Welcome to this month's iteration of Review Roundup! Not much activity to report from this last month, the university workload has definitely taken its toll on my Letterboxd activity, but I still managed to jot down a few thoughts after some of the viewings I had (most of which I now realise was rather middling fare), so here they are!
NEW: Captain America: Brave New World (Julius Onah, 2025) - reviewed 01/03/2025
"It’s recently dawned on me that it has been TEN YEARS since I started following the Marvel franchise. I still remember going to see Avengers: Age of Ultron for the first time as a twelve year-old back in 2015, and becoming ever so eager to go back and fill myself in on every prior film as well as follow the story as it went on. This franchise went on to define large parts of my teenage years, but in recent years I have simply just lost interest. It’s not like I’ve even been actively trying to distance myself from it or anything, in an ideal world I’d still like to be highly anticipating each new entry and getting excited with each new turn, but that excitement I once had has just kind of faded away with time, and I’ve really only showed up to the latest instalments out of obligation. Valid as I believe some of the reasons for the MCU’s slow decline may be (the integration of TV shows, the lack of overall cohesion), I think it might also just be the simple fact that I’m getting older and naturally want to move on to other things. Despite having fun with parts of this film here and there, especially the enjoyable performances, I just did not care about what was happening overall. The whole schtick of pulling together plot threads from numerous films within the shared universe used to have a charm to it, but now it’s just kind of exhausting. The extremely digital-infused aesthetic never used to bother me, but now I consider it quite ugly and jarring. I feel like I’ve got the most I can out of this franchise now, honestly; I was there when it was in its prime and I’ll always have the valuable memories of being around for that, but I feel like now more than ever I’m ready to make those sorts of memories and connections with something else. There are simply so many films out there, so many iconic ones from years past, that I have not seen, so continuing investing time in a series that fails to offer anything new or even anything that remains enjoyable in its familiarity sadly doesn’t seem worth it. That’s not to say I’m gonna ignore Marvel altogether, I’m actually pretty excited for the new Fantastic Four film, but after a decade of consistently seeing each and every one, I think I’m comfortable with calling it a day as a dedicated fan." 6/10
THROWBACK: They Shall Not Grow Old (Peter Jackson, 2018) - reviewed 04/03/2025
"Not sure how I feel about this. The work done to this footage is technically impressive and no doubt took a lot of work, but the implications of the end result have me conflicted. In a world where so much early cinema has sadly been lost over time, it is quite amazing that all this archival footage of the First World War from over a century ago still exists, and thus everything ought to be done to ensure that won’t change. However, if such can only be seen through the lens of this supposed ‘augmentation’ (colourisation, added sound effects, etc), one can’t help but wonder if it’s actually being preserved or not. We may get a supposedly more realistic image and atmosphere of what was captured all those years ago, neatly complimenting the words being spoken by the narrators about their own experiences, but the fact remains that the untouched material is what was produced by those who captured it, and when looking back on it, letting it continue to exist in that form is what I’d consider the biggest priority. If this is nothing more than just a gimmicky experiment designed to explore the possibilities of playing around with archive footage, I suppose it’s inoffensive enough and functions as a solid documentary about an important area of history, but if it represents what some believe to be the standard practice for approaching and presenting existing film material, which becomes quite believable considering how so many more recent films are now having awful AI restorations promoted and treated as their definitive versions, then that’s cause for concern." 6/10
NEW: Mickey 17 (Bong Joon Ho, 2025) - reviewed 08/03/2025
"Despite having all the usual Bong-isms on the surface (sociopolitical
satire, offbeat and dark comedy, even more weird CG creatures), this
really doesn’t feel like a Bong Joon Ho film all that much. It’s not as
sharp nor as memorable as what I’ve come to expect from the guy, so
broad and unfocused in its themes and commentary as little more than a
vague critique of the capitalist system and how it abuses those within,
with some environmental elements thrown in for good measure. The lack of
cultural specificity at hand really seems to do it a disservice; while I
don’t want to let films such as Parasite or The Host be ultimately
defined by the fact that they’re Korean, I’d be lying if I said that
their distinct cultural contexts didn’t help them work as well as they
do. They feel so refined and assured in what they’re critiquing as a
result, which in turn is where a lot of Bong’s unique sense of humour
can successfully be derived from, resulting in the striking and
entertaining pieces we know him for. Mickey 17 on the other hand comes
across as a bit tame and flavourless, almost like it’s designed to
appeal to a mass audience, not at all surprising given that it’s a
product of the Hollywood system, but quite disappointing when
considering the director at hand. This makes me hope that Bong returns
to his familiar territory for whatever he does next, because it might
just be that what he’s been able to do there is far better and more
interesting than what the rather monotonous mainstream Western landscape
allows for filmmakers such as him. That said, he did at least get yet
another great performance out of Robert Pattinson here, wouldn’t mind
seeing them work together again." 6/10
NEW: Flow (Gints Zilbalodis, 2024) - reviewed 24/03/2025
"Why do we wish to survive? What does it even mean to exist? Truly the least apt to deal with such questions would be animals, simple creatures for whom, as far as we’re aware, survival is the ultimate end goal. They may not be conscious of their place as a thing that exists, and when faced with a life threatening situation, they seek no more than a basic means of survival, with no regard for why they choose to do so nor what will come as a result aside from their continued existence. But that is not the case in Flow, for here we see a heightened portrait of animals that are forced to reckon with their very essence and what space they occupy. In a world with an abundance of water, while they may narrowly find ways of seeking refuge (a boat, an island, etc.), one thing they cannot escape is themselves, as their reflections are something they’re constantly faced with everywhere they look. It’s clear they can’t even begin to comprehend it and its implications at first, it’s even frightening for them, and after a while, you have to wonder if it’s really death that they’re trying to evade, that they might instead possess a subconscious instinct to avoid being faced with the inevitable question, something their nature may not be equipped for. The act of treading water then sees them enter a liminal space, desperately clinging to the safety and comfort of that which lies above the surface, yet ultimately consumed by a whole world of deep revelations all about them. Indeed, going beneath the surface reveals many things, be it a whole ecosystem of its own or the submerged remains of bygone eras, but furthermore, it is the space where one’s nature finds itself put into perspective, something that is only reached on taking the plunge and daring to look beyond merely the reflection of one’s exterior that the surface has to offer. And with that, the truth becomes clearer than ever. These animals get a firm grip on survival without difficulty, but there’s more to life than survival, and slowly discovering a sense of belonging and companionship is what makes them realise that their existence is worth more than its own sake. All it took was a lot of water, a window into the soul and a guiding path of sorts, to get them there. It will always be beautiful to see someone find meaning in life on film, but there’s something simply magical about seeing the same courtesy extended to beings with no sense of themselves to begin with. That’s just what cinema, and more specifically the distinct possibilities of animation, is capable of exploring." 8/10
CATCH-UP: Mufasa: The Lion King (Barry Jenkins, 2024) - reviewed 31/03/2025
"As a big The Lion King fan (well, a fan of the 1994 film and basically nothing else of the franchise), I was keen to see this back in December but never got around to it. Having finally sat down to watch it now, I can say it definitely has some admirable things about it, but it nonetheless shares a lot of the weaknesses of its predecessor. The best thing is that the overall direction is a noticeable improvement. They definitely took notes from beforehand by making the characters and environments more expressive amid the photorealistic style. There’s a lot more colour to be seen, and occasionally some striking, well composed visuals are constructed. At the end of the day, it is still mostly digital slop, but I think it’s fair to say Barry [Jenkins] did the best he could with what the aesthetic has to offer. It’s definitely not Avatar levels of making a fully computer-generated world completely mesmerising and full of awe, but it’s still a step up from the blandness of The Lion King 2019. That said, this distinct direction doesn’t extend to the narrative and tone at hand, which is where the film mostly falters. The biggest problem with The Lion King 2019 is that the photorealistic style just doesn’t work for the given story, as there are some things that simply work exclusively in the 2D animated realm, and singing lions navigating an emotional, Shakespearean / Biblical narrative happens to be one of those things. What I was looking forward to here, beyond finding out what prequel narrative would be devised for these characters, was seeing if they’d take the chance to tell a story involving them that’s better suited to the style. They’re not confined to an existing narrative anymore, they’ve got the chance to craft something altogether new. Unfortunately, they don’t take advantage of that fact, instead keeping the tone consistent with The Lion King ‘94, thus retaining what made the 2019 film so poor. It was at least an understandable issue there given that they were retreading the same story, but it’s more frustrating here as they had the chance to try something new. Tell a more grounded story, be less cartoony with the behaviour of these animals, maybe even eliminate the musical angle (which isn’t something you’d find me saying very often!). When we were introduced to Kiros, for example, I felt a glimmer of hope that things might be going in that direction, as the ruthless and intimidating nature of the character combined with Mads Mikkelsen’s delicious voice made him feel like a suitably gritty antagonist. But then five minutes later he’s singing a goofy Lin-Manuel Miranda song and all that is undermined, instead giving him a theatrical stage presence that’s better suited for the heightened 2D animated space. Photorealism is, for me, always going to be a somewhat questionable exercise in animation given that the whole appeal of the latter medium comes from its removal from reality, but I feel like if you are going to adhere to it, the very least you could do is try to have a consistent, appropriate tone. In other words, don’t look to animated Disney films that thrive off of everything that photorealism is simply incapable of for inspiration! Aside from that, the whole framing device for this new narrative is implemented awfully, as while I like the idea of Rafiki telling this story to Kiara just fine, the constant cutting back to them (as well as the infinitely cringe inducing antics of Timon and Pumbaa) was completely unnecessary and really only padded the runtime out. The new story itself is passable, unsurprisingly nothing that significantly reframes anything about these characters as we knew them, mostly just consisting of the usual Solo: A Star Wars Story esque depictions of how the most incidental things came to be, but it’s nothing aggressively awful either, just perfunctory at worst. The songs range from okay to straight up bad, you can really tell when Lin is just phoning it in as none of his usual creative lyricism was to be found here. The incidental music otherwise manages to misuse just about every theme from Hans Zimmer’s original score, very clearly just shoving them in for the sake of nostalgia and an extremely forced sense of cohesion. The voice acting was surprisingly pretty solid, unlike the 2019 film which boasts one of the worst examples of celebrity voice casting, here everyone did rather fine for the most part. Overall I wouldn’t say there’s enough worth here to justify this film’s existence, but I suppose it’s good that there was an attempt to make the best of a bad situation? I don’t know, man, just bring back 2D animation, Disney, its absence is felt greater by the minute!" 6/10
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