Incredibles 2 (2018)

What do you do in Bangkok? Go see a 4D movie! The 4D is super unnecessary, but it was kind of novel. During the Bao short and the first thirty minutes of the movie, there are 4D effects that are unexpected because they are mundane, but that kind of makes it fun and funny. It did make me smile. The latter half of the movie did not have as many effects. They and we maybe forgot about it.

The movie is brilliant. It is a modern day superhero movie. We needed to wait over a decade for this movie and it was well worth the wait to see our contemporary debates featured prominently. There is a dining table argument the family has over civil disobedience. A main theme of the movie is body cameras, a contemporary policing/vigilante proposal. And of course, you can't ignore the working mom and stay-at-home dad narrative. To top it off, the movie is hilarious. Brad Bird is an excellent director. But this film doesn't feel like a Pixar movie (nothing wrong with that) because it never reaches that emotional climax (nothing wrong with that either). The movie does throw a curveball by casting Bob Odenkirk, whose most famous role leads us to believe he was typecast. Spoiler alert, he's not. Michael Giacchino's music is lots of fun, kind of jazzy.

The Big Sick (2017)

There's a few really great things going on in The Big Sick that just make you smile. Let's start with the obvious, we need more Asian-American stories in American cinema. South Asian men like Kumail Nanjiani and Aziz Ansari have broken the white stranglehold on rom-coms. Kumail is a fully developed character who must navigate his own heritage and underlying racism to get the girl. I think part of the reason the film lands so well with the audience is that it is based on a real, honest, autobiographical story. It is believable because it is never trying to simply make a statement. It's not a soapbox movie about racism, it's a love story. Kumail is likable, relatable, desirable--so the audience easily empathizes with him. The movie is intelligent and it brings freshness to the rather staid genre. It is rounded out by excellent performances from Holly Hunter and Ray Romano (it's nice to see him again). 

Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016)

There were very high expectations for this film, and I think it fell short. The first hour and a half of the movie is a total mess. It is a series of short vignettes (for an hour and a half!) of seemingly unrelated themes. It relies on you knowing the back story to draw connections between the vignettes on your own, but on the whole they do not really contribute to the overarching story in the film. Speaking of overarching story, there seems to be scenes missing or rather the movie simply skips over the explaining parts and just assumes that you know what's going on. My biggest qualm is that the movie removed these useful scenes, while keeping the useless ones that simply set up more sequels without resolution--such as that inexplicable dream sequence.

The music seemed a little stale. Hans Zimmer is usually a master of the superhero soundtrack. He rightfully recognized that this would be his last superhero movie, claiming that he has run out of ideas. His Man of Steel soundtrack was quite good. I think it might have worked better to have more "Man of Steel" music and less new stuff.

Ben Affleck plays a Batman that is fundamentally different from the Christian Bale Batman that we have come to know and adore. He really plays up the vigilante side of Batman--a back-to-basics of sorts. It is not a bad thing, just different. And I like that the Batcave is underneath Farnsworth House. Actually, more difficult for me was seeing Jeremy Irons as Alfred; for me Michael Caine will embody Alfred always. Wonder Woman was left very mysterious. There weren't really any answers and she appeared out of nowhere. If Gal Gadot's job was simply to be mysterious, then she did it well.

And if you were wondering why are Superman and Batman fighting then you were right to wonder. Don't let the super fans scold you for asking the right question. They shouldn't be fighting. They're on the same side.

And there were no extra scenes in the end credits! What kind of superhero movie is that?

I saw this movie at the historic Senator Theater in Baltimore. It is a gorgeous old movie house and it made the movie going experience well worth it.