Megan Wood

Two words: 3-D D-Box . 5/5. Two thumbs up. A masterclass! It was an honor to see this movie.

After weeks of deliberation, I (finally) went to go see this last night. And….I loved it. Seriously, I loved it. I’d actually put this in the top 3 of live action. The only major thing I will say is that it is basically a musical, so if you don’t like musicals it’s probably not for you. Despite the controversies, I felt like 99.99% of the stuff in the movie worked. The CGI dwarves worked and aren’t as jump scary as they seemed in the trailers. They also blended well into the setting, as in despite being CGI they didn’t look noticeably unreal compared to the rest of the cast. If you are worried about Snow White not looking “white”, Rachel Zegler looks pretty white and very similar in my head to what the original Snow White looked like in the vast majority of shots. In fact, in direct sunlight she looks whiter than a lot of other white people I know. Could they have perhaps done a little bit more playing with lighting in scenes with orangish light which brings out the darker parts of her skin tone? Perhaps. Despite the lack of a “prince”, there was still an absolute love story and it worked. In fact, I’m not quite sure why the movie was represented as it was way back when because of that. Even not being one to one with all concepts/characters of the original, it still felt true to the heart of the original. Despite the claims of “girl boss”, there was nothing that Snow White did that I felt would be considered solely modern feminist. She was strong, but her strength came from characteristics and values that aligned fairly well with the original. In fact, it was giving me vibes of other renditions of fairy tale movies from the 1990s/2000s like “Ever After”, “Ella Enchanted”, etc. in terms of characteristics and values. And it wasn’t anti-prince either, it’s just the plot took precedence over the wishing aspect and the romance unfolded organically. Acting was great all around. Songs were great. In fact, the only (slight) weak link to me was the third outfit Gal wore as the evil queen. Don’t get me wrong, Gal looked beautiful in it, that wasn’t the issue. The issue is that the stained glass window inspired headpiece and cape in that scene felt iconic, but then they were overshadowed by the shiny sequins (yes, obviously they were sequins)(weird, weird) on the dress. Should’ve gone with a black and purple ensemble and maybe sew some of the gems into it or something. But, what do I know? I do want to say to Disney though if you are reading this, though I personally liked your take, there are clearly enough people that are upset for one reason or another that it might be best to cool it on too many personal liberties with the original storyline going forward.

Lots of undeserved hate. It’s a great movie with lots of direct and indirect flashbacks/references etc. to older disney movies. Very nostalgic. Cannot wait for third movie.

I do not believe this is a five star movie but, also, the one star reviews are not being fair. This isn’t Sixth Sense or Signs….this is Trap. And Trap is more of a many small twists movie, than a single big twist type movie, especially given the whole cat and mouse game plot point. There are two medium sized twists in the movie though. And though neither individually changes the lens you see the movie in, there actually is, in my opinion, a larger implied twist, that, while never directly stated in the movie, does cause you to see the movie in a different lens and feel more sympathy for Josh’s character, Cooper. To catch the twist though you have to critically think, and add up the second medium twist with many details that are seen as insignificant at the time in the earlier points of the movie. Not many people know how to/care to do that, so it doesn’t surprise me that those people wouldn’t enjoy it as much. Acting was 10/10. Singing 10/10. Shirtless Josh 10/10. The reason I deducted a star though, believe it or not, is not because of any plot holes, though there was at least one, but because of the unrealism of the audience’s reaction to, and incompetence of, the “good guys” and the unnecessary mislead right before the second twist. I mean, call me paranoid, but, while I know there is typically security at a large event, if I saw as many security personnel at this event as there was in the movie, and that they were pulling people out of the crowd, I would be wondering what the heck was going on too. The fact the entire concert audience (in the movie) is completely blind to, or doesn’t care about this, astounds me. Second, after multiple “incidents”, how did the lady in the grey hair at least, not pull up the cameras and see who the single individual was near all events. Seems like that would’ve solved a lot. Also, if she clearly predicted (from the trailer) that the “bad guy” would do something like pull a fire alarm, how was no person, camera, etc. posted near each clearly visible fire alarm, nor anyone mention noticing someone standing in front of one for like an entire 45 seconds with their hand out like they are going to pull it. Not to mention what happens later on. Thirdly, prior to the second medium twist, which affected the larger implied twist, a certain character is watching a certain thing on the computer. It almost felt like M. Night intended for a third medium twist, but axed it, and that was suppose to play into it. I would’ve preferred, since that twist didn’t come to pass, that the scene be changed with that part left out. Finally, for some reason to me, the movie felt 15 minutes too short. Throughout the movie, there are multiple reference to mommy issues and a monster and yet it never really goes into detail, and needed to, which is a missed opportunity. Especially with the monster being brought up over and over, I thought M Night was going to pull a “Ready or Not” moment. Not getting that on top of not getting the back story behind the reference was a little bit of a letdown. Despite the negatives, I still enjoyed it though.

I never saw the original Twister movie, but I want to now. This movie has inspired me. I went to it last night and enjoyed it so much that I went back this morning to go see it again. It doesn’t matter to me that some people say it may not be “entirely accurate”. I’ve seen other people say it gives fairly accurate advice which can save lives. And, also, in my personal perspective, there’s a huge human element to this disaster movie that I feel like has been lost with many others, and that’s in addition to the good acting, good plot, and good humor in the movie. My only regret with this movie is that there wasn’t a place within relatively easy driving distance to see this one in 4D. I feel like that experience would’ve been lit and this would’ve been one of the movies I’d have gladly forked over the extra money to see it in that way.

Despite my bias, I am trying to rate this fairly so technically 5 stars for the acting all around, romance and comedy, but 1 star for what this movie represents. That makes the average 3 stars. And what does this movie represent? Propaganda and gaslighting. I’m on the conservative side, and so have heard the same “conspiracy” theories as many other people regarding this event. And yet, I’ve always believed we did make it to the moon. I never mocked anyone for their beliefs that we didn’t though, because I could understand why they believed it. I’ve seen and heard first hand though, conservative individuals getting mocked by liberals for this belief. This whole movie reeks of being like, “You know that thing we mocked you for, well…we now understand why you’d think that because of this (literal top secret) project and the fact it was definitely plausible, if not probable. However, you’re still an idiot if you think that because we’ve told you we fixed the camera on the ship and the cat ruined the filming set. So the moon landing was real.” The whole cat thing especially seems too convenient. I’m not saying it didn’t happen and I haven’t bothered to check the fact versus faked for this movie, because if liberals both make the movie, but may also be in charge of fact checking the movie, then they control the reality of perception. The only thing that makes me think it would be real, is that I think (hope) true liberals wouldn’t perpetuate the stereotype of black cats being bad luck, unless it was 100% what really happened. Additionally, I am more skeptical now, than previously, after watching this movie, for a brand new reason than what is currently mentioned in most of the theories about a fake moon landing. The moving flag doesn’t bother me, as we don’t know everything about space, and so it’s completely possible that there is some force that, if it is not wind, mimics wind. The president being able to call the astronauts doesn’t bother me either. For if, NASA can call, it should certainly be easy enough to patch the president through to NASA. What does bother me though is the quality of the video in the movie’s version of the actual moon landing. It was black and white, grainy, and not just grainy as in the picture, but it looked like a lot of moon dust had been kicked up from the landing which almost made the astronauts look like they were in a building sandstorm or dust devil. If that’s what actually happened then, considering I wasn’t alive then, I don’t know about ya’ll, but the pictures I always saw in the textbooks, which would’ve had to have been frames from the video camera, if this film is to be believed, were always perfectly clear. And while, yes, we had advancements in the 30 years since the event, I’m simply not sure I can believe that the “real video”/ pictures made from that video was/were edited to the point of looking as clear as the faked version in the movie. Not with 90s tech at least, at the latest. Based on this, odds are, even if the moon landing wasn’t faked, the government has been putting pictures from the faked version in textbooks. And, if you are going to go down that road, considering those are what people see, then don’t blame them for thinking the event was completely faked.

I highly recommend giving this movie a watch. However, expect not a movie about the background to a Civil War, but one about: the horrors of war, hope, humanity, PTSD, Adrenaline, life, death, and choices and their consequences. It would’ve been a five star review despite a couple things. Many people are claiming this movie is apolitical, and, for the most part, they’d be right. Any hint of political affiliation is short lived, but, in my opinion, is still there. The impetus for the war, as you can find out is the President usurping a third term. Something that feels very Jan 6th related. And, despite the character for the president not really looking like Trump at all to me, especially since any portrayal of him overstates his features, definitely utilized some wordings that have been very specific to the way Trump might speak, and are not stereotypical of any other president that I know of, or “Trumpisms”. For example, “Some might say” was used in a speech of his, in addition to repeating “very” to emphasize something. The only way they could’ve made it sound more like him is adding “Huge”, “China”, or “Wrong”….or adding in some hand gestures. Additionally at least one more thing seemed Trump hinting throughout the movie like journalists being shot on site in Washington DC. I do believe Trump is one of the only presidents to not be a fan of the media, besides maybe Nixon. And who would feel enough to consider them an enemy enough to warrant that, especially with the typical negative portrayal of anything Conservative. So now, you have this obviously intended character that they know you’ll figure out, which makes the “secessionists”, in context, people who hold the Constitution above all or people who cannot even empathize with any feelings behind why the president might feel like they need a third term, despite the movie not having to say so. In that way it might make sense why CA and TX would team up, with the latter representing the former and CA representing the unempathetical one. The war would also be split based on who may have thought the term was legitimate (who may have voted for him) and who did not, in either regard despite, again, the movie not saying so. Since the president was only in two scenes it seems super lazy to me to not work harder to make sure the presidential role did not match anything, or anyone, too close to home to one side or the other. And also, giving a bit more context to how it differentiated from real life events, if they intended to keep the character of the president in this way, would’ve benefited the story greatly, not just for the character but for the satisfactory resolution of the plot as well.

I’m not sure what movie the one, two, and three star reviews saw, but it definitely wasn’t Argyle. This movie was so much fun to watch. I was on the edge of my seat the whole time. Also, the twists were awesome. Also, I don’t think they were quite as predictable as some say. Or else my perception has gotten off? I don’t think it has though. The clincher to me, even loving the story, was the slightly after credits scene. I did not know about it going in and it completely changed my perception of the movie, not so far as it going from bad to good, but from going from good to great. I have my own theories. I cannot write them here as they would spoil people. But, if I’m right, I really look forward to the future of content related to Argyle.

Let me start off by saying I absolutely loved this movie and fully intend to see it again before this weekend is up. Now things to note. People are telling absolute lies in the one star reviews. Not just about the bus. But that there were important elements that were in the original that were left out. I only saw this movie for the first time in high school, under a decade ago, and there wasn’t a single thing from that movie that I remember being left out. Actually…no…scratch that….the only thing they left out was I think the toaster strudel reference. And there was plenty more added to make up for the lack of it. Also, people are taking offense to the fact it has a lot of singing. I don’t know why people couldn’t figure out it was a musical. Even if you hadn’t seen one of the interviews on YouTube that say that verbatim that it takes inspiration from the play/musical, the original clip they’d released for the previews of this film only had the audio, “My name is Regina George” and nothing else. If people would’ve pulled their brains out of their own backsides and considered the fact that the original had no singing, then they’d have figured out very quickly that it was a musical. Thus, they have nothing to validly complain about. The singing was on point too. I don’t know why people are saying it was bad. The tunes were catchy and I didn’t hear a single off key note. Maybe some singing/singers was/were better than others, but in real life not everyone sings as well or well at all. And considering that this is literally a movie about a teen girl moving to a literal new world, finding love, and trying to fit in, I’m not sure why anyone would be expecting everyone to be Beyoncé or Celine Dion. It would be so unrealistic and would kill the vibe hard. To sum it up. Don’t listen to the one starred. This movie was good. Go see it on the big screen.