Wonder Woman (Spoilers)

So usually when I watch a superhero movie like Wonder Woman, I write my review of what I thought of the movie and then I write a separate post where I can talk about all the spoilers in the film and what I thought about it. I should have come out with a spoilers post a while ago since Wonder Woman came out earlier this month. Now I could make up some reason why this month has been busy and I haven’t been able to write nearly as much as I would like to. And while that is partly true, that’s not the reason I haven’t written a spoilers post for Wonder Woman. The truth is, there’s not a lot to talk about spoiler-wise for this movie.

With the exception of the reveal of who Ares is, which I will talk about, Wonder Woman is a pretty self-contained movie and the reason superhero movies require these spoiler reviews is because there’s usually a post-credit scene or allusions to future movies in these films and the truth is, there’s not much in this film that alludes to future DC films or gives us an idea of where the franchise is headed after Wonder Woman.

Wonder Woman takes place during World War 1. She’s fighting with a rag tag group of soldiers of fortune and Steve Trevor. The bad guys for the majority of the movie are Doctor Poison and Ludendorf, two characters that while they are fun in this movie, really won’t have an audience calling for their return in future movies. And then there’s Ares… again, I’ll get to Ares. My point is, this story is pretty simple and by the end of it, with a couple of possible exceptions, everyone is dead after decades since WW1.

So are any of the characters from Wonder Woman coming back in future movies? The likely answer is no. Starting with the good guys, Steve Trevor flies a plane filled with toxic gas in the air in an act of selfless sacrifice. I don’t care how charming Chris Pine is or how much people liked him, if you bring this character back, you are no better than Marvel, DC. Do. Not. Do. It. The other guys in their little group are fun characters but I didn’t care for them nearly enough to have them come back.

And as far as bad guys go. It is revealed that Ludendorf was just a German general who snorted god pills. He wasn’t anybody important and he was stabbed in the heart by Wonder Woman. No need to bring him back. Doctor Poison probably has the most potential to come back, but there was nothing incredibly special about her both as a character or a performance that means that she would come back. I think there’s a potential that the God pills will appear in later films and they could potentially reference Doctor Poison continuing her work even though she was almost killed by Wonder Woman and continuing distributing those pills to future bad guys, but there’s really no reason for her to show up again.

And then there’s Ares.

In all reality, Ares was not that great of a villain. I think I wanted him to be great, especially with the limited knowledge I have of him (mainly Injustice: Gods Among Us). The idea of the God of War, someone who grows more and more powerful when there is conflict is a really interesting character, especially in the DCEU, and especially set in World War 1, a global conflict that would Ares could feed off of immensely.

And I do think people misinterpret Are’s part in the plot. Even I was initially confused when Wonder Woman kills him and I start questioning why World War 2 happens when the God of War is killed. But what people get confused on is that Ares didn’t force anybody to do anything, he just fed on the natural wickedness of humanity and their desire to perpetrate violence and he gave them suggestions on how to create bigger weapons and fuel the violence more. I think the ending does work, it just maybe wasn’t executed as well as people would have liked it to be.

First starting with the use of David Thewlis as Ares. At first I didn’t really hate the idea because the character he played in the movie was an unassuming old man and while it wasn’t a huge twist, I can’t say I was totally expecting him to be Ares. I don’t think he does a horrible job. Being British gives you a lot of points when you’re trying to be evil.  But then he starts transforming into Ares and when he’s in his badass armor and you can still see and hear Remus Lupin behind the armor, it kind of sucked the air out of THE GOD OF WAR to just have this old British guy. And then I remember that there were talks about Sean Bean being in the movie and I can’t help but think that that was supposed to be his character and that makes me very sad cause that would have been awesome. 

But I think the biggest let down about Ares was that if this character had been written better and been a more compelling villain, this was a villain you could have definitely kept alive to return as a heel to Diana in future movies. Even in Injustice: Gods Among Us, he’s not a main villain but you could tell in the game that he’s powerful and thinking about all that potential power would be great in a future movie, maybe with a crossover with another hero.

Now, Ares could potentially come back. Superhero villains have come back from less in the past. Will he though? Probably not. Like I’ve said multiple times, Wonder Woman is a pretty solid self-contained film. Patty Jenkins joined on because she wanted to tell a Wonder Woman story and based on her track record, especially considering the reasons she left the director’s chair for Thor: The Dark World, it doesn’t seem like she’s the kind of director that is really interested in making movies for the sake of other movies. And don’t get me wrong, I love that about her. I love how self-contained Wonder Woman is and how you can watch it as a part of a larger cinematic universe as well as its own movie. But it doesn’t fill me with hope that Ares is coming back, especially with how final his death seemed in the movie. 

The only other reason Superhero movies usually get a spoiler review is to talk about certain scenes that were great but would spoil the movie for the audience if I talked about it in the regular review. Really the only scene that is worth talking about is the scene in the trailer where Wonder Woman steps out into No man’s land. And the thing is, there’s not a lot to spoil as that scene was basically in the trailers. That was the scene where Wonder Woman showed off the majority of her moves and she just goes to town on a bunch of German soldiers. 

I want to talk about this scene because this was really the scene in the movie where I had goosebumps and fully saw Wonder Woman as the hero we've been waiting for in the DCEU. This was the moment where Wonder Woman was revealed as the goddess.   

If you're at all a fan of film and storytelling, you'll know that a lot of films follow the formula of The Hero's Journey. You'll find this formula and form of storytelling in a lot of your favorite films and books most notable, Star Wars, Lord of the Rings, Chronicles of Narnia, etc. And Wonder Woman follows this formula to a certain extent and it follows it very well with it's own twists, turns, and deviations.

I bring this up because the hero's journey usually includes a part called "The Meeting of The Goddess". In Star Wars, this is the first time Luke Skywalker meets Princess Leia. It's the part where the hero meets a cosmic being with ultimate power and (usually) she carries the plot along with her power. The scene where she steps up into no man's land is both the Apothesis, the part where the hero overcomes the constraints held on them, accepts the adventure they're in and carries forward for the bigger part, and for the audience, the meeting of an absolute goddess in the power Wonder Woman exhibits.

I know I might be improperly reallocating elements of the Hero's journey to make a point, but that was all I could think about. The audience is both seeing the development of a character we have grown to love and enjoy watching become the hero she was born to be.

So yeah, given some time, I still think that Wonder Woman is as solid of a movie as I originally said it was.

Now, what does Wonder Woman mean for the DCEU?

I don’t really know. Because this is such a self-contained story, and because it is so isolated in World War 1, this is more of a prequel to anything happening in the DCEU at the moment so as great as this movie is, story-wise it doesn’t have anything to do with the events of Batman V Superman, Suicide Squad, or the upcoming Justice League.

And that’s the one thing that worries me. Regardless of the fact that Wonder Woman was a fantastic movie, the train of story that Zack Snyder and the other people at DC started with Suicide Squad and Batman v Superman is still rolling into Justice League. That is not to say that Justice League is not going to be good, I just know that the success of Wonder Woman came pretty late in the production game for Justice League and there’s not a lot of time to steer the movie in more of the Wonder Woman caliber direction. 

And that's the real effect Wonder Woman had. The movie hopefully showed DC the tone and the direction that these movies should be going and showed the correct way to introduce and make a superhero bad ass. So Wonder Woman definitely had an effect on the DC cinematic universe, just how much is still yet to be seen.

DC made the announcement that they want to wait and observe the success of Justice League before moving forward with their cinematic universe so basically everything is on hold. This both frightens me as well as gives me hope for the cinematic universe.

It worries me because I love DC movies and I would love to see these movies blow up the same way Marvel movies have. We’ve been waiting for a Justice League movie for years now and unless the movie is overly bad… like Last Airbender bad, I’m still going to be jacked by this movie. And to have such an important movie come and then have a good amount of time so DC can get their ducks in a row will really pull the wind out of my sails. Now on the opposite end of that, I do think that DC is being smart and it's not like they're not going to continue making these movies in one capacity or another, it just means they're going to give themselves a little bit of time and decide the direction that works best for them once Justice League is done. And this makes even more sense after Wonder Woman especially if Justice League doesn't perform well, they may pull Patty Jenkins into a more important role in the cinematic universe and make this franchise more centered around Wonder Woman... which at this point I'm actually not really opposed to. 

I don't know how big Wonder Woman's role in Justice League is right now but I know in the

amount of time that Joss Whedon is in the driver's seat before the movie is completed and ready for release, they might be reediting the movie to feature a little bit more of Wonder Woman. 

Overall, I'm highly interested in the future installments of the DCEU. They seem to be on a pretty good track with Aquaman so I believe that's coming out too and who knows, maybe Justice League is going to be really great and I'm not giving it enough credit. But after the train wreck that was 2016 with not just DC superhero movies but all superhero movies in general, I'm airing on the side of caution as I have seen the track record and it doesn't look great. 

I do apologize for the wacky format of this post and how disjointed it might be. I wrote part of this right after I saw the movie and then I let it sit for a while and then I wanted to add my thoughts on the DCEU moving forward and this is definitely less of a spoilers review of Wonder Woman as much as it is checking into the DCEU and seeing where we've been and where we're headed. 

But what do you think? It's been a couple weeks since I've seen Wonder Woman so let me know if there's any scenes I missed that I should have talked about. Also you should let me know what you think about the DCEU and if you're comforted by Wonder Woman, still worried, or if you're cautiously excited like me. Where do you think the franchise is going? 

Comment and Discuss below! You can also send me your thoughts on Twitter @cmhaugen24 as well as send me your requests for movies I should review or rant about in the future. If you follow me on Twitter, you can get updates on future movie news and reviews coming out of this blog as well as live tweets from shows and movies I happen to be watching at the time. 

I'll leave you with this. I found this video recently and it really illustrates well the reasons why Wonder Woman was successful and what it improved on, not only in the DC cinematic universe, but for Superhero films in general today. Enjoy!

Homeward Bound: The Incredible Journey

I can't be the only one who just called this movie Homeward Bound. I don't know what this "The Incredible Journey" bullcrap is, but this movie is called Homeward Bound, that's it.

Homeward Bound is another one of those movies that I grew up with and watched a bunch of times. While I can't quote the movie and I don't recognize certain beats and tones taken in the delivery of lines, I still have a pretty good recollection of this movie and it was definitely a nostalgia trip re-watching it tonight.

Homeward Bound follows the story of three pets, an American Bulldog named Chance (voiced by Michael J Fox), a Himalyan Cat named Sassy (voiced by Sally Fields), and a golden retriever named Shadow (voiced by Don Ameche).

The story is mainly told through the eyes of Chance, a dog who was recently rescued from the pound and is still adjusting to being apart of a family.

The family is pretty new as the mother of three children, all of which "belong" to the pets as Chance describes it, is getting remarried and they're all moving to San Fransisco for the new father/husband's work. The step-father is played by Robert Hays.

The human story is your typical step-family drama where the kids aren't totally comfortable calling Robert Hays dad yet and of course when push comes to shove there's family drama and eventually they come together and the big development is that one of them calls him dad for the first time. It's there, it's the boring part of the movie, try and move past it as fast as you can.

The real story is when the pets are left at a friend's farm for a while while the family is in San Fransisco. They believe that they were abandoned and it's their duty to find their way back to the family. Thus begins an adventure through the Sierra Nevadas where the trio find themselves forging the elements, bears, cougars, and other people who would potentially bring them to the pound in order to find their way home to their humans.

Along the way, the pets get themselves into a number of scrapes in the wilderness including running into bears, mountain lions, rushing river currents, and other obstacles in the way of their adventure.

It's not really a super complex story and in all reality it was a Disney film really directed at kids who just like to watch dogs and cats walk around while hearing all the pop culture references that these dogs really shouldn't know but do because its a kids movie like what a chicken nugget is, or other 90s pop culture references that don't really age well.

The animals don't move their mouth which requires the animals to be acting in a way that you would expect them to if they were actually saying something and I'll give this movie credit, it's pretty well done that as long as you're not taking it too seriously, you can project those inflections on the animals and it's well done.

What I never realized until my most recent watch is the communications block between the animals and the humans. There are several points where humans are talking to the dogs and if the dogs understood what they were saying they would know they don't need to go on this adventure. But this communication block is pretty inconsistent especially since the dogs are talking in English, same as the humans and yet they only understand a few words the humans say like home randomly. Again, you really can't think about this movie too hard.

I mentioned the human story and the truth is, the humans in this movie are absolutely horrible actors. The story mainly focuses on the oldest boy Peter (played by Benj Thall) and you can tell when a movie starts to make you feel old when you start relating more with the adults than with the kids.

The truth is, Peter has a really weird and probably unhealthy relationship with his dog Shadow. I'm not insinuating anything gross but he REALLY loves his dog so much that when they're calling the woman who's taking care of the dogs, he wants to talk to Shadow and reassures him like he can actually understand what he's saying, which is definitely not the case.

And I get it, when you're young you form relationships with your pets and those relationships can be really strong. However, there's a point where the step-dad (played by Robert Hays) flat out tells the kids that they need to be realistic and I'm sitting there like, "Yeah, yeah you do. Those dogs are probably dead. This guy isn't a bad step-dad, he's just trying to brace these kids for the very real possibility that those pets are gone for good".

And it doesn't really help that more than half of the human cast is not so great child actors who didn't do much of anything beyond this movie and its sequel and then you've got Robert Hays... the guy from Airplane. If you're a twenty-something like me and you're revisiting this movie for nostalgia's sake, you're going to want to possibly skip all the human scenes because the scenes surrounding the pets are sooooo much better.

It really helps that the pets are voiced by great actors like Michael J Fox, Sally Fields, and Don Ameche. These guys are definitely professionals and they really didn't phone this movie in when they really could have. I always thought it was a little weird that they put Michael J Fox as the voice for an American bulldog and it honestly takes a little bit of getting used to when the movie first starts.

But eventually you get sucked in by Michael J Fox's unique voice and inflections and it really blends. And the American bulldog, though I still think is a little bit odd of a choice, really brings some physical comedy and hilarity. On top of that, he is a little bit self aware and makes for a great vehicle to carry the story across in narration.

And I mean c'mon...

That makes me want an American bulldog like right now... I do have to say they did a great job picking the dogs and cats for this movie.

Sally Field of course is a perfect voice for a snooty cat who continuously believes that cats are superior to dogs, even citing the ever so famous "Cats rule and dogs drool" catch phrase. I never really liked Sassy when I was a kid and I still don't really, but when I heard Sally Field's voice this time around watching it was recognizable and I appreciate the character more.

And then there's Shadow... freaking Shadow.

This dog is the reason every kid in the 90s wanted a Golden Retriever. This dog is the reason Air Bud was a thing. This dog is amazing!

There's a great line where Chance is describing Shadow and he describes him as the perfect dog. "Shadow was loyal, Shadow was faithful, Shadow was a chump!" And I don't think I've ever seen a character described better in such a short sentence. Because Shadow is the most loyal, most faithful dog ever and it really rides a line of being too cheesy on top of the cheese that already cakes this movie hard. But with the combination of Shadow's story being told through the eyes of Chance and the amazing voice of Don Ameche, really make this character work and makes him work well.

And here's the reality. This movie centers on two dogs and a cat walking through the woods for an hour. By itself it sounds like it shouldn't work. But the thing that makes this movie work is the heart and just how darn cheesy of a movie it is.

I'm going to show the video for the ending of this film. If you haven't seen it and you don't want to know the ending I suggest stopping here and checking it out, it's a fun movie if you're in the mood for a Disney Cheese fest with dogs. But here's the ending to both the first and the second film. I haven't seen the second one, but I can already tell it's not as good with just the amount of sincerity and heart in the ending. Chances are you've probably seen this clip even if you haven't seen the movie.

The ending to this movie just has so much going. Even if you don't watch the movie, it's executed in a way that you can guess what's going on with these characters and just the image of people reuniting with their pets is so universally loved that the ending works so well.

On top of that, the main theme of this movie is incredibly well done. The orchestra is fantastic and the swells that are infused in that theme just make you feel like there's a lot at stake and there's an adventure happening and in the ending when that theme is used it signals the culmination of that adventure.

It's funny because the rest of the soundtrack is just generic guitar filler that you could probably find on GarageBand and it's not memorable at all. But that main theme is still pretty iconic, especially if you grew up watching this movie.

There's not a lot more I can say about this movie cause it's a pretty simple movie. It's not overly complicated and again, it's really not a movie you should be thinking too hard about. If you need something to uplift you and you can handle some really wooden acting from the human characters, check out Homeward Bound. It's on Netflix. It's not a brilliant movie, but it's cute and will entertain you.

But those are my thoughts on Homeward Bound "The Incredible Journey". What do you think of that movie? Did you watch it as a kid? Was it as much of a staple on your childhood as it was on mine? Comment and Discuss below! You can also send me your thoughts on Twitter @cmhaugen24 as well as send me your requests for films I should review in the future. If you follow me on Twitter, you'll get updates on future movie news and reviews coming out of this blog as well as some random live tweets I do while watching films from time to time

I'll leave you with this. I don't know why but I found it to be incredibly funny. Both the content of the video and how many people actually believed that there was a third Homeward Bound movie that they missed. Enjoy!

Moana

So I grew up with Disney movies. I grew up right in the middle of the Disney Renaissance and so like many kids, Disney movies were quintessential parts of my experience growing up. To add onto it, I grew up with 3 sisters so EVERY Disney movie was watched multiple times, especially the Disney classics with the Princesses and everything. The interesting part is that growing up in the Disney Renaissance ultimately led to growing out of the kids movies while seeing the end of the renaissance, the shift of popularity to Pixar films, and the surge of films that just didn't do as well for Disney as they're past films had. Now I haven't seen a lot of those films that happened after the Renaissance. The last Disney movie that I remember really looking forward to back in the day was Treasure Planet. I don't know, maybe Chicken Little was a great film, but you could definitely see the tone of both Disney and Pixar films change from just kids films to films pointed towards both kids AND adults.

And that makes sense, there was a group of people that grew up just like me and made Disney a boat load of money. Those people eventually grow up and after a while, they start having kids but still enjoy those same movies they grew up on just as much as they used to. This is how you get great films like Inside Out that have tone and themes that are often directed more at adults than kids. I don't mean to say that Moana has a similar tone to Inside Out, but I make this observation because I would love to be a fly on the wall of the Disney Executives in business now as they start cranking out brilliant movies like Frozen, Zootopia, Big Hero 6, and of course Moana, revitalizing the animation department of Disney and almost starting a new renaissance.

Moana centers on the titular character (voiced by Auli'i Cravahlo). She is the daughter of the chief of a village on a small Polynesian island called Motunui. As the daughter of the chief, eventually she will become the leader of the village and she is groomed from a very young age to take over and lead her people. However, Moana has a deep seeded desire to leave her island and explore the ocean, something her father (voiced by Jango Fett, Temuera Morrison) has expressly forbidden due to the dangers that lie beyond their borders.

Right off the bat, there's a lot of tropes Moana is taking from a lot of their previous films in this set up. You've got a little bit of The Little Mermaid, you've got a little bit of Hercules in there as well as Mulan. When Maui we get a little bit of Aladdin. There's a lot of familiar ideas that happen in the first half hour of this movie and while it's familiar, it never feels manufactured or inauthentic. Sure, there are a couple songs that I think this movie wanted to blast off the way Let It Go did for Frozen, but in that desire, they crank out some really great music, a lot of which I think is actually a lot better than Frozen. Believe me, I will talk about the music, but what I'm getting at is that the beginning set up the characters so well that I almost was bummed when some of the character didn't really make an appearance for the rest of the film. Her life on the island gave the character of Moana such a rich backstory that I wanted to see more. I kind of hope that's a sequel cause those characters were so good.

But anyways, back to the plot. Everything is great to start off and Moana is about to take her place as Chief, but then there are some troubles that come to her island and the survivability of her tribe is in question. Moana believes that the solution is beyond the borders and she is eventually tasked by her grandmother to go on this quest to find the demi-god Maui and force him to return something he stole from a god.

Here's what kind of blew me away about this movie. I would have been totally satisfied if it had just been about this girl going on an adventure by herself and maybe her sidekick chicken. I actually don't feel like this movie absolutely needed to have Maui in the story to be good. The backstory of Moana was so strong that I was invested in her goals and her adventure and it really could have been her going on a Legend of Zelda Windwaker adventure alone and I would have been happy. The beginning of the movie is able to portray her as a kind, strong woman who you immediately really enjoy even before she sings her song that was trying to be a crossover between Frozen's "Let It Go" and Hercules "I Can Go The Distance"

The pop version of that song is just terrible...

But as I've discovered by looking into this movie and it's development, Disney wanted to make an animated movie with the voice of one of the most popular celebrities of today in it: Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson.

And honestly I don't blame them. Cracked did a video on 3 Scientific Reasons Everyone Loves The Rock and you can watch that and try and understand the connection between The Rock and social media and why you love him because of that. Or you can just look back at the films he's done and realize that if a studio wants to make a crap ton of money, putting Dwayne Johnson in it is a pretty good way of doing that. The Fast and the Furious franchise was saved by him. They tried to save GI Joe with him. He is one of the biggest names in Hollywood right now and he could very well be our President one day.

And let's be honest, he's a former WWE wrestler. He's definitely not going to go down as one of the best actors of all time because of his ability to act out Shakespeare. And it's obvious from this movie that he also cannot sing very well. But none of that really seems to matter when you have the charisma this guy has and is able to convey, even in animated form.

Maui (voiced by Johnson) is not the best character in the movie (that goes to Moana) but he is a fun character regardless. You can guess from the fact that he's a demi-god that he's a little bit of an asshole and he is very self centered. The first song he sings is a song called, "Your Welcome", where he talks about all the great things he has done.

Funny story about that song, that was actually the song that got me interested in seeing this movie. While The Rock doesn't exactly sing very well, he exudes a lot of charisma in the song and it's just entertaining regardless. However, when I watched the movie, I figured out that that's barely the 3rd or 4th best song behind some of the other great music in this movie. But I will talk about that when I finish the plot.

But Maui is a layered character and he has a lot of backstory too that just makes him a compelling character as well.

Moana finds Maui and they go on this adventure together. And there's a giant crab, and sailing, and it's just a lot of fun.

I mentioned Legend of Zelda Windwaker before. I don't know how many of you played that game back in the Gamecube days, but this movie reminded me of that. Just a fun adventure with a lot of fascinating mythology to back up the adventure. There's magic, there's compelling characters, there's great action, and overall it just feels like an adventure film, something that you don't see very often. Sure you see a lot of action films, you see a lot of superhero films, but Moana brings a sense of adventure that you really only see every once in a while in movies like Raiders of the Lost Ark or Lord of the Rings. It is really hard to knock down and Moana does it really well. You've got great characters, a great set up, a great goal, and on top of all of that you've got a great soundtrack to go along with it.

And the soundtrack really is a supporting character in this movie. And a lot of the credit belongs to Mark Mancina, and Opetaia Foa'i. I think some people overlook those two's contribution. Mark Mancina is the composer for music from The Lion King and Tarzan along with a lot of other soundtracks from big films. And while I don't know a lot about Opetaia Foa'i, I know a lot of the Polynesian inspiration probably comes from his contribution. This movie has made me look into his music group Te Vaka and it's definitely worth checking out.

But the real person people gush over when it comes to this soundtrack is Lin-Manuel Miranda.

If you don't know who he is, he's the guy who created the hit musical Hamilton, the musical EVERYONE was listening to in 2016. Hamilton was such a big hit and I know this because I had a couple months in 2016 where Hamilton was all I listened to.

Here's my beef with Lin-Manuel Miranda though. He is so passionate about his work and he is so musical theater-y that it's almost annoying and it comes off as pretentious. I don't want to attack the man personally but I started to see him everywhere and I think that combined with the fact that my roommates at the time were OBSESSED with him for the entire year, it made me think that the guys fame was fake and not genuine. While I started 2016 loving his work, by the end of the year I really wanted nothing to do with it and just wanted him to go away. And that's probably why I missed Moana when it came out at the end of last year.

But then I listened to "Your Welcome" and I could see all the Lin-Manuel Miranda-isms coming from that song but you also listen to the lyrics and his voice comes out through Dwayne Johnson. And then I realized that's the real talent of Miranda. In both Hamilton and Moana, his use of language and that language in the context of a song or a rap just makes you feel something.

This is one of my favorite songs in the movie and it's because not only is it a great combination of traditional Polynesian and English lyrics, but the lyrics written by Miranda are really powerful and tell a story without needing visuals.

And then I remembered what I really liked about Hamilton and that was Miranda's ability to tell a story through song alone.

I have never seen Hamilton on stage. I am like many people who cannot afford the tickets that went for about a gazillion dollars in 2016. But I did get the soundtrack very quickly when I realized that the soundtrack told the story so vividly that I almost didn't need to see it on stage, I knew exactly what happened and the play that played out in my mind was almost better than the stage version at times.

And that's what he does with Moana. Miranda is able to use the lyrics to tell so much about the characters and you learn so much within the first three songs on top of the great story telling.

Is Moana a perfect movie? No. (Have I ever answered that question with a yes?). I didn't talk about the visuals in the movie. For me, the visuals in this movie were a little bit of a mixed bag. Some of them were absolutely fantastic like the water animation. I don't think I've ever had a movie where I've been distracted just looking at the water animation. I watched Moana on a Friday night and the next day I rushed out to go to the beach and swim in the ocean because this movie made me crave that. But on the other side of things, I thought the animation of the people were kind of a mixed bag as well. Sometimes the characters looked great with great expressions, and other times they looked a little strange.

And speaking of strange things to look at, Maui is one of the issues of the movie. And I mean issue in the loosest ways possible because as I mentioned before, Maui is a great character in this film, I'm really glad he's in this film.

However, while they managed to knock out a really great story with Moana, I can't help but feel like Disney gave them a little bit of a mandate of make sure you get a lot of The Rock in this movie. Maybe I'm assuming a lot with the production of this film, but I feel like a lot of emphasis was put on Maui when the real strength of movie was actually Moana. Again, I don't want to complain too much because I felt like the relationship between the two was done really well and while I think Maui looks a little weird, that is a character you are going to remember for a long time.

In all honesty, I'm kind of reaching to mention things that weren't great about this film. My watching experience is still pretty fresh and I'm still listening to the soundtrack on repeat so my view of this movie might be a little biased right now, but I can't help but feel like Moana is a movie that really brought out the best of Disney.

And if you're sitting there reading this wondering why I'm not mentioning the fact that Moana is the first Polynesian Princess, or that she wasn't animated like the typical Disney princess with the perfect body, I don't want to say that's not important, because it is, but I really don't care about that that much.

Here's the reality. Moana is a great story. You can tack whatever importance to the fact that she's Polynesian or any other social justice cause you can find in this movie if you want, but those don't make a good story. Understanding source material and creating good stories make good stories.

If you need examples of people making movies just for the sake of appealing to a certain demographic or social cause, see movies like the new Ghostbusters, Catwoman, or Transformers Age of Extinction. They're not good movies, and it's cause they focused on appealing to demographics, whether it be women or Michael Bay fans and not on developing good stories.

Overall, Moana is a solid movie that combines a solid fable-like adventure with the heart and soul of the classic Disney movies of the Disney Renaissance. If you have kids, they will enjoy a lot. If you're like me and you grew up in the Disney Renaissance, you'll love this movie for a multitude of reasons, the story, the characters, the music, the visuals, whatever, Moana is definitely worth checking out.

But those are my thoughts on Moana. I personally think it's better than Frozen, but that's my opinion. What do you think? Comment and Discuss below! You can also send me your thoughts on Twitter @cmhaugen24 as well as send me your requests for films I should review in the future. If you follow me on Twitter, you can get updates on future movie news and reviews coming out of this blog as well as live tweets I do while watching movies occasionally.

I'll leave you with this. Not sure how long this video will stay up for copyright reasons, but if you haven't check out the soundtrack to Hamilton the musical (cause let's be honest, you're not gonna get tickets to it still for a while), I am in a place now where I can recommend it again to people. Here's the performance they did at the Tony's. Its a lot of fun. Enjoy!

School For Scoundrels

So does anybody remember Jon Heder? He used to be a thing right? Napolean Dynamite, Blades of Glory, Benchwarmers, these were all movies that actually were some of my favorites growing up. One of those movies that I remember as "great Jon Heder films" when I was younger was this one, School For Scoundrels. I remember it more just because I enjoyed watching it with my friends and we were big Jon Heder fans. However, coming back 11 years later, I suddenly really don't want to go back and re-watch any of those movies again, especially after re-watching this one.

School for Scoundrels follows the story of Roger (played by Jon Heder). Now the movie portrays Roger as a loser with no social skills and no prospects. He's a meter maid with no self confidence. He's basically Napolean Dynamite if he grew up, moved to New York and barely learned how to talk to people.

In all reality though, Roger is just one depressing guy. Like I get that the movie is a comedy and that depressing guys like this can be portrayed as funny at times, but damn, I just cringe when I look at Roger. His house is full of self help books, he can't keep a kid to be his little brother in the big brother program, absolutely everyone takes advantage of him, I wouldn't be surprised if this movie had an alternate ending where Roger ends up jumping off the Brooklyn Bridge they portrayed him so depressingly.

One day after getting advice from his buddy David Cross (he has a real name but I have no idea who Cross was playing in this movie so I just called him David Cross) to go to a class on how to get self confidence and be successful. He goes to the class and there he finds a group of losers just like him. And it's actually really funny the number of funny comedians are in this class but have absolutely no lines. Jim Parsons (Sheldon Cooper) is in this class. Aziz Ansari is in this class and gets one line about a swirly at one point in the movie. Andre from The League is in this movie. Matt Walsh (that guy in every comedy who is just the weird guy in everything he does), and Horatio Sanz are also in the film. Unfortunately, with a group like this with that many funny people, they add absolutely nothing to the script as far as jokes go. Some of them are extras in the feud to come, but they really don't add much to the movie, which is kind of depressing.

But the real conflict is the teacher of the class, Dr. P (played by Billy Bob Thornton).

You've met this character before. He's the condescending asshole who has all the knowledge and everyone idolizes despite him treating them like shit. He and his henchman Lesher (played by Michael Clarke Duncan) run this class in order to help these hopeless losers become successful.

Now here's the thing about Billy Bob Thornton (or BBT as I call him) in this film. He's REALLY phoning it in. I never realized this as a kid because I hadn't seen what BBT can do, but he is really phoning this one in. He doesn't look interested at all and while he's still the most talented person in this movie and probably delivers the most lines I chuckled at, he just doesn't give much to this film.

Michael Clarke Duncan was actually pretty funny and actually gave something to this film. However, the script was written so badly that his character Lesher was just a creepy muscle who I guess rapes some of the students of the class? I regret that I remember laughing at that at one point...

Some hijinxs happen during the course of the class like a paintball game where its a free-for-all and everyone just shoots Jon Heder in the balls. I'm not totally sure what Dr. P is supposed to be teaching them because I'll be honest, these guys are so incredibly stupid and Dr. P is so clearly giving them bad information but passes it off like it's gonna get them laid. Now you might be saying that Dr. P is just taking advantage of these guys, but that's not really the case at all. So it makes me think that BBT's character is also just a loser but he's not nearly as much of a loser as the guys in his class. He's able to take advantage of them in a way that anybody really could with a slight crazy/murderous twist, and ends up getting paid pretty well for it. Again, I wish I could say that was the plot but it takes itself so seriously that it just doesn't really work well, especially for BBT and Jon Heder's relationship.

I don't know whose bright idea it was to pit Napolean Dynamite up against Bad Santa but ask yourself, who do you think is going to win in that scenario? It's going to be bad Santa. I've never really been a huge BBT fan, but even I know he has a whole hell lot more charisma than Jon Heder does and with the exception of a slip up the antagonist is bound to have at the end of the film, he beats Roger at every step throughout the game of wits that eventually builds up between the two when Roger magically starts learning from Dr. P's so basic its stupid and not even useful class.

This was honestly just a really bad pairing. I think that both these guys have given funny performances in other movies and even in the case of Jon Heder, I do believe there is talent between the two of them.

But for some reason there just wasn't the relationship built up between these two that I've seen in other movies like this one.

And speaking of relationships, there's also kind of a romance in this movie I guess?

Yeah Roger has a crush on his neighbor, an Australian grad student by the name of Amanda (played by Jacinda Barrett).

I get the feeling there was supposed to be more romantic comedy elements to this movie than there actually was but you can see some of the cliches of romantic comedy in this film from the very beginning but it lacks all the build up and really satisfying parts romantic comedies require. Jon Heder and Jacinda Barrett are cute together... I guess but there's not any real chemistry between the two.

And this might be a spoiler but at a certain point Dr. P puts his sights on Amanda and tries to steal her from Roger. This follows a lot of the same cliches when you've got two guys fighting over the same girl but School For Scoundrels takes in a lot of directions that are actually kind of creepy and dark.

Yeah sure, there are a lot of moments where Dr. P messes with his life and creates mistrust between Roger and Amanda by framing him in some messed up stuff, but then there's the moments where Dr. P really isn't doing anything and Roger is digging his own grave.

This movie is based off of a British film from the 60s oddly enough and they take a scene on a tennis court from that movie. In that scene, Dr. P does absolutely nothing malicious and Roger is a complete asshole. And it's not like he's being an asshole that Amanda would like, he's a jealous asshole through and through and on top of the fact that we didn't really know this guy to begin with, it really doesn't make the character anymore relatable when he's just an asshole for no reason and Amanda has no business falling in love with him in the end which you know she is.

Yeah BBT is revealed to be a liar, but that doesn't make Roger any less creepy. And by the end of it I just realized that this is a horribly written movie.

You've got a lot of good actors in this movie, a lot of really funny people, and yet the movie falls flat on its face. It's not nearly as funny as I used to think it was, and in many moments, its either mean spirited or just cringe worthy.

The only other moment that I thought this movie was at least a little bit funny was whenever Sarah Silverman was on screen as Amanda's asshole roommate...

And I can't stand Sarah Silverman... however, I kind of wish this movie was just Sarah Silverman roasting Jon Heder. That at least would have made me laugh maybe a quarter of the time as opposed to the very little I laughed at this movie.

Oh and Ben Stiller is in this movie... I just finished it and I already kind of forgot. It's a very small part, I'm not even sure why his character was in the movie at all...

But overall, School For Scoundrels makes me a little bit sad because it makes me concerned over the stuff I thought was funny as a kid. I think just being able to go see a PG-13 movie that was pretty on the cusp was a big deal for me, any kind of raunchy or just shock humor was funny to me. But looking back now, I can only say that this movie is not very good at all. Don't waste your time with this film, it feels a lot longer than an hour and a half and there are a lot better movies out there.

But what did you think of School for Scoundrels? Did you see it back in 2006? Did you like it? Do you think Jon Heder should have a come back? Comment and Discuss below! You can also send me your thoughts on Twitter @cmhaugen24 as well as send me your requests for films I should review in the future. If you follow me on Twitter, you can get updates on future movie news and reviews coming out of this blog as well as live tweets I do occasionally while I watch them.

I did not know that this movie was based off a 60s British film. Here's the tennis scene they borrowed from the original film. Gotta say, this movie looks just as terrible. Enjoy!

Injustice: Gods Among Us

So I could have sworn I wrote a review for this game back in 2013. I know that I referenced it multiple times in my DC reviews, especially in 2013 as I was building up the hype for Batman v Superman (what a different time), but I realize that I never actually wrote a full fledged review for the game. And that's a shame because this game does a have a pretty great story. If you've read my reviews in the past, you know that I don't have a firm grasp on gameplay and exactly what makes it good or not, but I'm gonna do my best and focus mainly on the story. 

Injustice: Gods Among Us takes place mainly in an alternate universe than the one we are used to

Curtsey of the Injustice Comic... I haven't read it

seeing the Justice League in usually. In this universe, The Joker drugs Superman and makes him believe that Lois Lane is Doomsday and in his confusion, he kills Lois and their unborn son. And when Lois is killed, it actually triggers a bomb that destroys all of Metropolis.

So Superman is not having a good day when he loses his wife, his son, and his city. But in this universe, Superman actually kills the Joker.

In the aftermath, Superman establishes a world regime and forces the other members of the Justice League to either join his regime or go to prison.

We then catch up with the Justice League we know and love. After stopping a plot by the Joker and Lex Luthor, they are pulled into the alternate universe where Superman has taken over.

What follows is a Mortal Kombat-like battle royale as the heroes of our universe form alliances and rivalries with heroes and villains of the DC Universe. For example, Superman garnered the support of Wonder Woman, The Flash, Green Lantern (after he joins the Sinestro Corp and becomes Yellow Lantern) and others. Then you've got Batman who recruits the help of Lex Luthor, Harley Quinn, and some other unlikely supporters.

The two factions fight with support from Justice League members from the galaxy we're familiar with all in the battle to determine the fate of the world, especially one under the supreme rule of a Superman without the restraints of being the symbol of Truth, Justice, and the American Way.

The game was created by the same guys who created the Moral Kombat games. The gameplay is the one-on-one fighting style of the Mortal Kombat games without the fatalities or gorey gameplay of a rated M game. It gives you the opportunity to play through a lot of different characters with different fighting styles and different abilities. Part of the fun is challenging yourself to play with all kinds of players and seeing which one works best with your personal preferences.

The fighting is fast paced and the the fighting is fluid. I might talk more about the fighting in my Injustice 2 review, but for now I hope you understand that this is one of my favorite games of all time and I wasn't even a huge fan of the mortal kombat games.

What really worked about the gameplay in this game was the fact that it's called Gods Among Us. The members of the Justice League are referenced as Titans at times and it actually really fits. You actually feel like you're playing with characters who are gods and titans and they have those abilities, especially in their super movies where a cinematic montage of them just kicking ass makes you feel like a real hero.

I've read multiple things in the past stating the difference between the Avengers and the Justice League. Marvel's thing was that they always designed their superheroes in a way that made it seem like the young kid reading the comic could be a superhero. While the Justice League was creating superheroes that young kids reading the comic could look up to. I think they're both part of an important symbiotic circle. The Marvel universe really couldn't exist without the DC universe and the DC universe really couldn't continue to thrive without the Marvel universe.

The characters and fighting styles of Injustice really give you that feeling of controlling a god-like character and it just makes for a really fun time.

But the main appeal of the game to me is the story.

They really were able to just take the DC universe and just kind of run with it in this game without the backstory and the explanation that is usually required in a movie setting. The reality is that the cinematics and the pacing of the story in this format would not work as a feature length movie because there are a lot of characters and unless you know all the DC Justice League characters, you're going to be a little bit confused.

However, I'm guessing that if you got this game, you do know at least who the majority of the members of the Justice League are and with that knowledge, you'll have more than enough fun with this game because you'll recognize a lot of them and the ones you don't know, it's okay because you actually really don't need that knowledge. This is just a fun romp with a bunch of familiar superhero characters being superhero characters.

Now this makes the rest of the story a little bit paper thin but it still is a lot of fun. It really does jump into the realm of making you question what it would be like if Superman let go and became the ultimate evil he's always sworn to defeat.

I can't imagine that this is the first time this version of the character has ever popped up, but it's one of the first that I think was accessible to a wide audience, especially those who don't read comic books as much as the others. Here we saw a Superman who was very interesting and conflicted by the horrible things he had done in the past. While some of the story maybe paper thin at times, the motivations for Superman clearly was not. This bleeds over into the sequel, but I'm getting a head of myself.

I think this Superman was so intriguing and popular that it actually made executives at Warner Brothers start thinking about trying to make the current Superman like this as soon as possible.

You definitely saw inspiration drawn from Injustice in Batman v Superman and I can't help but this is the direction they're trying to go eventually with the movies.

This is problematic though as the only reason this Superman worked was because we were juxtaposing him against the iconic Superman that we know and love. We saw the OG Superman compared against this dark evil Superman and we understood the difference and that's what made it great.

Unfortunately at the moment, we haven't had enough time with Henry Cavill's Superman and he is a lot different than the iconic Superman. Which is fine, but we want to either see him become the Superman we know and love, or we want to develop him enough into his own kind of Superman that seeing an evil version of him would mean so much more.

As it stands in the knightmare sequence in Batman v Superman, I think it's a little too early for the evil Superman to enter the DCEU.

But would Injustice work down the road for the DCEU?

In my opinion, I would love to see this story told on the big screen. But I also think that it couldn't happen for a long time due to how new the DCEU actually is. We haven't even seen the Justice League formed and fighting in their own universe, I feel like you're jumping too far when you try and add multiple universes when you don't even know the one we're in very well yet.

Like I said, while I think the story is a little bit weak at times, that is mainly because this is a video game and not a feature length movie. It has to shape the story in a way where you're able to fight multiple other fighters and so in that case its not exactly streamlined. But can you imagine if it was streamlined to a feature length film? Especially if we have the movies prior like Man of Steel, Wonder Woman, and a good Justice League movie to introduce these characters and have them fight a new threat in a different universe? That would be amazing.

It is kind of weird when things like the video games and the TV shows have a stronger mythology and backstory for DC characters than the actual movies do, but if Wonder Woman is a sign of future progress, I'm not worried as much for DC as I used to be.

I think I want to continue this DC rant a little bit more with the review I'll do for Injustice 2, but for now, I can say that Injustice is one of those games that is just a good time, whether you are a fan of the DC universe or not. Even if you're not a fan of fighting games, I would just come for the story and who knows, you may enjoy this fighting game over all the rest. There is definite replayability and if you have a second controller, this is definitely a game you can pick up with a buddy and have a great time playing 2-player with.

I got the game on sale for 6 bucks but honestly, that's highway robbery to get this game at that price. If I had to, I would buy this game at full price and not bat an eye, it is that much fun.

But what do you think of Injustice: Gods Among Us?  Have you played it since playing Injustice 2? Which one do you prefer? Comment and Discuss below! You can also send me your thoughts on Twitter @cmhaugen24 as well as send me your requests for other films, TV shows, or video games I should check out and do reviews of. If you follow me on Twitter, you can get updates on future movie news and reviews coming out of this blog and occasionally live tweeting of films (and video games) I'm watching at the time.

I'll leave you with this. So I remember when this trailer came out last year, I wasn't over excited or impressed by this trailer. However, I also remember just saying, it's Injustice 2, that's all I need to see. Enjoy!