The Rest of 2015, Part 3
I've taken a little more time in prepping my year-end wrap-up this year, mostly because I was making sure I had seen everything I wanted to in theaters before publishing. Like last year, I've written mini-reviews on all the films that I either saw too far into their theatrical run to do a full review on or after their home video release. Without further ado, I present to you Part 3 of the Rest of 2015...
Ant-Man - Buy it.
What sets Ant-Man apart is its unique tone. From 2014 on Marvel has done a really good job of making each film's tone distinct, and this continues with Ant-Man. It feels less like a superhero film and more like a heist comedy, allowing Paul Rudd to flex his comedic muscles quite a bit. The way Peyton Reed crafts the film's shrunken sequences puts a very unique mark on this Marvel film that will allow it to stand apart from the rest of their body of work. Grade: 85
The Hunger Games: Mockingjay, Part 2 - Watch it.
Mockingjay Pt. 2 is definitely not bad, but it's also not great. For every fantastic set piece or well-directed/well-acted scene we enjoy, we are made to bear with a ton of slow exposition that feels like it could have been done in half the time. The film's ending is really well handled, however, and probably does that part better than the book. There's more style than the first half of this two-parter, but the much darker tone of the Mockingjay installments slows the film's pace to a crawl. Grade: 67
Fantastic Four - Avoid it like the plague.
I thought that this film had a shot. It had a great cast, a talented young director, and a pretty decent writing team. I was wrong. Fantastic Four is just a mess. The writing is atrocious, the acting is wooden, and even the CGI is a wreck. It's also incredibly poorly paced, as the film seems to just want to set up another one instead of focusing on itself at all. I gave this film a shot, and I was rewarded with absolutely nothing. There's nothing redeeming about Fantastic Four at all. Grade: 19
Mockingjay Pt. 2 is definitely not bad, but it's also not great. For every fantastic set piece or well-directed/well-acted scene we enjoy, we are made to bear with a ton of slow exposition that feels like it could have been done in half the time. The film's ending is really well handled, however, and probably does that part better than the book. There's more style than the first half of this two-parter, but the much darker tone of the Mockingjay installments slows the film's pace to a crawl. Grade: 67
I thought that this film had a shot. It had a great cast, a talented young director, and a pretty decent writing team. I was wrong. Fantastic Four is just a mess. The writing is atrocious, the acting is wooden, and even the CGI is a wreck. It's also incredibly poorly paced, as the film seems to just want to set up another one instead of focusing on itself at all. I gave this film a shot, and I was rewarded with absolutely nothing. There's nothing redeeming about Fantastic Four at all. Grade: 19
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