(film review) - Glass

The combination of two movies!  For those of you old enough to remember a little movie called Unbreakable in the year 2000, this movie came out in a year where superhero movies were minimal and few and far between.  In actual fact, this was an era and essentially the very start of this, now phenomenal genre where comic book movies have now evolved from your essentially, “smack” “bamm” comic book movies with cheesy dialogue and one-liners, to something a bit more fantastical/Comic-booky but somewhat grounded in the reality of the world we live in now.  Even back then, comic book movies are nowhere near to what they are now.

We had Marvel’s Blade starring Wesley Snipes in 1998, in which you could make an argument, was the start of them all because two years later, we had X-Men and for the fact that it was actually a great and still is a great and Marvel-lous movie, but when the brand Marvel sold their properties off and Fox gave us X-Men, everything changed.  We currently have the colossal giants, Marvel & Detective Comics battling it out against each other, but a movie like Glass continues a story from a movie named Unbreakable which got lost in the shuffle with the new superhero movies and the fact that nobody knew what this movie was actually about, to now becoming a cult hit spawning two sequels.  Split along with Unbreakable, not being like the traditional comic book movies, broke away from the “stereotypes” of the comic book genre which has allowed them to become cult classics from M. Night Shyamalan.

Glass picks up where Split left off, Kevin Wendell Crumb (James McAvoy) a man suffering from Dissociative Identity Disorder, is continuing his spree but has caught the attention of David Dunn (Bruce Willis) and his son Joseph who have set up a “Business” of saving people through the powers David has by touching people.  Upon investigating the individual known as The Horde, David meets up with The Beast.  A fight ensues until they are caught by the police and detained for their crimes and placed into a Mental Institute with Mr. Glass, a comic book enthusiast and terrorist who has Type I Osteogenesis.  Whilst in the Asylum, Dr. Ellie Staple, the head doctor of the mental institute decides to work with these three patients who claim to have special powers - The Overseer, The Hoard and Mr Glass to hopefully cure them of their “illness” and delusions of grandeur.

Without going into too much and giving away the entire film, it is best to go into this movie with an open mind and not expect a twist like M. Night’s other movies.  I really enjoyed this movie due to the way the story was told over the entire Trilogy.  This film as a stand-alone movie is good, but I felt that the direction was akin to Split than Unbreakable, but not as dark and chilling.
I felt that the story as a whole is great and somewhat alludes to an even grander picture/world, however it is interesting to know if M. Night will continue the stories or characters in this universe.
The acting is excellent.  Both McAvoy and Jackson are absolutely, amazing.  It’s simply ‘light work’ for them.  I mean, I was thinking Professor X and Nick Fury.  However, Willis, although good, I feel he should have had a bit more to do in a role he played in 19 years ago.  Maybe more scenes with him and him doing more things so we could see the full extent of his powers maybe.
This film was funny, it was sinister and thrilling as you aren’t really sure what is going to happen, even though from the very beginning, I could gauge what the movie is going to do, up until a certain point, until they pull the rug from under you with it's very small reveal, than a twist.  Unfortunately, you only lose balance than fall to the ground.
I’d recommend watching this film as it is shot well and to see and understand the world that M. Night has created and that it is actually a decent film, but I’d assume it will rub some people up the wrong way because the film in itself is definitely, NOT spectacular.  A good popcorn flick, have a gander.  Maybe it could be entered into one of the best Trilogies of all time!?! Well apart of the discussion, I'm sure.

(film review) - Bumblebee

I’m trying to figure out (along with the rest of the world), how this new Transformers movie fits into the universe of the Transformers franchise.  At first, I heard it was a soft franchise reboot, but it comes across as a prequel, kinda.  I mean, Michael Bay has f’ed up this franchise in the most royal way. The Transformers franchise is basically an X-Men movie timeline at this point and nobody is interested in it any more.  We can argue it made money at the Box Office, but when nobody generally likes it, overall, it a question of, "Who Actually Cares?"

Let me get into it.

Bumblebee is a fish out of water story of a boy and his dog.  Well, I believe that is the two idioms you could use to describe a film like this.  A civil war is engaged between the Autobots and the evil Deceptacons.  Losing the battle, Optimus Prime wants to establish a new base of operations and sends Bumblebee as a scout to Earth as a potential base as they retreat to regroup.  "After a battle and being awoken and disorientated, Bumblebee is intercepted and tracked down by two Decepticons who threaten to find his leader Optimus Prime and destroy Earth.  With only his one human friend, Charlie Watson (Hailee Steinfeld), Bumblebee is the only Robot to save it. He is Bumblebee."

Pretty straight forward and straight to the point.  Nothing major or anything we haven’t heard/seen before.  Think if the movie ‘ET’ and ‘How To Train Your Dragon’ had a baby.  This is essentially how the rest of the movie plays out.  If anything, the same plot synopsis of the first Transformers as well, maybe.  I don’t know and at this point, frankly I don’t care, as this film is actually really really good.  At the top, I stated that I am trying to figure out where we stand in the franchise, unless from the very beginning as a reboot, I am totally fine with this and I hope they do intend to go forward in this direction.  Anything else is just confusing.

The first 5mins of the movie was AMAZING!  It reminded me of 'Man of Steel' where we see Krypton.  The little kid in me smiled with glee as we were able to finally see the Gen 1 Transformers fighting on Cybertron.  I mean, I’m just going to spoil the first 5 minutes of the movie because frankly, we need more people to see this movie to get more movies and I would be doing the movie a dis-service if I didn’t mention it.  Soundwave! Shockwave! Ravage!  Just like the toys you played with as a child!  If you are as old as me.  I don’t need to explain the Ravage and Soundwave connection I’m sure, but seeing this on screen was amazing.  Travis Knight clearly had a great vision with this movie and for what he executed in the first 5mins alone was enough to have any Transformers fan salivating for more.  Alas we don’t get any more than maybe 5-10 minutes of that, but the rest of the movie is also very good, albeit with a few nit-picky bits I didn’t like, which could arguably be the Michael Bay influence.

So it goes without saying that I found the movie aesthetically pleasing visually and the story wasn’t great but pretty serviceable.  The supporting actors next to Hailee were throwaway characters and although John Cena as a lead was ok.  He was nowhere near as bad as previous military characters in other Transformers movies.  The movie didn’t have enough Autobots and Deceptacons, but from what I saw, I was fine with.  More for the sequel?  The nit-picky things were things I thought we had moved away from in Transformers movies, and in cinema as a whole.  Maybe I was reading too much into it, but the black man dying first or more importantly, sacrificing himself to save the white man, because essentially, that is what happens.  Or at least it seems that way as you never see him again.  Weirdly enough, I didn’t notice that until my friend alerted me to it.  I did notice the black man being the butt of the joke, which was the wannabe boyfriend.  I get it we needed comedy interjected into the movie, but I thought that was what the "Fish out of water" element with Bumblebee was.  As I said, maybe I was over thinking it, but these were the things I hated regarding previous Transformers movies directed by Michael Bay.  At least there wasn’t any unnecessary explosions and over sexualized shots and 360-degree camera spins…although it was EXECELLENT in bad Boys 1.

I’d definitely suggest to watch this movie, even if you dislike Michael Bay Transformer movies, as this one is different, and it’s executed well.  Other than the nit-picky moments, this is a feel-good movie.