Hard to believe it’s already September! It feels like it was just Memorial Day and here we are, getting ready for spooky season and then the holidays.
But before we speed toward 2024, let’s pause and reflect on this past summer.
Namely, the movies.
It was a good summer for movies. I started at least three reviews but never had the time to finish them. So I’ve decided to just do a round up of my thoughts about each movie.
Here we go!
(Beware possible spoilers under the cut).
We’ll go in the order I watched these movies.
The Little Mermaid
I enjoyed this live action remake. I thought it followed enough of the original to evoke that nostalgia but still had enough new material to feel fresh. One of the best additions, in my opinion, was fleshing out Eric and Ariel’s relationship. I liked that they had this great connection and so much in common. Their love story felt more complete this time around.
The casting was also superb. Halle Bailey shone as Ariel and I think she has a bright future ahead of her. I look forward to seeing what she does in the future. She also had great chemistry with Jonah Hauer-King, who played Eric, which helped even more. He also breathed new life into Eric and made him even more swoony-worthy.
Ursula was already an iconic character but Melissa McCarthy elevated her even more. It was clear she enjoyed playing that character so much. And Javier Bardem brought gravitas and emotion to Triton. His scenes with Halle were magnificent.
Most of the new songs were a good fit with the original ones. I especially liked Eric’s “Wild Unchartered Waters” and Ariel’s “For the First Time.” While “The Scuttlebutt” is okay, I’m not entirely thrilled with it. But it does get stuck in your head. The changes to some existing songs like “Poor Unfortunate Soul” and “Kiss the Girl” are pretty seamless with the originals and don’t really change the nature of the songs. And of the cut songs, I think “Les Poissons” may be the one I missed most but I doubt anyone would’ve been able to live up to Rene Auberjonois’ version.
You probably heard a lot about this movie and some of it was unpleasant, to say the least. I say to give it a watch and form your own opinion.
Elemental
It has a lot of popular tropes: Opposites forced to work together, enemies to lovers, and forbidden love. It is an honest-to-God romance and no one likely knew that. I had an idea but I still wouldn’t have been able to tell you much else until I saw it. And the romance is so sweetly done that Ember and Wade deserve to be enshrined with many other Disney romances but likely won’t.
And that’s a shame.
There’s also a lot in the movie about the immigrant experience and how painful excluding others can be. And it’s about having the courage to pursue our own dreams, not the dreams of others. These all combine to make a beautiful movie that again deserved better than it got.
So if you never got a chance to see it, definitely check it out on Disney+.
Barbie
This was probably the biggest movie of the year. And I saw it opening weekend. I went with some friends and we were all in pink, much like everyone in the theater. And we all enjoyed ourselves.
I know a lot has been written about this movie. Most of it positive, some not. But like The Little Mermaid, I encourage you to watch it and form your own opinion on it.
I’ve said that Barbie has the perfect mix of poignancy and humor. Greta Gerwig put together a movie that will be enjoyed for years to come. Everyone was perfectly cast – Michael Cera looks like an Allan doll come to life – and the music was pitch perfect. America Ferrara deserves to be nominated along with Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling.
My only quibble is that I wish they had done a little more with Sasha (Ariana Greenblatt) but I go back and forth on whether we really needed her journey spelled out more or if it’s better to leave it to the audience’s interpretation. And I think that also marks Barbie as a good movie.
Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny
I saw this on my Disney Cruise at the beginning of August, which was fun. I figured since I had the chance, might as well go see it. I never saw Crystal Skull but I’ve seen the other movies so I felt I was pretty set for this one.
For the most part, I enjoyed it. I did think it lagged in some points and may have been a little too long. But if this is Indy’s farewell, it was a fitting one. I enjoyed Phoebe Waller-Bridge as Helena and Mads Mikkelsen always makes a good villain. I do wish there had been at least one comment about how Dr. Voller’s plan wouldn’t work even if he managed to go back in time but c’est la vie.
The best parts of course were when Indy got to be Indy. The action scenes were amazing and Harrison was on point as always. He continues to prove why he is such a legend. So if you’re an Indiana Jones fan, definitely go see it. If you’re not, you might be okay bypassing this one.
The Haunted Mansion
I also saw this movie on my Disney Cruise, which was a nice treat. That’s certainly a plus for taking a Disney Cruise – we get to see first run movies on the ship. Because as our cruise director said - they own them!
I felt this version of The Haunted Mansion was an improvement over the first one with Eddie Murphy – though The Muppet version is still probably the best. At least this one seemed to have an idea of what it wanted to be and didn’t bounce between genres so fast it caused whiplash.
This movie is mostly comedic though it has its moments, especially surrounding the 999 not-so-happy haunts in the house. Those familiar with the ride will recognize most of the ghosts. But it’s not just about making references to the ride. A story about grief and depression is woven in as well as well as the power of community. So you may think it looks silly but I encourage you to give it a chance. I think the message will surprise you.
So there you go – my thoughts on some of the movies of the summer. Did you see any of these movies? What did you think? Did you see some big summer movies that I missed? If so, let me know in the comments!
Happy fall!
No comments:
Post a Comment