I watched this immediately after reading the book and I can definitively say that the movie is better. The main beats are still there but the framing story has been completely tossed, the rivalry is far more personal, and the tone is more sinister. And also Michael Caine!
A tale of dueling magicians who go through ever more elaborate lengths to uncover each other’s secrets. It’s all told from various character’s perspectives and switches between journal entries and other literary devices. There’s a sci-fi/horror twist that I could see coming from a million miles away. I’ve heard the movie is much better, so I will probably watch that soon.
Horror movie character study about a “Video Nasties” censor who begins to mix the memories of losing her sister under mysterious circumstances with the graphic films she is viewing for her job. This one is slow moving but always engaging. The style becomes more and more Bava-esque as she descends further into her insanity.
My superhero movie epilogue has me finally watching the third Batman film (in the good trilogy). The Dark Knight is probably the best of all these superhero movies and it didn’t really need a continuation, but here we are. The opening sequence is on par with the best James Bond cold openings. That is until Bane talks. At first I thought that I was watching some sort of crappy fan edit in which they replaced Tom Hardy’s voice with Plankton from Spongebob. But, no. Bane’s voice is supposed to sound like that and be three times louder than everyone else. That aside, the rest of the movie was good, well-paced, but not quite at the level of its predecessor.
Okay, one last Marvel movie before end this diversion and get back to 70s sleaze (I’ve been told I have to watch WandaVision despite the fact that Vision and Wanda are the two dullest characters in the whole franchise). The second MCU Spider-Man movie is not nearly as good as the first. It leans a little too much into teen drama and cares very little about its villain. The most interesting aspect is the brief overview of the consequences of “post-Blip” Earth.
Finally, my quest to watch all these movies has come to an end. It’s a fitting climax but is not quite as good as Infinity War. By the end, I was a little epic battled out. There’s only so much CGI a guy can take. Also, they stole the ending from The Final Countdown.
Back to a sitcom-level Marvel movie. Don’t get me wrong, I appreciate the light tone but after Infinity War this gave me whiplash. It does make Ant-Man’s role in Endgame much more worthwhile though.
The years of dudes fighting in the sky and blue LASERs of death have lead to this event movie. I have to admit, it does a great job and pulling everything together in a way that makes even the crap movies seem worthwhile. The downer ending finally gives this franchise some stakes (although that will soon all be thrown out the window).
What an incredible improvement over the last two Thor movies. They are no longer trying to be a poor man’s Lord of the Rings and are angling for humor whenever possible. Colorful, funny, well-paced, and almost as good as a Guardians movie.
I can’t believe how much praise this Marvel installment received. It’s so cheesy but takes itself way too seriously. The final CGI battle is some of the worst looking action in the entire MCU. So, was the pudgy, lazy-eyed former king the Black Panther up until the moment he died in Ultron?