Magic Marmalade 13th Sep 2023
| | Rated 7/10Wow, and indeed, at the same time.... Oh no.
Having mentioned just the other day, how The Matrix sequels really annoyed my by being split on a cliff hanger... this does exactly the same!
Except, with respect, it was marketed this way from the outset, so I knew it was coming.
(Glad I didn't watch it in the cinema for this reason, therefore - I really do resent it, cinema not being the place for TV soap style cliff-hangers in my opinion: "Tune in next year to find out what happens next...." Grrrrrrrr)
But also, I see what they did with this, in order to up the ante: as if the first film was akin to a comic book, excellently paced, well tied up, and perfectly self-contained, this has ambitions to be the equivalent of a graphic novel, in terms of scope, and scale, and so requires the two parts.
That said, the action is frantic, and a blizzard of new characters, action and... stuff, happens all at once, a lot more hectic than the original, so that it's difficult to keep up with, and then you have these other, dramatic moments that, in direct contrast to this, grind proceedings almost to a halt - the personal dramatic moments go on too long - dramatic pauses etc,
Some scenes, and indeed, the art-work / production design are a clear step up even from the original (did not think that was possible!), but this is altogether a more "involved" affair, whereas the casual viewer can enjoy the first, this goes a little bit more into comic fan "lore" land, which may lose a lot of this audience.
If you are into it to this degree, you'll probably like this even more, but if, like me, you are only a casual comic book movie fan, but more of a general movie fan, this won't be as good as the original... just by a shade or two.
The first, beyond the comic book nature of the film, was just good movie making, and story telling in general, this lacks somewhat in this regard, and so is more of a Comic-Con fanbase movie.
But, I will dutifully await the next one, I suppose, and resign myself to the fact that, along with this, and Everything Everywhere, All At Once, this is how movie are going to be from now on, rather than a fresh, exciting, and original experiment, everyone is going to jump on this band wagon, of nutty, frenetic story splat, story telling, which will inevitably become the contrary: Same-y, bland, and unoriginal.
But this was enjoyable, and worth watching for all that.
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