Tag Archives: James McAvoy

All Movie Reviews, Horror, Leave it, Long Reviews (>400 Words)

It: Chapter Two (2019) Movie Review

September 6, 2019 Alex Brannan Leave a comment

If Andy Muschietti’s 2017 It was little more than a funhouse of jerky, startling set pieces loosely strung into a narrative, then his It: Chapter Two aims to up the ante in the manner only a blockbuster sequel can. And that includes inserting a literal funhouse.

In the previous installment, the Losers Club, comprised of Bev (Sophia Lillis), Ben (Jeremy Ray Taylor), Bill (Jaeden Martell), Ritchie (Finn Wolfhard), Eddie (Jack Dylan Grazer), Mike (Chosen Jacobs), and Stanley (Wyatt Oleff), were able to Continue reading It: Chapter Two (2019) Movie Review →

Action/Thriller, All Movie Reviews, Leave it, Long Reviews (>400 Words), Sci-Fi/Fantasy

Dark Phoenix (2019) Movie Review

June 13, 2019 Alex Brannan 2 Comments

Dark Phoenix, instead of soaring into theaters with a fiery majesty, landed to roost with an unceremonious whimper. Battered by poor reviews and poorer box office returns on its inaugural weekend, this final (unless The New Mutants ends up finally getting a release) Fox X-Men release is limping its way to the finish line.

But Dark Phoenix is by no means the worst X-Men film of the franchise. In fact, it succeeds in crucial ways at which the previous film Continue reading Dark Phoenix (2019) Movie Review →

Action/Thriller, All Movie Reviews, Leave it, Long Reviews (>400 Words)

Glass (2019) Movie Review

January 17, 2019 Alex Brannan Leave a comment

M. Night Shyamalan has created a comic book world completely divorced from real-world comic books, yet all he wants to do in Glass is fit into the canon of superhero comics. The exposition often harps on, among many other things, comics—their origins, their narrative formulae, their character construction.

Glass is a superhero film, in that it recenters Shyamalan’s Split into a superhero versus arch-villain plotline, in which James McAvoy’s multiple personality super villain “The Horde” is Continue reading Glass (2019) Movie Review →

Action/Thriller, All Movie Reviews, Like It, Long Reviews (>400 Words)

Atomic Blonde (2017) Movie Review

July 29, 2017 Alex Brannan 1 Comment

Armed with a constant blue-gray aesthetic, Atomic Blonde lacks the adrenaline energy of a John Wick despite sharing a director, so much so that the intricately staged hand-to-hand combat sequences can sometimes come off as dreary and mechanical.

This said, select sequences from this batch are the Continue reading Atomic Blonde (2017) Movie Review →

Lists

10 Best Movies of 2017 (So Far)

June 25, 2017 Alex Brannan Leave a comment

2017 is about halfway over, and there have been many movies that have already made their way in and out of theaters. Some good (see below). Some not so good (Transformers: The Last Knight, most recently).

Let us ignore the bad and focus on what has made the cinema a worthwhile experience in 2017 thus far (in chronological order by release date).

Split

The stigma on the shoulders of M. Night Shyamalan has only grown over the years. The general downward trajectory of his films has caused many detractors, and by and large those detractors Continue reading 10 Best Movies of 2017 (So Far) →

Action/Thriller, All Movie Reviews, Horror, Like It, Long Reviews (>400 Words)

Split (2017) Movie Review

January 20, 2017 Alex Brannan Leave a comment

The cold open to M. Night Shyamalan’s new venture, Split, features an intriguing mix of directorial choices. There is a Hitchcockian motivated mobile POV, one that starts as an innocent track. There are motivated pans and tilts that follow our protagonist Casey’s (Anya Taylor-Joy) increasingly cautious gazes. There is a sense of impending dread with each edit.

This opening kidnapping was shown in almost its entirety in Split‘s trailer, which presents the premise of a man with multiple personalities (James McAvoy) who steals away three teenage girls (Haley Lu Richardson, Jessica Sula, and Taylor-Joy). Ignore the ridiculous notion that Continue reading Split (2017) Movie Review →

Action/Thriller, All Movie Reviews, Like It, Long Reviews (>400 Words)

X-Men: Apocalypse (2016) Movie Review

May 29, 2016 Alex Brannan Leave a comment

In Ancient Egypt, a god is buried. But it is not a god, it is a mutant. Apocalypse (Oscar Isaac). Apocalypse can unlock the true potential in any other mutant, and then use those powers for his own design. That, and he can turn people to dust. After his resurfacing in the 1980s, mutants must band together and reform the X-Men in order to take down Apocalypse and his Four Horsemen.

The first act of the film sets up strong characters and their motivations. We get to see a young Scott Summers (Tye Sheridan) as a teen growing up with uncontrolled powers. Magneto (Michael Fassbender) gets a strong emotional arc to once again Continue reading X-Men: Apocalypse (2016) Movie Review →