Mickey 17 Review: Robert Pattinson’s Rise Continues.

Six years after his Best Picture Winner, Parasite, Bong Joon Ho has returned with his latest film, Mickey 17.
Based on the book Mickey7 by Edward Ashton, the film stars Robert Pattinson as Mickey, a man living in the future who unintentionally volunteers for the worst job in existence, that of an Expendable.
Mickey must take on consistently fatal jobs and, every time he dies, he is cloned and has his memories replanted.

Given that Mickey is on a colonization mission lead by morally bankrupt politician Kenneth Marshall (Mark Ruffalo) and his wife Ylfa (Toni Collette), his deaths are often brutal.
Thankfully, Mickey has the support of his girlfriend Nasha (Naomi Ackie) to help him through the constantly traumatising process.
However, Mickey’s situation worsens when, on his seventeenth life, it is wrongly assumed that he died and an eighteenth clone is printed out.
Now, Mickey 17 must find a way to cohabitat with Mickey 18, or they will both be killed for being Multiples.

The mix-up kicks off the movie’s conflict.

Mickey 17 is not doing so well financially at the moment, which is a shame because it is quite a good time.
Certainly not Bong Joon Ho’s best work but is still worth the price of admission.
For starters, the performances are all really good, especially Robert Pattinson as Mickeys 17 and 18.
Despite being clones of the same person, they have two completely distinct personalities, and Pattinson is able to pull off both masterfully.
Due to his efforts, you really feel for Mickey, as you watch him constantly be exploited by those around him.

You can often tell the difference between the Mickeys, even when they look the same.

Along with the performances, the themes are also pulled off well, with Bong Joon Ho’s focus on the exploitation of the working class by the so-called elite.
He even brings in themes of animal and nature conservation, which has been present in many of his previous films, like Okja.
The special effects for the film are also top notch.
There was not a moment where I was drawn out of the film due to bad CGI, as everything looked great.
If I had to name any criticisms, it would be that I feel the film is a little overly long, and there is a subplot with Anamaria Vartolomei’s character which does not really go anywhere.

I feel like if this subplot had been removed it could have made the film more cohesive.

Other than these two issues, Mickey 17 is a solid film, improved further by a terrific performance from Robert Pattinson.
I would recommend seeing it, especially in light of its financial disappointment.

Avengers: Endgame, Review. Earns Every Minute of its Three Hour Runtime.

When I heard Avengers: Endgame was going to be three hours long I was very concerned.
Not only about how I would sit through the entire thing without a toilet break, but also about how the film could drag due to this runtime.
Well, while watching Endgame I was overjoyed to find that, not only could my bladder hold, but also that the film earns every minute of its three hours.
In all honesty, the movie does not even feel three hours long.
Endgame is so investing that at no point does it drag, despite its long runtime, which is a huge achievement.
Directed by the Russo Brothers, the film picks up after the events of Avengers: Infinity War where Thanos (Josh Brolin) snapped his fingers and wiped out half of all life in the universe.
The Avengers must then unite to find a way to stop Thanos and undo everyone’s deaths.
To say anything more of the plot, would be to spoil so many of Endgame’s amazing twists and turns.

Final Battle.jpg — The story of *Avengers: Endgame* offers so many explosive moments, especially in its glorious final hour.

For the most part the trailers only show the first half hour of the film, leaving me completely clueless as what was going to happen next, which made the experience even better.
So many movies spoil their big twists in trailers these days that it was a wonderful change of pace to have absolutely no idea what was coming.
This is made even more wonderful by how brilliant Endgame is with its story, characters, and action sequences.
The story brought out so many emotions in me.
I honestly cried at least five times during this film, both out of joy and sadness.
I think the last time I cried this much when watching a film was Logan, which was my favourite film of 2017.
Well, Endgame is certainly looking primed to take the top spot in 2019 for all its brilliance.
The characters themselves are a part of this brilliance, with many of their arcs being complete perfection.
My favourite characters of the film would have to be Tony Stark’ Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.), Steve Rogers’ Captain America (Chris Evan), Clint Barton’s Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner), Natasha Romanoff’s Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson), and surprisingly Nebula (Karen Gillan).
Tony is by far the standout though, with him providing a lot of the film’s emotional heart.

Tony Stark.jpg — Tony Stark is the heart and soul of this film, with Robert Downey Jr. turning in what has to be his best performance as the character.

Then there is the action, which is also stellar.
The final action sequence alone is one of the greatest final hours of any film I have ever seen.
It is absolute brilliance.
Sure, a lot of it is fan service, but it is earned fan service.
Every single part of Endgame is earned, especially that final bombastic hour.
Even the slower moments of the film are great, with so much amazing character development shown as our heroes deal with the aftermath of Thanos’ snap.
Speaking of the big guy, Thanos continues to be the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s best villain.
He is not the main character of the film, like he is in Infinity War, but his presence it still massively felt.

Back to me.jpeg — Josh Brolin is once again incredibly intimidating as the Mad Titan, who is the MCU’s best villain.

Overall, any problems I do have are relatively minor.
At the end of the film there appears to be a retcon to rules established earlier in the film, but this retcon is more than earned so it does not really matter.
Then there is Captain Marvel (Brie Larson), who I actually found myself disliking in this film because she is very stuck up and arrogant.
This would not have been a problem if this had been the start of her character arc, with her growing to learn that she needs the Avengers’ help, but she does not change at all.
Still, Captain Marvel is only a minor part of Endgame so my dislike of her here does not change my feelings about the film.
Avengers: Endgame is the true culmination of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, being its best film with the way it delivers excitement, intensity and emotion.
It is breaking so many records at the box office right now that it has me wondering if it might beat James Cameron’s Avatar, becoming the highest grossing film of all time.
I hope the film does because it has more than earned it.

Thor: Ragnarok, over hyped but still good

Given all the hype surrounding Thor: Ragnarok, with many people, including Joss Whedon himself, calling it a masterpiece, you would expect it to be one of the best Marvel movies, right?
Well, sadly not because, while I do believe the film is good, Thor: Ragnarok is certainly over hyped.
It is a very decent film and I would urge people to go and see it because the film is a lot of fun but, at the same time, I do think people are over praising it.
The film features the return of the goddess of death Hela (Cate Blanchett), who attacks Asgard and traps Thor (Chris Hemsworth) and Loki (Tom Hiddleston) on a garbage planet, where Thor is forced to fight in Gladiator matches, where he runs into The Hulk (Mark Ruffalo).
The Thor movies are considered, by most, to be the worst films in the Marvel Cinematic Universe so the new Thor movie definitely needed to do something different.
Enter director Taika Waititi, who turned Thor from one of the least interesting Marvel characters into a comedy star.

This new entry in the Thor series feels like it has more in common with Guardians of The Galaxy, than the previous Thor films.
Thor: Ragnarok is definitely a comedy first and super hero movie second.
The film has some excellent jokes, some of the best in any Marvel film.
My favourite joke had to do with the introduction of Valkyrie (Tessa Thompson), which left me in a fit of laughter.
Another hilarious thing about the movie is the character of Korg, played by Waititi himself.
Korg is basically the comedic relief and he gives a lot of the best jokes in the film.
However, while the comedy route is welcome, there is too much of it.
Both Guardians of The Galaxy films were comedies but they knew when to crack a joke and when not to.
As a result, these films were able to have big emotional moments but Thor: Ragnarok doesn’t know when not to crack a joke, going as far as to put them in the big emotional scenes, almost ruining them.
It is not only the jokes that ruin these emotional moments but how they were handled as well.
At the end of the film, when Thor fights Hela, something happens to Thor that is quite shocking but they cut away from it so fast that there is no emotion to it.
Another disappointing thing is the dropped sub plot with Bruce Banner and The Hulk.
Banner tells Thor something about The Hulk that you expect to come back and be a big thing later but it never does.
Also, let’s be honest here, if it was not for Blanchett’s great performance as Hela, her character would be entirely forgettable.

Hela is no different from almost every other Marvel villain we have seen.
She wants to take over the universe and submit everyone to her will, blah, blah, blah, evil stuff.
However, like I said, the movie is not bad, it is just over hyped.
There are still a lot of really great things about Thor: Ragnarok.
For starters, the visuals are stunning and the CGI on display is really good.
The action is also riveting, with the fight between Thor and Hulk being a particular standout.
We are also introduced to new and interesting characters.
I already mentioned Korg, who is a great comedic relief character but there is also Valkyrie, who is sure to become a part of the Avengers and The Grand Master, played magnificently by Jeff Goldblum.
Surprisingly though, my favourite new character was not any of the main ones but a side character.
That character is Scurge, played by Karl Urban, who becomes Hela’s henchman, after she invades Asgard.
Scurge easily has the best character development in the entire movie.
You can see he likes how Hela gives him an important position, however at the same time, he feels guilty about the bad things that Hela orders him to do.
It was great to see a henchman in a movie that would not just blindly follow the villain, without any sign of a conscience.

And, even though I do not think this movie is the masterpiece it is being made out to be, it is still a lot of fun.
Thor: Ragnarok is one of those movies that is just entertaining the entire way through, due to its constant comedy and action scenes.
If you go to see it, you will definitely have a lot of fun.
It may not be a masterpiece but it is still a good watch.