Reviews for "It" and "Blade Runner 2049"

Stephen King’s "It" (2017)

I have talked about this movie a little bit in the context of other things, but I figured I can give another short review here.

This movie is great.  Well-paced, good visuals, and great acting.  “It” hits on its themes of sticking together and growing up really well.  I look forward to the sequel.

 

My mom saw a random flash of this thing as part of a movie montage and it spooked her.
Mission accomplished boys.

If I have one suggestion, they should have collapsed the characters of Ben and Mike.  There wasn’t enough time for 7 protagonists and looking over the cast and knowing where the story goes in the next movie, combining Ben and Mike into just Mike would have allowed the characters to have more time.

They kind of already did, apparently Mike was the history nerd in the book, not Ben.  What is more, the burning body imagery is used for both of them, making the image kind of redundant.  I also think that Mike getting cut up by the bullies would also work to collapse the narrative a bit earlier and allow for the full group to be together for longer.  This would also allow some more time to be spent on Stanley, who I think gets the shortest end of the stick.

 

Mike is also a rather heroic character, fighting and defeating Henry Bowers in a tense scene.
I think the conflict with Bowers (AND THE RACE THING) should have gotten a bit more attention.

You know, I recall this common complaint by people saying, "why don't they tell each other about the clown? I would be telling everyone!"

Leaving aside the allegory of stranger-danger and child abuse... Listen assholes, people have a hard time talking about their mental health because it is super stigmatized. Do you think they are going to tell people they have been seeing a clown and shit?

To quote a popular song about suicide prevention I talked a bit about before, "Who can relate?! Woo!"

“Blade Runner 2049” (2017)

            If this movie had been shorter (and let’s not kid ourselves, it could have been shorter) it would be one of my favorite movies ever.  “2049” is SO MUCH BETTER THAN THE ORIGINAL.  I consider the original SUPER overrated.

            If I do have a criticism about something other than the length, I don’t get the bad guy, Jared Leto’s plan.  He wants replicants that can reproduce so that he can make them faster to meet market demand?  Okay.  But how is breeding possibly faster than the 3D printer model they are currently using?  Even if the 9-month gestation period is not an issue, you still end up with a baby at the end of that, not a fully-grown worker.

Basic visual metaphor: Have the guy with a twisted mindset have weird eyes.
Because his way of seeing the world is off.

Does it take longer than a decade to grow a full size replicant?  Even if it doesn’t, I have to imagine the memory programming cuts their training time by swaths.

In summation, the plan makes no sense.

Random complaints, the opening text to set the scene is too god damn small and has poor color contrast to the dark background.  That is a fail.  This movie comes off as strangely misogynistic at times, and I am not sure if that is a theme, it is punctuated with a particular supporting character’s death that I did not care for.  I think that these filmmakers have no actual memories of the original “Blade Runner” if they can describe Harrison Ford’s character as being good at his job without irony; Decker sucked, and to say otherwise is delusional.

It's not not-misogynistic.  You know, like the real world.

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