Review: Mickey 17

I missed this one in theaters. I wish I was more disappointed.

First of all, lighting. This is the second movie in a row that needed more of it. It’s not as dark as Frankenstein, but still.

Second of all, the concept is actually very interesting. Mickey signs up to be an Expendable, meaning that he gets a new body every time he dies. For…really unclear reasons…he’s the only one. (It mostly seems to be irrational fear of new technology, although there is the serial killer). In fact, the filmmakers definitely seem to think that human printing is bad…

Unfortunately, from my perspective, they take this and turn it into a fairly standard first contact story, with the usual number of misunderstandings. (Also, what sane person would get on a ship to a planet named Niflheim? I wouldn’t! The planet, of course, deserves the name).

There’s some anti-colonialist and anti-racist stuff, but ultimately the colonists still settle on somebody else’s planet, and do we really trust humans to keep a treaty? (The fact that the ultimate leader is a Black woman does help).

And a bunch of shenanigans including the inevitable dark humor.

I just didn’t much like it. It’s well made, but the lead struggles to carry it. The brightest point is the villainous teamup of Kenneth Marshall (Mark Ruffalo) and his wife Ylfa (Toni Collette), both of whom are billed way down the list, but both of whom chew the scenery in such delightful ways that it makes the movie more interesting.

The aliens are well done, but there’s one scene where the baby alien is so obviously a puppet that it threw me slightly out of the movie.

This is kind of trying to be thoughtful science fiction and a commentary on our times. It clearly worked for quite a lot of people. It didn’t work for me.

Oh, and as one final note: They buried their gays and as far as I can tell (okay, they don’t explicitly say they’re lesbians, but Harold) they did it to make the bad guys look worse…as in, lesbians existing in the movie only to be oppressed. It’s 2026. Do better.

I received a copy of this movie for award consideration purposes.

Cinema Disaster: Dark Space

Oh, where do I start. First of all, the dialog. The dialog. Something was just the wind. What could possibly go wrong? Nobody else needs to die. Every other line seemed to be written solely to be immediately contradicted.

So, aside from that, this is kind of two movies. The first half didn’t feel like it needed to be science fiction. Our protagonists could just as easily have crashed while speeding on the way to Death Valley and run into a serial killer.

The second half was somewhat clumsy but obviously well meaning anticolonialism, which attempted to add depth to a movie you could barely wade in. It didn’t work, but I do feel as if they tried reasonably well.

The actors were all kind of mediocre. The plot lacked coherence…or, perhaps, felt as if they suddenly realized they were writing science fiction and should make it actually science fictional, as opposed to a world in which people got docking tickets and space has speed limits.

(And don’t get me started on the medicine. No. That’s not how sedatives work. That’s not how any of it works).

Not a bad popcorn flick, mind. If you like your movies campy and not necessarily well done, its enjoyable.

Review: Superman (2025)

So, I have been on the outs with DC for a while over various things, including their treatment of the WIldStorm property. Apparently, I should have trusted James Gunn.

Because not only did I skip, on the big screen, literally the first truly excellent Superman movie since 1987 (I am not counting TV shows, I did very much enjoy Superman & Lois), but I also skipped the first appearance of a WildStorm character on the big screen – irony!

And because I watched it on the screener for the Hugos, I wasn’t able to share it with the husband. That’s the bad news. The good news is that means I will “have” to watch it again.

This was not to say the movie was perfect. I really didn’t like the casting of Ma and Pa. Sorry.

But it was excellent. Here’s the bad news: David Corenswet is not why. He’s not a bad Superman. In fact, he’s a pretty good Superman. The problem is that when he comes on screen to Reeve’s theme song…you start comparing him with Reeve. He is not Reeve. Very few actors are Reeve, though. And he’s not the one who carries the movie.

That would be Nicholas Hoult, alternately suave, creepy, and outright scenery chewing as one of the best Lex Luthor’s ever, possibly the best…although that could be recency bias. This is not his first superhero outing; he’s also Beast in a bunch of recent X-Men stuff and Deadpool 2…and he did that well too. But as Lex, he let himself inhabit the role, let us believe the story Lex is the hero of. After the terrible Luthor in Superman & Lois, this was a breath of fresh air.

Rachel Brosnahan is also a solid Lois Lane. I definitely liked her in the role.

Also, while this movie tugged on the nostalgia strings for those of us who are old (Technically I’m too young for the first Reeve movie. I watched it on TV. With my parents), I think it makes a good introduction to the franchise for those of us who are less so.

There have been quite a few attempts at a Superman movie since 1987. None of them have succeeded. Until now.

I received a copy of this movie for award consideration purposes.

Retro Review: The Avengers 3.1 “Brief For Murder”

So, we return to The Avengers after a long break. (It vanished from our Tubi list and I think that’s because we hadn’t touched it in so long).

Season 3 starts with Steed and Gale going after a corrupt law practice, who take large bribes to guarantee acquittal. And it seems they know exactly how to do it.

The shenanigans here include Steed being arrested for murdering Gale (despite there being no body – it’s a really shaky case, which might be part of why this doesn’t actually work without even more shenanigans).

They certainly do end up finding out the secret of the Lakin’s success, but I found this episode a little weak. And of course with Gale spending half of it “dead” there wasn’t enough Honor Blackman. Not that she’s Rigg, but…

Retro Review: The Avengers 3.2 “The Undertakers”

With this episode, the show is back on form. There’s even a shootout in a sculpture garden.

At first one might suspect the titular “undertakers” of proactively drumming up business. Instead, they are in the business of the opposite of faking deaths.

For a cut, they help wealthy people avoid death duties by putting them on the roster of a spiritual retreat when they die. An actor plays them, just in case, and then when the five years after which gifts cease to be taxed is up, a fake funeral happens.

It’s quite the racket, and it does appear that the actors are being well paid…and drawn from far away, just in case.

Gale infiltrates the “retreat”.

And there’s a shootout in a sculpture garden, which really makes the entire episode.

It’s a creative scam too. This kind of thing is why gift taxes exist.