Jade Marshall

I ended up missing the first hour due to some unexpected circumstances so take this review with a grain of salt. All in all from the second half of the movie I saw I found it to be a generally enjoyable movie, although there are a few qualms with the logic and the film's marketing. There will be some spoilers, but I won't be mentioning any specific details. The longer paragraphs below are negatives as it's much easier to moan and complain than praise, but honestly the movie wasn't bad. It was refreshing to go back to actual low level, non world ending threats that are still pretty important. The action scenes, for the most part, weren't outrageous, and the humor wasn't absurd like in Ragnarok or off-the-wall like in Deadpool, but was still funny. I liked that they brought in plot points of older movies and reintroduced some old and forgotten characters, as well as some new ones that could play a role in future movies. I don't think this will make it into a hall of fame, but it is a step in the right direction for the MCU. So to start off with the marketing, the trailer is somewhat misleading. Maybe it was just me not having a good understanding of what was actually being said, but I came in expecting a more gritty, almost spy-like movie where the main antagonist would ultimately be Red Hulk. The first half of that wasn't totally off, but the one pulling the strings was someone else entirely. Some would argue that it was a plot twist, and that it ultimately is a plus for the movie; however I liken it more to "Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness" where they pulled a frog out of a hat and made Scarlet Witch the big bad. Watching the first half of the movie, in this case, may have provided that extra umph to really give me what I was missing however. Onto the second part, the logic. This world has had a giant green Hulk for the better part of two decades, and in some cases there were multiple hulks. At some point, you would think they would learn that bullets just don't cut it and won't expect handguns, automatics, and drones to do anything. It would have made way more sense for them to evacuate everyone in the area. On a directly related note, the security force attached to the President probably aren't going to open fire on the President and call in attack drones. Yes, he turned all red and freaky, but the Hulk was green and freaky, and he was in the Avengers and ultimately on humanity's side; there definitely would be more than the little hesitation that was shown. Onto part two of the logic part, the end credit scene. This will contain spoilers. In this scene, the actual antagonist reveals that he has seen the future by looking at probabilities and says something along the lines of "You think we're the only planet out there? Its coming. . ." This was honestly a waste of a scene and a waste of time to watch. I get that this guy has almost literally been living under a rock for quite awhile, but geez man, that's old news. Thor and all the Asgardians are from another planet, the skrull are from other planets, Captain Marvel has been there, the Guardians of the Galaxy have been there, even Thanos. Like, come on man, we've even had multiversal events going on thanks to Doctor Strange and Scarlet witch.

Disclaimer: I have never seen the original animated version so I can't offer a good comparison there. That being said, I came into the movie with some skepticism, and this was largely due to three things: their main actress, Disney's recent movie quality, and the overall performance of each of their other live actions. I still don't really agree with their choice of actress, however all in all I believe they did an excellent job in creating a family friendly film. The cast had great voices, the visuals were nice, and the story was simple enough where you could enjoy it without putting in any real effort. And, best of all, they weren't trying to shove some political/social agenda down your throat. As a negative, there were some small oversights in the effects throughout the movie, and the cadence to some parts of the songs felt off to me. For an effects example, when she dropped a compass underwater it fell as you would expect it to on land. Personally, I think both Ariel and the Prince are supremely spoiled and this reflects itself in some of their songs, but it makes sense given the family friendly nature of the movie.

So I heard more than a few bad things said about the movie and how it was a complete flop, but honestly I found it rather enjoyable. I typed up a fair bit below, but the gist of it is: its better not being a horror movie, they did a good job of it, and its in no way connected to the original movie so you shouldn't expect it to be. Give the movie a fair shot for what it is, and don't just listen to the hate. The most memorable review i remember reading was a 1 star for Moana, and all the guy had to say was "havent actually watched it but it sounds kinda gay." Don't be that guy please. Long story short they didn't try to reinvent the wheel. They kept it simple and they did a pretty darn good job of it. Its like why people keep coming back to mario kart or zelda, and it really hits on what makes a good movie: a pleasant soundtrack, decent acting, and a plot that doesnt overcomplicate things. Are there a million different plot twists they throw at you to keep you on your toes? No, but think about, you can guess how any Disney movie ends almost before you even watch it, but people still love it. We all knew what that prince Anna fell for was after, and we all knew Maui was going to come back after his hook cracked. I know a lot of people were also really hoping for a horror movie, but honestly, how many decent horror movies are out there? Personally I feel that if they tried to go down that route then people would have just complained how it didnt build the suspense right or how the jump scare scenes were too predictable. Plus, this was what was supposed to be the first movie in the new Dark Universe, which was supposed to have all monsters people actually care about (i.e. Dracula, Frankenstein, the Invisible Man, etc), so it aught to be the tone setter. If it had been horror, it would have set the standard for all of them to have been horror, which would make it a bit harder to incorporate multiple monsters in a single movie. How many horror (not thriller) movies successfully included multiple big bad spooky things in their story without it being too much? Last comment: the original mummy movie. If thats what you wanted to watch then you should have watched that, cause this isn't it. In fact they're actually being rather helpful, since this one says 2017 right there by the title when you look it up. That way people who are overly fond of the old "Back in my day-" spiel and have less creativity than the sugar I put in my tea know to move it along. Does it include some elements from the original mummy? Of course, thats what you call a throwback or a reference. In the gaming community we call them easter eggs. These things aren't critical plot elements and are a fun way to remind people of the older movies. Its like in Spiderman: Far from Home when Happy Hougan played the intro song from the 2008 Iron Man, or how Deadpool has Logan impaled on a log as an alarm clock. Lets face it, most of the movies and characters you love are probably a remade/reimagined version of an older movie/character.