MovieWarfare

  Barbie is one of the most iconic toys of all time! It genuinely baffled me that it took this long for there to be a Barbie film. Barbie isn’t my thing, so I wasn’t interested in watching this. It wasn’t until the first trailer came out and the global internet cultural phenomenon “Barbenheimer”, the release of Barbie and Oppenheimer on the same day, that my interest was piqued. So is life plastic, it’s fantastic? Or is it just Ken? Firstly, casting Margot Robbie as Stereotypical Barbie was perfect! She is incredibly charming and earnest in the role. She conveys a naive yet caring nature to her character while being very funny at times. Ryan Gosling as Beach Ken is also perfect casting! He is the greatest highlight with his hilarious physical performance. Every time he is on screen, he brings the laughs. Ryan also conveys a vulnerability to Ken which is surprising. Margot and Ryan have a fun chemistry together! This film has a huge cast with many playing other variations

  In this new animated reboot, we get actual teenager voices for the characters. All of them do a great job and the banter between them feels authentic. The rest of the cast such as April and the Mutant gang are great too. The music score by Reznor and Ross is thrilling! They also use rap and pop songs effectively for action or comedic purposes. The visuals are just explosive and brimming with life! It’s very stylized with this comic book and stop-motion aesthetics. I love the portrayal of New York and the design of human characters with this weird dark looking ugliness to it that sets it apart from other animated movies. The writing is excellent with the meaningful themes being explored and the witty funny dialogue. However, the story itself is predictable and cliche while the characters are quite one dimensional and lacking in depth. Nevertheless, this is another stellar animation movie in 2023 and I highly recommend it!

  One Piece is one of my favourite manga. I was genuinely flabbergasted when I heard that there was going to be a live-action adaptation of this. One Piece is a very weird and wacky world that I just don’t believe could be brought accurately into live-action. Additionally, Netflix was going to make it and they have failed miserably with manga/anime live-action adaptations. Death Note completely butchered the characters and was not a faithful story. Cowboy Bebop had none of the charm of the anime with terrible writing and also not a faithful story. My expectations for this were at an all-time low but the creator of One Piece, Oda, was involved in this project. So maybe 3rd time is the charm? The first thing I noticed from the first couple of episodes, was the stunning set designs and costumes. I was surprised at the amount of practical sets that felt like great replications of places in the source material. The iconic ship, The Going Merry, looks 1 to 1 exactly like it do

  This sequel is 130 minutes of our main character, Shin, fighting in a war. We get great action set pieces after another, each of them being well-choreographed. Kento Yamazaki returns as Xin and is still lovable but the new character Qiang Lei, played by Nana Seino, is the new highlight. It is an incredibly fast-paced thrill ride! The film captures the scale of the war but it does still have that same issue from the first where they kind of make it too light-hearted. The plot is weaker as well since it is mostly just the war with some character development for Xin and Qiang. It is also disappointing to see 2 of the original main trio, Ying Zheng and He Liao Diao, do nothing in this entry. It does feel a bit long for what feels like a minimal plot as well. Still, wish more people were watching this as it is still very entertaining.

  The original Indiana Jones trilogy is one of my favourite movie trilogies. It was exciting, adventurous and just plain delightful to watch! The 4th entry which came out 19 years after the 3rd movie was unfortunately not as entertaining but it did have a solid ending that felt like a finale. So to my surprise, 15 years later we now have a 5th entry with an even OLDER Indy! Is this a step up from the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull? or is it another pointless sequel? The first 20 minutes of this movie is a flashback sequence with a de-aged Harrison Ford. It is one of the best sequences in this movie. It gave me a lot of the vibes and energy of the original trilogy. The stunts, staging, and action were classic Indiana Jones. There are some other great action set pieces as well such as the parade sequence and the Tuk Tuk chase which were thoroughly entertaining. The cinematography is also a huge step up from the 4th entry. The movie is pleasant to look at for the majority of

  A movie about a crew on a ship being hunted by Dracula is such an awesome premise. I like that they went with a more monstrous design for Dracula which makes him feel like a force of nature. The mix of practical and CGI is done well. The production design of the ship is phenomenal with how claustrophobic it feels. The actors all are phenomenal as well with special mention to David Dastmalchian and Liam Cunningham. The kills are brutal and entertaining to watch. However, this movie does suffer from the horror trope of stupid characters making nonsensical choices. It also starts with a flash-forward that spoils the ending for no reason. The movie is also way too long and has a very slow pacing. Could easily cut 20 minutes of this film. It also has an ending that just feels “wrong” and not very fitting of the tone that was throughout this film. Overall, it’s an unexpectedly entertaining monster movie.