You have the boldness to doubt my judgement! (Mary Queen of Scots 2018)

 

 

 

223.

Mary Queen of Scots

 

 
 
 

5/10

 

Looks like I'm about to get a history lesson in the British monarchy. With Saoirse Ronan as Mary and Margot Robbie as Queen Lizzie the first, the trailer shows us them in their period pieces, sometimes looking unrecognisable. The movie did take my interest with some possibility of some in-field action hitting the screen, it gave me a  bit of hope that this wasn't just going to be about the politics of the situation. Oh, how I was wrong, in so many ways. I only know the history of this in what I learnt at school and what I remember, this movie was far from correct.
The movie begins with us watching Mary walking through a crowd of people wanting to witness her beheading. As she lays her head, we are sent back in time to when she arrived from France, wanting to overthrow her cousin Elizabeth I.

 

 Both experience their own struggles as Elizabeth has contracted smallpox and has started to turn a little less attractive and is clearly feeling it. As for Mary, she has gotten married to fella who turns out for enjoy the male company instead. She forces him to impregnant her and claims the baby as the heir to Scotland and England, even asking her cousin to be the Godmother. Because Lizzie doesn't have a child, a deal is sticken that if it stays this way, Mary's kid James shall become the King. This is confirmed by text at the end of the movie, which heads back to Mary on the block waiting for the chop. Lizze had caught Mary for betraying her and jailed her, she would look after her until she found evidence that the Scot conspired with the enemy so has no choice to seperate her head from her body.

 

This movie didnt exactly follow history step by step and I'm so disappointed if movies are caving in in this way. I'm for diversity but history would show that black men as nobles were not a thing for the time. There was too much focus on the sexuality and homosexuality in this movie and I was half expecting to see a guy roll up in a wheelchair, no offence meant by this. History shows that Mary and Elizabeth never met, this movie has more than one meeting between the two.

 

 

The historical fiction in this movie could confuse may a viewer. The scenes and cinematography didn't need much tampering as a lot took place in the beautiful countryside and the acting wasn't too bad either. Seeing Robbie as this flapping Queen who remained a virgin and cunning intellect, whilst up north, Mary was seeing the hard times. Having her baby ripped from her, her lover being killed in front of her and constantly being questioned, simply for being a woman, Ronan kept her shit together on the screen very well. I left the cinema thinking that is was nothing more than average and even one epic battle scene would have helped it one it's way, even if there wasn't one in this moment of history, add one! They added some other shit that didn't happen.

Mother Ginger wants to rule the realms! (The Nutcracker and the Four Realms 2018)

 

 

 

222.
The Nutcracker and the Four Realms

 

 

5/10

I'm not one for Christmas and if I'm going to be honest, I close to hate it. The moment I know I have to watch a Christmas, it doesn't exactly fill me with excitement. Disney has decided to bundle together Keira Knightley, Helen Mirren and Morgan Freeman, who are the most recognisable, to tell the story of this famous ballet and movie which already has a number of 'cracks' at the big screen. The trailer did hardly anything for me, although the CGI and animation did look pretty fun but I think this could be mostly based at the young female market. Let's find out whether this will drive me nuts of crack me up.
The story is going to follow on a young lady named Clara, who on Christmas eve received a gift from her father as per her dying mother's wish. This gift is pure crap a sit's an egg-shaped box which she cannot even open. A note states that the box contains everything that she will ever need. The whole family then head off to a ball, hosted by their godfather who is played by Freeman. Clara knows he is a decent engineer, so seeks him down for help to unlock the egg. He was the one who created it, giving it to the mum, who now wants to pass this onto her daughter. Back at the ball, the Dad kicks off that Clara hasn't been social and she walks off. I can imagine that the story will end with these to reconciling. After a while and after a game in which the kids find their presents, Clara wonders off for her own, leading her into a parallel world full of excitement and Christmas.

 

 

 On a tree, she sees her key but before she can grab it, it's snatched by a mouse. Chasing it through the forest, coming up against some dangers, Clara finally finds her way to the Realms and it turns out that her mother was the Queen there. She is greeted by Sugarplum, Shiver and Hawthrone, each a regent of different areas. Sugarplum is Knightley's character and she is pretty hyper and high-pitched, probably from all that sugar. One thing I know is that she is pretty annoying.

 

 

 They all settled down to a ballet about their world's history. Clara's mom created a machine that could turn toys into real people. Sugarplum wants to use it to protect the realms against a fourth run by Mother Ginger. They are at war with her and want to protect themselves but the machine needs a key, the same key that the egg box needs. The mouse runs into the fourth realm so, off we go to visit Mother Ginger. Getting the key, all we find is a music box instead of something cool or useful inside the egg.
The story takes a turn as Sugarplum gets her hands on the key, makes an army and want to take the fight to Mother Ginger, who is revealed to be no threat at all.

 

 

 Clara, the Nutcracker and the other Regents are imprisoned and Sugarplum is ready to rule. Looking at the music box again, Clara notices that there is a mirror in the lid and looking at her reflection, she realises that her mother meant the only thing she needs is herself. With a new level of self-belief, she sets everyone their own tasks to bring down Sugarplum and triumphs as she uses the machine she longed for against her. After restoring peace, Clara promises to visit them all in the future before heading back to London. Time runs at a tiny fraction back home compared to in the realms so she is back at the party, acknowledging how hard everything has been for him and simply asks him to dance. Opening her music box, it plays the first song that her mum and dad ever danced too and the camera pans out of them dancing, finish the movie there and then.

 

First question, was there even a Nutcracker? Seriously, the introduction was ok and his character was on the screen a lot but for this movie to be called 'The Nutcracker' is far from earned. This movie really was looking toward the younger market and mainly towards the females, I would say. The little light humour that was present, didn't really take much thinking about and there was far from a lot of violence present in terms of a great war we started movie towards. The CGI was truly great and each land had it's own charm and colour but that's as far as I enjoyed personally. I'm not saying it's a terrible movie but I simply don't enjoy much along the theme of Christmas. There was a level of predictability about it and it was nice then to see the turn of Sugarplum as the villain and the villain we were looking towards turned out to help our main character. I can definitely live without seeing this movie again and Disney with their live actions right now are not filling me with a lot of joy!

You're too good, Newt. You never met a monster you couldn't love. (Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald 2018)

 

 

 

221.
Fantastic Beast: The Crimes of Grindelwald

 

 

7/10

 

We are thrust back into the world of wizardry as the second movie in the Fantastic Beast franchise hits our screens. The Crimes of Grindelwald carries on from our last installment and once again looks a beautiful spectacle. I have heard some views that the movie actually doesn't move the story one in a significant way and is somewhat of a filler movie. There is only one way to find out that's by watching Eddie Redmayne, Dan Fogler and Johnny Depp back as their characters. Could this turn out to be just as magical as the Harry Potter series or are we really just looking at a money spinner here?
As we know, this is set in the past, 1927 to be exact and Grindelwald is straight on our screen, being transported ahead of being tried for his crimes and we know what's about to come.

 

 

 BINGO, he's escaped and now we will either spend our time looking for him or he won't return for a little while. We jump three months later and Newt, played by Redmayne, is in London bumping into his ex who is now engaged to his brother. He is being asked by the ministry to track down Credence, a character from the first story. He needs to be sent to Paris, which he rejects and another Auror is sent in his place. Not long after, Jude Law pops up as Dumbledore, persuading Newt to actually take the job in Paris because after all, he is the main reason as to why the events in the first movie transpired.
In Paris, Newt bumps into a couple of more characters from the first movie, Queenie and Jacob. We could tell from the ending of the first, that Jacob was receiving his memories back and this is confirmed straight away. The pair have followed Queenie's sister to Paris and Tina is also on the trail for Credence. Newt and Tina had a little touch of romance from the first and I wonder if the writers will decide to step this up a little in this movie. Credence is around, with a new friend name Nagini, as they search for his family and their new lead is killed by the Auror Grimmson who is secretly working for Grindelwald. Word is that he is part of the Lestrange family, with his own step-brother on his trail to kill him off.

 

 

As the movie progresses and tensions between the non-magic folk and wizards begin to grow, even making Queenie question her own loyalties as she is struggling to find her sister and is actually convinced to turn up at Grindelwald's hideout. He convinces her that he has the true power of freedom, one which means that she can marry Jacob in the future without it being frowned upon.
Back to Newt and Tina, who are breaking into the French Ministry in order to find out Credence's true identity and the reason that he is so popular for the wrong reasons. During this time, Newt feels that he needs to tell Tina that him and his ex, who is also a Lestrange, were never engaged to be married, which really falls short of the mark and isn't the true mission. They are lead to the Lestrange tomb with their new information but it turns out that Credence isn't this long lost kid as Newt's ex, Leta Lestrange killed that little bugger when she was only young. They are all led to this rally, including Credence, where Grindelwald is spouting some hate.

 

 

 Even Queenie is there, much to Jacob's surprise. Within the speech, Grindelwald shows some future images of World War II. This is until the Aurors turn up, led my Newt's brother but as they are ready to stop what's going on, Grindelwald sets up a diversion before sending his followers across Europe to spread his new message. He cast a blue flame to separate his followers from their enemies as Credence and Queenie step through the flame to join him, much to everyone's surprise. Leta sacrifices herself by attack Grindelwald, which allows everyone else to escape and as they do so, our remaining heroes link up to battle that blue flame, which has no become a massive dragon because why the hell not. Newt now realises that he needs to get involved in some capacity.

 

 

We end the movie looking at Hogwarts. Newt has gone to meet Dumbledore with a vial that he stole from Grindelwald which holds the bold of both the villain and Dumbledore. This is the reason that Dumbledore cannot move on the villain but trying to destroy it, may mean that this can happen. Meanwhile, In Austria, Grindelwald has set up a camp and it's revealed that Credence is actually a Dumbledore, he's the future Headmaster's long lost brother and the bird he is caring for is a Pheonix, the bird we have seen in the older movies with the Headmaster. This is the end of the movie that could be classified as a little bit of a cliffhanger.
I don't truly understand those that said nothing really happened in this movie. Did they just want it to fail? Characters switching sides, the Villains gaining his army, Newt finally stepping up and bringing Dumbledore into the fold along with the revelation fo who Credence really is. These are plenty of talking points and a lot more than other movies that have been around recently. The acting was once again top notch from certain people. Redmayne gives a great performance as a bumbling wizard but I really want to see his true potential if he does need to take more action. Depp does creepy so well. Between his look and mannerisms, who can truly take in his adaptation of a villain, which I've seen him play far from often. The plot was a mismatch and jumble at times, which did make some of this confusing, maybe even focusing too much on the CGI but as always in the Wizarding World, the special effects, settings and beasts that come along with this type of movie were truly beautiful. It may not have shown us the true crimes of Grindelwald and there may have only been a handful of fantastic beasts but I'm really looking forward to the third in the series.

Welcome to the search bar, what can I help you with today? (Ralph breaks the internet 2018)

 

 

 

220.

Ralph breaks the internet

 

 

 

6/10

 

 

 

Disney decided on a sequel rather than digging up the past and giving us a rehash of an animation. John C. Reilly returns to voice a loveable computer game villain, turned good and along with Sarah Silverman and Gal Gadot, we head into the world of the internet which looks nothing more than watching the Emoji Movie once more. This has a Disney logo on it though so surely everyone will look past that and call it a masterpiece?
The arcade is about to get an internet router, which will open up a whole new world for our characters and when the steering wheel on Vanellope's game breaks, we have to head to eBay to find a new one.

 

 

This is a great time for Disney to flex their muscle as they show off their Princesses, movies, Tv shows and anything else they can, along with different websites. After getting to eBay and winning the auction, they find out that they actually need money to pay for the bastard thing. As always, the internet gives some promises in a pop-up and earning some easy money is one of them. One of these is an online racing game. They must steal a valuable car and sell it onwards for the money that they need. The owner of that car is Gal Gadot's character, Shank. At the end of the race, Vanellope is commended for her racing style by Shank, who doesn't give them the car but does send them in the direction of an algorithm named Yesss.

 

 

 Now Yesss is in charge of a site called Buzzzfeed, which even to the untrained eye, is pretty much YouTube. Ralph is going to make all his money from playing on the latest trends and videoing himself doing so. This gives him love and likes in an attempt to be the next viral sensation. Everything that is becoming wrong with the internet and this movie is exploiting that even more. Vaneloope is starting to feel a little useless but Ralph doesn't want her falling into the crowd at Slaughter Race with Shank.
After finally getting the money, Ralph gets butt dialed by Vanelloe who is with Shank, telling her that she wants to stay there and leave the arcade for good. This leads Ralph to track down the dark-web, way to advertise this Disney, to get a virus to make Slaughter Race boring and hopefully making Vanellope lose interest. Obviously, it backfires, spreads through the internet, causing carnage and manifests into all of Ralph's insecurities, creating mini Ralph's which cause chaos. They all band together and kidnap Vanellope and the only way for Ralph to defeat the newly formed giant Ralph for its possessiveness of the girl. He realises that letting her stay in Slaughter Race and letting her go does not mean that their friendship would come to an end. Finally getting over his own insecurities, breaks down the virus and sets Vanellope free.
The internet is now saved from the virus and Vanellope does indeed choose to stay in Slaughter Race. The two friends now keep in touch through video chat, as they continue on their own journeys. We are treated to two scenes within the credits, one as the friends play a game we seen in the trailers and the post-credits is a mini teaser for Frozen 2, only for Ralph to crash the party.

 

This movie was a far cry from the first. It didn't feel fresh on ideas and instead played of some of the social anxieties that have been too common within social media. Giving the chase for love online and the need to be accepted for money was a little uneasy to watch as our character trailed around the internet like the Emoji Movie that came before it. It had its moments with some humor and piss taking of things like eBay and the Disney Princesses fates within their respective movies. The movie itself looked really clean and crisp too, very visually pleasing. The bad points can keep coming though and in the form of character development. Ralph who just wanted to be accepted has now turned into a selfish character who won't let someone else move on. This goes for Vanellope too. She was just the same and now she is ready to cast aside, a friend who wanted to help to repair her game after helping her to her true potential and now she's ready to move on already. By the second half of the movie, you had totally forgotten that this adventure was even taking place on the internet. Even typing this, I can still feel the disappointment that this movie far from lived up to its potential and instead felt very cliché.