Category: Movies / TV

Justice League (2017) 2 hours – My Rating: 2/5

Zack Snyder’s Justice League (2021) 4h 2min  – My Rating: 4/5

The original Justice League movie came out in 2017 and to put it mildly it was a hot mess, Zack Snyder was the original director but had to depart filming due personal reasons.

Joss Whedon took over directing, while this should have been a good thing the finished movie was giant mess (the behind the scenes sounded like it would make a good movie some day). It lacked heart and the story line sort of plodded along to a boring ending.

This all bought about a movement to see Zack Snyder’s version of the movie over the last couple of years, to be honest I never actually thought this would happen. This sort of thing pops all of the time with not much result.

But HBO Max in the US put the money forward to get this version made and released, you can read all of the details in the below Wikipedia article:

I have finally finished watching this new version of Justice League, it is just a tad over 4 hours long. I watched in blocks as I cannot these days dedicate a single 4 hour movie watching block.

The question I guess is “Is it better that the original Justice League?” the answer to that would be yes, yes it is but with a few caveats.

With the extra 2 hours of run time the story has more room to breathe and characters like Cyborg and The Flash get more expanded story lines. The bad guys plans also make more sense and are fleshed out.

This movie does have about 5 different endings to it, obviously trying to setup for sequels that now not going to happen, it was also filmed in ratio setup for IMAX when it was plainly obvious this version was never going to ever a see a movie complex.

I would recommend watching it as it is a good movie if not a bit long.

So just kidding with that above title this movie looks awful.

Starring Bruce Willis as James Ford and Frank Grillo as General Ryle.

This is another Bruce Willis pay check movie, just following a long line of straight to streaming classics he has now lately, but Frank Grillo deserves better than this.

On IMDB so far it has a Rating: 2.5/10 · ‎2,621 votes and on Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 5% .

Please see the synopsis below:
“In the year 2524, four centuries after humans started colonizing the outer planets, retired Gen. James Ford gets called back into service after a hostile alien fleet attacks soldiers on a remote planet. The threat against mankind soon escalates into an interstellar war as Ford and a team of elite soldiers try to stop the imminent attack before it’s too late.”

One of colleagues on Discord said:
“I watched most of it, please don’t make my mistake. It’s not good, its utter shite.”

I am almost tempted to watch it now, just to see how back it actually. If I do watch I will report back on this site.

Living in New Zealand we have been very lucky that we locked down early and are now able to be out and about.

I know in many other parts of the world this is still not possible, this brings me to movies in theatres in 2020 and moving forward.

Me and my wife went to see Wonder Woman 1984 last week at the theatre, it was nice to get out and see it on the big screen but this cost roughly $60.00 once the tickets and snacks were bought. I dread to think how it costs for a family to go to the movies these days.

From what I understand in the States, this movie was shown the streaming network HBO Max as part their plans to show a lot of their movies this year on this network. Disney and other companies are also looking at putting some of their movies on their relevant steaming platform.

I believe moving forward that we will see more simultaneous releases on and a reduced delay between when a movie is released and then appears on streaming.

Now people have got a taste of the convenience of watching movies in the safety of their own homes at a greatly reduced cost the horse wont be able to be reigned back in.

I still some movies would greatly benefit from the big screen, I am personally looking forward to the new Dune movie whenever that gets released, but just like all PC games are now online Movies now will have to change the way they are released as well.

One of my favourite books has a new movie coming out next year, that would be Frank Herbert’s Dune.

As per Wikipedia:

Dune is a 1965 science-fiction novel by American author Frank Herbert, originally published as two separate serials in Analog magazine. It tied with Roger Zelazny‘s This Immortal for the Hugo Award in 1966,^[2] and it won the inaugural Nebula Award for Best Novel.^[3] It is the first instalment of the Dune saga, and in 2003 it was cited as the world’s best-selling science fiction novel.^[4][5]

Set in the distant future amidst a feudal interstellar society in which various noble houses control planetary fiefs, Dune tells the story of young Paul Atreides, whose family accepts the stewardship of the planet Arrakis. While the planet is an inhospitable and sparsely populated desert wasteland, it is the only source of melange, or “the spice,” a drug that extends life and enhances mental abilities. Melange is also necessary for space navigation, which requires a kind of multidimensional awareness and foresight that only the drug provides.^[6] As melange can only be produced on Arrakis, control of the planet is thus a coveted and dangerous undertaking. The story explores the multi-layered interactions of politics, religion, ecology, technology, and human emotion, as the factions of the empire confront each other in a struggle for the control of Arrakis and its spice.

There was a previous movie done by David Lynch in 1984, but that one was a disappointment and Sci Fi TV mini series which wasn’t too bad considering the budget.

Denis Villeneueve‘s Dune off its December release date and will unveil the epic sci-fi movie on Oct. 1, 2021, Collider has exclusively learned.

The big-budget adaptation of Frank Herbert’s iconic novel boasts an all-star ensemble including Timothée Chalamet, Zendaya, Oscar Isaac, Rebecca Ferguson, Josh Brolin, Dave Bautista, Jason Momoa, Stellan Skarsgård and Oscar winner Javier Bardem.

We will have to wait and see how this one turns out.

Lower Decks just released last week, to be honest I didn’t have high hopes for this series.,Considering how average Discovery and Picard have been so far.

But after watching the first two episodes, I have to say that it is not the train wreck I thought it would be. Created by Mike McMahan who served as a writer and producer on Rick and Morty, so far it has been very frantic but also quite amusing in places.

It references a lot of other Star Trek shows, but I do like it so far as it is positive take on Star Trek again, unlike Discovery and Picard which are both grim dark shows.

I will watch this season and report back on the whole season once completed.

CBS All Access the streaming network in the states for all things Trek, announced on Friday a new Star Trek Show “Strange New Worlds”. It will be starring Anson Mount as Captain Christopher Pike, Rebecca Romijn as Number One and Ethan Peck as Science Officer Spock. These three characters were in Season 2 of Discovery.

For me personally this is good news as Captain Pike was the best thing about Discovery full stop, it also appears they are moving back towards a more optimistic approach to this show. Discovery is almost unwatchable for me and the only thing keeping me watching Picard is Patrick Stewart.

Obviously with the current lockdown this want start filming until things have settled down a bit so we could be looking at late 2021 or early 2022.

For me Star Trek has always been about a better future and having an hopeful message, so I am really looking forward to this show.

I have been inspired after XPD watched the Cats movie on the weekend (he watched a full 2 minutes of it before giving up).

The best horror movie of 2019:

I have decided to list the 5 worst movies I have seen and will indicate if the were “so bad they were good” or just plain bad.

Flash Gordon (1980)

This has a Queen soundtrack, over acting by Brian Blessed, super cheesy acting by the lead Sam J. Jones. But saying that me and my wife love this movie, its so campy but fun.

Verdict: So bad it is good

Jupiter Ascending (2015)

Directed by the Wachowski sibling, yep the same duo that made the Matrix movies. Starring Channing Tatum and Mila Kunis who are both passable and a over acting Eddie Redmayne (he should have had is oscar taken away for this performance.

This is a bad movie but has nice visuals and at least is trying to be different

Verdict: So bad it is good

Romy and Michele’s High School Reunion (1997)

A supposed comedy starring Lisa Kudrow and Mira Sorvino. This is the only movie that me and my friends considered walking out of the theatre. Just not that great.

Verdict: Just Bad

Into the Woods (2014)

A stage show turned into a movie, it shows. I saw this with my wife and it dragged out and was really dull. Sad as this has a decent cast as well.

Verdict: Just Bad

Batman & Robin (1997)

I wanted to include a super hero movie in this list but had so many to choose from, every thirds X-men movie, half of the Spider Mans. Even some of the Marvel movies are pretty average.

This killed the Batman franchise for about 20 years.

But I could not include this “Classic” Batman movie, George Clooney tries his best but nothing could save this one. At least Arnold Schwarzenegger seems to enjoying himself as Mr Freeze, saying all of that I kind of enjoyed this movie in train wreck sort of way.

I remember me and my friends watching a midnight session when this first came out, there were about 20 of us all guys and everyone was shouting Alicia Silverstone name before the start. I believe that XPD might have also won a Batman hat hrere.

Verdict: So bad it is good

My Rankings:

1. The Original Series and The Next Generation
2. Deep Space Nine
3. Voyager
4. Enterprise
5. Picard*
6. Discovery*

As we have been in lock down in New Zealand for close to 4 weeks now, me and the wifey have started watching Star Trek: The Next Generation from Season 1 again.

This has inspired me to rank each of the Star Trek Tv Shows and provide a few quick thoughts about each.

*Not really Star Trek shows, just have the word Star Trek at the beginning of them.

The Original Series –

The grand daddy of them all, has that 1960s cheesiness. But is built around the characters of Kirk, Spock and McCoy. The best episodes made you think and had a message. Plus no one can beat William Shatner as Captain Kirk and Leonard Nimoy as Spock.

The Next Generation –

Equally as good in relaying a message. Got better from Season 3 onwards. Tried to be a bit more of a ensemble but by the end was the Picard, Data and Riker show. Plus introduced a awesome new bad guy in the Borg.

Deep Space Nine –

A different take on Star Trek being set in a base and not a space ship, was a bit too serious at times and struggled in the first few seasons. Picked up once the Dominion war storyline kicked into place. Screened the same time was another very good show Babylon 5 (that is for another article)

Voyager –

Oh what a frustrating show, sometimes had very good one off episodes but had zero continuity. This woudnt annoy me so much if they werent like 70 years away from home. One week the ship is completely trashed and the next week it is back to pristine condition. New crew members would just dissapear.

Enterprise –

Prequel show set 150 years before the Original Series, the first two seasons were quite boring. It did pick up in seasons 3 and 4. Probably deserved a season 5, also had the absolute worst series finale I have probably seen.

Picard –

Sigh now we start with new “Star Trek” shows currently on TV. This has the advantage of having the great Patrick Stewart returning as Picard. But this is a dystopian version of Star Trek, where every second word is Fu*k yeah and you must have blood splatter. Plus it has the modern trend of everything being darkly lit. Still it had a couple of reasonable episodes in first season.

Discovery –

Another supposed prequel show set 10 years before the Original Series. The problem here is the writers apparently either have never watched any of the other Star Trek show or simply don’t care.
It was quite brave of the show to have no likable characters at all in the first season, the second season got better due to one character Captain Pike played by Anson Mount. This actor looked like that they actually knew what Star Trek was about. Don’t get me started on Spocks secret half sister….sigh.

The Intros:

Honorable mention for the best Star Trek show on TV right now: