AGfox16 Reviews

Zootopia (2016)

Best Disney film since the Renaissance

[9/10 · 28 December 2019]

With social commentary, charming characters, stunning animation, and an intriguing setting, Zootopia cements itself as the best animated film since the Disney Renaissance, and one of the best overall films of the decade.

First, let me talk about the characters. Zootopia features characters with pleasing character design and delightful and nuanced personalities. Nick Wilde is one of my favorite film characters with his confident yet sweet nature. Judy Hopps also provides a fine protagonist, being upbeat but without any annoying stereotypes.

The animation detail is amazing, especially on characters, the fur looks perfect, and the backgrounds look great too. The message against discrimination provides a stark contrast to Disney's other animated films which don't have such a mature message. The only problem I have with Zootopia is its villain - Deputy Mayor Bellwether. Though the plot otherwise was fine, her motive is not adequately explored, and her villainy seems to simply be an addition to the recent Disney twist villain trope. Also, Mayor Lionheart's role in the matter confused me.

Nevertheless, Zootopia's exceptionally strong characters, message, and animation far outweigh its cons.

Star Wars: The Rise Of Skywalker (2019)

An alright film - but a messy end to a messy trilogy

[5/10 · 27 December 2019]

Don't let the emotional YouTube commentators or your nostalgia-pandering family and friends convince you that the Rise of Skywalker is the best or worst movie of all time - it's just alright.

First off may I take a moment to talk about characters and their arcs. Palpatine's re-introduction seems like a cheap call-back to the OT, with little explanation given as to how he was brought back to life, or, kept alive (cloning was mentioned as a possibility by a Resistance officer but no more about that later), plus where did all these secret Palpatine supporters come from? Rey, Finn, and Poe's arcs were handled averagely. Rey's identity of a Palpatine and her temptation of the dark-side was a painful call-back to ROTJ however, even though it did satisfy concerns of how she is so powerful despite having supposedly no significant parentage; Finn and Jannah made a fine pair - more chemistry than Finn and Rose, however the ending neglected the two, opting instead for an out-of-place convo between her and Lando rather than Finn, also, Finn's secret was apparently that he is Force sensitive according to JJ, but this never came to use in the movie. Kylo on the other hand had a marvelous character arc completion if you ask me. Kylo's struggle had come to maturity and his experiences with Leia and the memory of Han creates a plausible reason for his final turning in moral standing, and I believe IX cemented him as my favorite character of the sequel trilogy. The new characters of Zorii and Babu Frik were nice additions. The scene-piecing for Leia was noticeable, but was a good job considering what they had to work with.

The biggest problem with the movie is that it feels like JJ tried to fit *his* episode VIII and IX into one episode. JJ most likely intended for Rey to find out her true parentage in his VIII, with adequate time to reflect on her findings, and that reflection time could not exist in the busy IX. Rey's short self-exile on Ahch-To and her interactions with Luke are not explored in detail enough. That said, I still thoroughly enjoyed many scenes, Rey and Kylo's interactions, and particularly the lightsaber fights, though I still prefer the aesthetic of the Kylo/Rey team up in TLJ to this one. Overall, ROS is an alright movie. It never really made me frustrated, but I didn't leave feeling satisfied either.

Captain Marvel (2019)

Good story, bad character design

[5/10 · 9 March 2019]

Marvel was overdue for it's first female lead film, and Captain Marvel seeked to establish Carol Danvers as one of the main faces of the next generation of heroes, expected to take the spotlight after characters like Tony Stark, Steve Rogers, and Bruce Banner either die or retire after the upcoming Endgame.

Unfortunately, I believe that the filmmakers let the responsibility of establishing MCU's first lead female hero influence Carol's character design far too much. The film overstates her power in exchange for good character development and personality, resulting in her over-powered nature. The film lacks times where Carol seems to truly be in danger of losing, which is a vital element to good superhero movies. Her ability to destroy missiles and ships simply by flying through them makes her far too powerful to make for a good character. It truly seems as though Thanos will not stand a chance against Danvers, which is absurd considering her power is only from being exposed to one Infinity Stone, while his is from wielding all six Stones.

The film does have its strengths however, particularly in its storyline, which is refreshing, as finally an ugly shapeshifting alien race is the good guy this time. Fury and Coulson are perfectly de-aged by the use of CGI, and they make the movie much more enjoyable. The action and effects are good as usual, redeeming the movie as being alright.

2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)

Overrated waste of potential

[4/10 · 18 January 2019]

2001: A Space Odyssey, with its near universal acclaim, is one of those films seems to itself define the meaning of what it is to be a great film. I must however break from this general opinion. 2001, in my opinion, is one of the greatest wastes of potential in film history. I wanted to like this movie so bad but I just couldn't.

First the movie treats you with a long black screen, then ancient hominids going about daily life around the mysterious Monolith, with no music and of course no dialogue. Once the spaceships are shown (with great Strauss music accompaniment I must say), it still takes forever to get anywhere. Eventually we meet Bowman and HAL 9000. Bowman is an incredibly dull character, but HAL on the other hand was intriguing as a villain. Sadly, the HAL storyline was anti-climactic and disappointing, as his defeat was insignificant.

Then Mr. Boring, I mean Bowman, gets in a pod and travels through space, seeing all sorts of colors and extra-terrestrial sights. A wonderful piece of art, at least it could've been if it had meaning. Then he ages significantly, only to touch the Monolith and turn into a fetus.

Some say you must "find what the movie means to you," but even though I have existentialist sympathies, I cannot excuse films that have no inherent meaning. 2001 is a visually spectacular yet absolute disaster of wasted potential and skill.

Avengers: Infinity War (2018)

Different and epic, but there are many, many issues

[8/10 · 30 April 2018]

Some parts of this movie are absolutely deep, touching, and well done. Thanos' sacrifice of Gamora, along with the haunting of his consciousness afterwards, makes for real villain character depth, a rare feat in superhero films. The scenes in general featuring the GOTG were stellar in my opinion. This film truly had many charming moments.

That said, the movie was very unsatisfying and had me leaving the theater with countless questions. Why did Loki go down so easily? Loki's "betrayal" was amateurish, surely he didn't expect to actually be able to stab Thanos only seconds after pledging allegiance to him. Also, Loki has prior experience with the Tesseract, why didn't he teleport him and the other Asgardians to a safer place? What happened to Valkyrie and Korg? And why was the ending of Thor: Ragnarok completely nullified with the genocide of the Asgardians? How did Iron Man stand a chance of fighting Thanos when Hulk succumbed to him within a few punches? Why was Bruce later throughout the film unable to turn into Hulk?

Ignoring Strange's "I only saw one good outcome" nonsense, why didn't he use the Time Stone when on Titan? The Time Stone is capable of stopping time and thus freezing whoever you want to, surely this could've been used against Thanos instead of Strange doing nothing more with the Eye than acting as if he was wearing a peridot necklace. Why didn't Thanos eliminate all threats to him as soon as he attained the Soul Stone? If I understand correctly, the Soul Stone would give him the ability to snap his fingers and kill specifically whoever he wanted, not just randomly selected people. And why was Scarlet able to destroy the Mind Stone? The Stones are primordial objects, it makes no sense for something that was exposed to a Stone's effects to have the ability to destroy an actual Stone.

Also, just the fact that the Soul and Time Stones exist makes me more apathetic to the events during the film, as they are not permanent. All of these points I've brought up are why I can't give A:IW more than a 5/10.

Dalam-iwa Goseumdochi (1977–2012)

Unforgivable for being propaganda, otherwise OK.

[8 September 2017]

For coming out of a North Korean animation studio, SaH is actually satisfactory when it comes to animation. The story is actually mildly entertaining, also. However, I absolutely cannot give this any more than 3/10 because first of all it is anti-Western propaganda. The "Flower Hill" is clearly a depiction of North Korea. The squirrels, hedgehogs, and ducks are the citizens of North Korea, while the villainous mice, weasels, and wolves represent South Koreans, Japanese, and Americans, respectively. Also, the series is quite violent for being intended for children's viewing. In episode 31 alone, there are multiple killings, one shown with blood when a mole is killed.

Quite entertaining for adults if not for obvious parallels to the North Korea dispute.

Tomorrowland (2015)

A boring movie with no story

[2/10 · 19 October 2015]

First of all, the action and ooh-aah scenes seen in the trailer are the only of their kind in the movie, just included so the trailer would look nice, thus drawing people in.

Casey (Britt Robertson) is the protagonist. She was chosen by Athena because she was a "dreamer". In my opinion she is an annoying, spoiled, brat. It made no sense that she snuck out of the house at least three times to cause problems at a NASA launch platform just so her dad could keep his job a bit longer, before she needed to sneak out again to disturb the project. Is risking jail time and prosecution by DHS not enough to deter you from committing such offenses? In Casey's mind, no. Which brings me back to, why was she so much better than everyone else (other than because she asked her teacher how the world's problems could be fixed).

Frank (George Clooney) is just a grumpy old man for about all of the film, and his relationship with the non-aging child-robot Athena (Raffey Cassidy) (Who Frank met when he was around 9 years old, which is around how old she has always appeared to be) is just strange.

The story is just confusing, talking about the apocalypse that may be coming because of a machine that's creating a self-fulfilling prophecy and how they can prevent it. And the reason for Casey being brought to Tomorrowland (besides the "she can fix it" non- explanation) is not said until two thirds of the way through.

Please, don't waste your time and money, skip seeing Tomorrowland.

Jurassic Park (1993)

Disappointed

[6/10 · 1 July 2015]

My review for Jurassic Park (From a person who hasn't read the books):

Plot: 4/10 While the concept of JP was very good IMO, the execution of it in the plot wasn't good. It would have been better if the tour wouldn't have malfunctioned on it's first run and had been a success the first few times. It was also strange that the characters were making such a big deal about the storm, but the storm didn't have anything to do with the park's fences failing.

Characters: 3/10 The characters were either bland (Alan, Ellie, Lex, Tim, Ray, Robert, etc.), or unlikable (Ian, John, Donald, Dennis, etc.).

Special effects: 7/10 Pretty good for 1993, but the severed arm thing was so poorly done it was cringe-worthy.

Music: 6/10 Pretty good.

Conclusion: JP had such a good concept, but IMO was poorly executed.

Comparison: I like this JP better than JP III, but not as good as JP II.

Tron: Legacy (2010)

Horrible

[2/10 · 24 June 2015]

My review from TRON: Legacy broken down:

Plot: 1/10, didn't make any sense. So many plot holes and things I didn't understand, what are ISOs (though "explained", it was still confusing)? How did Sam learn how to use the weapons/vehicles in the grid so fast, to the point where he could defeat programs? How did Clu think what he was doing was going to make things right, and why would he do it if he's a copy of Kevin (even though it was old Kevin)? How did Kevin help Quorra escape the genocide when they would've been surrounded by troops? Why was it so important that the world meet Quorra, the surviving ISO? In the end, all she did was ride on a motorcycle. Why did Clu's troops capture Quorra instead of killing her right then? The one thing that this movie has going for it as far as plot goes is unpredictability!

Characters: 3/10, while the acting was fine, the characters were bland and not likable.

Music: 9/10, Daft Punk did an amazing job with the soundtrack, but unfortunately, the music couldn't save the movie.

Special Effects: NA, I don't even know how to rate this, because I didn't know what I was looking at when I watched this film.

Conclusion: Music is the only thing that prevents me from giving this a 1. It's impossible to like such a confusing film as this.

Guardians of the Galaxy (2014)

Pretty good

[6/10 · 24 June 2015]

So here we go, my review of GOTG, broken down into parts:

Plot: 6/10, while having some holes (plotholes), it was OK. Some of the problems with the plot that I can name are things like why was Peter abducted? What's with the awkward relationship between Peter and Yondu? Nonetheless, these holes didn't subtract too much from the film. BTW, while seeming to be separated from the rest of the Marvel films (at least from the perspective of those who've never picked up a comic book, like myself), this movie does deal with an Infinity Stone (Power Stone) and explains who Thanos is, which will come in handy when Avengers 3 comes out (Infinity Wars Pt. 1 & 2 will most likely have Thanos as the villain, based on the mid-credit scene of Avengers: AoU). As far as predictability, this film is not predictable.

Characters: 5/10, Peter Quill (Chris Pratt) is definitely a different type of superhero, while I personally dislike the character. Rocket Raccoon is my favorite. One problem with the characters is that too many have, uh, temper problems, and tend to try to kill anyone who insults them (I'm talking about Gamora, Rocket, and Drax). Peter doesn't get mad when insulted, but probably because he knows that the insults are true. Groot is the only character who seemingly has no attitude issues, but Groot can't talk (other than saying I/We are Groot).

Special Effects: 9/10, the SfX were excellent and was what I was expecting from Marvel.

Conclusion: GOTG, while certainly different, isn't necessarily different in a good way. Nonetheless, it's a good watch, and deserves the title of Marvel film.

Despicable Me (2010)

Full of bad jokes and a stupid plot

[1/10 · 16 April 2015]

The movie has nothing really good about it, the plot is stupid (an Egyptian pyramid has been ruined by another villain so now I have to shrink the moon to show that I'm better, then after he shrinks the moon, the antagonist Vector kidnaps the three girls, and makes Gru give the moon (which is now the size of a baseball) back so he'll give back the girls, then he refuses to give back the girls, he blasts off in his ship, and Gru's scientist tells him that the shrinking effect will wear off soon, then Vector gets mushed by the moon and the girls return with Gru, like I told you, it's stupid.), it has bad humor, a pitiful soundtrack (even though it was mostly songs performed by Pharrell), bad animation (especially Gru, Gru's mother (who has an extremely long head and nose), and pretty much everyone except the three girls), and so that really makes this movie almost unwatchable.

Big Cat Diary (1996– )

One of the best Animal Planet shows

[10/10 · 27 February 2014]

This show is one of if not the best show on Animal Planet. It's realistic without being too gruesome; some animals are lost, etc. It shows the lions capturing and eating their prey but it really doesn't show that much detail. Anyway, the show is filmed in the Masai Mara in Kenya, near Nairobi; it follows lions, cheetahs, and leopards. Amber, Kike, Honey (cheetahs), the Marsh and Ridge pride and Tamu (lions), and Half-tail, Shadow, and Bella (leopards) to name a few. It didn't make any sense that they canceled it, or put it on hiatus. Hopefully they will resume and this great show will have new episodes. Well at least they still play reruns on Animal Planet. 10/10.

Bad Dog! (2010–2014)

Not just about dogs...

[3/10 · 25 February 2014]

First off, this show doesn't just have dogs, it has parrots, bulls, cats, etc despite it's name. Second, many of the videos they show aren't "bad dogs" or bulls, or whatever. They show many animals that have either been trained or have been provoked to do these things. Of course like America's Funniest Home Videos, anyone will do just about anything to get on TV. Sometimes the stuff is a dog being bad, sometimes it's funny, sometimes it's not. For example a bull injured his owner... you'd say he was bad until you saw that the owner provoked him with a trash can. I'm I the only person that finds that this is annoying? So I'm going with a three.