Justice League

If you grew up in the era when I grew up reading more DC than Marvel comics and was always looking forward to watching the Superfriends animated series on Saturday mornings, then you can understand how that just the very fact of their being finally a movie about all of them in one place, the Justice League itself, is such a big deal and is finally here.  That fact alone is and will have to be satisfying enough, because the Justice League film does disappoint.  What I took away from Batman vs Superman, despite it's own flaws, was that at the very least it was a precursor to Justice League and anchored by the presence and performance of Gal Gadot.  However, this film is obviously bigger than a redeeming Gadot, as there are 3 new characters being introduced or shall I say for audience purposes, being brought forth (with the exception of Cyborg).  Personally, I still feel the grief of the Green Lantern film fuck up of 2011, so at least they didn't foolishly try to jam him in this rather lack luster film.  Honestly, the trailer is more satisfying and if you keep your expectations at the level of Batman vs Superman, you won't be disappointed that much.  Frankly, even most of the humor of the film were in the trailers.  How to introduce a team, gel them together, resurrect Superman, and save the day is certainly enough to cram into any movie.  But these challenges have been done before.  There are film templates of success for it, the most obvious example being the Avenger films or even the early Transformer movies.  We certainly can't blame Affleck as Batman for this one.  In the midst of that challenge, the story was just badly written and not portrayed as urgent.  It's a shame because there were certain interesting points, not given enough emphasis.  For example, how there was a historical unity against this present threat of power in between Aquaman's, Wonder Woman's, and us regular human being's ancestors. The Flash was pretty much the equivalent of Spiderman inserted into the last Avenger film and Aquaman could have easily just been any other loud mouthed, testorone driven character in any other action film except he uses a pitchfork instead of a gun.  The most interesting character this time around was Cyborg, yeah the Black guy who was very instrumental to the story.  He's been around the comic world since 1980 and can arguably be seen as DC's attempt to update their diversity (think Marvel's Black Panther).  The Cyborg movie is set for 2020.  The villain, a character called Steppenwolf (lol, I kid you not) is like a fucked up looking Loki character from Thor, but without the charisma.  There's a decent exchange of him battling the Amazons early on, but that's about it.   But somehow Superman has to be resurrected to help take care of this threat and lead the Justice League.  That aspect also felt a bit forced on us.  Like, you mean these other superheroes could not get their shit together enough in time to coordinate all their unique powers to stop this guy?  I didn't buy it and neither did I think the audience. DC is just so damn far behind Marvel in film development and generating something other than disappointment. At least Batman vs Superman had some appealing  air of mystery in Superman's death and the notion of the other 3 superhero characters that would follow. DC is just so damn far behind Marvel in film development and generating something other than disappointment.  For sure, I'll watch Justice League again on dvd. I'm still a  DC fan and this movie has been a long time coming.

Kong: Skull Island

Here we have just a contrived remake retrofitted with the Vietnam era in a Jurassic Park is sort of way; the former providing some lift to the action sequences headed up by a war crazed Sam Jackson. Even with the weak facelift, Kong: Skull Island struggles to balance humor with the violent gravity of their predicament. More importantly, it's plagued by a sea of character cliches, if not fully lacking characters including the major character himself. Have very low expectations if there is any enjoyment to be had.

Jackie

Natalie Portman is an amazing actress and tackling on a role of one of the most iconic figures in American history certainly further cements that.  Jackie is a uniquely written and directed film about First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy.  It's shown in a series of flashbacks from an interview in the aftermath of her husband's assassination.  The flashback segments include her time in the White House, the events of the assassination, and the aftermath; which are amazing in showcasing the many sides of her persona within that high stakes bubble. There is a very unique soundtrack that captures the tone of those moments really well and aids in these transitional segments.  Because of that, the performances, the creative cinematography, and directing, Jackie has a poetical almost art house feel to it that lends itself well in discovering this character.

Detroit

Kathryn Bigelow directs Detroit, concerning the events of the Algiers Motel that punctuated the 1967 riots in Detroit.  It's an ambitious undertaking on the 50th anniversary of one of the most tragic events in U.S. history.  Bigelow and the talented cast of John Boyega, Will Poulter, and Anthony Mackie turn it into a very intense and watchable hard-boiled drama, carefully crafted with well placed documentary footage.  As a native Detroiter and hearing in some fashion about the 67 riots all my life, I was happy to have a movie made about events.  However, the significance of those events is hard to encompass in just one film, but the parallels to our recent history in dealing with police brutality and killings, racial profiling, and the militarization of the police should not be lost on anyone.

Three

Johnnie To films are certainly interesting and edgy.  I haven't been keeping up with his films in years. Three is a twisty, ensemble driven, crime thriller starring Loui Koo and Wallace Chung.  It might just be a bit too twisty I say with a certain curve for subtitled films, but I applaud the primary one set piece infused with a dialogue driven cat and mouse plot.

Founder

Watched this story of McDonald's franchise founder on Netflix.  Michael Keaton is a really engaging actor and this is certainly an interesting story about the guy who propelled the fast food giant to it's current status in the world.  It's also a slightly dark, cautionary tale trying to straddle both sides of the endeavors morale in doing so. In trying to maintain that equilibrium Founder suffers going deep enough into the story, but is more than a worthwhile watch with a very talented cast.

Popstar: Never Stop Stopping

Andy Samberg is a fool and I mean that in a good funny way.  It's about time he finally got a vehicle to capitalize on the amazing digital shorts he created when he was on Saturday Night Live.  Popstar: Never Stop Stopping is that culmination.  It's both an intelligent satirical film poking fun at what it means to be a celebrity and artist in this age of constant social media coverage and perception and just plain in your face exaggerated dumb down humor.  So it's theoretically accessible on different levels, but obviously, as is one of the points of the film, the dumbed down humor can be detracting.