John Wick Chapter 2
John Wick 1 and 2 are not for me, as much as I'd love to like them.
I have three issues with this one:
1) The assassins (particularly Reeves and Common), and others, are trying too hard to be cool like the opening scene of The Matrix: Reloaded; which is bad.
2) Much as I respect physical actual action, this is just a bunch of Reeves awkwardly bobbing around with a gun near his head. Then when he's close, it's just spin everyone around before popping everyone in the head. Speaking of which...
3) If I wanted to watch Headshots: The Movie, I'd rather watch a "Let's Play" of Goldeneye 64 in Big Head mode on easy difficulty.
There are again teases of an interesting world, but the film follows characters I don't really care about and the most basic, basic, basic, basic story around: mess with John Wick = you die. It was boring and flat. Maybe I'd enjoy it more with a better director?
Unless you enjoyed the first movie, John Wick Chapter 2 is sadly NOT RECOMMENDED, but please go see it anyway and judge for yourself.
Ghost in the Shell
There are actually some decent things good in the film, such as production design, generally costumes and some elements of the story (the metaphysical, the villain mostly).
But there are indeed some problems in the movie, too, particularly with how much they messed with Major's origin and made it such a central point (save it for the second or simplify what was done), adding an origin to Bato's eyes and casting him with a New York accent (or whatever that crappy accent was), not to mention criminally under-utilizing the rest of the Section 9 team. Had the story focused more on them being a solid team, having good banter, but still having political machinations, it would have been better. I'm positive a minor recut of the movie will go a long way.
As for the controversy of the casting and whitewashing, it wasn't an issue to me as she's in a shell - a supposedly generic shell, per the show and mange (another movie fuck-up). Hell, once she got a better idea of her origin, she could have modified her shell for a not-going-to-happen-now sequel. Would giving the role to an Asian actress have been preferred? Absolutely. But her being whitewashed/her identity taken away was part of the story and not a bad idea for a story.
Despite its number of issues, Ghost in the Shell is RECOMMENDED, but maybe just barely. I wish either this version were better or there's a sequel that could show off just how good the property is, but maybe that's what the Stand Alone Complex anime series is for (particularly the second season).
Kong: Skull Island
It's a total B-movie, but hot damn is this fun. Easily my now second favorite movie of the year, considering how underwhelming this year has been (first is Get Out). Kong has some cliches with the 70s setting re: music and the military, but things just work and click due to some excellent direction and editing.
Sure, the characters don't really exist outside maybe Sam Jackson's character, but it's not really the point - Kong is the central figure of the story and he completely owns this movie. We just happen to be seeing Kong through these rando's eyes. Then again, John C Reilly was so much fun!
Also, give the team that brought this Kong to life all of Andy Serkis' future work. This Kong was so much more compelling than Peter Jackson's version, which I've admittedly forgotten. Then again, it may have just been the movie, on the whole.
Either way, I'm completely onboard with the sequel and can't wait. The post-credits sequence is arguably the second best ending of the year (first goes to Split; third may be the post-credits from Spider-man: Homecoming).
Your enjoyment of B-movie cheese may vary, but Kong: Skull Island is HIGHLY RECOMMENDED by me. I'm sad I missed out on this in theaters, as I'm sure it'd have been quite the experience.
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