Toy Story 4 Review

Pixar is back with the fourth installment of its successful Toy Story franchise and like the other movies of this franchise it is also a feel good movie with lot of action and emotional moments.

This movie is certainly for kids of all ages and also for the adults who were kids themselves when the first two parts had come out. This is a movie to be enjoyed by both the kids and their parents. Like all Pixar movies it has many themes like neglect, caring for someone, self belief, friendship and ultimately learning to live for yourself. Inspite of carrying so many different themes, it is also entertaining. The movie is short in duration and thus feels really fast paced. However the plot is similar to the previous movies in the franchise, in that, the toys are lost, then they interact with new toy characters, learn new things about themselves and ultimately are re-united. Thus there is not much new in the movie that we haven't seen previously, but only new locations and some some new and interesting characters. But something new that I found in the movie is that the toys let humans hear them. Some innovative going on there.

The voice overs are just perfect. Tom Hanks and Tim Allen have been doing voice overs for the main characters of Woody and Buzz Lightyear for over 20 years, and they sill sound the same. Christina Hendricks is also good as Gabby Gabby and Keanu Reeves has also perfectly voiced a character called Duke Caboom. I saw Reeves's name only on the credits and had no idea that it was his voice.

The director of this movie is Josh Cooley who has previously worked as storyboard artist for various movies including The Incredibles, Up and Inside Out and had previously directed only animated shorts. He has done a good job at putting together the story, the situations and the characters and I feel like we are going to see more work from him in the future.

Overall, Toy Story 4 is a great movie for all the kids and fans of the franchise. So if you have a toddler, why are you waiting. Just go to a movie theater near you and enjoy this movie.

Rating - 3.5 / 5

Men In Black International Review

Men In Black International is the fourth movie of the Men In Black franchise and it is the first movie which does not star Will Smith. While the first part was good and introduced the world the Men In Black Universe, parts 2 and 3 were a bit lacking in their story and execution. So lets have a look at whether the fourth installment is any good?

The movie is similar in story to the first Men in Black movie where the main character is a new recruit and he/she partners an experienced agent. The movie tries to rekindle old memories like how the new recruit reacts when seeing the different aliens, the same way that the first movie did. But it does not work in the same way for a person who has seen the older movies like it does for a person who is seeing this franchise for the first time. While the movie is fun to watch, but it relies on the same old formulas set in the first movie, and thus does not offer anything new. The only good thing about the movie is that the story has been molded in the way of a James Bond movie of the 90's with a twist at the end. This brings some newness to the movie, however you can easily see through the twist of the movie and thus even the surprise element does not give you a high. Even the ending of the movie is not as good as it was for the first installment and thus by the end of the movie you do not feel that you have seen a very good movie. There is nothing new provided in the movie and thus it does not impress. However one of the most memorable scenes is one in which the makers have tried to remind us that the lead hero, Chris Hemsworth, is Thor, by giving him a small hammer. That ends up being the most funny and memorable scene for me.

Chris Hemsworth and Tessa Thompson are at their comic best and their chemistry is something to watch out for in the movie. Liam Neeson is also good in his small but important role.

The director, F. Gary Gray, has done a good job at making this a fun movie to watch. His directorial finesse can also be seen in many of the action and chase sequences that are there throughout the movie.

Overall, while this is fun movie to watch, it offers nothing new to the audiences. You can however go ahead and watch this movie for all the good comic elements that have been included in the movie.

Rating - 3 / 5

X-Men Dark Phoenix Review

X-Men: Dark Phoenix is the last movie in the X-Men franchise from 20th Century Fox studios and it looks like they gave their all in this movie trying to make it the biggest movie of this franchise. They even had to reshoot the entire third act of the movie in trying to make the ending different from another superhero movie. But has that affected the movie? Let me say that certainly have made this the biggest movie of this franchise, but is it the best?

The best movie of this franchise is still X-Men: First Class and that too by a long way. You people will tell me that Logan is the best movie of the franchise. But I have considered that movie and all the other Wolverine movies to belong to the Wolverine Franchise.  Thus X-Men: First Class is the best movie of the X-Men franchise. But does that mean that this is a bad movie. It’s certainly not a good movie.

Let’s see what’s good and bad about the movie. The best thing about the movie is Sophie Turner who plays Jean Grey. She is fabulous as Jean Grey. Another good thing going for the movie is that the plot is better than that of the last Dark Phoenix story, X-Men: The Last Stand, though in itself the plot has not been developed very well. While the story of Jean Grey has been developed to some extent, but it still lacks elements that explain why her character behaves in the way that she does after she absorbs the huge amount of energy. There are also some new characters like that of Jessica Chastain who have not been developed very well and thus the audience does not react towards the villainous ambitions of the character in the same way as they should have. And since she is the main villain in the movie, this plot point not being well developed makes the movie look weak. It’s a shame.

Another point of contention in the movie is that the plot of the movie was publicised as X-Men vs Dark Phoenix. But this element is not very well showcased and in some parts it ends up being Professor Xavier vs Magneto, which we have seen multiple times in the past. And even this angle has not been developed very well to have any effect of the audience. Thus the movie lets down audience's expectations by teasing something that is hardly there in the movie. These plot shortcomings stop the movie from being very enjoyable. However the visual effects and action are good in certain parts, which somewhat save the movie.

The most noticeable performance in the movie is that of Sophie Turner. Michael Fassbender and James McAvoy have also done good jobs while the other actors including Jennifer Lawrence and Nicholas Hoult have just about done their jobs. Nothing spectacular about them. Not too much of a loss for the movie as we have learnt not to expect too much acting skills in these kind of movies. However I must say that Jessica Chastain, who is the main villain, does not exude any villainy and thus seems miscast.

The director of this movie, Simon Kinberg, had written some of the earlier X-Men movies like Days of Future Past, X-Men Apocalypse and even The Last Stand, which was the Dark Phoenix storlyine. It would have been better if someone else had been given the opportunity to write this movie as it appears that he has tried to make this movie very different than the previous one and in that effort has not been able to do justice to the script. The poor writing has creeped into his direction and the movie does not seem to provide anything new compared to the other run of the mill X-Men movies.

So overall while the movie is not good you can still enjoy watching all the action. All the X-Men fans should go ahead and watch this movie before they get drafted into the MCU.

Rating - 2.5 / 5

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