Sakura Byrne

Why was Adam Sandler a 'skinny human' when the spider wasn't that large? Why did the spider get smaller and smaller in each scene? Why did it have such a creepy human mouth? Why did they only send one man on this mission? Was the spider even really there? Who knows and who cares, this went on and on.

This film was quite confused re: direction. I think a lot of it was supposed to be tongue in cheek and satirical, but the 'jokes' landed strangely and so it was hard to tell if it was trying to highlight aspects like misogyny or whether it WAS misogynistic. It's something I probably would have enjoyed as a teen, and back then I'd have appreciated watching something with sapphic characters, but a lot of it just fell flat. Was it a commentary about how we're meant to be rooting for the gross guys who are just trying to trick women into having sex with them in the hetero versions of similar films, such as American Pie? Or were we meant to consider this good representation of queer women? I'm assuming it's the former but the fact that it was hard to tell means somewhere along the way, the film didn't quite do its job. There were funny moments and I appreciated the dark aspects, but it was hard to tell what the film was actually trying to do. The battle on the football pitch at the end was funny though. I'm always happy to see more queer films being made, but I don't think I'd watch this one a second time.

I think after Thor Ragnarok and my love of all things Taika Waititi I may have gone in with expectations too high. This film felt tonally discordant, like it couldn't decide what it wanted to be. Sometimes it felt like it was aimed at little children and I'd unwittingly stumbled into a film for infants, whereas at others it became tonally dark (there is one particular scene with Gorr which felt very eerie and intense, which I enjoyed, but in the context of the overall film it felt jarring). Some of the comedy aspects were pure Taika Waititi gold, but a lot of them fell oddly flat which was a big surprise and very disappointing after watching other things he's worked on. And I really hated those screaming goats!! Gorr was an excellent villain and well acted but more depth for his storyline was needed. In fact, more depth from the storyline was needed throughout. Things Taika works on usually strike a perfect balance between funny and serious, such as Ragnarok and the absolutely wonderful Our Flag Means Death, but this time he sort of missed the mark. It was just all a bit TOO flippant which had the effect of dampening any emotional impact of the more serious scenes. The beginning in particular felt discordant and messy. I felt that the focus on a love story also undermined the film a bit, as Thor and Jane had little chemistry, and I really enjoyed the fact that Ragnarok didn't focus on romance and stuck to good funny, action fun. I feel like the film could have been a lot more interesting if it ran with the Asgardians of the Galaxy aspect hinted at in Endgame, rather than a romance plot that felt a bit forced. I also feel like the internal logic of the film was undermined by Thor being able to just grant powers to people whenever he felt like it, which made the writing of the film seem quite lazy. Jane's arc was actually interesting and she had some really great moments, although how she came to be Mighty Thor again lacked depth. Valkyrie was wonderful and I'm so glad to see they made her queerness more explicit in this film, although again there were times when that too lacked depth (the random flirting with a character who doesn't say anything was a bit weak). Overall this film was an odd experience. Some parts of it were highly entertaining and I loved Taika's use of colour/lack thereof. It had some funny jokes and a few powerful moments, with some fun action sequences. But a lot of the jokes just didn't work, it lacked internal logic and a cohesive plot, and the separate peices of the film rubbed up against each other in the wrong way.

Utterly bizarre, terrible plot, but at least it was (unintentionally) funny.

I have mixed feelings about this film. The colour out of space is my favourite H.P. Lovecraft story so I was keen to see this version of it. I'll start with what I didn't like and then move on to what I did like, with the obvious disclaimer that opinions are subjective. Give it a watch and see what you think! Personally I would have preferred if they'd leaned in to the slow, creeping dread which is present in the original story. It could have done with being less of a sheer drop into madness and instead subtly built it up with a lot more psychological elements and some more subtle special effects. As horror, this really didn't work for me, but a lot of that could be personal preference re: wanting to go away feeling unsettled and uneasy rather than bombarded with the OTT aspects. Nicholas Cage's wildly extra acting did nothing for the horror elements here, and I wished they'd gone with something sickly but subtle rather than neon flashing colours. That part was always going to be tough though, because how do you make a film about a colour never seen before out of colours we already have? I did, however, enjoy the film. As a comedy. Watching Nicholas Cage go on a fruit-biting rampage and the daughter saying 'like you handled the alpacas??' are now two of my favourite things. There were some brilliant, laugh out loud moments that made this film worth watching. I also appreciated that despite going a bit ham with the visuals and mutations, most of the story was actually very close to the original. Whilst I'd have preferred something less OTT, I did appreciate the call-back to films like The Thing which, in their turn, were influenced by people like H.P. Lovecraft. Some parts of the film even edged toward the kind of eerieness I was really hoping to see, which was nice. Even though it was more funny than frightening, I did have fun watching it! If you want something that preys on your mind after you're done watching, the kind of film that leaves your breath short and your heart-rate fast...this isn't it. But would I recommend watching it for entertainment value? Absolutely.