Dragonslayer (1981)

 Dragonslayer (1981)

5/10 

Starring

Peter MacNicol

Caitlin Clarke

Ralph Richardson

John Hallam

 

Directed by Matthew Robbins

 

I do not know what to think about this film, it was not boring and even though I felt some of the characters needed more development, I did not feel the need to stop watching.

If I want to look at the effects in comparison to what I recall seeing back when I was younger, I will praise the effects for being classy.

The movie had its own way of creating its hero and it also had its own way of killing the villain, something you will not be able to guess from the start, but you will appreciate as it carries on developing.

Each of the characters in the movie strike their own gong of presence and command their own way to be remembered, but I can bet you, the part each will play towards the death of the dragon is not easily guessed.

The film starts with the introduction of the last sorcerer, Ulrich of Cragganmore, who we see practicing magic and with him in his home is his apprentice, Galen Bradwarden. They were visited by a group of people led by Valerian, to come to their aid as their land Urland, is being terrorized by Vermithrax Pejorative, a 400-year-old dragon.

Ulrich agreed to help, but his assistant and helper, tried to talk him out of following this expedition back to Urland, because Ulrich was old and they did not believe he will be able to make it.

But he packed up to follow them, and then one of the king's captains showed up at Ulrich's home before they all set out. He called Ulrich a fraud and doubted his abilities.

 

Ulrich, decided to allow the man to test his abilities, he called Galen, gave him his wizardry amulet and present himself to be tested.

 

How Ulrich with the aid of Galen were able to get to Urland and then take on the dragon are path best left unsaid so that you can watch this movie and enjoy the discovery of it.

In the end, even though the film was ok and worthy to be enjoyed when it was released in 1981, the movie was not a box office success.

This was the first movie to use ILM (industrial light and magic) for its special effects outside of Lucas Films. It got nominated for an Academy Award for best visual effects and lost to another ILM film of that year, Raiders of the Lost Ark.

I do not know if this movie falls in line as one of the classic dragon movies, but it was a fun ride and I worth seeing if you will not be bothered by the effects being from 1981.

Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom (2023)

 Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom (2023)

3/10

Starring

Jason Momoa

Patrick Wilson

Amber Heard

Yahya Abdul-Mateen II

 

Directed by James Wan

 

I do not know what this film was meant to be, but interesting is not one of it. It is boring and very hard to enjoy as the film itself seems to be breaking in all forms of continuity and the story it is riding on seems half-baked.

Time wasted in building a brother bond, jokes that never seem to land, and the film wants so bad to be action fantasy comedy, but the comedy makes you yawn in disappointment.

I felt the first Aquaman (2018) was ok, but this sequel is boring to the max, and you can see very much that they cut of Mera (Amber Heard) out of the film as much as they can.

Jason Momoa lack of comedy awareness or good landing is a problem more of the writing than the actor himself. I have never been able to see him do the comedy well anyway, but when the story and crafting is well done, and all he needs to do is to deliver the lines, then he should be able to get it right.

This is the 15th and final film in the DC Extended Universe (DCEU). As Warner is planning a reboot of the entire franchise, which will be run by James Gunn, and it will be called DC Universe (DCU), which will kick off with Superman: Legacy in 2025.

The film starts with us seeing Arthur Curry (Aquaman by Jason Momoa) trying to live the normal human life as a father. Spending half his time on land and the other half running Atlantis as their king. We then see David Kane who is trying to get himself together, fix the Black Manta armoured suit and go after Arthur in revenge for his father in Aquaman (2018).

David’s quest led him to discover a trident which was crafted by the king of the lost kingdom. The trident overpowers David’s will and even tough killing Arthur and his family was still the focus of David, the trident wanted to use this goal to free the king and the people of the lost kingdom.

I wonder how the new DC universe will play out with reboots of all the characters, and we can see if James Gunn can create around him a team that will match what Marvel has created in the MCU. I do not have that much faith in their capabilities, but I am very curious to see the film of the new universe.

The Marvels (2023)

The Marvels (2023)

 6/10

Starring

Brie Larson

Teyonah Parris

Iman Vellani

Zawe Ashton

 

Directed by Nia DaCosta

 

The Marvels is a sequel to the 2019 film Captain Marvel, and a continuation of the television miniseries Ms. Marvel. It serves as the 33rd film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) and I hope it ends the mediocre Disney/Marvel movies we have been served lately, and ushers in a new time when their movies dominated the box office and made everyone queue up to see their movies.

One thing that stands out in this film is Iman Vellani as Kamala Khan / Ms. Marvel, she was 10/10 in this film and the only thing that mattered. When she was not on screen, I craved to see her. The film also had Monica Rambeau. We know Monica from the first Captain Marvel film as the daughter of Carol's late friend Maria. Monica always looked up to Carol and can manipulate the electromagnetic spectrum, powers she gained during the events of WandaVision. There is an abandonment dynamic between Monica and Carol, which I felt the writers should not have made a thing. Why can we not have Disney characters who are actually good at keeping in touch, it is a thing for Disney.

The film plot is based on an incident that took place many decades ago when Carol Danvers destroys the supreme intelligence which led the Kree empire. The destruction led to a civil war on the Kree planet Hala. Which led to the destruction of the planet’s natural resources, and their sun, water, and air.

Dar-Benn a new leader of the Kree discovers one of the Quantum Bands and intends to use it to take away these natural resources from other planets to Hala to save her people still living there. Her user caused the powers of Captain Marvel, Monica, and Ms. Marvel (who wears the other Quantum Band) to be entangled. Now the three must work together to stop Dar-Benn. The film end has an after-credit scene, that introduces a new reality about other characters in the Marvel acquired universe.

This film missed so many opportunities to be great. I cannot understand why they decided to even attempt some of the character developments and their subsequent actions. Here is an opportunity to have three women with powers from all diversity try and save the world, and Disney blew it. Instead turned it to a film with too many dialogues about connecting and working together, when such should not be there, if they made Carol a better person from the onset than they did.

The character of Carol Danvers was turned to an asshole who doesn’t seem to understand you are supposed to listen sometimes, and made to be so annoying, that it was so hard to look away and you wanted less of her persona on screen.

The film failed in the box office and even story wise, it did not bring the needed effect they wanted, but just made the film look like something they should have given more professional writers to work on who will focus on better power development and good authentic stories, instead of trying to prove a point with diversity and women empowerment.

Wish (2023)

Wish (2023)

3/10

Starring the voices of

Ariana DeBose

Chris Pine

Alan Tudyk

Angelique Cabral

 

Directed by Chris Buck and Fawn Veerasunthorn

 

Wish is Disney's 62^nd theatrical animated production, and it follows their abysmal 61^st animated production, Strange World. Wish is more pathetic than their last production Strange World, and the horrible story is not something you will expect from the mouse house. But for a long time since Zootopia (2016) and Moana (2016), Disney has struggled to create an animation that will make you want to see a second part with the same characters facing another animated adventure. This film has forgettable characters, that leave no impact to the viewer and the film all together is so poor, and it is the last thing you will think Disney can produce.

Wish is a combination of CGI and has a feel of the old traditional animation. They added some singing to it, which fails to matter the way the songs of Encanto captured the world who could not stop talking about Bruno.

The story is about a magician who lives and runs an island as a king. People travel far and wide to come live on this island because and when they are eighteen, they give him their wish and once a year he chooses one of the wishes to grant.

The sad thing is, when he takes their wish, he erases their memory of it, leaving them with a feeling that something is missing in their life. Asha is a seventeen-year-old young lady, whose dream was to be an apprentice to the magician, King Magnifico.

Upon her interview, she discovers all the above about the wishes of the people taken from them and asked why the King never give the wishes back. She could not understand why Magnifico would not let people work on making their dreams come true, since he would not assist. This created a wall between the King and his would-be apprentice. In her sadness she makes a wish on a star, the star comes down to her and Magnifico notices that someone on his island is using magic. In his fear of losing control over what he has built on this island, he turns to the dark side to be able to capture this person and bring the whole island back to his control.

By the time the film ended, I felt Disney needed to stop production of all these lame excuses for a film and just go back to the old ways, even their revenue shows that these new ways of production do not work.

There is something wrong with the present times, that being bad even must be coated to make it look a bit sweet. I remember back when I was younger, when Scar killed Mufasa, or when Bambi’s mother was shot, you can tell how cruel the world is, and we were forced to face it head on as kids. Even when they decided to soft pedal these dark themes, we still had clear and obvious bad characters depicted as cruel, like in the Yzma in Emperor’s New Groove or Hades in Hercules. There was a distinct way you can tell bad from good. Things have changed now, that being bad has been remixed to being misunderstood. Everyone is trying to be politically correct and fit in to the common trend of being hip, which is ruining all Disney titles be it from Marvel, Pixar, or Disney animation.