If there’s one good thing I can say about “Justice League”, it’s that the league itself is in top-notch shape. DC’s greatest heroes have excellent chemistry with one another while remaining interesting on their own merits. It truly is a shame, then that they inhabit what is otherwise, at best, a thoroughly mediocre movie. Any strong character work fades away in the face of an incredibly choppy story, tonal issues, a boring villain and poor visual effects. What should be a major pop culture event winds up feeling like yet another poorly-made blockbuster.
The Mead Art Museum held their Community Day for the Spring Semester, called “Fool Mead Once” on April 1, 2017. After entering the Mead that afternoon, I was immediately handed a miniature magnifying glass and a booklet advertising a scavenger hunt being held for that day. There were children constructing flipbooks and a few signs pointing me in the direction of the highlighted exhibits, Kota Ezawa’s “The Garden Revisited,” along with a series of short animated films dating back to the beginning of the 20th century.
In many ways, “Logan” is the fulfillment of a promise that was made in the very first X-Men movie. Under the banner of an R rating, we’re finally able to see the drunk, savage and foul-mouthed yet incredibly sympathetic Wolverine of whom we’ve seen glimpses all these years. In this grounded, bloody, grim and heartbreaking movie, Hugh Jackman is finally able to deliver the culmination of a character arc that has stretched across seventeen years and nine movies.
“Arrival,” based on the short story “Story of Your Life” by Ted Chiang, is an anomaly in today’s entertainment scene. It’s an alien “invasion” movie completely devoid of action; instead it opts for consistent tension and drama. Even more notable is that “Arrival” is undoubtedly a true science fiction movie, one that tackles its heavy subject matter in clever and entertaining ways. Thankfully, grounded performances from a cast led by Amy Adams keep the movie focused on the human element of the story.
Mark Simonitis ’19
Staff Writer
Over the past few years, Netflix has offered extremely high-quality entertainment such as “Beasts of No Nation,” “House of Cards” and more. Then again, it’s also given us “The Ridiculous Six.” “iBoy” lands somewhere in the middle of these two extremes, a movie that remains exceptionally average throughout its hour and a half run time. To be honest, I am not looking forward to writing this review, because there just isn’t a lot worth mentioning.
The red planet has been a source of inspiration for years, especially for science fiction visionaries such as H.G. Welles and Edgar Rice Burroughs. It has hosted alien civilizations, portals to other dimensions and Bugs Bunny. This time, Matt Damon takes on the second step of the final frontier. It’s his Oscar-nominated performance that anchors this movie, “The Martian,” and allows legendary science fiction director Ridley Scott to produce a quality adaption of the Andy Weir novel of same title.
It seems almost impossible that 40 years after Sylvester Stallone introduced audiences to Rocky Balboa, another movie emerged from the iconic franchise. What seems even more impossible is that the movie is good, good enough to earn a place in the upper echelons of “Rocky” movies. Director Ryan Coogler shows us just how hard it is to keep a champion franchise down.
