So I don't know about you, but lately I've been doing a lot of binge watching. Maybe it's because the pandemic is resurging due to the Delta variant making a massive comeback in the United States, or maybe it's just because it's still so hot outside, but I've been doing a lot of this:
Because of this, I recently binged a lot of content. But because I was too lazy to write entire reviews dedicated to each of things I watched recently, I decided to lump them all together in a sort of rapid fire review. What follows is a collection of my thoughts on the following movies/shows: Cruel Summer, Black Widow, Jungle Cruise, Vivo, and The Suicide Squad.
Let us begin in alphabetical order:
Black Widow- C-
Black Widow was... disappointing, to be sure.
I went into this movie with moderate to high hopes, and after I watched it I felt like I should have watched something else.
Unfortunately (because we live in a society, and there aren’t many female-led superhero films), I can’t help but compare this movie to the last superhero movie that I watched, Wonder Woman 1984.
That’s not to say that these movies are similar, because they’re not. That’s to say that they were both uniquely bad in their own way.
Actually, in a lot of ways Wonder Woman 1984 was a lot more fun to watch. At least Wonder Woman 1984 tried something new and wound up being a campy, garbage mess. In a way, it’s almost admirable how broken that movie was.
Meanwhile, Black Widow felt like a knockoff Mission Impossible movie, in a bad way.
Structurally this movie is just as good as any other Marvel movie, but in practice, everything about this film felt unnecessary. For instance, this movie takes place immediately following the events of Captain America: Civil War, which came out in 2016. Disregarding the fact that the MCU has moved on way past that point in their timeline (Even ignoring the newest Avengers movies, at least two Spider-Man movies and another Thor movie have all come out after Captain America: Civil War.), this movie just doesn't have a solid excuse for existing in the year of our Lord 2021.
To summarize: the plot of this much anticipated Black Widow movie follows Natasha Romanov (played by Scarlett Johansson, obviously) and her "sister," Yelena Belova (played by Florence Pugh), as they work to retrieve a serum that cures other black widow agents from being brainwashed. They must travel to the Redrum in order to take down the manipulative guy who is running the entire black widow operation, and work to free the other widows from his clutches.
I've seen several people online say that the sole purpose of this film is to set up Black Widow's replacement in the MCU, her sister, Yelena. I don't disagree. There was a point in the film where I had the serious thought that Natasha was not the main character of this film. Truthfully, I believe that Yelena was meant to be the star of this movie, but the studio wasn't able to market the film without Black Widow.
I have also seen some criticism saying that this movie felt like it was a sequel to a Black Widow movie that we never got previously, as many people have been demanding a Black Widow movie since she first appeared in Iron Man 2 in 2010. I've seen many fans online citing that the movie could have been a lead-in to the first Avengers movie, where Black Widow and Hawkeye often reference a mission that went wrong in Budapest. It really would have been interesting to see the origins of that comment instead of just having the characters reference something that happened offscreen.
Anyway, aside from this movie being basically irrelevant and incredibly on-the-nose thematically, my main complaints about this film are:
1. The plot kind of slogged for me, and the parental characters of Melina and the Red Guardian really seemed redundant (especially when the Red Guardian was essentially useless to the plot).
2. The action scenes were... fine(?), but I found them mostly unimpressive, because- again- we all know Black Widow does not die in this movie. The stakes felt low even when they wanted the action to feel real and exciting. It just seemed a little hollow.
3. The bad guy in this movie visibly looks like he smells bad (to the point where I literally said so while watching this film). SPOILER So imagine my delight when I discovered that his superpower is being stinky! I laughed so hard because this movie was so dumb.
As it is, Black Widow just feels like it came out too late for it to matter to anyone, especially since the character that the movie was named after is canonically SPOILER dead in Endgame.
Overall, if you're looking for a female led action flick that kicks ass, just go watch Kate on Netflix instead. It's a surprisingly better Black Widow movie than the actual Black Widow movie.
Cruel Summer- D
I’m just gonna say it: this show is BORING.
The premise started off interesting enough, with a small Texas town looking for a girl named Kate Wallace (played by Olivia Holt) after she’s been missing for several months. Many assumed that she ran away or that she had been kidnapped or killed. Turns out, she was being held hostage in her Vice Principal’s basement as his prisoner.
The show really kicks off when Kate Wallace accuses another girl, Jeannette Turner (played by Chiara Aurelia), of seeing her in her Vice Principal’s house and not reporting it to the police so she could be rescued. (Remember this, as I’ll circle back to this later.) The show depicts what happened before, during, and after Kate’s kidnapping (without becoming too graphic or really lingering on any issues of sexual abuse, much to my relief), and how she and the town around her dealt with the aftermath of the situation.
In a lot of ways, though, this show felt like an after school special. The entire time I was watching Kate Wallace interact with her VP, I felt like I was watching a very special episode of Full House or something where they talk about not getting too close with strange adults, as they really shouldn’t have anything in common with teenaged girls.
Despite that, I can get behind the show’s messaging, and I can even see what the show was going for in terms of showing how someone like Kate could be so easily groomed and eventually kidnapped.
What I can’t get behind is this show’s inexcusable run time. It took about ten hours of my life to get to the very predictable conclusion of the show, and I really think we could have wrapped that up in about half the amount of time.
This show did not need to have hour long episodes. This show easily could have been chopped into shorter episodes and I definitely feel like I would have gotten more out of it. I also feel like this show's story didn’t need to be told non-linearly the way that it was, with each episode shifting between the summers of 1993, 1994, and 1995, respectively.
I think this is unnecessary because only some of the flashbacks included in the show held useful information, while other scenes were just tangentially related. Usually the really juicy information came at the end of each episode so that ABC and Hulu could trick you into watching the next episode, and into thinking the show is better than it was.
I also felt like this show had issues with its characters:
Namely, some of the characters could have been combined or even removed from the show entirely. Specifically I think Vincent and Ben are unnecessary. Their relationship did nothing for me but muddy the waters of this already bloated, poorly lit show.
As for Jeannette, one of the main characters of the show, I felt like she was a wasted character throughout most of the series. Without spoiling anything, let me just say that her ending was predictable. I was only moderately satisfied by how they rounded out her arc. Aside from that revelation, my biggest gripe with her character is how terrible her actress looked in that short-haired wig from the 1995 timeline.
I had a lot of thoughts on why I didn’t like this show, and so maybe if they do another season of Cruel Summer, I’ll do a full-length review on it later. For now, my advice is to skip this show and watch Little Fires Everywhere instead. It’s a better thriller/ miniseries than this could ever hope to be.
Jungle Cruise- C
I didn’t care much for this movie, and again I think it’s just because the movie is too long. Like Cruel Summer, this movie felt bloated and it felt like there were too many things going on at once, only to pay off in a moderately satisfying ending.
This movie is technically fine, but I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone over the age of 12, unless you just really like Dwayne Johnson and his "jungle cinematic universe."
The plot of Jungle Cruise itself was fine, although it was very reminiscent of The Mummy (1999) and the entire Pirates of the Caribbean franchise. The story follows Lily, played by Emily Blunt, and her brother McGregor, played by Jack Whitehall, as they search for this mystical Amazonian tree that grows flowers that can cure all human diseases. They need a guide, so they recruit Frank, played by Dwayne Johnson, an Amazon riverboat captain who knows the river better than anyone.
I didn't really have many objections to the script other than the fact that the pirates should have been the main villain of the movie, and the German World War I villain in this movie should have been cut from the film entirely. About halfway through the movie I practically forgot about him anyway. Since this movie definitely pulled inspiration from the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise, I wish they had chosen to stay focused on the undead pirate villains and their creative elemental powers instead of the generic human villain.
As a side note, I think this movie had bad gay representation. To be honest, I think I’m tired of Disney’s poor attempts to include LGBTQ+ representation in their media, as they seem to botch it every time they try. It's in everything from announcing "the first official gay character" as LeFou from Beauty in the Beast, to that one monster woman from Onward voiced by Lena Waithe.
In this movie, I found McGregor's character tiresome. I recognize that he was meant to be the comedic relief of the movie, but I didn’t find him particularly funny or even all that charming, really. I really like Jack Whitehall as a comedian, actually, and it was disappointing for me to see him star as what was essentially a gay prop. He really served no purpose in the film and could have been entirely written out of the story.
I did appreciate McGregor’s speech about being ousted by his family due to his sexuality, however, I think it was a little strange to frame this “coming out” moment as a reason to support Lily, just because she was the only one in her family that didn’t immediately reject him. While I support the effort that was made there, I think the way it was done was very calculated (both in the way that the scene never explicitly said the word “gay” or “queer” and in the way that it could very easily be edited out for foreign audiences that do not support LGBTQ+ rights).
Anyway, I guess it really doesn't matter what I thought about this movie, as it apparently did well enough to get a sequel greenlit, with Blunt and Johnson set to reprise their roles in the next movie, and so maybe Jungle Cruise will be just like Pirates of the Caribbean after all. And we all know how well those sequels have gone over...
The Suicide Squad- C
First, a warning: don’t watch this movie if you’re squeamish. There is so much gore and guts flying around that you’re likely to vomit if you have a weak stomach.
That being said, if you were interested in watching this movie because you hoped that it would be better than the original 2016 Suicide Squad, you will be very pleasantly surprised. It’s definitely better than David Ayer’s Razzie Award nominated screenplay of the same name. In fact, dare I say that this film was actually… good?
Starting from the top, let me just say that this movie serves as a soft reboot to the original movie from 5 years ago, with several characters playing the same roles that they played in the first Suicide Squad (like Margot Robbie’s Harley Quinn, and Viola Davis and Joel Kinnamen’s Amanda Waller and Rick Flag, respectively.) In this movie, though, instead of being treated like props in a glorified music video, all of these characters are actually developed (to a certain extent). Not to mention, in addition to the characters from the original film, The Suicide Squad introduces new characters, like the ridiculous Polka-Dot Man (played by David Dastmalchian) and King Shark (voiced by Sylvester Stallone). Based on their names alone it was clear that the studio decided to go balls-to-the-wall and shine a light on some of DC’s wilder characters. In fact, director James Gunn even admitted to doing so when he chose to include Polka-Dot Man in the movie.
The unofficial leads of this movie are Bloodsport, played by Idris Elba (not to be confused with Will Smith’s character from the original movie, Deadshot. Never mind the fact that they are basically the same character but with different names.) and Peacemaker, played by John Cena. Bloodsport is roped into joining this suicide squad in order to help his daughter (but again, let’s not get him confused with the guy that Will Smith played, who also happened to be doing the whole “suicide squad” thing for his daughter…). During this “suicide squad” mission, Bloodsport, Peacemaker, and their crew are sent to a fictional Latin American country to shut down an evil plan known only as Project Starfish.
Poster for Deadpool (2016) starring Ryan Reynolds
To put it simply, if you liked either of the Deadpool movies, you’ll like The Suicide Squad. It has a real Deadpool energy to it that is hard to explain. It could be considered similar because of the swearing or the violence, but it’s probably the humor that makes me think they’re similar, to be honest.
This movie succeeds where the previous Suicide Squad failed because of its inclusion of more ridiculous elements and characters, sure, but this movie was also written better than the original Suicide Squad. Each character in this film has a backstory that is character relevant or they’re shown to make decisions that impact the story in a way that makes sense. These characters feel fleshed out despite how silly their superpowers are or how insane they look. This movie was, overall, a better constructed film than the original in practically every way.
(It also didn’t hurt that the finale of this movie didn’t include a giant sky-beam, unlike the original Suicide Squad.)
Perhaps I rated The Suicide Squad (the good one) a C because while it was much improved from the first movie, I couldn’t help but think that it could have been better. Maybe it just wasn’t my particular style, but I did enjoy it nonetheless.
I will argue, however, that the better version of Harley Quinn and King Shark are in the DC animated show, Harley Quinn, that is on HBO Max.
Vivo- B
Vivo was the best new release that I’ve seen recently, and it proves that Sony Animation is on a roll. Similarly to Wish Dragon, though, Vivo got next to no promotion from Netflix or even Sony animation. Again, the only reason why I even knew about this movie when it came out was because I follow Lin-Manuel Miranda on Twitter, and he’s the lead voice in the movie.
Regardless of how you feel about Lin Manuel Miranda or his other projects (*cough, cough* the In the Heights controversy), this movie is worth watching just for the sake of the music and the animation. It's a wonderful film that will likely make you cry.
Vivo is the story of a little kinkajou from Havana named (unsurprisingly) Vivo. (Right off the bat, it is explained that no one can understand Vivo, because he is not speaking in English even though that is what we, the audience hear.) Vivo was rescued from predators by an old man named Andres, and the two bonded over music. One day, Andres receives a letter from his long-lost love, Marta Sandoval, who moved to Key West to become a famous singer. The letter asks Andres to come to the last performance of her career, but when Andres isn't able to, Vivo must travel to see Key West himself to show Marta the love song that Andres wrote for her when they were younger.
In many ways, Vivo felt like the 2011 animated movie, Rio, starring Jesse Eisenberg and Anne Hathaway. They both took place in Latin American countries with talking animals that happened to sing, but the themes are much different, and they manage to tug on your heartstrings in different ways.
To be honest, I feel like Vivo is one of those films that is perfectly catered to me: the music is good, the animation is smooth, and the film has a certain feel-good quality that used to be reserved for Disney movies, but is no longer exclusive to them. I especially appreciate that this movie was racially inclusive, depicting Afro-Latinos in its main cast. Since most of the movie takes place in Cuba and Florida, it made sense that the cast featured Afro-Latino actors like Zoe Saldana and Juan de Marcos Gonzalez. I also really liked Gloria Estefan in this movie as Marta Sandoval. (Although I think maybe they should have been this conscientious when casting In the Heights, but that's none of my business...) I'm always one to hype up a movie for doing the bare minimum and casting people of color.
Overall, if you liked Wish Dragon and Hamilton, you will love Vivo.
Anyway, that's most of what I've been watching recently. Maybe I'll do another one of these at some point in the future, as I certainly have thoughts on Marvel's newest show, What if...?, along with the new iCarly (2021) reboot that just concluded. I'm not sure if I want to do full blown reviews of them, though, so this format may be the best way to talk about multiple shows/movies at once.
Thanks for reading! I hope everyone is out there staying safe. If you haven't already and are able to do so, please go get vaccinated.