Monday, March 23, 2020

Looking Back at the Films of 2019 Part 2 - Wonder Park/Captive State/Five Feet Apart





Hey guys and welcome to another edition of Looking Back at the Films of 2019, today's movies are Wonder Park, Captive State, and Feet Five Apart. Now enough of this intro let's get started.








Why Didn't I See Wonder Park?


The main reason I didn't see Wonder Park was it just didn't interest me all that much. I also didn't help that marketing wasn't also working for me as well. So I just decided to skip the movie in general, but I'm reviewing it now because I heard it go mixed reviews, which means it's probably a decent movie.




What is Wonder Park?


Wonder Park is a 3-D animated adventure film produced by Paramount Animation, Nickelodeon Movies, and Ilion Animation Studious and distributed by Paramount Pictures. The movie was written by Robert Gordon, Josh Appelbaum, and Andre Nemec and directed by Dylan Brown. The story is June imagines the greatest amusement park ever, one day her dream of that park comes true. The excitement seems to be endless until the park is in trouble. Now June and her animal friends must save it before it's completely destroyed.




My Thoughts



The Good: One positive to the movie is the animation. It was really good stuff, from the bright lights of fireworks, to the hair on the human characters, and the fur on all of the animals. It was great. Another good thing about Wonder Park is the performances. Despite the script not being all that good the actors and actresses did a great job with the material they were given.




The Bad: The only aspect of the movie I didn't like was the inconsistent tone. I felt like Wonder Park had this problem where the filmmakers were confused of what tone they wanted. For instance a family member is very ill, June (the main character) is very saddened by this as she should be, and it's all portrayed very realistically. But then what felt like it was out of nowhere, June imagines her other parent will be in trouble without her but it's her imagining it has the most over the top way possible. It's basically a parody of how someone worries about another family member when they're all alone. Like what happened between the realistic scene and the one I just described? The tone took a complete 180 turn.




The Okay: One piece of the movie they needed just a bit of work is June. While I did relate to her worry/being devastated that a parent she loves is ill, there are scenes where there's a huge issue the animal characters are struggling with it but June handles it like it was no big deal. They really should have made it more of a struggle with her just as much as those problems were with the talking animals. Because of that people will most likely call June a Mary Sue. The other decent thing about Wonder Park is the humor. Sure it did get a couple of laughs out of me, but there are times when it's very predictable and sometimes the joke wasn't that good.




Final Verdict: OKAY








Why Didn't I See Captive State?


The primary reason why I didn't see Captive State was my theater just didn't have a showing. Which did suck for two reasons. One this along with Five Feet Apart were one of my most anticipated movies and two just by going off the trailers it didn't seem like it was going to be a interesting flick.




What is Captive State?


Captive State is a science fiction crime thriller. It was produced by Participant and distributed by Focus Features. Captive State was written by Rupert Wyatt and Erica Beeney and directed by Rupert Wyatt. The story is it's been ten years since aliens invaded and declared martial law on Earth. Now a young man named Gabriel Drummond has joined a resistance group to take down the extraterrestrial overlords.




My Thoughts



The Good: One of the good things about the movie is the performances. Sure there not going to regraded as the greatest performances of all time but they do a good job with the material they're working with. Now on to the greatest aspect of Captive State is the idea. I really dug how instead of the aliens invading then preceding to try and wipe us out, they came to Earth and became our rulers. Not only does that make the movie interesting but it also separates itself from other alien invading movies.




The Bad: Now to discuss the film's biggest weakness that being how the script is structured. The movie was definitely trying to do too much with it's premise, it wants to be a political thriller then it goes to being a story about a rebellion and then it's a conspiracy flick. I mean the main character Gabriel disappears for a large majority of the film and then we focus on the rebellion/William Mulligan (John Goodman's character) and then we're right back to Gabriel even though the movie was nearing the end.




The Okay: The movie's only grey area is the CGI. There are times when it's pretty good but then you get those scenes where despite the filmmakers best efforts you can tell it's CG.




Final Verdict: OKAY








Why Didn't I See Five Feet Apart?


My reason for not seeing is the same as Captive State, there wasn't a showing. Which once again sucked because the trailers did seem like it was going to be a very heartfelt movie.




What is Five Feet Apart?


Five Feet Apart is a romantic drama. The movie was produced by CBS Films, Welle Entertainment, and Wayfarer Entertainment and distributed by Lionsgate. The story is two young cystic fibrosis patients are trying to have a relationship despite always having to stay a certain distance from each other.




My Thoughts



The Good: One great aspect of the movie is Haley Lu Richardson's performance. She was fantastic in the role of Stella and she truly stole the show. Another thing I liked about Five Feet Apart is the humor. Despite it being about two people with crystic fibrosis the movie still provided you with a couple of laughs here and there. The final thing I thought the movie did well at was the emotional touch. Now no there wasn't a moment in the film that left me with tears in my eyes but it did tug on my heart strings quite a bit.




The Bad: The absolute worst thing about the movie is it really drags on and on and on. There were quite a few scenes where I was wondering if we'll ever move on to something else. I mean Five Feet Apart is an hour and fifty-six minutes, now despite that making it only seven minutes longer than Captive State it still felt like it was longer than that. So yeah this is one movie where some scenes could have been trimmed down.




The Okay: The only mix bag with the film is the romance. I just didn't feel like it was properly written well, I mean the moment our two main leads meet each other they do/say somethings that I don't think would make most fall head over heels for them. But other than that the romance feels fine for what it's worth.




Final Verdict: OKAY








So that's going to do it for me. Do come back on Thursday, March 26th for a brand new Is It True?. For that segment I'll be tackling a popular Batman fan theory. Until then enjoy the rest of your day.

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