After rewatching Frozen, I realized that the film as a whole was far from perfect.  With endless plot holes, a basic pop soundtrack, and a familiar story, it was hard to appreciate the original film.  I recall liking it the first time, but maybe it was just catchy and really stuck in my head for the months following.  While Frozen 2 still has a lack of needed explanation for certain plot lines, it is a definite step up from the first film.  This is already a contested opinion between fans young and old, but I stand by it for the following reason...

To start, the music in the sequel holds more weight.  Children may not like every song as much as they did for the original film since none of the tunes have stuck as much as "Let It Go".  The break-out song of this film was marketed to be "Into the Unknown", which is not the most creative song on the soundtrack, but still seems craftier than "Let It Go".  Kids might struggle to catch on to the melody, but the lyrics are more fulfilling and Idina Menzel's (Enchanted​) voice carries it quite well.  Her voice truly defies gravity and is such a treasure to the listener.  Along with the new hit, audiences can enjoy a cheesier song from Olaf and a hard-hitting love ballad from Kristoff.  Olaf's song is similar to his debut in Frozen, but Kristoff brings older viewers the nostalgia of artists like Meatloaf or REO Speedwagon.  It's a fun and intentionally ridiculous 80s tribute.  These songs are a treat for adults and kids alike.

Furthermore, the voice work and script for this follow-up are more exciting and creative.  While Olaf did not have too many lines in the original film and still annoyed me, it appears he has more lines in the sequel but never comes off as overly annoying.  Idina Menzel, Kristen Bell (Veronica Mars, Forgetting Sarah Marshall), Jonathan Groff (Mindhunter), and Josh Gad (Beauty and the Beast, 21) round out the cast again with a few extra voice actors in minor roles.  Menzel and Bell voice the young sisters so fittingly.  Gad plays a slightly more matured Olaf, but still sounds like a curious snowchild.  The big breakout for me with this film was Groff's ability to sing.  I'm a big fan of Mindhunter and Groff's character in the Netflix show is so different from Kristoff; it took me a while to realize they are played by the same person.  I can see this ensemble making a few more films together if everyone stays aboard the wintery franchise.

While I do like the sequel more than the original, there are a few choices that are flawed and leave the viewer pondering.  A couple of the things that were left unexplained in the first film are brought back and explained in this film, but this film has characters choose certain paths that are unnatural.  At one point, a main character (trying to avoid spoilers still) makes a choice that contradicts everything the film sets up.  It left me scratching my head and wondering if they just couldn't figure out a better way to progress the plot.  I still give praise to this plot for being more original than the first film, with no real villain for the sisters to face off with.  This is more about character development than it is about a battle at the end, creating a refreshing story for Disney.

I would go amiss without mentioning the visual effects.  I saw the film in Laser IMAX and it was totally worth the big screen experience.  The ice shimmers across the screen and while there is not a lot of real action sequences, there are quite a few moments where the beautiful landscape shines bright with the reflecting snowy overlay.  There was one point where the pine trees looked so realistic that I had to do a double-take and look away from the screen for a minute.  It truly is amazing what modern technology has done for artists and animation studios.  

The Bottom Line: This darker sequel progresses the characters that kids and adults already love, but has flaws that are left unexplained and contradictory.

Score: 7/10

After a decade, this film is exactly what audiences need to move forward.
 
​Grandiose character performances from the lead cast, an emotional plotline, the harshest purple villain of all time, and of course CGI action-shots galore bring us straight to a satisfying ending of a chapter.  Surely this is not the last film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but it definitely feels like the end of an era. 
 
The heroes that we have grown to love are stuck in a final showdown with the heavy-handed Thanos.  While the film stands out as a blockbuster action flick, there is a lot of emotion involved and tears will fall.  For a three-hour-long superhero movie, the run time feels shy of two hours, leaving me wanting more action and more time with these characters.  There is just enough time for the film to solve the situation that they are left with at the conclusion of Avengers: Infinity War.  It’s not an easy task to move forward after half of the cast is turned to dust, but Anthony (Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Avengers: Infinity War, Captain America: Civil War) and Joe Russo (Avengers: Infinity War, Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Captain America: Civil War) direct the film towards a proper resolution.
 
At the end of Infinity War, we are left with a cast of MCU founders including Robert Downey Jr. (Iron Man, Sherlock Holmes, The Avengers), Chris Evans (The Avengers, Captain America: The First Avenger), Chris Hemsworth (The Avengers, Thor: Ragnarok, Snow White and the Huntsman), Scarlett Johansson (Her, Lost in Translation, The Avengers), Mark Ruffalo (The Avengers, Spotlight, Foxcatcher), and Jeremy Renner (The Town, The Avengers, Wind River).  While everyone in this cast has been a dud in one of the previous films of the MCU, they are all perfect in this film.  After witnessing their friends and families die, they wear their emotions on their sleeves.  This is not something we often get in superhero films.  Usually, our fictional superheroes are emotionless robots.  Luckily, Marvel has finally fixed this lack of character.
 
The dynamic between Robert Downey Jr. and Chris Evans leads this film to victory and emotional payoff.  Without going too far into spoilers, the ending is clearly a tool that Marvel can use to move on from the franchise that has been built thus far.  The end is worth the ride that fans have been on for the past 11 years.  Of course, Thanos leaves his mark on the universe and everything is not left perfectly normal. 
 
It will be interesting to see where the MCU progresses from here.  With a Spider-Man movie just months away, Endgame will forever impact the future of the franchise.  Sacrifices are made, battles are fought, relationships are broken, and overall this is the most meaningful film for the franchise.
 
The Bottom Line: If you are a die-hard Marvel fan, bring tissues and get ready for the longest and most rewarding end of an era.

Score: 9.5/10

Mulan will remain as one of Disney's best films for a long time.  Personally, the film is categorically within my top three Disney films.  After 20 years, the animation and effects are still clean and superb.  The music never gets old and the story about a girl saving China to bring honor to her family and nation still remains relevant.  There are a lot of broad themes throughout the film that make the viewing a learning lesson, and yet the storyline is extremely entertaining to watch.  There is action for kids to maintain their attention span, but also moral values to keep Mulan as a tool for adults to teach from.

The cast clearly put in effort during the voice acting sessions, bringing out strong characters and whimsical scripts to accompany them.  Miguel Ferrer (Traffic) is terrifying as the lead villain, Shan-Yu.  Yet, Eddie Murphy (Coming to America, Shrek) as Mushu is hilariously exaggerated.  At the center of the story is of Mulan, voiced by the charming-but-tough Ming-Na Wen (Street Fighter).  The list of voice actors go on-and-on as the film is densely packed with characters to support Mulan's journey.  While the voice actors are important, the directors chose to use different actors for the singing portions which are crucial to Disney's cinematic formula.

Mulan has the most recognizable soundtrack out of every Disney film with hits including "Reflection", "I'll Make a Man Out of You", and "A Girl Worth Fighting For".  Donny Osmond's (Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat) voice provides the overly-masculine Shang tracks.  Lea Salonga (Aladdin) provides a powerful counter to Osmond's Shang.  One of the themes portrayed through the music is the role of gender in modern society.  For a 1998 film, Mulan was progressive and remains progressive the more we learn about Hollywood's scandals.  I look forward to the live-action remake that is set to release in 2020, but I hope that they can keep the messages from the original film and modernize them even more.

The Bottom Line:  Mulan gives audiences the hero it needs and questions gender roles in a way that adults and children can both understand clearly.

Score: 9.8/10

Image credit: ​By Gkaidan - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=67121492

Yep, another Star Wars movie.

This time around, veteran director Ron Howard (Apollo 13) takes the helm of a spin-off Star Wars movie based on Han Solo's background.  Unfortunately, Solo: A Star Wars Story moves at a slow and often boring pace.  Unlike Rogue One, Solo grants no payoff in the end.  There is a cameo towards the end that seems like an attempt at re-creating the intensity of Darth Vader's Rogue One appearance, but the cameo falls flat without much weight in the franchise.  

As a whole, the film is less of an adventure and more of a journey to hit every beat that has already been laid out in previous Star Wars films.  Of course, these beats are important and weigh heavily in the previous films, but they are forced upon us unrelentingly.  One might say that the force is strong with this installment, but rather than providing hope for the future of the franchise, we are provided with another formulaic retelling. 

The cast of the film is decent, but there are no real standouts.  Alden Ehrenreich (Hail, Caeser!, Stoker) clearly tries to follow Harrison Ford's (Raiders of the Lost Ark, Air Force One) portrayal of the character, but the charm is missing at times.  Emilia Clarke's (Terminator Genisys, Me Before You) character is interesting, but never really breaks out.  The ending reveals that her character was mostly set up, but we never get to see how it is fully developed.  Phoebe Waller-Bridge (Man Up) voices a unique droid, but audiences can already expect a new droid based on the introductions of BB-8 and K-2SO.  My favorite character is Lando Calrissian in this film.  Donald Glover (The Martian) is spectacular in the role and it would be fun to see a solo film with him in the lead role.

Overall, Solo is just another offshoot Star Wars film.  It is neither great, nor bad.  At times, the story is too direct and the creativity that audiences got with The Last Jedi has washed away for now.  Hopefully the poor box office results do not affect the upcoming installments in the franchise, but clearly the issue has to be addressed and a new release strategy might need to be drawn. 

The Bottom Line: Solo: A Star Wars Story falls short of the creative threshold that audiences became accustomed to after The Last Jedi's success a few months ago.

Score: 6.5/10

From the visionary director that brought us Pan's Labyrinth comes another creepy and yet heartwarming film.  The Shape of Water is a lovely portrayal of a forbidden love between a creature and a human.  The plotline is spectacular, balancing the heavy-hitting politics of communist Russia and the United States in the 1960s and the science-fiction creature that drives the love story forward.  The tone is classy, with a jazz-inspired score that brings the audience back to the 60s.  The story is relatable to any time period, but the 60s backdrop makes it even more interesting.

Guillermo del Toro (Pan's Labyrinth, Hellboy, Pacific Rim) never ceases to create beautiful effects for his visionary films.  The imagery throughout The Shape of Water is consistently fluid and spectacular.  There is one scene where we get to see two raindrops dance around on a bus window, acting as a metaphor for the story unfolding on screen.  There is blood and gore involved, but only the necessary amount for us to enter the world that the screenwriters have created.  This is not a film for children, but for a mature audience that can handle the darkness of a spy thriller and the nudity that comes with a full love story.  To gently push the audience through the film, Alexandre Desplat (The King's Speech, Argo, The Queen, Philomena) contributes a smooth score that juggles between intensity and charm.  The orchestral score fits with every single scene, settling and unsettling the audience at certain times.

I would go amiss without acknowledging the cast members that bring the story to life.  Sally Hawkins (Blue Jasmine) easily gives the best performance of the year with her portrayal of a mute janitor.  While she cannot talk, there is emotion behind every sign that she gives.  Alongside Hawkins, Doug Jones (Hellboy, Pan's Labyrinth) plays a fantastic sea monster.  Rounding out the cast, Michael Shannon (Midnight Special) is a scarily bigoted villain.  This is the big bad role that Shannon has perfected throughout his career.  Finally, the support for the main roles are brought to the screen by three well-seasoned actors.  Octavia Spencer (Fruitvale Station), Richard Jenkins (Step Brothers), and Michael Stuhlbarg (Call Me by Your Name​) are all great additions to the film.  Overall, this is a top-notch cast brought together to create a top-notch film.

The Bottom Line: The Shape of Water certainly deserves all of the Oscar-buzz that it is receiving because of its tender and yet unsettling approach at a love story.

Score: 9.7/10

Image credit: ​By Source, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=54631984

After 18 films, Pixar still continues to release it's greatest content yet!  When I first heard about Coco, I admittedly had extremely low expectations for the film.  None of Pixar's recent films had felt fresh, original, or great since Inside Out.  However with Lee Unkrich at the film's helm, Coco transcends the recent films to become a masterpiece from the studio that started it's animation dominance with Toy Story.  

Coco is beautiful and full of detailed animation that is hard to fully admire through the constantly progressing storyline.  Taking place during Dia de los Muertos, the animators are burdened with creating intricate costumes for many of the characters.  With all of the pressure, the animators do a great job of creating smooth transitions and glorious settings.  One of the highlights of the artwork was the spirit animals.  These neon and often glowing animals are vivid and full of imagination.  Aside from that, the movements of the characters are fluid and there never appears to be a slip up in the film that probably took many years to produce.

Similarly to Inside Out, the storyline for Coco is full of heart and empathy.  The film centers around a young boy struggling to find himself between his passions and his family's values.  Of course, there are multiple twists and turns along the way.  We meet sensitive characters and awesome creatures that help guide Miguel towards the correct path.  While the film is formulaic, it still feels fresh because of the revelations that occur.  A nice addition to this Latin film is the soundtrack which includes mariachi tracks and orchestral Latin compositions.  For a film that centers around music, the original and compilation soundtracks mesh together well.

The Bottom Line: Coco is the greatest Pixar film to be released since Inside Out, revolving around a young boy's journey in finding himself.

Score: 9.5/10

Ah yes, the dawn of a new Star Wars movie has arrived.  This means that I have another chance to attempt to make it through the prequels in a potentially ultra-movie-marathon.  Well, I surprisingly made it through The Phantom Menace and surely will not be able to finish the prequels before I see The Last Jedi.  In my view, The Phantom Menace is the worst Star Wars film ever created.  However, I cannot speak about the holiday special since I have not seen it and it may or may not exist according to Harrison Ford.

There is an overwhelming majority of people who claim that Attack of the Clones is the worst film of the franchise, but for many reasons I disagree.  Attack of the Clones at least gives us better CGI effects than the first film does.  Everything in The Phantom Menace seems extremely fake and poorly made.  George Lucas (Raiders of the Lost Ark) got a bit carried away with the effects and it detracted from the already half-hearted storytelling.  Honestly, puppet Yoda could've carried this movie much better than the CGI Yoda did.

Unfortunately, the storyline also carries no weight in the franchise.  The whole reason for the prequel trilogy was to set up Darth Vader, but Jake Lloyd (Jingle All the Way) is a poor choice for young Anakin.  We are also introduced to other characters who carry no weight in the franchise, ranging from Qui-Gon Jinn to Jar Jar Binks.  I'm assuming that everyone reading this review is familiar with the flaws of Jar Jar, so I won't go into a long rant about Lucas's terrible writing/casting decision for this one.  However, Liam Neeson (Schindler's List, The A-Team) is wasted in the role of Qui-Gon and that is unacceptable.  Lucas brings in big actors and tears them apart with his poor storyline for the prequels.

The Bottom Line:  After the original trilogy, George Lucas lost his touch with the Star Wars franchise. 

Score: 3.5/10

When the Marvel team developed their cinematic universe, a lot of thought went into the order of the films and different phases for the storylines.  Five different solo hero films came out leading up to the release of Marvel's The Avengers.  Iron Man kicked off the cinematic universe with a fantastic storyline, setting up success for the future films.  The films following Iron Man were not all critically acclaimed, but the audience at least got to know each character before the mega team-up film that came out in 2012.  Unfortunately, the DC universe has only led us into a disorganized world of heroes that we hardly know anything about.

Before Justice League, the audience only got to connect with Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman.  That leaves out three crucial characters on the team.  Certain steps had to be executed in Justice League to introduce The Flash, Aquaman, and Cyborg.  However, the runtime is too short to flesh out each of these new characters.  Sure we have comic books that we can read, but this universe hardly even relates to the comic books because of the liberties that the filmmakers have taken.

Another problem with the new film and its characters is that the only good DC film to be released for this universe was Wonder Woman.  Man of Steel showed us the potential that Superman has in the franchise, but the character was bogged down with a poor storyline.  I still believe that Henry Cavill (The Man from U.N.C.L.E.) and Ben Affleck (Argo, Good Will Hunting, Gone Girl, The Town) have potential in their superhero roles, but viewers have not been given a good movie to display their potential yet.  We can only hope that the franchise can pull itself together from here.

One of the standout newcomers has to be Ezra Miller (The Perks of Being a Wallflower, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them).  Yet, it still feels as though Marvel beat DC to this character.  Miller's portrayal of The Flash is reminiscent to Tom Holland's Spider-Man.  He is goofy and brings light to the dark situations that Zack Snyder (300, Watchmen) has dragged the heroes into.  Ray Fisher (Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice) is also an interesting addition as Cyborg.  Personally, I do not know much about Cyborg (aside from my experience with Teen Titans), but I am intrigued to learn more about the character's origins and background. 

As a standalone film, Justice League is what I expected it to be after seeing the trailers and filmmakers involved.  It is slightly better that Batman v. Superman, a lot better than Suicide Squad, and a whole lot worse than Wonder Woman.  The storyline is dull, formulaic, and bogged down with CGI effects.  Anyone who has seen a recent DC film knows what to expect from the franchise at this point.  The heroes are interesting, but never fully explored.  One of my biggest problems with this film was the bad guy.  Steppenwolf was a pretty lame character to choose for the first real team-up film.  Hopefully the next DC team-up will give us something that makes the franchise worth it.

The Bottom Line:  Marvel still holds the upper-hand in the current superhero cinematic landscape, and Justice League shows us all of the reasons why.

Score: 5/10

Image credit: ​By Iphonedon890 - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=48706570

Your Name is one of the most beautiful movies I have seen in quite some time.  The story is touching, the visuals are awe-inspiring, and the music is catchy as heck.  Upon a first viewing, I understand the main idea without being able to fully place all of the details.  Your Name is a film that takes multiple viewings to comprehend the complexity of the storyline.  Without going into too much detail, the timeline is hard to follow right off the bat, but I am sure that there are very few flaws (if any) in this film.  There is a lot going on all at once, but the main storyline leaves room for discussion after viewing.  Every good film should leave room for discussion after the story is resolved, and Your Name leaves plenty of ideas hanging around in our minds.

Makoto Shinkai's (5 Centimeters Per Second) direction brings us beautiful visuals to guide us along the story's journey.  Every line drawn is thoughtful and concise.  The precision of animation in this film is reminiscent of Miyazaki's (Spirited Away) works.  In fact, Shinkai might be the next Miyazaki.  As someone who knows almost nothing about animation, it is still clear to me that the team behind this film spent long hours in its creation.  While there are plenty of Pixar and Disney films with good animation, nothing that I have seen from American studios can compare to this form.

I would go completely amiss without discussing the soundtrack for this film as well.  RADWIMPS's indie rock soundtrack brings the viewer back to their childhood with a punk edge added in.  Often times, the beauty of the film is complimented by the soundtrack's sweetness.  Some of the lyrics do not translate well into the subtitles, but I'll be damned if the sounds are not a perfect match to the visuals.  I have been waiting a long time to view this film after it's release because I missed it in theaters.  While I waited, I had to check out the soundtrack that all of my friends have been raving about.  At the very least, listen to the soundtrack as it pulls you into a foreign world, full of jaw-dropping inspiration and beauty.  For starters check out the song, "Sparkle".

The Bottom Line:  Shinkai's animated masterpiece will be cherished for a long time because of it's beauty and complexity.

Score: 10/10 (This is my first 10/10 since Swiss Army Man)

Wonder Woman takes the grittiness of past DC movies and adds empathy into the formula, creating a relatable story for the female hero.  Finally, DC has returned to good form with this installment in their cinematic universe.  The casting is near-perfect with Gal Gadot (Fast & Furious 6) in the leading role.  It is not very often that we see these kinds of powerful roles for actresses.  Fortunately, Gadot reminds us that there is plenty of room for these roles in cinema.  Chris Pine (Star Trek) is a nice addition as a supporting actor in the film.  The two main roles play off of each other in a charmingly romantic style.  Of course, there is a whole mix of other roles that also influence the characters and the plotline. 

While Wonder Woman excels because of it's great casting, it stands even taller because of the themes recurring in the story.  The struggle between human nature and free choice has always been a philosophical debate.  The storyline is deep and emotional because of it's relativity to audiences.  The writers take this debate and masterfully create a storyline around it.  Previous DC films have struggled to bring this impact to their viewers.  In the past, action has preceded the storyline.  Batman v. Superman and Suicide Squad had the potential for emotional impact, but got muddled down with their action sequences.

Although Wonder Woman is a step forward for the DC universe, there are still some issues for the franchise to hash out.  The last quarter of the film had some interesting action sequences, but felt too long.  The action has a few too many effects, seeming unrealistic.  I also saw the film for free in 3D, which in my opinion wouldn't have been worth the price.  The first act has some fun 3D effects, but nothing else stands out later in the film.  It is cool to watch at first, but eventually detracts from the ideals that the movie worked so hard to create.  Still if this is the new base level for DC films, I cannot wait for the future installments.  Patty Jenkins (Monster) brings hope to female filmmakers who want to helm big blockbusters.

The Bottom Line:  Wonder Woman is the best DC film since The Dark Knight Rises, bringing justice to female superheroes and the franchise that has left them out for too long.

Score: 8.6/10

Image credit: ​By Gage Skidmore - File:Gal Gadot 2014 Comic Con.jpg, CC BY 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=40400532