Halloween Ends (2022)

Halloween Ends (2022)

 

2/10

 

Starring

Jamie Lee Curtis
Andi Matichak
Rohan Campbell
Will Patton

Directed by David Gordon Green

 

I watched this movie and had one question: why was it written like this?

Of all the ways I thought this movie could go, I have to give the writer and director some respect—this was not the path I expected. So, Michael Myers can somehow detect another soul (Corey) with a similar taste for murder. It just so happens that this person is in a relationship with Laurie’s granddaughter. Wow. What a strange coincidence, the kind that only happens in Hollywood. Myers and Corey team up for their own killing spree, and the whole movie ends up making no sense.

The plot feels like it’s just looking for excuses to stab people, recycling the same tired gimmicks that don’t mean anything anymore in this beaten-up franchise. High school seniors who are jerks? Yep, they have to be stabbed. A man chasing a girl who’s not interested in him? Stabbed. And of course, a couple about to have a sexy night? What’s a slasher movie without punishing them for that? How dare they, with bad guys lurking about—they get stabbed too. This stereotypical nonsense, meant to mark the end of the franchise (for now), completely ruined it. Honestly, I hope I never have to care about this franchise getting revived in my lifetime.

I’ve been watching this series for as long as I can remember. I’ve seen some of the movies and skipped others, but the bottom line has always been that Michael Myers survives.

Spoiler Alert

In this movie, they supposedly wanted to bring the franchise to a close, but it seems they couldn’t figure out how to do that without piling on unnecessary new stories. Instead of giving us some deep detective work or an engaging mystery, they resorted to the same old clichés. Four years after the events of Halloween Kills (2021), everyone is still acting like Michael Myers is some boogeyman.

Why couldn’t we have gotten a deeper, more mysterious plot, with Myers committing kills on the side while the hunt for him continues? Nope, the writers said. Instead, Myers has been living in some underground hideout by himself for four years, waiting for the right time to reappear.

Then Corey stumbles into Myers’ path by accident. They lock eyes, and suddenly a "bond" is formed. The movie’s big climax? Both bad guys (Myers and Corey) get killed. Sure, that was a pleasing result—mainly because this movie was such a waste of time—but it didn’t redeem all the hours I’ve invested in this franchise. Out of this revived trilogy, only the first film (Halloween (2018)) made any sense. These last two? A complete waste of time.

They barely used Myers in this movie, which was disappointing. Instead, they wasted most of the runtime focusing on this new kid, Corey, who ended up being useless anyway. If Myers could supposedly see into Corey’s soul, why choose him as his protégé in the first place?

 

Black Panther: Wakanda Forever (2022)

Black Panther: Wakanda Forever (2022)

6/10

Starring

Letitia Wright

Lupita Nyong'o

Danai Gurira

Winston Duke

 

Directed by Ryan Coogler

 

Marvel Phase 4 has finally ended, and I couldn’t be more relieved. Not all the movies in this phase have been groundbreaking, except Spider-Man: No Way Home and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. This movie, like most of the others, is one you watch once and probably won’t revisit.

This is the 30th movie in the MCU, and with Chadwick Boseman’s death, the franchise had to adjust. Black Panther himself is gone in real life, so the movies had to take a new approach to this tragic loss. In Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, the mantle of Black Panther passes to his sister, Shuri.

The plot of the movie takes on a different tone from what we’re used to. Instead of heroes bonding to fight a common enemy, Wakanda finds itself up against Namor, a known figure in the Marvel Universe, and his people. The usual sense of unity is replaced with tension as they are at each other’s throats.

We soon discover that vibranium isn’t exclusive to Wakanda. There’s another race, the Talokan, who live underwater in their own hidden region. Namor, their king, leads them, and they also have a rich vibranium deposit. Like Wakanda, they’ve used vibranium to develop their society and are unwilling to share it with the rest of the world.

When the United States creates a machine capable of locating vibranium under the sea, Namor and his people attack the ship carrying it, sinking it and killing the crew. The machine eventually finds its way to Wakanda. Namor then visits the Wakandan queen and demands the scientist who created the machine, threatening war if they don’t deliver the person.

Shuri sets out to find the scientist and discovers it’s a young adult. Determined to protect them, Shuri refuses to hand them over, which leads to her being captured by Namor. The queen now has to rescue her daughter without involving other countries, as Namor has warned that he doesn’t want his people’s existence revealed to the world.

The movie is ultimately about Wakanda versus Talokan. It’s an okay watch, but I’m hoping for stronger movies and shows in Phase 5 of the MCU. While this movie seems to be on track to becoming a box-office hit, Marvel can—and should—do better.

In addition, it is a nice introduction of Namor and Talokan, and this makes it a lot easier for Marvel to build on this new character in the future.

Spirited (2022)

Spirited (2022)

6/10

Starring

Will Ferrell

Ryan Reynolds

Octavia Spencer

 

Directed by Sean Anders

 

I think this movie would have had higher ratings overall if it were shorter and didn’t have so much singing and unnecessary things happening. I did like the idea of the movie, though, and I enjoyed seeing a different take on Charles Dickens’s A Christmas Carol. This modern take uses current trends well, making the movie more impactful and easier to watch. It’s not as predictable as you’d think, which is a good thing, and the way things turn out in the end isn’t what you’d expect. The problem with this otherwise nice movie is all the fluff in between that didn’t really matter. The travel between worlds dragged on for too long, and there were conversations you’d be happy to skip through.

I loved the chemistry between Will Ferrell and Ryan Reynolds. The way this movie ended also left room for more ideas about what could happen next.

The plot introduces us to a world where some ghosts are part of a group that helps people change and become better. They have a whole team that works behind the scenes to ensure that the Ghosts of Christmas Past, Present, and Yet-to-Come reach their targets and inspire positive change, causing a ripple effect of good things. The current target is Clint (Ryan Reynolds), a person deemed unredeemable, and the person the Ghost of Christmas Present (Will Ferrell) wanted to take on.

Present was feeling a bit down and wanted a challenge, and Clint seemed like the perfect challenge. He thought he was up for the job, but then he learned that Clint wasn’t the type of person you can change.

Clint was stuck in his ways and didn’t play by the rules. He flipped the tables on the Ghosts so many times that they couldn’t keep up.

It wasn’t that Clint had a better plan than they did—it was just that they were used to people being freaked out by their presence. But Clint kept believing it was all a dream and never took anything seriously.

Clint was a PR person with his own company, and his job was to turn bad situations into PR masterpieces. So, when the Ghosts showed up trying to change him, he used his PR skills to flip the tables on them.

You can catch this Christmas musical comedy on Apple+, and I hope if they plan another take, they make it with less fluff.