Frozen II

Somebody super jaundiced might dismiss this film as mostly a collection of music videos of varying quality. Not me though—I learned my lesson from the first outing: there’s more here than meets the eye, at least at first glance. I’m not sure the plot makes a lot of sense, beyond its service as a means to creating its ultimate end, which affirms what has been hinted at all along: that one sister is the real ruler of things, while the other one is more of a symbol, or a figurehead, or perhaps just a metaphor for powers greater than the human world. That’s not really what tends to drive movies for kids, so we get the story we get here. Mostly, it’s entertaining, occasionally touching, every once in a while awkward (and maybe even a bit cringeworthy), and it’s packed with musical numbers that are, if not quite a match for the now classic songs of the first flick, at least good enough to hold their own here. (The Lopezes certainly do have a way with the music and lyrics.) It definitely feels like this should be the saga's second and last part, even with the announced plans for a third installment. After all, it would be a singular irony if it turns out that these, of all people, can’t find the wisdom to let it go.

The Matrix Resurrections

You can run computer programs over and over again; it's their nature. So I suppose from that perspective, this sequel makes sense. From a viewers perspective, I'm not sure it's quite so sensible, as it doesn't seem to break any real, new ground. (I know, I know--what is real?) And, but for the two principle stars, most of the rest of those who made the original trilogy what it was--with one exception--are missing and presumed too expensive to buy back in. That's part of the problem here: suffering via comparison, and this outing actually shoots itself in the foot--presumably in slow motion--by making the comparisons itself explicitly. Still, it's not entirely bad; just overly familiar, no longer groundbreaking, and perhaps unnecessary. On the plus side, there's a cat, so hisses are not entirely in order. Fine for a brief diversion, but not exactly the best catnip available.

Frozen

Cute, charming, and enjoyable. That’s pretty much the extent of it--not a bad movie by any means, but certainly not the manna from heaven that everyone (seemingly) was declaring it to be when it hit the theaters. It does get points for being mildly provocative in its denouement, and the songs are catchy enough (though they oddly disappear about two-thirds of the way through); but there are obvious shortcomings. Take the look of the thing: the landscapes and “effects” parts of the rendering look fine, but the characters seem to be almost lacking in detail. So it’s good, just not that good.

(Re-review from 6/15/23) I must be getting soft in my old age.. Perhaps I was affected by the overwhelming positive response to this one upon first release; I have so much trouble with the nature of popularity. My original critique of the graphics remains; the animation, while impressive in some ways, is also oddly light on details in the character's appearance. Nevertheless, the rest of the film is a lot better than I originally gave it credit for. Good story, solid relationships between the principal cast members, and the songs—where they are there; as noted before, they kind of vanish part way through the running time—are outstanding, with great melodies and terrific lyrics. Sometimes your cynicism can get in the way more than it protects you; mine led me astray back in the day. Now, I’m old enough to know better, and that shows in seeing that, on second viewing, this is a better movie than I had imagined. That’s all right; being wrong never bothered me anyway.