Yeah sorry about skipping last week I legitimately forgot it was Thanksgiving week and their was a lot of preparations to do so sorry. THIS WEEK is the official reboot for the blog.
Last week was a week of "good enough" unless you were Victor Frankenstein than in that case you couldn't have bombed harder if you were an atomic bomb which in it's first weekend had landed outside of the top ten in the number twelve slot. Anyway who cares about Victor Frankenstein (because apparently a lot of people didn't) here is the weekend's top ten.
Top 10
1.) The Hunger Games Mockingjay part 2- $52 million
2.) The Good dinosaur- $ 55 million
3.) Creed- $42 million
4.) Spectre- $ 12 million
5.) The Peanuts movie- $ 9 million
6.) The night before- $ 8 million
7.) The secret in their eyes- $4.42 million
8.)Spotlight- $4.4 million
9) Brooklyn- $3.9
10.) The Martian- $3.2 million
No real surprises except for maybe The Good Dinosaur which opened at number two and with only $55 million despite a five day weekend and coming off the back burner of Inside out although it did have a poor marketing and only really "good enough reviews." This especially not that great when compared to Inside out, Frozen, and Big Hero six other Disney/Pixar movies which did much better critically and commercially. The movie had a $200 million dollar budget (the other movies mentioned had cheaper budgets than this) and while it will make it's money back it definitely did lower than they expected.
Mockingjay while it did make the number one again this week it's still lagging behind in terms of what it was originally projected at and the numbers it's predecessors have done. Whether it's because of the splitting the movie into two parts, people not generally liking the last movie, franchise fatigue or the Mockingjay book itself.
Anyway that's what I've got to say on the weekend box office and other than that see you Wednesday for the Prediction for this weekend (hopefully.)
Monday, November 30, 2015
Sunday, November 22, 2015
Hunger Games: Mockingjay part 2 review
Mockingjay part 2 is the last movie of the Hunger Games Franchise, Katniss Everdeen has found Peeta, the rebellion is starting to win and is ready to face off against the Evil President Snow but the journey towards peace might be more complicated than she originally thought.
For this review I'm actually want to start out with the bad of the movie, now before you shoot me Mocking jay part two is not a bad movie, it's actually a pretty solid movie and I quite liked it, I just have a lot more to say about the negatives of this movie than I do the positives. Not that I have many negatives, I actually only have three but they are still major ones.
Mockingjay did not need to be split into two movies. If Mockingjay part 1 was a movie without it's third act than Mockingjay is the third act of a movie, what would have been at the most only thirty minutes blown up to a two hour and ten minute movie. While it's not bad but it's really jarring in terms of structure and pacing especially in the beginning where it just abruptly picks up from the last scene of the movie and they have to stretch out the climax, falling action and conclusion into a longer than necessary runtime. This could have been done in a space of ninety minutes without anything being loss. In fact the movie feels almost too stretched out as throughout half the movie it feels as if nothing happens or things slow down to a grinding holt.
Jennifer Lawrence is still miscast as Katniss Everdeen. Now a huge positive of the movie is that every actor is really good in this movie and even those who don't have a lot to do like Michelle Forbes as Lieutenant Jackson still make a good impact. Jennifer Lawrence , who especially in comedies is a good actress, is really flat and has an almost non-existent personality in this. Now I know for a movie Katniss wouldn't have her narration like she does in the book and would come off on the outside perspective as very quiet and super serious. Yet an actor can still play a reserved or stoic character and still have them be interesting or at the very least be a character and have emotions, case in point Hayley Atwell who plays Peggy Carter plays her as very emotionally reserved and serious person yet still makes her a real human being with depth and believability that Lawrence should have brought to this role yet didn't or couldn't.
The last major issue is that the movie isn't dull by any means it feels like one big anti-climax. A lot of things you can tell that were supposed to be epic, shocking or just stir any big emotions from the audience were just meh. They were either done alright but that left you feeling more 'meh' than angry,sad, happy, excited etc. or were outright done poorly. I don't want to give anything away for people who haven't seen it but their are a few character deaths within this movie two of which stand out to me as the two things I just mentioned. The first one is during the march to president Snow's mansion which was done passably but it didn't have much emotional impact even though in light of the whole series should have been one of the most devastating moments in the entire movie. The second was done very cheesy for a character who while had a character we didn't know but for five minutes. The action itself while there was more than Mockingjay part 1 there were only two that were all that memorable and everything else was either forgettable and lackluster.
Now before it sounds as if I am tearing this movie apart for the most part this was a well-constructed, well acted, and well written movie. The cinematography, the special effects, music and directing of this movie was really good. The monsters looked real and never looked fake, the war torn setting of the capital was nice too look at and the music gave you the feelings war is supposed to make you feel despair, sadness and even confusion.
Yet the best part of this movie was the acting, as I said even the smallest actors with the smallest bit parts gave you something to latch on too even if they were basically Star Trek redshirts. Yet of the main cast Josh Hutcherson and especially Donald Sutherland were probably the best. Josh Hutcherson made you feel both sympathy for Peeta and made you understand what he was going through yet also fear and anger at his actions as you genuinely didn't know what this guy was going to do next. Donald Sutherland's Snow was probably the best in this movie, while you still got the cold, intimidating version of the character you also got the sense of fragility and fear in the way that made you believe Snow was not the 'nothing can touch me' evil tyrant like in the last movies but just a human being who could tell his time was up but didn't want to believe and at the end accepts it with hints of insanity and even some remorse. I felt more of a attachment to President Snow than I did for Katniss in the entire movie.
I also loved the relationship between Peeta and Katniss in the movie. It's sweet, heartbreaking, tragic and heartwarming all in the same go. Josh Hutcherson and Jennifer Lawrence do have nice chemistry and throughout the whole movie I was just waiting for these two to get together because to me they were right for each other. I loved the ending with these two as you felt that despite what they went through they could get through life together and are one of my favorite movie couples in recent memory even with the whole Gale-love-triangle thing they were my favorite part of the movie.
Overall I give this movie a 7/10- This is a movie won't end up on anybody's 'worst of' end of the years list as it is too good for that but doesn't do anything to push itself to 'best of' the year status. Plus this movie didn't need to be split into two parts to the point where I think it weakened the movie rather than strengthen it and I'm a person who didn't mind it when they split 'Harry Potter' and 'Twilight' into two movies. I do recommend waiting to rent it on Demand, buy the DVD or even wait until Netflix to see but if you a fan of the franchise I do recommend it in theaters.
For this review I'm actually want to start out with the bad of the movie, now before you shoot me Mocking jay part two is not a bad movie, it's actually a pretty solid movie and I quite liked it, I just have a lot more to say about the negatives of this movie than I do the positives. Not that I have many negatives, I actually only have three but they are still major ones.
Mockingjay did not need to be split into two movies. If Mockingjay part 1 was a movie without it's third act than Mockingjay is the third act of a movie, what would have been at the most only thirty minutes blown up to a two hour and ten minute movie. While it's not bad but it's really jarring in terms of structure and pacing especially in the beginning where it just abruptly picks up from the last scene of the movie and they have to stretch out the climax, falling action and conclusion into a longer than necessary runtime. This could have been done in a space of ninety minutes without anything being loss. In fact the movie feels almost too stretched out as throughout half the movie it feels as if nothing happens or things slow down to a grinding holt.
Jennifer Lawrence is still miscast as Katniss Everdeen. Now a huge positive of the movie is that every actor is really good in this movie and even those who don't have a lot to do like Michelle Forbes as Lieutenant Jackson still make a good impact. Jennifer Lawrence , who especially in comedies is a good actress, is really flat and has an almost non-existent personality in this. Now I know for a movie Katniss wouldn't have her narration like she does in the book and would come off on the outside perspective as very quiet and super serious. Yet an actor can still play a reserved or stoic character and still have them be interesting or at the very least be a character and have emotions, case in point Hayley Atwell who plays Peggy Carter plays her as very emotionally reserved and serious person yet still makes her a real human being with depth and believability that Lawrence should have brought to this role yet didn't or couldn't.
The last major issue is that the movie isn't dull by any means it feels like one big anti-climax. A lot of things you can tell that were supposed to be epic, shocking or just stir any big emotions from the audience were just meh. They were either done alright but that left you feeling more 'meh' than angry,sad, happy, excited etc. or were outright done poorly. I don't want to give anything away for people who haven't seen it but their are a few character deaths within this movie two of which stand out to me as the two things I just mentioned. The first one is during the march to president Snow's mansion which was done passably but it didn't have much emotional impact even though in light of the whole series should have been one of the most devastating moments in the entire movie. The second was done very cheesy for a character who while had a character we didn't know but for five minutes. The action itself while there was more than Mockingjay part 1 there were only two that were all that memorable and everything else was either forgettable and lackluster.
Now before it sounds as if I am tearing this movie apart for the most part this was a well-constructed, well acted, and well written movie. The cinematography, the special effects, music and directing of this movie was really good. The monsters looked real and never looked fake, the war torn setting of the capital was nice too look at and the music gave you the feelings war is supposed to make you feel despair, sadness and even confusion.
Yet the best part of this movie was the acting, as I said even the smallest actors with the smallest bit parts gave you something to latch on too even if they were basically Star Trek redshirts. Yet of the main cast Josh Hutcherson and especially Donald Sutherland were probably the best. Josh Hutcherson made you feel both sympathy for Peeta and made you understand what he was going through yet also fear and anger at his actions as you genuinely didn't know what this guy was going to do next. Donald Sutherland's Snow was probably the best in this movie, while you still got the cold, intimidating version of the character you also got the sense of fragility and fear in the way that made you believe Snow was not the 'nothing can touch me' evil tyrant like in the last movies but just a human being who could tell his time was up but didn't want to believe and at the end accepts it with hints of insanity and even some remorse. I felt more of a attachment to President Snow than I did for Katniss in the entire movie.
I also loved the relationship between Peeta and Katniss in the movie. It's sweet, heartbreaking, tragic and heartwarming all in the same go. Josh Hutcherson and Jennifer Lawrence do have nice chemistry and throughout the whole movie I was just waiting for these two to get together because to me they were right for each other. I loved the ending with these two as you felt that despite what they went through they could get through life together and are one of my favorite movie couples in recent memory even with the whole Gale-love-triangle thing they were my favorite part of the movie.
Overall I give this movie a 7/10- This is a movie won't end up on anybody's 'worst of' end of the years list as it is too good for that but doesn't do anything to push itself to 'best of' the year status. Plus this movie didn't need to be split into two parts to the point where I think it weakened the movie rather than strengthen it and I'm a person who didn't mind it when they split 'Harry Potter' and 'Twilight' into two movies. I do recommend waiting to rent it on Demand, buy the DVD or even wait until Netflix to see but if you a fan of the franchise I do recommend it in theaters.
Wednesday, November 18, 2015
Update- Back to form
Hey I'm not dead!
If you've noticed ever since the last week of August I've been M.I.A from the blog writing sphere for multiple reasons.
1.) I went back to school and this is probably the big reason I've been out for the past few months. I've been trying to study more, I'm in a few clubs some where I have important positions in and just trying to get through the first part of the year with the least amount of injury's I can manage,
2.) Nothing important came out for a while. September and for most of October have been dead zones for movies to review and when things finally started to kick into gear I got busier with school. Now I did manage to see two movies so far Black Mass (awesome and a great comeback for Johnny Depp) and Pan (one of the worst movies of the year) but other than that it's been a while since I've really been in the movie theater.
Now things have slowed down for me so I plan to get back into Movie Junkie's again after so long. I'm planning on not changing that much with Tuesdays and Wednesday still being box office and box office predictions, with Thursdays being changed to editorial day and Sunday being movie review day. I hope to get back into routine next week but as a way of getting myself off the ground and running I hope to do either a review of Spectre or Hunger Games: Mockingjay part 2 for this Sunday.
If you've noticed ever since the last week of August I've been M.I.A from the blog writing sphere for multiple reasons.
1.) I went back to school and this is probably the big reason I've been out for the past few months. I've been trying to study more, I'm in a few clubs some where I have important positions in and just trying to get through the first part of the year with the least amount of injury's I can manage,
2.) Nothing important came out for a while. September and for most of October have been dead zones for movies to review and when things finally started to kick into gear I got busier with school. Now I did manage to see two movies so far Black Mass (awesome and a great comeback for Johnny Depp) and Pan (one of the worst movies of the year) but other than that it's been a while since I've really been in the movie theater.
Now things have slowed down for me so I plan to get back into Movie Junkie's again after so long. I'm planning on not changing that much with Tuesdays and Wednesday still being box office and box office predictions, with Thursdays being changed to editorial day and Sunday being movie review day. I hope to get back into routine next week but as a way of getting myself off the ground and running I hope to do either a review of Spectre or Hunger Games: Mockingjay part 2 for this Sunday.
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| Stupid poster but still looking to see this movie. |
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| Cool Poster but I don't really like the Daniel Craig James Bond movies so I'm a bit of a mixed bag on this. |
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