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“Logan” and the Review with Spoilers

If you have not seen  Logan yet, go away now. 

 

Really

Here’s Logan, telling you to go watch the movie before reading this

I’m not joking, SPOILERS AHEAD

 

Here’s Laura, telling you to go watch the movie before reading this review

WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD

 

I repeat: SPOILERS AHEAD

 

You Have Been Warned.

 

OK HERE IT GOES

 

Logan, the long awaited X-Men film…oddly enough doesn’t really feel like an X-Men film but it was perfect for what it was.

You already know what I think about it, see previous review.

Now I’ll tell you what my favourite bits are (not in order of appearance):

I loved the contrast between Logan taking Professor X to the toilet in the petrol station, Laura on the mechanical horse and the situation that they’re in. It really puts things into perspective and is genuinely some relief from everything that’s been going on.

The seizure scene was difficult to watch, which I think is what they were going for, but honestly if it was then well done.

The family were so nice, you kindof had to figure out something bad was going to happen, but honestly I hated that something bad happened with them.

The people who bullied the nice family’s dad was ridiculous.

That soulless clone stole every scene it was in and it was the most terrifying thing in the whole movie.

There were a lot of firsts for Laura: First time buying something? first time listening to music via headphones. It was nice to see this adjustment but it was also a bit sad.

The final cross to X-Men’s X on Logan’s grave.

Logan as Wolverine-in-X-Men cameos:

  • When he was just wearing a white undershirt when he finished helping the nice family’s dad fixing the electricity or something (I don’t remember but you know what scene, also why’d he take his shirt off AFTER he finished, not before?)
  • When the kids cut his beard/hair to look like Wolverine’s.

Favourite quotes:

  • “Thats my dad, Chuck” – Logan
  • “I wish I could say you were a good pupil, but the words would choke me” – Professor X
  • “I got kicked out a few times” – Logan
  • “I’m not a box of avocados, Logan” – Professor X
  • A whole 5 minutes of just Logan saying “shit”, it was funny to see the French subtitles were just “Merde”, uninterrupted, that whole time.

And that’s about it. I genuinely enjoyed it and I want to give it 4.5 stars because the end killed me but I will give it the 5 stars it deserved because it was genuinely such a good X-Men/Non-X-Men/Standalone(?) film. Well done, Hugh Jackman, Patrick Stewart and Dafne Keen, well done.

Films

“The Edge of Seventeen” and the Not-So Simple Teenage Dramedy

This review contains spoilers, just thought I should warn you before I discuss any further…

Here’s the “go away now, unless you don’t mind plot/film spoilers” Film Poster

And another one, just as an extra warning…

Ok now I can talk about it freely without ruining it for anyone.

First of all let me start off by saying that this was a good film, I may not watch it a million times over but I can tell you that this is in fact a quality film.

The premise is simple: A girl’s life get’s complicated when her best friend starts dating her brother.

The way it is executed is simple.

The girl and her life is not-so simple.

This is not your ordinary teenage drama/comedy, it’s more complicated than that, it has depth and can be quite moving at times…however I have quite a bit to say, both good and bad about this movie, most of it involves the plot.

So this girl, Nadine, is a bit of a loner, not necessarily by choice, she’s an introvert who just happens to also be a bit anti-social, but not necessarily by choice. Other kids made fun of her when she was a kid, so she never had any friends until Krista who came along out of the blue and they both became friends instantly. This friendship lasts a long time until at 17, Krista starts dating Nadine’s brother, her and her brother have a complicated relationship so when her friend does this, she gets angry/sad/frustrated/etc and basically asks her to choose between being friends or having her brother as a boyfriend…you want to guess what she picked? The latter of course. Now here is where I start to have a bit of a problem with the movie, Nadine basically resents Krista for dating her brother and in a way she is represented as the selfish one…which is not exactly accurate.

Personally, I think that both Nadine and Krista were being a bit selfish, despite this film’s attempt to portray Nadine as the one with the problems and the one that needs to fix herself, Krista isn’t so great of a friend, herself. You know the saying “bros before hoes”? Well I don’t think it applies to just guys, I think it applies to all relationships and basically says that friends before boy/girlfriends. Krista should’ve been more considerate and Nadine perhaps should’ve been a bit more open to this. Now for the brother, Darian. Darian dates his sister’s best friend, his sister’s ONLY friend and he’s okay with that? Yes he has problems and he wants an escape and Krista makes him feel free BUT he has other people, he has friends, his sister is basically left between awkwardly third-wheeling and being alone at this point. All three characters are basically looking out for themselves and not other people when it comes to this relationship and that’s what this film doesn’t necessarily put out there, instead it’s the complicated brother who feels bad for dating his sister’s best friend but can’t do anything about it because he feels like she’s literally his only escape from his shitty life, the complicated sister who basically had nobody to talk before and now has nobody because of this.

Also, I get that Krista is dating Darian but don’t they hang out separately, with their other friends, etc? It doesn’t appear so in the film, it’s like they’re glued to each other’s sides, there hasn’t been a single alone moment between Nadine and Krista in which Nadine didn’t resent her and in which Krista didn’t apologize for dating her best friend’s brother. The more I think about it, the more this seems like a silly teen movie, but the way it’s executed isn’t

What to say about Erwin…he’s adorable. You’d think he’s the rebound friend and I guess he does start out as one, but he ends up being a better friend to her than current Krista ever was.

On the up side, this movie has a good representation of not-so-great mental health, realistic representation of teenagers in this day and age and of course Nadine’s teacher who honestly brings more to this movie than some other characters.

So to sum up my main criticisms:

Positives:

  • Good representation of mental health
  • Realistic teenagers

Negatives:

  • Do people in relationships have to be together 24/7?
  • It basically calls Nadine the narcissistic and selfish character when in reality, Nadine, Krista AND Darian are all selfish and perhaps a bit narcissistic.

And that’s about it.

Films

“Logan” and the *spoiler free* Review

There are no plot spoilers, you’re safe here, you’ll just see my general opinion and feeling towards it, in a vague way…the review with spoilers will come out in a few days.

Logan, the long awaited X-Men film…oddly enough doesn’t really feel like an X-Men film. It fits well into the universe it just doesn’t have that X-Men-y feel, but in a good way, it’s called Logan, it is a standalone film, it is not Wolverine, if you want Wolverine, this is not what you’re going to get.

As a film, this is pretty well-crafted despite the fact there is no main plot that flows throughout the film, in fact there are several, mainly sub plots, but it’s more of an overview about the lives of Logan, the not-so-Wolverine-anymore, in the year 2029 with Professor Charles Xavier, Caliban and Laura (X-23).

Warning: There’s a lot of violence in this movie, not like every minute but there is quite a bit, intense violence so if you can’t handle it don’t watch it. It’s a lot more more than any of the X-Men films, quite possibly the most violent of them all.

Series Revivals

Nostalgia Rules All

There have been an unbelievable amount of revivals and spinoffs of TV series that have ended many years prior to that. Some are quite successful, like Fuller House, Girl Meets World and Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life, but what drives these revivals to appear? Fans, but more specifically, the nostalgia. We live in a world where nostalgia rules the minds of people, even people who weren’t born when these things occurred. Think people born in 1996 calling themselves “90’s kids” (which is untrue because they are in fact 90’s babies) and reminiscing of a past they may not have lived, they may have experienced some of the same things because the popularity of some products and ideas and fashions did last until the early 2000’s.

It is the revivals, the fact that people talk about the things from their childhood and in some cases bringing it back, like Furbys or Slap bracelets, that’s interesting. Over the next few weeks/however far this goes I’ll be discussing some of these revivals, perhaps even review them, in hopes of  fulfilling some people’s desire to relive the past, even if it wasn’t their past per-say.

Of course these will not be the only posts, there will be some reviews of TV series that are currently going on and some that have ended. I will also be reviewing a few films, mostly new ones but if you have a film you want me to specifically watch and give you my take on it then leave it in the comments below.