Colossal (2017) Movie Review

I kept waiting for a deep, profound message to hit me while I was watching Colossal. I thought it was leading to something major. When it was over, only one message remained: This world is full of awful people. Not exactly something you would find in a fortune cookie.

After Gloria's (Anne Hathaway) boyfriend Tim (Dan Stevens) dumps her and kicks her out of their apartment, Gloria heads to her small hometown to get her life together. Meanwhile, a monster has surfaced in South Korea. Gloria soon discovers that her own movements control that of the monster. How she handles this dictates where the rest of the story goes. 

The film has a light-hearted feel to it at first, but switches to a darker tone around the second act. Too dark in my opinion. The mod shift is both jarring and unwelcome. You come to have a certain expectation, or hope rather, as to how things are going to turn out and you soon realize you will probably be disappointed.

There are a lot of unnecessary occurrences in Colossal that are only there for the sake of advancing the plot. Normally I wouldn't mind this if there were other strong points to provide a balance. Instead it was almost two hours of watching characters that weren't even remotely likeable. Even villainous characters typically have enduring, redeeming qualities at times. Not this crew. It felt like Director/Writer Nacho Vigalondo took what was supposed to be a short and turned it into a full-length film.

For all of its faults, I will say that Anne Hathaway and Jason Sudekis succeeded with very strong performances. Both are tragic characters, flawed by the choices they have made in life. Unfortunately, their respective performances weren't enough to save the film.

I applaud the film's originality, particular in today's film landscape where piggyback and remake are the words of the day. I think Colossal had potential, but it fell flat for me. I give it a 52.

Power Rangers (2017) Movie Review

There will be moments in Power Rangers where you might roll your eyes. These moments usually are a result of headscratching occurrences that are only there for the sake of advancing the plot. On the flipside, this is also a part of what makes the film successful as it never manages to take itself too seriously (like a failed Transformers or Batman Vs. Superman). It succeeds in standing on its own while paying the proper homage to the tv show.

For its minor flaws, the film overall is both entertaining and fun. For those of you that never watched the tv show (shame on you!), it's about five kids that find special stones that were buried after an alien war ages ago. They soon learn that they must become the Power Rangers to stop an evil force that wants to destroy the world.

Sure, the concept is the same but the film takes things a step further by putting a strong emphasis on character development. Each one of the characters' situations is directly relatable to what's going on in today's society. A misunderstood bully. A screw-up jock who can't seem to stay out of his own way. A kid that has to become an adult before he's ready because he's taken on the role of man of the house. Those are just three of the five stories. I don't want to ruin the others for you. Side note: Not only do I not have a problem with the character choice for Billy, I thought it was a good touch. 

Power Rangers does suffer from some cheesy moments that interrupt the flow of the film at times. Think of it as a cold, however, not a flu. I was also hoping for a bit more action, but again, I think the goal of this film was to make the audience actually care about the characters, something a lot of other action movies is severely lacking.

I can't wait to see what happens if they do a sequel. The budget should be bigger (which hopefully means better CGI) and they've already indicated some characters we can expect to see (stay for the post credits scene). With a funny yet serious tone to it, Power Rangers is a solid watch, worth your theater dollars. I give it an 85.