Some weeks call for a blend of movies and genres in hopes of finding something new that is good. I can not say that I was too successful in doing this over the past week. I watched three different movies from three different genres. They movies were Aquaman, a superhero movie, Murder Mystery, a comedy, and The Ruins, a horror film. The spectrum of these movies went from good to mediocre to terrible. It was a journey worth going on, but it sadly was not too productive in getting me too excited about any of these films. They did all provide unique viewing experiences compared to each other. The only similarity they had was that they each filmed in foreign locations as some point that added to their aesthetic, but other than that there were no other real comparisons to be made.
Aquaman was the movie out of the three that was good, but it had some negatives. First off, it was too long. It was well over two hours, and it is hard to digest that length at home. The reason why it was too long was because they jammed so much into the story. They had how his parents met, they had the introduction to Manta, they had Aquamans journey to becoming a hero, the had a problem with the coalition of underwater people forming and fighting, and much more. It just felt like there was too much jumping around and not enough of a clear straight forward plot. It seemed like the Manta story line was forced in just to allow them to have an easier way to create a sequel. It also gave the movie a more recognizable villain to have attached to it, but neither of those reasons were good enough to add the lacking side story line, they could have found a way to incorporate it better into a sequel.
This movie did have plenty of enjoyable parts that make these negatives not as big a deal. To start out with I like Jason Momoa, mainly due to his brief stint in Game of Thrones, but outside of that he proved in this movie that he is well worth watching. The movie portrays Aquaman as a very down to Earth guy. It seems like so many times the heroes have a holier than though aura about them, but they made Aquaman has a sense of humor, and he made mistakes, let letting Manta’s father die. He is comparable to a milder mannered Deadpool, Aquaman enjoys drinking, he curses, and he stole his brothers betrothed. Another aspect of the movie that worked in its favor was its advanced way of portraying the underwater world. The creators also incorporated a very bright color pallet. The colors in the ocean were very vivid, especially in the fight scenes. It was done extremely well, but James Cameron said the new Avatar movie was going to make a movie that handles the underwater scenes much better than this one did and in a more realistic way. So that is something exciting to look forward too. The visuals it had, not underwater were also beautiful from the lighthouse where his dad worked to their adventure in the desert, and their brief visit to Sicily, all these places were beautifully shown. Finally, the movie did a decent job of incorporating environmental concerns into the story as well. The people in the ocean were upset about the blatant disrespect normal people showed toward the ocean by constantly polluting it.
Murder Mystery was an Adam Sandler film that is a spoof on whodunit films. It did not take itself seriously at all and knowing it was a Sandler film going into it helped set the expectations accordingly (no offense to Sandler fans). The story about a couple that gets invited to a rich family’s vacation that they do not know, and they decide to tag along. While on the trip, the rich patriarch gets murdered and an investigation ensues. Just like any murder mystery, there are twists and turns, but this film tried to infuse comedy more into it, and there were laughable moments, but it was by no means an upper tier comedy. Basically the whole movie all I could think of was Knives Out. The story line of a rich father being murdered due to the inheritance no longer being shared is basically the same plot. The only problem was that this movie did it worst. Knives Out did not take itself seriously either, it was not quite a comedy, but it parodied the genre more than trying to be a serious version. This can easily be seen by Daniel Craig playing the odd detective with his two side kicks that also were lacking in the intelligence department. The difference that probably contributed the most to difference in quality was due to the difference in directors, Knives Out had the renowned Rian Johnson, where as Murder Mystery had Kyle Newacheck. Johnson is known for helping the Star Wars saga and bringing in new ideas to genres that seemed established. Also Knives Out had a power house of a cast, so that is definitely a big advantage as well. The one area that Sandler’s film had the advantage was due to the places that they filmed. They showed off a beautiful European coast, and many have said that Sandler makes some of these movies just to take his friends and family on a cool vacation while they film, and I will not knock him for that.
The last film is called The Ruins, which was a gross and terrible horror film. Two college couples spring break in Mexico, they meet a guy from Europe who heard about a Mayan Pyramid that is off the beaten path, and when they get there, they find out the hard way that the pyramid is cursed. The pyramid is covered in this ivy like plant that vines up and around it, and the vines are also on the inside of the pyramid. Once a person comes in contact with it, they are cursed, so the locals surrounded the pyramid and refuse to let the tourists leave. Some of them receive serious injuries, and then it really starts to get gross. The people who are injured, when they fall asleep, the vines start to grow into their cuts and when they wake up, they must pull out feet of vines. Eventually when someone dies, the vines take the person and eat him. There is also a scene where a guy has his legs so badly broken, they decide to just cut them off partially. It was just over the top gross all the way around, and while I was watching it, I had just gotten poison ivy on my leg earlier that week, so I started to worry about having a plant grow out of my leg. Just the thought of the stuff causes some chills, but just because the movie can cause chills because it is gross, does not mean that it is good. It was largely uneventful, and they were just stuck on top of a pyramid doing nothing. So to create something positive out of this movie, lets just say that the plants represent the Earth, and the tourists represent the human race, and the moral of the story is that the Earth is mad at humans for polluting the Earth, but that would seriously be stretching it.
When it comes down to it, I would recommend watching Aquaman and Murder Mystery, but even if you like horror, it is not worth watching The Ruins, unless you specifically like the gross gory horror films, but it is even a worst version of those. I gave Aquaman an 85, Murder Mystery a 71, and The Ruins a 61. If choosing between watching one of these, one important aspect to consider is the length of the movie, Aquaman was well over two hours, whereas the other two are about an hour and a half. I personally find it hard to watch movies over two hours when I am at home, there are so many distractions, so I ended up watching Aquaman over the course of Saturday in three chunks. Also it would have been a much better movie at the theaters due to all of the large fight scenes and its vast scope of the ocean, the TV just did not do it enough justice.
Comments