2021

Everyone wants to be Ebert and Siskel clearly. I stopped reading reviews and watched this just now and i will say the first 20 minutes had me concerned but then it performed very well with the intro of Leo. If I would have listened to all the negative reviews, i would have missed out on a good movie.

Those that say it was predictable I call BS. Those bashing the performance or plot, well to each his or her own . I guess they were expecting an extension of the Terminator. I liked the cast line up and the acting. Was good to see Anthony Mackie up front and center again.

You wont have any idea what the endgame is until 3/4 of the way through the movie. The bigger issue it addresses is real-time on both AI and our hubris in thinking that we can control its evolution. It calls to light our humanity and the ills that we do coming back at us. Also, the aspect of war from the comfort of home with this generation and its love for video games and how that translates to the removal from the real life consequences of pressing a button thousands of miles away first pulling a trigger with boots on the ground in combat is yet another real-time issue.

I would have given it a ten but the ending did fall short of the build up. But that’s just how I felt.

‘Raya And The Last Dragon (2021)’ has a strange tone that actually sees its comedy clash immensely with its drama, rather than compliment it. It doesn’t help that the opening is pretty much played straight and that there is a rather serious undercurrent running throughout the entire affair. It also has an odd pace that kind of makes it feel like a video-game truncated into two hours, awkwardly squashed to fit its medium. These issues are particularly frustrating because there are segments in which the movie truly is great. Rather than being outright bad, its least successful moments simply pull down its most successful ones and make the overall affair less effective than it clearly could have been. Still, it’s not as if the flick isn’t enjoyable. For the most part, it’s a solidly entertaining experience with some unique aesthetics and appropriately amazing animation. The fact that it was completed almost entirely from home due to COVID-19 is especially impressive; it looks and moves just as good as any of Disney’s recent efforts, if not better. One highlight is certainly its fight scenes, which typically have quite a bit of weight to them and emulate something seen in a proper martial arts flick (though they’re obviously less violent). In the end, this is a mostly fun but occasionally frustrating adventure. Despite its issues, it proves that people can pull together to create compelling no matter what the circumstances may be. 7/10.