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Emma @ The Movies (1786 KP) rated Wonder Woman 1984 (2020) in Movies

Jan 22, 2021

Wonder Woman 1984 (2020)

2020 | Adventure, Fantasy

6.1

(42 Ratings)

Movie Rating Watch

I swung between wanting to see this and not, had it been a normal world then of course I would have gone regardless, but as it is I wasn't having strong feelings about this one.

Diana's dreams come true at the hands of an ancient artefact that can grant wishes. But as a wish is given something is taken away, and when Maxwell Lord, businessman and entrepreneur, makes a wish, the world is about to learn the lesson of the phrase... "be careful what you wish for".

First off... this absolutely would have been better on the big screen. It's never been so apparent to me that a cinema experience of a film holds so much power, it's making me understand the differences in early reviews and home viewing reviews a lot more these days.

The story of WW84 is really a very simple one. Doodad does magic, people are evil, goodie must make them good again. And that somehow fills a whole 2 hour 31 minutes of film... it doesn't feel like a very satisfying experience. For all that opener, the conclusion seems to be fleeting and dare I say it... not entirely believable. Overall the whole thing doesn't get particularly deep at any point despite there being a lot of opportunities around the wishes, and there are some questionable moments that could fill several blog posts.

There's been a long pause between me writing the first part and continuing here. That pause involved me staring at my notes and contemplating just writing "meh" and finishing the review there. I'm really going to try and elaborate on my feelings though.

For a film with two villains it's not got much proper villainy in it. Barbara Minerva becoming Cheetah is massively underwhelming from what felt like a promising build-up, and Maxwell Lord, despite having the potential, was not big bad material. Neither had the drive in them to be a truly powerful force in the film, and what's the point in a villain if you can't get on board to hate them?

Kristen Wiig did give a great performance as Barbara, it was a smooth and interesting transition as she progressed, and it left me a lot less "meh" than everything else. But did anyone else just keep thinking Catwoman though?

I thought Pedro Pascal had 80's businessman down pretty well, but I found him to be a little lacklustre, and the character's story felt like the reason for that.

As with the first film, Gal Gadot is majestic on screen as Diana and Wonder Woman... but even here I found myself shrugging at what was going on, and cringing at some problematic plot points. I'm trying to work out if the appeal of the first film was partially due to the amusement of Diana discovering the world for the first time. Here she's savvy and elegant (even for the 0s), and she didn't have the same humour. Instead, we've got that role filled by Steve (Chris Pine). His discovery of the 80s world was fairly amusing, but the way in which he came back bugged me.

All in all characters really didn't grab me, out two main newbies felt very much like rip-offs of other things rather than a great recreation of their source material.

Visually the film was amazing, the bright colours, the style, all fit the era and you gotta love some parachute pants. But outside of that it just merged into other films for me.

That CGI... how can you get so many things right but somehow not do the villains? It's Steppenwolf all over again, Cheetah looked bad. Not only that, but it took an immense amount of time for us to even get to that full effect... so why wasn't it on point? How are DC incapable of animating their villains?

Will I watch this again? Probably, but I'm not overly fussed about it being anytime soon. It wasn't anywhere near as entertaining as the first for me, and didn't have enough action to cover up the disappointing story and character work. I really wish I felt strongly one way or the other on this and not having just another sitting on the fence swinging my feet review. I did appreciate some early vaguely Quidditchy vibes at the beginning though.

Originally posted on: https://emmaatthemovies.blogspot.com/2021/01/wonder-woman-1984-movie-review.html

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Gareth von Kallenbach (980 KP) rated Mr. Peabody & Sherman (2014) in Movies

Aug 6, 2019

Mr. Peabody & Sherman (2014)

2014 | Action, Animation, Comedy

7.6

(10 Ratings)

Movie Rating

Mr. Peabody and Sherman were first introduced to the world via the
1950s-1960s legendary kids cartoon "The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show." Mr.
Peabody (Ty Burell), a Nobel prize winning brainiac canine, whose
intelligence is beyond that of any human being; there is nothing this
Beagle cannot do. He was able to put his brilliant mind to use and adopt
a young boy named Sherman (Max Charles) and he also invents a time
travelling machine he calls the WABAC (pronounced way-back). He uses the
WABAC as a teaching tool by travelling back in time with Sherman to
experience some of the most famous moments in history.

On Sherman's first day school, he finds that some of the history lessons
being taught in school were not accurate to how the events actually took
place. Remember, he traveled in time and witnessed it all first hand.
Sherman finds himself clashing with his classmate Penny (Ariel Winter),
who spends most of her time teasing and bullying Sherman for 'knowing too
much' and for being raised by a dog. In an attempt to bring peace among
Sherman's classmates and to also avoid the impending threat from child
services who would like nothing more than to prove that a dog does not have
the right to raise human child, Mr. Peabody invites Penny and her parents
over to their home for dinner. Sherman tries to impress Penny by breaking
Mr. Peabody's rules and introduces Penny to the WABAC. Nothing good comes
of two kids travelling in time and disrupting the space time continuum.
Enter Mr. Peabody, who uses the WABAC to try and rectify the disruptions
that were caused by Penny and Sherman's adventure through time.

This movie is not the story of "man's best friend!" It is geared more
towards the father-son relationship. A very likeable film that brings us
back to some significant moments in history, such as Leonardo DaVinci's
painting of the Mona Lisa, the Trojan War, the time when King Tut ruled
Ancient Egypt, and the French Revolution. In true Dreamwork fashion, there
was just the perfect of amount of humor for kids and adults alike to
enjoy. What sets this movie apart from others is its ability to embrace
education as an adventure and how it challenges the 'traditional' family
stereotype and that love can be found in all creatures and at any time.

4 out of 5 stars.