flicks!

“Gifted” is directed by Marc Webb, who also directed “The Amazing Spider-Man” series and “500 Days of Summer,” and this film stars Chris Evans, who you may know as Captain America in the MCU, Mckenna Grace, Lindsay Duncan, Jenny Slate, and Octavia Spencer, who was recently nominated for an Oscar for her performance in “Hidden Figures,” which is a nomination I personally don’t get. I don’t mind Octavia Spencer as an actress, I just feel some other people did better in the movie that were more deserving of a nomination as opposed to her. Anyway, this film is about a guy named Frank, who lives with her niece, Mary, who is a child prodigy. Unfortunately, Frank is brought into a custody battle with his mother.

I went into this movie with some expectations. These expectations included: To get a good glimpse at the life of this child genius, get some good performances, and have it make me feel certain emotions. Unluckily, I left disappointed. With that being said, this movie isn’t terrible, it just isn’t likable.

Have you ever seen a movie that has tons of product placement? I know I have. I’ve seen all of the Michael Bay “Transformers” movies, “The Smurfs,” and if you remember last year’s “Mother’s Day” film, that was on my top 10 worst list of last year, and one of the reasons for that has to do with incessant and bogus product placement. This movie also has a good amount of it, I mean, it could be worse, but it’s still bad. It also gave me a bad impression at the very beginning. Like, the niece is eating breakfast, she isn’t all that happy, and there’s a cereal box on the table, for the sake of a humorous scene, Chris Evans’s character turns it around and it shows that the cereal is Special K from Kellogg’s. I say humorous scene because there were actually a good number of people cracking up when the front of the cereal box appeared. I just thought, “Oh, so it’s gonna be this type of movie.” This kind of gave me a bad first impression, especially when you consider some of the cast members that are in this movie.

Speaking of product placement, there is one thing I want to point out, Google is used so much in this film. I mean, it almost feels like Google donated so much money towards this movie just to have appearances in multiple scenes, including ones that are crucial to the overall plot. If I had to count all of the scenes they were featured in, I’d guess that the number would come out to somewhere between 3 and 5, so, threeve, I guess? If you have seen SNL’s Celebrity Jeopardy sketch you’d get this. As much as I’m annoyed by this, it’s actually not the first time something like this was in a Marc Webb film. If you remember “The Amazing Spider-Man,” Peter Parker uses Bing in three different scenes. But still, it’s annoying, and I don’t like it.

Anywho, let’s move onto the characters. Chris Evans plays Frank in this film, and throughout a good chunk of this film, I couldn’t decide whether or not Frank was a dick or confused, I liked him better towards the end though based on some events that occurred in the film, but overall, I can’t say I was absolutely fond of this character.

Mckenna Grace plays the child prodigy in this film and as far as child actors go, I say that her performance was quite suitable. While this isn’t my favorite child performance, I wouldn’t say it belongs in a dumpster fire. Oh, and yeah, she swears in this film, and as of right now, this girl just entered the double digit ages, so I must say while her parents must be infuriated and shocked about this (unless of course they hear her swear often or they read the script or heard the line before it was even shot), it did get a laugh from the audience. I can’t remember if I laughed or not, and that’s kind of sad because while this movie is serious, there are some times where it tries to throw in some humor and it fails. I mean, if you remember “Manchester by the Sea,” I said a big problem with that movie is that it should have been all seriousness and no humor, but at least when it had humor, it actually made me laugh slightly more. I remember chuckling a bit, but that’s probably the maximum of all my laughter released throughout the film. And unlike “Manchester by the Sea,” this seemed like a movie where some humor would be suitable.

I’m not gonna focus too much more on characters, but one more character I want to talk about is Lindsay Duncan’s character, Evelyn. In this movie, Evelyn is Frank’s mother, and her growing relationship with Mary is somewhat threatening towards the one Mary already has with Frank considering they live together. I’m not gonna get into much detail, but this movie spends a good amount of time in a courtroom, and what do I think about those scenes? They’re forgettable. However, if I remember one thing, I can remember that this mother was presented as a queen of douchebags based on a single detail during one of those scenes, I won’t really go into much detail, but still, that’s how I saw her character at one point.

One more thing I want to bring up is this, if you want to know my thoughts on this movie, this can sum them up in a nutshell. There is this one scene, where Frank and Mary are interacting with each other in this film, and there’s a TV on in the background. On the TV is the original “Ice Age” movie from 2002. Now during this scene, while they are talking, I am looking towards the TV with my eyes glued to it. That just goes to show, I was more interested in watching “Ice Age,” a movie that was in this movie, than this actual movie itself.

In conclusion, I was disappointed with “Gifted,” this movie sounded rather interesting based on the concept, and believe it or not I can somewhat relate to the child prodigy, I might not be as smart as her, but there is a scene that suggests she wants to correct people, specifically older ones. I, possibly like her, do it out of what I see as assistance, but others may see something else out of it. Nevertheless, despite the relatability, it’s hard for me to like this film. I spent many times rolling my eyes, questioning the film, silently yelling at the screen in a way that nobody could hear me, all to the point where I just don’t want to watch this film again. I’m gonna give “Gifted” a 3/10. Thanks for reading this review, pretty soon I’m gonna try and see “The Fate of the Furious,” so hopefully I can have that review up soon, and I might watch “Mission Control: The Unsung Heroes of Apollo,” which is now in select theaters and streaming services. It’s not playing in any theaters near me last time I checked, so I’m just gonna use a streaming service to watch this if I do ever get the chance. Also, be sure to check out the latest entry in my series of “Spider-Man” reviews, “Spider-Man 2.” The link is down below, if you want to read it, go right ahead, but just a heads up, the post is LONG, so if you make it through the end, just pretend I’m in front of you giving you a sticker. Stay tuned for more reviews. Scene Before is your click to the flicks!

“SPIDER-MAN 2” REVIEW *SPOILERS FOR THIS FILM AND SPIDER-MAN 1*: https://scenebefore.wordpress.com/2017/04/14/spider-man-2-best-superhero-movie-to-date-spoilers-for-this-movie-spider-man-1/

Hey everyone, Jack Drees here! Right now it is April and that means it is time to continue a little event I have going on. Last month, I reviewed Sam Raimi’s original “Spider-Man” film on here, this was just the beginning of a series of reviews leading up to “Spider-Man: Homecoming’s” release on July 7th. Now since it is April, we’re gonna tackle the sequel, “Spider-Man 2.” So let’s get started!

“Spider-Man 2” is directed by Sam Raimi and stars Tobey Maguire, Kirsten Dunst, Alfred Molina, and James Franco. This film continues some period of time after the first film, and this time around, Peter is actually in college, not in high school. Is it a weird jump in time? I don’t think so. Besides, it could probably make you complain slightly less about Tobey Maguire playing Peter Parker due to his age, not that I really cared about that. Anyway, Peter is having a bit of struggle in his personal life, while at the same time, he meets Otto Octavius, played by Alfred Molina, who eventually becomes the villain of the film, Dr. Octopus. Or Doc Ock, or whatever you wanna call it.

Before making this review, I rewatched this film from beginning to end, and I just want to go off of here by letting everyone know that if you asked me what I thought of this movie in the past, especially when I was around age 13 and getting into how movies were made, I would say that I freaking love this movie, it’s also one of my favorite films of all time. Here’s another fun fact for you, the last time I watched this film was NEARLY two years ago, like, seriously, DAYS after this review gets posted, it will be EXACTLY two years since my last viewing of this movie, which is kind of crazy considering how much I adore this movie. Although I will say that may be kind of a good thing that I waited so long to watch this again, because if I have watched “Spider-Man 2” over and over again in the past, chances are I could have possibly gotten bored with it.

Also, I just want to say one thing, I mentioned this is one of my favorite movies ever, but it doesn’t mean I turned off my brain while watching this film. I analyzed the film, looking for flaws, I could barely find a single one. This seems like something I’d talk about towards the end, but I feel like I should bring it up now. There was one thing I thought about. There’s this reviewer on YouTube known as Chris Stuckmann, and he reviewed this film. In his review he stated that a flaw worth pointing out was when Doc Ock threw Peter into a wall, nearly killing him. Why was this wrong? He was talking with Harry Osborn, played by James Franco, and Harry was gonna give him an energy source he was after if Doc Ock finds Spider-Man and brings him to Harry alive. As Doc Ock was walking down the building which Harry lives in with his tentacles, Harry yells “And don’t hurt Peter!” I defend Doc Ock’s actions for multiple reasons. First off, we don’t really get any shot which confirms Doc Ock heard Harry say what he said. Secondly, when he is interacting with Peter, Mary Jane is also there. Doc Ock assumes Mary Jane is Peter’s girlfriend, and Doc Ock threatens Peter by saying that if he doesn’t find out where Spider-Man is, he’ll “peel the flesh off her (Mary Jane’s) bones.” Peter shown a sign that he wanted MJ to be safe, which made the idea of keeping Peter away a good thought for Doc, so Peter had to suffer the consequences, and Doc Ock throwing him the way he did, in a way, kind of made it harder for Peter to do anything about the situation. Peter could have been taken as well, but that wasn’t the threat given to him. I will say however, one thing that is a little questionable, and that is right before Doc Ock invades the cafe Peter and MJ are together in, is that Doc Ock throws a car into the cafe, and it nearly hits Peter, almost killing him, which basically nearly wastes his chance of asking him where Spider-Man is. Then again, it’s possible that Doc Ock was about to cross the street and his arms, which controlled him, threw the car at the glass just to get across. Another thing could be that he didn’t want to take extra time of breaking through the door or the glass himself, but I don’t know if that’s the case. Although I will say there are actually a couple things I admire about that despite what I just said, one, the shots of the car coming in are kinda sick, and the second I won’t say because they are somewhat spoilery, although if you have seen the movie, you may know what I’m referring to. Let’s just say it has to do with the spider-sense and recovery. THAT’S ALL I’LL SAY THERE. If there’s anything else to point out in terms of flaws, I can’t really say there’s much of anything else worth spitting out at the moment, there was one thing that kind of annoyed me, but it’s not exactly a flaw. That being this one woman singing the Spider-Man theme song and playing the violin, I mean, I can tolerate it, but her voice doesn’t really seem fit for singing.

Well, now that that’s over with, let’s focus on the characters. Tobey Maguire is back in this movie as Peter Parker, as mentioned before, Peter is in college, and his story throughout this movie is probably one of the most compelling I’ve seen in a superhero film. Let me just say, despite the goofiness displayed in the first film, like with the Green Goblin and his somewhat questionable costume, JK Simmons as J Jonah Jameson (PERFECT CASTING CHOICE BY THE WAY), and some quips thrown back and forth between characters, some of this makes a return in this movie. With that being said, some of the realism from the first movie makes a return too, and this time, I have to say that this was done better here and the first one. You feel for Peter all of the way through and understand everything that happens to him. It’s just one struggle after the next that he has to get through which is pretty tedious and it just makes me root for him. If there is anything else to say about this, I have to say that is probably the best depiction of a superhero’s life when you add in his personal life and his superhero life in the mix. I will bring up one thing though, in the beginning of the film, Peter runs into Dr. Connors, a professor he has in college, Connors brings up a report Peter has to do, Peter says he’s planning to do it on Otto Octavius, Connors says planning isn’t good enough, and if Peter doesn’t get the report done, Connors is gonna fail him. This was never revisited, but let me just say, I personally don’t care all that much. Why not? Peter mentions who the report is about, and it is on the film’s villain, which kind of makes the whole story all the more interesting in my opinion to the point where the college thing doesn’t even matter. Besides, that story does somewhat have a resolution, I won’t go into detail, but let’s just say it happens during the “Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head” montage.

Let’s bring up Mary Jane Watson, who is once again played by Kirsten Dunst. One thing I noticed about her is that her hair isn’t really as red as it was in the first film, I mean, it is a little red, but it almost goes towards the color of blonde. I don’t really mind this change all that much considering a hint of red is still there, at least to my eyes, plus it’s also kind of a sign that MJ has gotten older since the last film. In this movie, she’s part of the reason why I find Peter’s story extremely compelling. It turns out in this film, MJ is seeing someone named John Jameson, who is actually the son of J Jonah Jameson at the Daily Bugle. This adds to the complexity of the plot and it’s just one of those things that makes me root for Peter more. Also, remember how in the first movie Mary Jane said she wanted to act? Well, now she is living her dream. Although Peter can’t really go see her play, and if you watch the movie, you’ll see that this isn’t his fault whatsoever. Once again, disrupting the balance between Peter’s two identities. Speaking of identities while staying on the topic of MJ, there is this one scene where Peter is going to use a payphone to call MJ. She doesn’t pick up and the machine gets it, when Peter starts talking, we see MJ walking around her apartment and Peter’s words are being transmitted. MJ doesn’t really seem to show any sympathy towards Peter and what he’s saying, and his time expires, and what happens next, is something I never thought about much until the last time I watched this film. Peter puts more money into the payphone, he says that he’s Spider-Man over the phone. Throughout this point of the scene, there is no transition between shots looking at Mary Jane and Peter. I love how the movie does that and doesn’t treat its audience like idiots by hiding the possibility that Mary Jane either doesn’t believe him or Mary Jane just went away from the phone.

Next up we have Harry, once again played by James Franco. If you remember in the first movie, he and Peter were friends, now, it is shown that their friendship has become somewhat unsteady in this film because his father is now dead and Spider-Man killed him, which by the way, Spider-Man didn’t really kill him, he tried to kill him in a fight, but he was killed by his own glider (We’ll probably revisit this in the “Spider-Man 3” review). This whole Peter and Harry rivalry thing all in all just added to the struggles that Peter had which made me feel bad for him, especially during the planetarium scene, even though there was one thing there that made me feel that way slightly more for him that I won’t spit out because of spoilers. Also, in this film, Harry actually has some ties to the villain, which I thought made the movie more interesting, mainly towards the end.

Speaking of the villain, we’re gonna talk about him right now. Here we have Dr. Octopus, or as some may call him, Doc Ock. In real life, before becoming Doc Ock, he was known as Otto Octavius. This fellow is played by Alfred Molina and once again we have an example of how the guys behind this film find good casting choices for villains. Thought Willem DaFoe was amazing as the Green Goblin in the first Spider-Man film? Alfred Molina is just as spectacular as Doc Ock as Willem DaFoe is as Gobby! Every line that came out of this guy’s mouth, felt authentic, not to mention well written for the character. There are multiple scenes proving this guy is business.

First off the hospital scene. Otto is unconscious and blindfolded, however his arms, or tentacles, are controlling themselves. These arms are taking out everyone in the room one by one, leaving them for dead. Also, I think it was a good choice not to put music in that scene, it was a proper introduction to a badass villain. Another thing I’ll point out is something I don’t know if you’ll agree with me on, but it’s that I love Doc Ock’s scream at the end of the scene, he just loudly shouts “Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!” And no, it’s not like Darth Vader’s no from “Revenge of the Sith,” or even worse, the Blu-Ray edition of “Return of the Jedi.” Then again, I can somewhat tolerate Darth Vader’s no in “Revenge of the Sith,” however the one in “Return of the Jedi” when the change was added in 2011 was just appalling. I mean, it sounds like it, but to me personally, this comes off as less cringey. What makes that no even better is that it is IMMEDIATELY followed, and I mean IMMEDIATELY, like when you hear the last “o,” he just breaks the entrance to the hospital open with his arms, which is kind of badass, and then followed by Doc Ock walking into the street and flipping a taxi over with his tentacles.

Another scene that proves my point is the train scene. In case you want to know, it is a possibility that this scene may be my favorite action sequence I’ve ever seen in a movie. Not only are Peter and Doc Ock going at it with sick moves, Doc Ock leaves an obstacle in Spider-Man’s path that only continues to make the character more compelling even when he already is extremely compelling. Also, I love the music during the fight, along with the moment with the mentioned obstacle, I mean, I love all the music in this film, but I figured I should point this out. By the way, there’s an extended cut to this film called “Spider-Man 2.1,” this scene is actually better in that movie.

Like in the review for the original, there is one supporting character in this movie I feel I should tackle, JK Simmons’s J Jonah Jameson. I mentioned before that JK Simmons is my favorite actor, there aren’t many times where he let me down. There were a couple times where he was wasted (“Terminator: Genisys” and “The Accountant”), but those letdowns weren’t because of him, it was more of either how he was presented or how he was written. In this movie, JK Simmons continues to make J Jonah Jameson make Bill Lumbergh from “Office Space” quite an easy boss to work with. Also, you’ve probably seen a GIF around the Internet of this guy laughing, which by the way, I’ll let you know, watching it the last time I watched this movie in preparation for this review, I believe I laughed harder at his laugh than any other time I watched this movie. Just a fun fact for you. And yes, the epic lines from this guy continue:

EXAMPLE 1:

MISS BRANT: Boss, your wife’s on the line, says she lost her checkbook.

J JONAH JAMESON: Thanks for the good news!

 

EXAMPLE 2:

J JONAH JAMESON: What are we gonna call this guy?

HOFFMAN: ‘Doctor Octopus’?

J JONAH JAMESON: Aw that’s crap.

HOFFMAN: ‘Science Squid’?

J JONAH JAMESON: Crap.

HOFFMAN: ‘Doctor Strange’.

J JONAH JAMESON: That’s pretty good.

*HOFFMAN LOOKS PROUD*

J JONAH JAMESON: But it’s taken! Wait, wait! I got it! ‘Doctor Octopus’.

HOFFMAN: I like it.

J JONAH JAMESON: Of course you do. ‘Doctor Octopus’. New villain in town: ‘Doc Ock’.

HOFFMAN: Genius.

J JONAH JAMESON: What, are you looking for a raise? Get out.

One thing I want to bring up in this movie is a difference between Spider-Man here and Spider-Man in the comic books. In this movie, Spider-Man does throw some quips here and there, but it’s not as common as they are thrown in the comics. In a movie like this, I honestly think this is OK. This movie has a fine balance between being goofy and serious, and when it needs to stop being one of those qualities, it seems to know when to bring the other one into play. Spider-Man doesn’t necessarily need to be as funny as he was in the comics in this film to make it a great movie. Believe it or not, I said something similar about a “Family Guy” episode I saw called “And Then There Were Fewer,” which by the way, check out my Top 10 “Family Guy” Episodes list and you’ll find it there. If you have just gotten curious about it, here’s a link, SPOILER WARNING FOR MULTIPLE EPISODES!

https://scenebefore.wordpress.com/2017/02/02/top-10-family-guy-episodes-spoilers/?frame-nonce=ec87e5da62

Another thing I love about this film, as mentioned before, is the score. While it carries some of the music from the first film, some new themes are added including one that goes along with Doc Ock which sounds marvelous. Danny Elfman returns once again to compose this film and it just shows how much I love it whenever he composes a movie. Also, in my review for the first film, I talked about how it had a long intro credit sequence. This movie has an intro credit sequence that’s just about as long as the one for the first film, which not only introduces the cast, but also gives a recap of the first film. And I like this intro better personally, I think the titles are a little more cleverly designed, and there are some cool additions to it in terms of sound that make it interesting. You remember in the first film? The intro starts coming up right after the Marvel title card? The intro starts the same way in this movie, but it’s in red, and it has a really cool sound that gets lower in pitch as it progresses for a few seconds, kind of like the Doppler Effect, or a change in wavelength or wave (or other periodic event) for an observer moving relative to its source. If you want a good example of how it works, just watch S1E6 of “Big Bang Theory,” Sheldon wears it as a costume at a Halloween Party. Plus, yeah, I don’t know, I kind of like the red color of the intro too, I personally prefer it over blue.

I also want to talk about the end. As far as the entire climax goes, I’d say it has to be one of the greatest endings to a movie I’ve seen, and that kind of says something considering how much I like the first film’s ending. Honestly, I like this one better. This film’s end has a fabulous battle, some rewarding moments, and it just leaves me satisfied and on a cliffhanger at the same time. I was hoping I could delve into one detail about Harry, but it’s kind of spoilery for those of you who haven’t seen this movie, by the way, that’s the cliffhanger thing I’m talking about, but I won’t go any further into that.

There’s also one more thing I want to talk about, and if this is somewhat spoilery so you may want to skip over this paragraph if you want to avoid getting spoiled. The thing I want to bring up is the fire rescue scene. You may remember in the first movie that there was a scene where Spider-Man had to go in a burning building and he saves a baby, then he goes back because there is someone else still up there, which turns out to be the Green Goblin. In this scene it is pretty much a similar formula, only there is no villain interference, and the scene overall is better. Thought I was done with the compelling comment? Think again. There’s a scene in the movie where we see that Peter is losing his powers. This is a whole thing that took up a good portion of the film, then Peter hears people screaming. Peter goes closer to the building and notices a guy screaming, Peter asks if anyone is in the building, the guy tells Peter that there is a kid stuck on the second floor. This time, we see the entirety of Peter rescuing a kid, and to me it’s compelling because if Peter still had his powers, his job would be easier, not to mention it shows that Peter can still sacrifice his life for others even when he’s not Spider-Man. Not to mention, it makes Peter question himself on having what he wants as opposed to what he needs. Which if you think about the question, it all kind of makes sense. Although, it doesn’t mean the end of that incident was complete happiness, because it turns out somebody was trapped on the fourth floor and they never made it out, which may also reveal that Peter, like all of us reading right now, is human, and has setbacks.

Just… wow. I feel like I over analyzed this movie to the core. But I really don’t care. “Spider-Man 2” is a masterpiece. Some people argue that the best superhero movie of all time is either “The Dark Knight” or “Deadpool” or one of the newer “Captain America” films or “The Avengers” or “Guardians of the Galaxy” or even “Logan,” which just came out recently and I haven’t seen yet, but for me, that spot belongs to “Spider-Man 2.” Some of you might be asking though, is this my favorite movie ever? At the moment, it’s a possibility, but nevertheless, I cannot go without saying that “Spider-Man 2” is well deserving of a 10/10! If there were a way to describe this movie, it would be like this: Imagine you’re watching a WAY LESS BRUTAL version of “12 Years a Slave,” then you add in a rom-com element, perhaps one that’s kind of drama-like, along with the action element, and finally, the element of the superhero. Holy moly, I cannot believe I’ve written this much about a movie. Worth it. If you made it to the end of this review, you’ve earned yourself a pat on the back, thanks for wasting your time watching a moron talk about a movie like this. Speaking of reviews, next month I’m going to tackle “Spider-Man 3,” which is Sam Raimi’s last “Spider-Man” film. Also, I’m gonna have a review up for the movie “Gifted” pretty soon, I’m hoping to go see “The Fate of the Furious” sometime next week, and I’m also gonna try to check out a movie called “Mission Control: The Unsung Heroes of Apollo,” which is actually in select theatres at the moment but also available on several streaming services. If I go see another movie soon, I’ll definitely review it, but these are my three biggest possibilities for closeby reviews. Stay tuned for those when they come, stay tuned for more reviews when they come too, thanks so much for listening to me drone on about something as simple as a movie. All you wasted was possibly battery life, and your time. Scene Before is your click to the flicks!

“Power Rangers” is directed by Dean Israelite and stars Dacre Montgomery, RJ Cyler, Ludi Lin, Becky G, Naomi Scott, Bryan Cranston, Bill Hader, and Elizabeth Banks. This movie is about a group of teenagers who all live in the same town of Angel Grove who find coins hidden around them and eventually receive powers. This discovery leads to them finding a command center with a character named Zordon along with a robot known as Alpha 5 and being encouraged to stop the wickedness of the evil Rita Repulsa.

The movie “Power Rangers” is not an original movie, as some of you may already know. I grew up watching some of the shows as a kid, I even caught a couple of glimpses at “Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie.” I never really watched the original show all that much, but when I was young I always either watched “Dino Thunder” or “SPD,” otherwise known as “Space Patrol Delta,” I occasionally watched “Mystic Force,” but all in all, I didn’t watch that particular series as much. And believe it or not, “Power Rangers” itself isn’t even original, when “Mighty Morphin Power Rangers” started back in 1993 it actually used footage from a Japanese franchise called “Super Sentai,” and when it came to the story sequences, American actors were used to film those scenes. Now over 20 years later, the series is still going and they finally do something for the adult crowd. I mean, I know adults who have watched the kiddy franchise but they know it isn’t really meant for their demographic. In fact I actually know someone in a social media group I’m in called the Nerd Army, I remember they said they watched the Mighty Morphin series once when it was on Netflix and I believe they also watched it as a child and they said they didn’t find much joy in the experience watching it as an adult.

Let’s move onto the characters, starting with Jason, played by Dacre Montgomery. In this film, Jason is the Red Ranger. If you have seen any “Power Rangers” series, you probably already know the Red Ranger is usually the leader of the bunch, which is the case in this movie. I would say Montgomery did a fine job as the Red Ranger and he, much like other characters in this movie, was a likable criminal.

Moving onto the Black Ranger, we have Zack. This character is played by Ludi Lin and he doesn’t really stand out amongst the rangers, but I can’t say I disliked his character. For what the character was, I’d say Lin did a fine job as the ranger and the person behind the mask.

Next up we have Trini, who plays the Yellow Ranger. Out of every ranger in this movie, she was personally my least favorite of the bunch. I mean, I don’t hate her exactly, but I wouldn’t say I was completely fond of her in the beginning. If you watch Trini in the beginning, she doesn’t talk much, but I wouldn’t say that is the actress’s fault. By the way, speaking of the actress, this character is played by Becky G.

Up next we have Billy Cranston, AKA the Blue Ranger. This character is played by RJ Cyler, who was also in “Me and Earl and the Dying Girl,” I have not seen that film, but I heard he was in it. Despite that, I’d say that after seeing Cyler in this movie, this guy has a bright future ahead of him when it comes to acting. Not only was his character likable, but Cyler’s acting method was spot on. I’d also have to say that the Blue Ranger in this movie is actually my favorite of the bunch and I completely relate to him since I have autism.

Last but not least when it comes to the rangers, we have the Pink Ranger, who in person is known as Kimberly. Her character is played by Naomi Scott and I’d have to say that she reminded me a lot of the original Pink Ranger in terms of looks. If you never knew, the original Pink Ranger is played by Amy Jo Johnson, and when the original series was going on, she was apparently a lot of boys’s first crush. In this movie, one thing about this ranger which reminded me of the original Pink Ranger included the hair, it wasn’t as long but it was black so it was similar enough. Another thing you can probably say was sort of a reminder, but I don’t know if it really qualifies as one, is one moment in the movie you see Kimberly taking her top off, she still has her bra on, and she’s diving in water. I say it probably doesn’t qualify as a reminder simply because this isn’t necessarily something the original Pink Ranger did. Instead, I would imagine some boys, probably adults or boys starting to hit puberty fantasized about the Pink Ranger and this, at least from what I’m willing to bet, only considering how I can’t relate to this, may have been an example of one of their fantasies.

Now moving onto characters who aren’t Rangers, we have Zordon. In this movie, Zordon looks MUCH different than he does in the Mighty Morphin series. In the Mighty Morphin series, he kind of looked like the hologram of Oz if he were white and didn’t have jets of fire going off around him. In this movie, he looks like a guy with a bunch of pixels all over him. I’m personally OK with that, and I say that because I know one guy on YouTube I’m subscribed to, Angry Joe, who said in his review for this film that he didn’t like this change. By the way, for those of you who are shocked Bryan Cranston took this role, I wouldn’t completely say I relate to your shock. It’s not the first time he’s done something Power Rangers related. In the Mighty Morphin series he did the voices for Snizard and Twinman.

Alpha 5 is also in this film, and this time around, he’s played by Bill Hader, who you may know commonly appeared in “Saturday Night Live,” and also does the voices of Fear from “Inside Out” and Flint Lockwood in “Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs.” If you remember Alpha 5 from the original series, he doesn’t look too much different here than he does there. He sounds a bit different, but that’s about as far as it gets. Oh, and yes, he does say “Aye yai yai!” in this film.

Elizabeth Banks is also in this film and she plays Rita Repulsa. This character has been in more than one of the series’ so far, and now she is here in this film. And I have to say that this character TRULY is evil. Banks sounded like she had a lot of fun as this character, and she really knew what she was doing. Just to support that previous statement to you, I’ll even add that she still knows the foreign language the cast needed to learn for this film. Bill Hader even mentioned so in an interview on “Jimmy Kimmel Live.” The more I think about this character, I think to myself, this is who “Suicide Squad’s” Enchantress should’ve been. If there’s anything left to say about Rita, I’d say that she was in the sickest Krispy Kreme Donuts commercial I’ve seen. REMINDER: It’s also the only Krispy Kreme Donuts commercial I’ve seen, but still, there was one shot of her in a Krispy Kreme Donuts shop, it was pretty badass. Like, badass to the point where this should be on the back of the home video covers when the movie releases on formats related to it.

On a little sidenote, two of the original Mighty Morphin Power Rangers have cameos in this film, those two are Jason David Frank, who was the Green Ranger and the White Ranger, and Amy Jo Johnson, who as mentioned recently, played the Pink Ranger. I don’t think I found them in the film, there’s one scene in a jewelry store in which there is someone who looks like Amy Jo Johnson, but my brain is telling me that isn’t her. As far as Jason David Frank goes, I wasn’t able to find him anywhere.

Earlier during this review I mentioned that this film may be the first “Power Rangers” related entity to actually cater to an older demographic. It can still appeal to younger audiences, but adults can still go see this movie without questioning themselves in the process. I say that because of some huge differences between this movie and the shows. If you have seen the shows, you may know the characters often overexaggerate their fighting. I can still remember all of the characters going “Hyah!” or “Hi-yah!” or “Huah!” or something else along those lines. I still heard some of that in this movie, but hearing it in the theater, it wasn’t as audible compared to when I heard it in the TV series’. And its not just the characters themselves that are overexaggerating. This next thing I’ll mention still applies to them though. There is also lots of swooping. I recently watched a video from YouTube user Chris Stuckmann, and he was doing a Hilariocity Review of “Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie,” and he was mocking that per se by having each one of his arm, hand, and finger movements be accompanied by a swooping sound effect. Not only that, but this movie seems to have a darker color palette on the screen along with darker ranger suits. It kind of looks like Michael Bay’s “Transformers” in one way or another, which when I saw the trailer, I thought was gonna be a sign that the movie was terrible, but it just so turns out that the movie wasn’t as terrible as I thought it would be.

In the end, I was actually somewhat surprised by this film, when I first saw the original trailer to this film, I had rather low expectations, than as more ads came out, the movie continued to look better and better. Now that we are at this point when the movie has officially released, I can’t say I’m disappointed with it. In fact, I will say that kids who see this movie now, probably won’t say it sucks many years later. As far as the TV shows go along with the other movies, they are cheesy as hell. As kids, we love them, but as adults, we either question ourselves for loving them, love it and recognize its flaws, love it and don’t care about the flaws, or remember the times we watched this stuff when we were kids. Are there flaws in this movie? Sure, but they aren’t as prominent or embarrassing as the “Power Rangers” people such as myself grew up loving as kids. I’m gonna give “Power Rangers” a 7/10. I just want to say, this movie kind of reminded me of a combination of “Fantastic Four” and Sam Raimi’s “Spider-Man,” and I wouldn’t mind seeing a sequel to this if one is planned. As far as planned reviews go, I do plan on seeing “Ghost in the Shell” sometime soon, and since it is now April, I will be continuing my series of “Spider-Man” reviews with “Spider-Man 2,” which will be up sometime later during this month. I also might want to eventually take a look at “Mission Control: The Unsung Heroes of Apollo,” I heard according to a poster it won’t be playing anywhere near me, but I heard it will be available on many VOD providers so I can use that to watch it. Stay tuned for more reviews like those, and I also want to ask you a question. Are you an adult who still likes “Power Rangers?” I have nothing against people like that, heck, there’s a whole community of adult men who like “My Little Pony” and I’m OK with that! If you are, please leave a comment, maybe give some reasons why you like it, perhaps even your favorite series in the franchise! Scene Before is your click to the flicks! It’s Morphin time!

Hey everyone, Jack Drees here! This post is going to be about “Jumanji.” I am not gonna review the movie, but I’m gonna bring something to your attention, although I already brought to your attention somewhat, you probably read the title so you know what I’m gonna be talking about, maybe. Anyway, this post is about “Jumanji.”

Not that Jumanji! I’m talking about the other Jumanji, the other one that I currently have little to no expectations for.

There, that’s the image I’m looking for. Actually, you know what? I take it back, let’s go back to the other one for a second. I feel like I should bring up the original and discuss what it’s about.

The original “Jumanji” came out in 1995, the premise of the film is that there is a board game called Jumanji, two kids find this game and they eventually play it. During gameplay, someone who has been trapped in the game for decades is released. All of sudden, as the movie progresses, a bunch of dangers arise, and the only way to stop those dangers is to finish the game. I love this movie, I don’t watch it all that much, but whenever I do, I’m entertained throughout, and I also admire the ending. And I will say that I actually watched the 2015 “Goosebumps” movie and in a way, it’s almost similar to this and I really enjoyed it. I never read the books nor have I watched the TV series to this, but there are some very similar things about both films that kept me hooked throughout. Despite what I said, I’m not ready for a “Jumanji” remake, especially one like the one I hear we are going to get.

Alright, now this image seems appropriate. This time around, they aren’t doing a board game, this time, they are doing a video game. I know I sound like the very definition of an angry fanboy complaining about nothing. I am not, I saw the original “Jumanji,” I will say once again I loved it, but here’s what I see wrong with this. The change itself is very unnecessary, if they wanted a video game in the film, then don’t call it a “Jumanji” remake! The only excuse I can abide by if a video game was in a film like this as opposed to a board game, is if this was Jumanji 2. Now, I know Robin Williams is dead, RIP by the way, but they can set this with different characters in the same universe. Let’s say that the game of “Jumanji” makes the news, and this gives an idea for video game developers to build off of, that idea being a video game where you find the game of Jumanji. It has everything that Jumanji has to offer minus the real-life destruction along with the pain and suffering you could experience in real life. The intention is to make a game that would sell, and people play it and enjoy it, then all of a sudden there is one copy. Somebody buys that copy and they don’t realize what is happening, everything that is happening in the video game eventually comes out in real life, so all of a sudden, it’s another situation where you have to finish the game to stop the apocalypse, yes it is repetitive but remakes are even more repetitive.

I mentioned this briefly but I should mention this again, but this movie shouldn’t exist for another reason, and that is because of Robin Williams’s death. I mean, if Sony wants to make it, they can give it a go, but a huge part of me fears it won’t be good. This film is being done in respect for Robin Williams from what I’ve seen, and gosh golly I hope that’s true. I was never a huge Robin Williams fanatic, but even I can agree that he was gone too soon. If you look up above in this paragraph you may notice that Sony is doing this project, and that doesn’t surprise me because they also did the original. In all honesty, Sony is been so f*cking fun to watch lately. They f*cked up Spider-Man this decade, and while Marvel Studios seems to have mastered him when they were given the right to use Spider-Man in the MCU films, Sony is probably gonna take some of that charm of his away in his standalone film. I say that considering I saw the new trailer for “Spider-Man: Homecoming,” and while part of me is looking forward to it, another part of me is way less excited now because they shown WAY too much in their latest trailer, but whatever, only time will tell. Oh, you also gotta consider the fact that 3 of their movies made it onto my top 10 worst list of movies that came out in the last year. These clusterf*cks include “Money Monster,” “The Fifth Wave,” and “Ghostbusters,” which if you’re new to this blog, I’ll say this to you. “Ghostbusters” is my top worst movie to have released last year, and if any person were a movie, this movie would be Adolf Hitler. You know something? I’m not done! Haha, this is what I said in my rant about “Ghostbusters” during my top 10. Apparently they are doing another Smurfs movie, I mean, it’s not set in New York this time which is a plus, but it almost sounds like “Trolls” which came out last year, which I didn’t watch, I watched the Cinemasins video though, but I’ve heard enough not to care. Oh yeah, and let’s go back to f*cking Spider-Man! Apparently I’m hearing news about Sony wanting to make a movie about Black Cat, Silver Sable, and Venom! Like, why?! DO WE REALLY NEED THESE?! Guess what? This rant isn’t over! You know what Sony is also doing? They’re taking pisses down our throats–err I mean, they’re making a f*cking Emoji movie! Really?! That’s gonna get everyone to the theater?! EMOJIS?! ARE YOU GUYS BATS*IT CRAZY?! I mean, I heard Patrick Stewart is playing the poop Emoji, but based on the teaser alone I feel like this movie is going to be a poop Emoji itself. Why am I still talking about this?! OK, let me just say, now that I think about it, I feel like this film is gonna be the next “Ghostbusters.” You’ve got some popular current day actors, including Jack Black, who by the way was actually R.L Stine in “Goosebumps” in case that brings any relevance. This project is under Sony, yeah, you probably know who they are by now. And you also have one of the big stars involved with the original pass away just beforehand. I’m serious, Harold Ramis passed away less than six months before Robin Williams. So… I hope this movie is good, but I think it’s just gonna be another case of having audiences having to eat s*it for a couple of hours.

A couple more things about this film, it releases on December 22, 2017, which is a week after “The Last Jedi,” so, this is gonna be interesting to observe box office wise. Also another thing is that Dwayne Johnson is in the film. I have no problem with him as an actor, but I feel like he’s gonna start going through a phase where he just does remakes and reboots. I don’t know, I’m probably just thinking random things that won’t happen. But I say this considering the fact that according to his IMDb, he has just completed a “Baywatch” movie and he’s announced to be in a “Big Trouble in Little China” remake. So, I don’t know, we’ll see. Anyways, thanks for putting up with my attitude, I am clearly madder about Sony than I am about “Jumanji,” or I guess it’s called “Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle” now. I honestly just thought this was news worth sharing and I wanted to state my thoughts on it. Also just to let you all know, the live-action version of “Ghost in the Shell” comes out this weekend and I hope to get a chance to see it. And who knows? Maybe if I do get to see it, I might as well dedicate part of the review to my thoughts on the whole Scarlett Johansson casting choice controversy. If not, maybe I could try and see “Power Rangers” or something, I don’t know. Anyway, stay tuned for more reviews, and if they’re related to Sony, hopefully it has to do with a quality film. Scene Before is your click to the flicks!

Hey fellow readers, Jack Drees here! Today is March 25th 2017, and today we just got a new trailer for the upcoming Justice League film. We’ve actually technically received one trailer in the past, but that was simply just something to show off at San Diego Comic Con, right now we have a new “official trailer.” This was being teased for the past few days, I retweeted one of the teases from some random user’s account, but aside from that, I can’t really say I paid a significant amount of attention towards the teases for this film. Nevertheless, let’s get on with the review.

As you may or may not know, this movie is essentially the get-together of all the DC superheroes. In this movie adaptation based on the comic books, this league contains Batman (Ben Affleck), Wonder Woman (Gal Gadot), Aquaman (Jason Momoa), The Flash (Ezra Miller), Cyborg (Ray Fisher), and for some reason, Superman (Henry Cavill) is shown in images related to this film, not the trailer, but I saw an image with him in it on IMDb having to do with this movie. Why do I say that? You really want to know? Find out by watching “Batman v Superman,” but for the sake of avoiding spitting out spoilers, I won’t go into further detail than that. The trailer kicks off and Batman says that an attack is coming, with Wonder Woman replying that it’s already here. Then suddenly we see a cube, kind of like the tesseract in “The Avengers.” Wonder Woman, who in this case is really Diana Prince then goes on asking Batman, or in this case is really Bruce Wayne, “The others, where are they?”

All of sudden we get some clips introducing our main heroes. Bruce is narrating over all of the footage as if he is talking to these heroes, and the more I think about it, it kind of reminds me of the original “Guardians of the Galaxy’s” first trailer. In that trailer, they focused a lot on introducing the characters, the only thing is in that trailer, it didn’t show them in action all the time. Towards the end of that trailer they showed off some brief moments of action but that was pretty much the gist of the action in that trailer. Here, it is nonstop. I have no complaints with how they are introduced except for one minor complaint. That complaint I want to bring up concerns The Flash, I have no problem with his character or how he is portrayed but the thing about him I feel needs to be brought up is that the footage showing him off in this trailer, is pretty much the same footage I’ve seen showing him off in the San Diego Comic Con trailer. Granted it does look pretty freaking sick and this complaint does sound rather nitpicky, but still, as a critic (or movie reviewing asshole, whichever one you prefer), I can’t help but point out something like this out.

Then, there’s some moments in the trailer that we get some more action, only at this point there is no narration at all and you have slides coming up. There are three slides that come up throughout, the first one says “JUSTICE,” the second one says “FOR,” and the last one says “ALL.” All of the action looks intense, the CGI looks well crafted, and I honestly think that if I go see this movie, and if I had to name one redeeming quality, it would be the action. If that is the case, that wouldn’t be too surprising, because it was certainly the redeeming quality of “Man of Steel” and “Batman v Superman.” OK, well, Wonder Woman was probably more of a redeeming quality in “Batman v Superman, but still, the action was probably among the greatest parts of the DC Extended Universe films.

After all of those shenanigans stop, we get what could probably be the best line in the trailer. The Flash, or in this case, Barry Allen, is with Bruce Wayne, they’re talking with each other, and Barry Allen asks Bruce a question. That question is “What are your superpowers again?”, to which Bruce replies “I’m rich.” Let me ask you something, what superpower do you want the most? The power of flight? The power of super speed? The power of super strength? The power of invisibility? The power of teleportation? Or the power to generate money as you please? That last one would be pretty useful you are a parent and you want to spoil your kids.

Afterwards, we get more action, which looks AMAZING to say the least, we get one snipet with Barry and his father who is in jail. I often tell myself how much I love Wonder Woman and can’t wait to see how much ass she will kick in this movie, along with how much ass she will kick in her standalone film that comes out months before this Justice League film, but after seeing some sequences of The Flash in action, I’m starting to look forward to what he has to bring to the table too. I’m not saying that I don’t care about the other heroes, but I’m just saying that The Flash in action happens to be a standout in this trailer. Before the “Justice League” title comes up, Wonder Woman, Cyborg, and Aquaman are all standing in one shot, and Wonder Woman just says “Shall we?” That right there just tells me that Gal Gadot’s voice, at least to me, can make anything sound better. It’s kind of like Morgan Freeman’s voice, only it’s coming from an Israeli female.

The very end of this trailer features lines from Batman, Aquaman, and Commissioner Gordon (JK Simmons), my favorite actor of all time by the way. Gordon says to Batman “It’s good to see you playing with others again.” Aquaman, looking towards Batman, spits out “Just like a Bat, I dig it.” Batman looks to Gordon saying “It may be temporary.” I don’t really have much to say here except, it’s nice to see JK Simmons in this trailer.

In the end, I can’t say I’m completely disappointed with this trailer for “Justice League.” This movie is being directed by Zack Snyder, who directed “Man of Steel” and “Batman v Superman,” and say what you want about the dark tones for those films, I honestly thought they worked, granted I will admit I agree with some people saying that some of the action in those films, despite in my opinion being some of the best action I’ve ever seen, involves the heroes not having much concern for the people surrounded by destruction. But overall, I can’t wait for “Justice League,” in a year which looks like a goldmine on paper for superhero films based on comic books, this is just another example of a movie in that genre that I can’t wait to spend my money on. “Justice League” comes out on November 17th, 2017 in 2D, Real-D 3D, and IMAX 3D, along with other large screen formats. I hope to review it right when it comes out, if I can’t, I hope to review it not too long after. Speaking of movie reviews, I hope to see a good number of other films in the future, but ones I hope to see very soon include “Power Rangers,” “Life,” and “Kong: Skull Island.” There are possibly other films, but those are my big three right now. Also, be sure to check out my last review for a movie you probably never heard of, and if you haven’t, you’re probably living a better life than me, “You Can’t Have It.” I mean, if you want to watch it, go ahead, you can rent it on Amazon Video for $6.99, or buy it for $9.99. But I’ll remind you all that life is short so skidaddle your way through it wisely. Stay tuned for more reviews, and be sure to check out my earlier reviews as well! Scene Before is your click to the flicks!

“YOU CAN’T HAVE IT” REVIEW: https://scenebefore.wordpress.com/2017/03/21/you-cant-have-it-what-these-guys-said-about-a-great-movie/

“You Can’t Have It” is directed by Andre Gordon and stars Matthew Pohlkamp, Joanna Krupa, Armand Assante, Dominique Swain, Jillian Murray, Mindy Robinson, and Dade Elza. Nearly the entirety of “You Can’t Have It” takes place in a nightlife spot called Mr. Phil’s Bar, which according this movie’s timeline, will be closing soon. Bill Sullivan, played by Matthew Pohlkamp spends his final night in the bar when all of sudden, drinking, sex, fights, and murder eventually ensue.

A lot of you are probably wondering what this movie is, and trust me, I actually found out about this movie because I follow Mindy Robinson on Twitter, if you don’t know who Mindy Robinson is, I just recently mentioned that she is in this movie, and she plays a girl named Karen. If you have seen “King of the Nerds,” you may know her as the “Pom Pom Kitty.” Also, in case you are wondering, this movie is in theaters, but they are very few and far between, so if you can’t hit a theater, the movie is also available to rent or buy on streaming services, which I did take advantage of. I figured I’d see this for a few reasons: To support Mindy Robinson’s work considering she is related to “King of the Nerds,” simply because I love movies, and I figured I should review a movie that probably not many of you have heard of. So let’s get into it.

The main character of this movie is Bill Sullivan, when watching the movie’s overall story unfold I was able to feel bad for Bill as a character, I kind of lost emotion in the end, but we’ll get to that later. I mean, sure, Bill shows some assholery in the film, but despite that fact, the way the story was delivered gave Bill some weight and made him somewhat likable.

Dominique Swain actually plays Bill’s wife, Tammy. You know how I said for Bill, he’s kind of a likable asshole? Tammy is this way too, I won’t explain how or why she happens to be an asshole, but still, she is.

One character that really stood out to me in this film is the bartender played by Joanna Krupa, she’s also known as Jackie. Throughout the film she sounds like a girl that would take absolutely no nonsense and it really suited her character in my opinion. Like for example, if she notices someone sexualizing her, she’d put them down for it. Granted, there’s more than one character that does this in the film and I would imagine this would happen a lot in real life, but the way it is executed in this film makes the movie flow naturally. Also, on a little sidenote, she’s kinda attractive in this film, much like a good number of the ladies in the film, which I personally believe was intended from casting, and if that was an intention, I’d say that intention was met.

Kevin Porter (left) is also in this film, and before appearing in this film, Porter played Lazer from “Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story.” In this film, he played a character named Tyler, throughout the film, a lot of the girls in the bar seem to sexualize him, which personally I’m fine with, because this is the type of film where sexualization seems normal, he’s not the only person in the movie being sexualized, plus it adds some weight, which I won’t go into because it does delve into spoiler-territory, to the character later on.

As far as other characters go, the only one I’m gonna talk about in depth is Officer Weadon. He is played by Rob Gronkowski, who you may know as a tight end for the New England Patriots. I mean, it does feel kinda weird having Rob Gronkowski playing a character in a movie, but then again look at Shaquille O’Neal and all the movies he has done. Plus Gronkowski has done work as himself in the “Entourage” movie and in a season 15 episode of “Family Guy.” How is his performance? Personally, it felt very unnecessary at the last minute and I don’t know, just having him in the movie really just feels like a lame-ass excuse. Also, another problem I have with him, is that he is in the very center of the poster for this film (the first image in the entire post) and he’s not even close to being the main character! I mean, if he is in the center of the poster to make it look like he’s about to stop some unneeded chaos in the bar, I can understand it, but it just feels very awkward. Not to mention, Bill, the main character, can barely be seen in the poster at all!

Speaking of problems, this film is horribly edited. I mean, all of the scenes mesh together well, but that’s not my problem, my problem however is that there are so many jumpcuts that kind of throw the movie off, also there is one scene in the beginning of the movie, where characters are interacting with each other in the bar area, there is blaring music. What’s wrong with that? When cutting between the characters talking to each other, the audio levels are COMPLETELY different from scene to scene, one scene it’s loud, the other scene it’s quiet, it doesn’t feel natural and it is perhaps some of the worst editing I’ve seen in a movie! Serious points is gonna be taken off because of this, just an alert.

Also, I want to bring this up again, how unneeded Gronk is in this film. Apparently, something comes up at the end of the film moments after he appears, and based on how close to the end of the film it is, it just feels incredibly tacked on and I was just like “Why?”. This felt like one of the most shoehorned moments I ever seen in a movie, it felt just an excuse just to get Gronk on screen, which I really don’t get! I mean, you have this movie, to me it just felt like it had a “Clerks” feel, that is if “Clerks” were presented in color and focused a bit more on the customers as opposed to the employees, then it suddenly turns into, I don’t know, some sort of investigation movie that didn’t even need to exist. This movie really needed to take 3/4 of its runtime for this to happen and when it did, I just lost my s*it. Personally, I would have been fine if this were simply a movie about the last night of a bar’s existence, and what it means to everyone, there wouldn’t be as big of a problem in there, but the whole idea simply sounds entertaining in my mind, but no, they had to get some sort of problem in at the last minute, because, well, GRONK HAS TO BE IN THE MOVIE! I honestly don’t know why else they would do this!

In the end, I was not pleased with “You Can’t Have It,” I mean, I liked a lot of the characters in this film, but there are so many things in this film that just BOG IT DOWN SO MUCH. Am I being a little hard on this film? I certainly hope not, but this film really irks me the more I think about it, by the way, Mindy Robinson, if you’re reading this, you weren’t bad in the movie, you were not the problem at all (I say this as a “King of the Nerds” fan). So for right now I’m going to give “You Can’t Have It,” a 4/10. This movie gets lots of points for the story and characters, but it’s all lost thanks to a totally ridiculous climax and some really bad editing. Thanks for reading this review everyone, there are a couple movies that are coming out this weekend I want to see, and hopefully I’ll tackle at least one of them. First off, there’s one movie called “Life,” which is about a group of people discovering life on Mars, and also, I don’t know if I’ll do this, but part of me has ambitions to go see the new “Power Rangers” film. I grew up with Power Rangers as a kid, and I’m somewhat excited to hear that they’re making a movie catering towards some older audiences in it. I mean, I honestly don’t know if it’ll be good, but we’ll just see what happens. Anyway, stay tuned for more reviews. Scene Before is your click to the flicks!

Hey everyone, Jack Drees here! I have an announcement to make. In case you didn’t know, there’s a new “Spider-Man” movie coming out this July, “Spider-Man: Homecoming” to be specific. Leading up to that, I’m gonna be doing reviews for previous “Spider-Man” films. Today we will be starting off with the first movie in Sam Raimi’s “Spider-Man” trilogy. In April, we will go onto “Spider-Man 2.” Then in May, we will tackle “Spider-Man 3.” After that, we’ll be looking at “The Amazing Spider-Man” in June, and in July, just DAYS before Homecoming arrives in theaters, we’ll take a glance at “The Amazing Spider-Man 2.” Right now, as I’m writing this, it is March, so let’s “MARCH” right into business and start talking about “Spider-Man.”

“Spider-Man” is directed by Sam Raimi, who also directed the original “Evil Dead” films, along with the recent Disney Wizard of Oz prequel “Oz the Great and Powerful,” and it stars Tobey Maguire, Willem DaFoe, Kirsten Dunst, and James Franco. This film revolves around the well known Marvel character of Spider-Man, or Peter Parker. If you don’t know the story, a nerdy boy who was orphaned as a child was once bitten by a radioactive spider, this causes him to eventually gain superpowers and become Spider-Man.

I watched this movie multiple times when I was younger, I even watched it a few times in my teen years. In preparation for this review, I figured I should rewatch the movie. After the rewatch, not only did it take me back, but I cannot say it was worse than the previous times I watched it.

Now lets move onto the characters, starting off with Peter Parker himself, Tobey Maguire. One common complaint I heard with Tobey Maguire being cast as Spider-Man is the age factor. In the movie and the comics, Spider-Man’s origin story takes place around his teen years, at the time which this was filmed, Tobey Maguire was in his mid twenties. Let me just say however, for a guy who was in his mid twenties during the filming process, his performance was not bad. He wasn’t too bad as Spider-Man either. I can’t say I have any complaints. Although I will say, when it comes to the Spider-Man humor you may have seen in other Spider-Man related material, it’s here, but the amount of it is kinda few and far between. Peter is also after a girl, if you read the comics before seeing the film you may have known her before seeing this film.

That girl I’m talking about is played by Kirsten Dunst, AKA Mary Jane Watson. Mary Jane’s contributions to the movie as a whole overall just made the movie seem much more interesting than it already was. And I’m not gonna talk about the ending, but towards the end of the film, MJ interacts with Peter, and their interactions just bring out the wow factor and has my brain going around in circles, and I mean that in a good way.

Another character I want to talk about is Norman Osborn played by Willem DaFoe. This guy is also the film’s antagonist, the Green Goblin. Despite how Norman is evil in this film, there were some moments where I was able to understand him and just so happen to feel his pain. I won’t go into much detail, but the more I think about it, the more it just feels like I’m watching a much more mature, and earlier produced version of Kylo Ren from “Star Wars,” despite being such a harsh villain, he is conflicted and still has a human side to him, the human side represented in this film is different than the one represented by Kylo Ren in “Star Wars,” but still, it’s there. Speaking of Osborns, let’s talk about his son.

Norman’s son is played by James Franco, who before taking on the role of Harry Osborn in this movie played Daniel Desario in the TV show “Freaks and Geeks,” which is “Firefly” before “Firefly” even started on television, it is a show which many people like and say got canceled way too early. Let me just say, I’m wondering if Franco would even be in this movie if it weren’t for the cancellation of “Freaks and Geeks.” I digress however, to stay on topic, Harry was Peter’s friend throughout the film, and let me just say, what happens with Harry at the end is just another example of a wow factor.

Fun fact you might want to know about this film is that JK Simmons is in it. Before earning his Oscar in “Whiplash” 13 years later, Simmons played J Jonah Jameson in this film. In case you care to know, JK Simmons is actually my favorite actor of all time, and his excellent acting ability just SHOWS TO THE UTTER CORE in this film. After watching this film recently, I can now say that this character actually reminds of one teacher I have in high school. I’m in his TV production class, and the guy also teaches film studies, which is a survey course on film. Also another fun fact, JK Simmons is also known for voicing Cave Johnson in “Portal 2,” my favorite video game of all time. I bring that up because I’m wondering if the folks who made the game saw the “Spider-Man” films and thought they should make a character with a similar vibe to Jameson for Simmons to play in that game, because if you compare between the game and the movie I’m reviewing now, the characters are somewhat similar. And the more I think about it, Simmons is kinda well known for playing somewhat commanding characters, because a lot of the characters I’ve seen him play give off that sort of vibe. For example, you’ve got this character we’re talking about here, Cave Johnson who was just mentioned, Terence Fletcher from “Whiplash,” and PJ Jordan from “Men at Work,” a pretty funny sitcom that lasted for three seasons on TBS but was unfortunately canceled. Jameson also happens to deliver some my favorite lines in this film. Here are some examples below:

“If we can get a picture of Julia Roberts in a thong, we can certainly get a picture of this weirdo.”

“He doesn’t want to be famous? Then I’ll make him infamous.”

PETER: “You don’t trust anyone, that’s your problem.”

JAMESON: “I trust my barber.”

One of my favorite things about this movie is how real it feels, and this is actually something I’ll be bringing up in my review for “Spider-Man 2” as well. You’ve got this relateable nerd getting superpowers, who has a crush on a girl, but finds out he’s gonna have to get through some obstacles to have her, and the way it’s done feels extremely authentic and feels like one example of what would really happen if someone was in high school and somehow gained superpowers, and used those powers as a hero. I mean, it’s not entirely real, but even in moments that feel like a fantasy, it almost gives off this feeling that makes it come off as something that would actually happen as a real life event, I don’t know if you feel same way watching this film, but that’s just how I feel.

I mentioned this recently and I’ll mention it again, I really like the ending to this film, I said there are two things that had a wow factor to me. I won’t go into detail, but the ending is one of the best endings I’ve seen in film history, it still carries the realism and it just makes the film better.

If there was anything else I had to mention as a positive, it’s Danny Elfman’s score. In case you didn’t know, Danny Elfman has done music for some TV and movies which you probably have at least heard about. He’s done a crapton of Tim Burton films, he did the theme music for “The Simpsons,” he’s also worked on the music for the “Men in Black” films. He has also done a bunch of other stuff, but I don’t want to waste time by typing all of it, so if you want to know more, do your own research. This film, along with the other films in the franchise have some of my favorite scores in movie history, and that is because of this guy. There are so many cool themes in this movie, the mood of the music is perfect from scene to scene, and there’s also this 3 minute intro credit montage, and the more I watch it, the more I get invested in the music, it just literally sets the tone for the film, trust me, if you watch this film, it all just sounds amazing.

In the end, this movie does whatever a movie can, play on a screen, any size, entertain, as time flies. If you don’t get that, I’m sorry. Although seriously, I really had fun watching this movie again, it’s been almost a couple of years since my last viewing and I’m glad I can watch it again, and it just goes to show how great of a hero Spider-Man is. I’m gonna give “Spider-Man” an 8/10. Guys, I hope you enjoyed this review, and despite me mentioning this before, I’ll mention it again, I’ll let you all know that I have another Spider-Man related review coming up in April, and that will be for “Spider-Man 2,” words cannot describe how much I can’t wait to get that review out to you all and I hope the time comes soon. Stay tuned for that review, and stay tuned for more of my Scene Before content, coming soon. Scene Before is your click to the flicks!

Hey everyone, Jack Drees here. Last Wednesday I received some news that devastated me to the bottom of my heart. One of my favorite movies of all time is “The Matrix.” Not only is the movie itself spectacular, but it is the first R rated film I ever watched in full length so I have fond memories of it. Say what you want about its sequels, also say what you want about Wachowski movies in general, heck, there are people who actually happen to dislike the original Matrix. Doug Walker, AKA the Nostalgia Critic, a famous YouTube movie critic made a 30 minute review of it and he disliked the film. I have no problem with people who dislike “The Matrix,” I love it and I consider it one of the greatest films ever made, not everyone has to like the same things, it’s absurd to think that’s possible. I may sometimes question people for disliking it but it doesn’t mean I hate them for it. However, something came up yesterday I thought I would NEVER see. (Sigh) It’s getting remade.

Eh, yep. The remake craze isn’t stopping. We have seen so many remakes come out over this decade, and there are still more on the rise. Lets just list a few, and by a few I mean a lot. “Point Break” (2015), “Ghostbusters” (2016), “The Mummy” (2017), “Evil Dead” (2013), “Red Dawn” (2012), “Poltergeist” (2015), “Robocop” (2014), “The Karate Kid” (2010), “Gambit” (2012), “The Gambler” (2014), “Annie” (2014), “Arthur” (2011), “Beauty and the Beast” (2017), and “A Nightmare on Elm Street” (2010).

I mean, heck, I recently heard of a possible Tron reboot with Jared Leto as the starring role. Disney at one point was thinking of doing a Tron 3 movie but that got canceled, the fact that they want to do a remake of it and not a sequel is astounding to me! I mean, WHAT THE F*CK?! I’m telling you guys, it’s almost as if Hollywood is out to kill me right now, it’s as if I’m saying that the apocalypse has begun! I need to grab my pitchfork and duke it out against a bunch of executives in California! I need all of my movie loving pals to join me!

I mean, come on guys! For Pete’s sake! There is no reason this remake should happen! If there were any reason to remake this film, it would only be to improve the sequels, and if that were the case, awesome. Although I don’t really think that would be the case here. I mean, it’s possible, but another case I have in mind is just to grab cash from the viewers! Yeah, like, people are gonna recognize the name of the movie and they’re just gonna flock to the theater without a care in the world! Also, consider what “The Matrix” did for movies. It had stunning visual effects that still hold up today, it went up there with the best sci-fi films of all time, and it made lots of money at the box office as far as R rated films go. According to Box Office Mojo, as of now, “The Matrix Reloaded” is at the #4 spot for the highest grossing R rated films of all time! Granted that movie was not as much of a quality film as the first one, but it doesn’t change the fact that people wanted to see that. “The Matrix Revolutions” made half of what “The Matrix Reloaded” made, but in my book, it’s not disastrous as far as R rated movies go. It’s a huge dip, but it could have been worse.

The original Matrix film actually came out in 1999, right now it is 2017. I don’t usually see remakes announced this early for a film since another’s release related to its own property (unless we are talking about comic book heroes like Spider-Man or Batman). But let me just say out of all the remakes right now, this may be one of the most pointless remakes I’ve ever heard in my entire life. The visual effects still hold up today, the action is revolutionary (no pun intended) even by today’s standards, and oh my gosh, I also realized we’re gonna have to put in new music, there was some music in those films which I actually thought was pretty sick. When you look at something like Spider-Man, it almost feels necessary to remake it. I didn’t think “The Amazing Spider-Man” was necessary after seeing it, but that’s because my stupid brain for some reason couldn’t figure out they were trying to restart the franchise. Sure, it hasn’t been long since there was a movie with him, but it’s a story some people don’t mind seeing again, just look at how people reacted to “The Amazing Spider-Man 2,” people didn’t like it so they wanted that series buried in the ground. Not to mention, not long after that movie released there was that whole thing with the rights to Spider-Man going to Marvel Studios. Sony was still allowed to distribute solo films with Spidey, but Marvel Studios was now going to use him in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and based on how he was portrayed in “Captain America: Civil War,” I can see the solo film being good. By the way, I actually have more faith in it now than I did some time ago now that I found out that Zendeya is not playing a black Mary Jane, she’s actually playing a character with a different name, which personally, I can get behind.

Any other possible positives that could come out of the remake? None that I can really think of. I mean, there is only one that I thought of but the more I think about it, the more annoying it gets, and that is someone playing Neo who isn’t Keanu Reeves. A lot of people consider Keanu Reeves to be a less than stellar actor, he doesn’t have much range when it comes to his acting ability. But let me just say, in some weird way, I can buy into Keanu Reeves’s performance. I don’t know if you feel the same way, but there are moments in the movies that only feel like moments Keanu Reeves can pull off. If they do remake this film, it would be interesting to see an actor playing Neo with slightly more emotion and a greater range, but that is one of the only few positives I can see coming out of this remake.

(Sigh) Just… wow. I have no words. I hope this remake is good. If it does get remade I’m probably still gonna see it, after all this almost feels like a job I don’t get paid for. By the way, if anyone wants to advertise on here, let me know and I’ll think it over (insert smiley face). Just a little note to Warner Bros, if you do remake this, you are gonna have a lot to live up to. There’s a reason why “Back to the Future” never got remade, and hopefully a movie such as that NEVER WILL GET REMADE. Is my life ruined? No. But it could be in the future if this movie gets remade into some cash grab which is the movie equivalent to getting hit in the head with a volleyball, getting hit in the nipples with one baseball per nipple, getting hit in the stomach with a football, and getting hit in the nuts with a soccer ball, WITH EACH ONE OF THOSE THINGS HAPPENING AT THE SAME TIME! It’s probably gonna be embarrassing and painful to go through, and once it’s over, I’ll probably feel pretty f*cked up. Just… why?! OK, rant over. I’m done. Now somebody hand me my paycheck of $0. Wait, what’s that? Oh, right, at the end of the post there’s actually a link to a petition to keep this remake from happening, if you want to sign it, go right ahead!

Last but not least, I have an announcement, coming up I am doing a series of reviews leading into July, these reviews will be for past Spider-Man movies. This month I’ll be doing “Spider-Man,” in April I’ll be doing “Spider-Man 2,” in May I’ll be doing “Spider-Man 3,” in June, I’ll be doing “The Amazing Spider-Man,” and in July I’ll be doing “The Amazing Spider-Man 2.” This is to prepare for the upcoming Spider-Man movie which will hit theaters on July 7, otherwise known as “Spider-Man: Homecoming.” Also, just a note on “The Amazing Spider-Man 2,” I am doing that review in July, but I will make sure it is posted days before the Homecoming movie comes out. Stay tuned for those reviews, and stay tuned for more of my content, coming soon! Scene Before is your click to the flicks!

MATRIX REMAKE PREVENTION PETITION: https://www.change.org/p/warner-brothers-stop-the-matrix-reboot-from-happening?recruiter=138626870&utm_source=share_petition&utm_medium=twitter&utm_campaign=share_twitter_responsive

“La La Land” is directed by–

VOICE INSIDE HEAD: Excuse me, Jack?

ME: Yeah?

VOICE INSIDE HEAD: Why are you reviewing “La La Land?”

ME: Because you told me to.

VOICE INSIDE HEAD: You already did that review.

ME: Oh yeah, right. No wonder I felt like I was watching something I saw before. Why did you tell me to review La La Land?

VOICE INSIDE HEAD: A card said so.

ME: A card?

VOICE INSIDE HEAD: Yes, a card.

ME: You’re joking.

VOICE INSIDE HEAD: Nope, not at all.

VOICE INSIDE HEAD #2: Wait! Wait! Hold the phone! The review was supposed to be for Moonlight!

ME: Moonlight?

VOICE INSIDE HEAD #2: Yes! This voice you’re talking to must have read the wrong card!

ME: What the f*ck are you talking about?

VOICE INSIDE HEAD: Yeah, what the f*ck are you talking about?

VOICE INSIDE HEAD #2: Another voice must have handed you the wrong card! I guess that voice was “too busy” trying to finish some pointless tweet instead of doing its job!

ME: Moonlight card wielder? Couldn’t you have just told me to review Moonlight?

VOICE INSIDE HEAD #2: It wasn’t my turn to determine your reviews today!

ME: Since when do you take turns at something like this?

VOICE INSIDE HEAD #2: Like, literally, since now, I came up with it a couple nights ago while you were asleep. I guess we won’t be doing this anymore.

ME: No kidding, that was a f*ck-up. Now if you could please be quiet and let me do my review.

VOICE INSIDE HEAD #2: You have to see the movie first.

ME: Oh for Pete’s sake! There goes my time to get the new Zelda game that just came out a week ago!

VOICE INSIDE HEAD #2: That’s an incredible waste of money, you don’t have a Nintendo Switch.

ME: It’s out for the Wii U goddammit!

VOICE INSIDE HEAD #2: Relax Jack, I didn’t know.

ME: Alright, the show must go on. *Moves away from keyboard*

AFTER ONE VIEWING OF MOONLIGHT

ME: *Arrives back at keyboard* Alright, let’s just do a couple things here… *Starts new post* Ba-bam! It’s review time!

VOICE INSIDE HEAD: *Interruptedly* Jack?

ME: Yeah?

VOICE INSIDE HEAD: You weren’t supposed to review Moonlight today.

ME: Goddammit! What the hell are you talking about?!

VOICE INSIDE HEAD: You were supposed to review “Fifty Shades Darker.”

ME: You’re f*cking kidding me! That piece of crap?

VOICE INSIDE HEAD: How would you know? You haven’t seen it.

ME: Actually that’s a good point. But still, don’t make me want to see that! If you want me to review another movie that I was SUPPOSED to review, it better have been something like “Kong: Skull Island” and not this uninspired clusterf*ck! So stop this game!

VOICE INSIDE HEAD: It’s not a game, it’s reality.

VOICE INSIDE HEAD #2: Relax now, the guy’s only kidding.

ME: Is THAT a joke?

VOICE INSIDE HEAD #2: No!

ME: Ah, thank goodness!

VOICE INSIDE HEAD #2: Now start your review, you’re wasting time!

ME: Tell that to the voice who was making me waste it!

VOICE INSIDE HEAD #2: OK, calm down! Just go on with the review.

ME: As you wish. Alrighty then, let’s continue.

Reminder to everyone reading right now that this is not a joke, I’m actually reviewing this, not “La La Land.” The card told me to go see “Moonlight,” so let’s get cracking. “Moonlight” is directed by Barry Jenkins, and it is a coming of age story of a homosexual black man. This film has been out for a bit of time now, but considering the fact that this has won many awards, including Best Picture at the Oscars, I figured it was my duty to go see this movie at some point and get a review up.

Let’s start off by talking about the main character in this movie, a character who just so happens to go by multiple names in the film. As a kid, he’s often called “Little,” as an adolescent, he’s often called by his actual name of “Chiron,” and as an adult, he was sometimes called “Black.” As far as this character goes, I would say that for all three phases, none of the actors playing him let me down and I felt the character’s pain, mainly when he was younger. His lack of relationship with his mother throughout the beginning of the film became more compelling as the film progressed. By the way, in the first act, this character asks what a faggot is. If you don’t know what that is, it is a name meant to make homosexuals feel bad, and if you want my opinion, this character, like any other homosexual, to me, isn’t a faggot. One more thing is that there are certain points where this character doesn’t really talk all that much, at first I thought if the entire movie were like this, I would probably like it a tad less than I would have hoped. I don’t mind characters who don’t talk (just look at a number of video games out today that have characters like this), but if this character didn’t talk, I probably wouldn’t have found this movie as engaging it was when I saw it the way it was presented.

One character in this movie I want to talk about goes by the name of Juan. This character is played by Mahershala Ali and he’s a Cuban immigrant. I found him to be extremely caring when I first saw him and I wasn’t really disappointed with Ali’s performance. Once again, I’m gonna talk about Chiron’s relationship with his mother. This character actually contributes to the ruckus going on in this movie between Chiron and his mother. Despite how chaos was formed and it created some unfortunate effects between Chiron and his mother, I was able to understand why the mother was acting the way she was when it came to the relationship between Chiron and Juan, because if you watch the movie and notice the chemistry between Juan and Chiron, it’s almost like Juan is a second father to him.

Another big character in this movie goes by the name of Kevin. He’s essentially Chiron’s closest companion. Their relationship is also pretty crucial towards the development of the film and I have to say as far the relationship goes, this one was relatively unique and also refreshing. I usually don’t see homosexual relationships in movies and the fact that we have one in here makes this relationship stand out from a number of others I’ve seen in film.

If I was seeing this film months ago, this topic probably would have never come up, but since I just saw it not too long ago, I for one consider this topic relevant. For those of you who don’t know, “Moonlight” won Best Picture at the Oscars along with some other awards there. The film has also received a Golden Globe for Best Motion Picture-Drama. So a question I had in mind before getting into the auditorium to see this movie was whether or not it was truly worthy of these awards. I wouldn’t take the film that far. While I do think this film has great cinematography, decent pacing, and one of the better soundtracks I’ve heard at certain points from the movies I’ve seen that have come out in 2016, I couldn’t help but nearly forget some of the characters from the beginning of the film. I almost forgot about characters like Juan and Teresa, which is kinda unfortunate, especially when you consider how big of a role Juan has in the film.

Another problem I had with the film is the scene in the diner. I won’t get into too much detail here, but if you have seen the movie, chances are you know what I’m talking about. There was a couple moments during that scene where I felt entertained, but it absolutely could have been trimmed. Just make it like a minute or two shorter and it would have been better. I like long and detailed scenes, but this part just felt more slow than it was detailed.

After seeing “Moonlight” I kind of left the theater with similar thoughts in my head that I had after seeing “Manchester by the Sea,” good for certain qualities, but it is not worth all of the praise it has been getting. Oddly enough, part of me is saying I like this better than “Manchester by the Sea” but at the same time if I were having a movie night, I’d rather watch that film as opposed to “Moonlight,” maybe it’s because I live near Manchester by the Sea, I don’t know. It’s kind of like how I have a soft spot for “Paul Blart: Mall Cop,” I actually live near the malls used to shoot the film so at times it makes me want to watch that movie. I’m going to give “Moonlight” a 7/10. Guys, I hope you liked that introduction I did, if you don’t know already, it was inspired by the Academy Awards Best Picture mishap and I had a lot of fun making it. As far as upcoming reviews go, I might go see “Kong: Skull Island” at some point, I’m not sure, but we’ll see what happens. Stay tuned for more reviews coming up and I promise you all, I will have the right cards. Scene Before is your click to the flicks!