Tag / tom holland

by Jaime Rebanal

‘Onward’ Review: Pixar’s Latest Isn’t Exactly a Step Forward

✯✯½

This is the second feature film directed by Dan Scanlon for Pixar Animation Studios following Monsters University, and it also strikes one as being a more personal passion project compared to the aforementioned prequel. At least on paper, the idea of a film that heavily involves fantastical creatures having lost their touch with magic could result in something more thoughtful – but oddly enough, there’s so little of that to be felt here. Onward isn’t a bad film by any stretch of the word, but when you stack it against Pixar at their best, it just falls very flat.

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by Jaime Rebanal

Avengers: Infinity War – Review

✯✯✯

There are many stories being told within Avengers: Infinity War and I think that happens to be the best way for something of this sort to be shown to the screens because it gives every character what’s needed in order to create an emotional resonance with its viewers. In the past ten years, the Marvel Cinematic Universe has been telling individual story after another but have always been dependent on one another in order to form something of a larger scope and as all stories come together to form one singular Avengers story. The ambition is clear enough from how all of these characters established by their own entries are coming together once and for all, so the question to be asked is how does the film live up to the scope it promises? It’s a step up from both the last Avengers film and the Russo brothers’ last Marvel film, but I feel hesitant to go beyond saying it pays off completely after the Marvel Cinematic Universe has only recently released their two most interesting films since the first Guardians of the Galaxy.

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by Jaime Rebanal

Spider-Man: Homecoming – Review

✯✯

I was never a fan of Spider-Man growing up, the comics never grabbed me and I was never a fan of either film franchise whether it be Sam Raimi’s original trilogy (minus Spider-Man 2, which I do really like) and Marc Webb’s Amazing Spider-Man films. The idea of a Spider-Man film being made now as another entry for the Marvel Cinematic Universe sounded even less appealing to me, with the lack of a real impact of Tom Holland’s own presence in Captain America: Civil War (which was already difficult enough to sit through) and the especially dreadful marketing. Now that an entire movie was set to be centered around him during the prime of his own life at high school, within the homecoming period – maybe it would be about time something more would strike me that would have me attached to Spider-Man’s arc like Spider-Man 2but I’ve expected a tad too much afterwards was what I thought. It was purely Spider-Man the way I’ve always seen him, just angsty and uninteresting.

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by Jaime Rebanal

The Lost City of Z – Review

✯✯✯✯

James Gray’s films have always been a struggle for me to get into, so The Lost City of Z wasn’t one I was looking forward to so readily. The sort of material that Gray was set to cover in here wasn’t something I would have expected of him so I was hoping my issues with his body of work would be infrequent here. Thankfully it was the case with The Lost City of Z and as a result, a great film had come right out. For not only is The Lost City of Z the most ambitious that I have seen James Gray reaching through his career as of yet from what I have been able to catch, it also rings back to a classic era of adventure films with its own eerie spin – one if anything that helped in making a great theatrical experience inside of itself, and maybe more.

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by Jaime Rebanal

Captain America: Civil War – Review

✯✯

For the record, I don’t dislike superhero movies in general, but I’m not a particularly big fan of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (so far, the only ones that really stood out to me that I really liked are Guardians of the Galaxy and Captain America: The Winter Soldier) and rarely would I call any of their offerings “bad” by any means. However, most of the time I find myself within a nonplussed state. As for more recent note, Captain America: Civil War leaves me with the same reaction which I carry towards the regular offering of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, with that said, it’s a film recognizing its target audience and for those who like these films, I can’t fault one, but I really wish I could feel the love that I know many are picking out from these films because I feel like I’m being left out. Continue reading →