Moana 2

Part of the problem is quickly apparent: this story feels rushed, like it was not given any chance to develop organically. Instead, the tale is presented more as a “plot accompli” based on presumed prior knowledge, clumsy explication, and prioritizing cultural instruction. Indeed, a lot of the early part of the movie is like the world’s most highly-produced sensitivity training workshop video. You get the feeling that, unlike with the first movie, where the cultural consultants were there to give input, here they were allowed to go nuts—and not to particularly entertaining effect. So the proceedings begin with something of a deficit. Does the film turn it around? Yes, to an extent, largely through the efforts of Auli’i Cravalho, who still brings great presence and charm as the title character. Among the supporting cast, Dwayne Johnson is still mostly entertaining as Maui, while the rest of Moana’s fellow sailors are a hit or miss bunch. The musical numbers fall within a range, from solid to middling; a few advance the story well enough, though none are really standout pieces. All in all, this is a decent outing, nothing to be ashamed of but not really anything spectacular. Apparently, this will be one in a chain of islands, so to speak, so any review of this flick will hardly be the last word; maybe we’ll have to experience the voyage in total before we really know where it goes. 

Moana

There’s a reason why people go on vacations to tropical islands. As represented here, such places are empirically gorgeous, and that fact is brilliantly captured in this movie’s animation, which is a visual feast. Even when the story moves to the ocean the look of everything remains impressive. And that story itself is captivating and well-told, and it puts its cultural concepts to excellent use, giving the viewer a glimpse into a relatively unknown piece of the human experience. The storytelling here gets tremendous help from the presence of Auli'i Cravalho's title heroine, who is lovely and charming and very easy to root for. Her sidekick, Dwayne Johnson's Maui, is fine, providing humor where it works and an entertainingly enigmatic emotional presence in the rest of the tale. The movie isn’t perfect; there are one or two weak points. One issue that pops up early in the story: it's a bit hard to buy the flimsy pretext for part of the plot's main conflict; in reality, no community of islanders in the world would be that reticent about sailing the ocean, regardless of any person's backstory. And the comic relief is somewhat overdone in spots (we could use a little less of the chicken). But those are quibbles. All in all, the film is a delight to watch and upholds the standards of the best of the canon. The girl does indeed know where she’s going, and you’ll be rewarded for finding the way with her.

Jungle Cruise

In a lot of ways, this is Disney at its worst. The movie tells a story that has only a shred of relationship to theme park ride--which, by the way, was clearly intended to be in Africa, not the Amazon basin--that is not particularly interesting, is eye-rollingly predictable in oh so many ways (including a ham-handedly telegraphed "they hate each other, they love each other" romantic element), and that ultimately comes across as a cynical and insulting attempt to just grab some cash from film audiences (while obsequiously nodding toward various identity groups). Also, Jesse Plemons is a fine actor, but having him as your ultimate villain--and speaking German half the time at that--is not a good call. If not for the inherent likeability of the leads--Dwayne Johnson and Emily Blunt are not the problem here--a viewer with any self-respect would probably throw flaming projectiles at the screen. At least there's a CGI jaguar to provide some visual appeal. Yeeesh.

Skyscraper

Here we have, dare I say it, a well-constructed action film. How so? For one thing, it was smart to establish the humanity of the protagonist before he is called upon to perform superhuman feats--and to do so in an organic fashion. That box gets checked early on, with considerable help from Dwayne Johnson's personal likeability as well as his character's well-cast family. Speaking of whom, making them--or at least Neve Campbell's wife/mom character--as badass as the hero himself was a good idea; it lets the audience root that much harder for each of them individually and collectively. High stakes matter in an action flick--and they rarely get higher than this one's titular edifice. The filmmakers--particularly the CGI artists--make good use of the ostensible physical locations in this story, so much so that if you're someone afraid of heights (or in my case, falls), this could be a tough watch for you. But you throw it all together and you come up with a highly entertaining piece of popcorn entertainment that's long on fun and short on mistakes (no particularly glaring plot holes, only slight absurdity in the hero's derring-do). The only real downside is the lack of any understanding, vis-a-vis building a modern Tower of Babel, that just becasue you can do soemthing, it doesn't mean you should. But this one doesn't exist for philosophizing--just for giving the ex-Rock something to make audiences go along for the roll. For that, it works.

The Scorpion King

A real howler. By all rights it's a horrible movie, but if you watch it with the right expectations, you can get a lot of laughs out of this supertanker full of 'teh stupid.' Think "Conan Jr." and you've got the right idea. Just don't take it seriously. At all. Really.

The Mummy Returns (2001)

Not quite as amusing as the first one (which I liked a lot). It never really has that spark, though it does get more interesting when the story begins to refer more closely to the backstory of the previous flick. And the stuff with The Rock and the "Scorpion King" is mostly retarded. Posted .