Geostorm (2017)

Directed by: Dean Devlin

Written by: Dean Devlin & Paul Guyot

Starring: Gerard Butler & Jim Sturgess






Natural disasters were occurring at an alarming rate therefore the countries of the world got together and crate a weather machine to control the weather all around the world.  Unfortunately, the machine is malfunctioning and causing even crazier natural disasters to occur in the most random places.  Jack (Butler) is sent by the government to figure out what's wrong with his creation, but he discovers that the machine is not malfunctioning, but is being controlled.

The movie was very interesting and kept me on my toes for most of the film.  I usually like these type of natural disaster films because it is always possible that this could happen in real life.  Plus, seeing the CGI is crazy.

But, some of the emotions that the characters exhibited seemed off.  For example, these two people are crying about being separated, but they've only known each other for like a week.  Am I just insensitive?

3 popcorns.

Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017)

Directed by: Jon Watts

Written by: Jonathan Goldstein, John Francis Daley, John Watts, Christopher Ford, Chris McKenna, & Erik Sommers

Starring: Tom Holland, Michael Keaton, & Robert Downey Jr.




Tom Holland was made to play Spider-Man.

Continuing after Captain America: Civil War, Peter Parker goes back to his teenage life in Queens, hoping and expecting to be used again for another Avenger mission.  But after several reach out attempts, Parker decides to become the friendly neighborhood super hero and keep his own town safe, but still secretly hoping for a top super secret mission.  While patrolling the city, he finds several robbers using alien made weapons.  Feeling that it is his duty to help, he gets more involved with these robbers than he should have and runs into difficulties that a teenager shouldn't face.

Let's start with Tom Holland.  To me, he is the best Spider-Man yet.  Compared to Toby Maguire and Andrew Garfield, Holland really captivates audiences with his teenage persona, while the other two seemed too old.  Holland is awkward, talks too much, and tries to be cool to impress a girl.  He has everything that makes a teenager and also plays out situations as well as experiences as a teenager would.

In addition, Jacob Batalon, who plays Ned, and Zendaya, who plays Michelle, have great chemistry with Holland and also play teenagers well.  Probably because being a teenager wasn't all that long ago.

Michael Keaton always plays a perfect villain.  In this film, Keaton plays the Vulture, who has a hidden agenda that I will not disclose because it's a spoiler. 😛 But just know, he's great.

What I really like about the film is that they had diversity.  The film didn't consist of only white actors.  The love interest was African American.  Best friend?  Filipino.  Aunt?  Italian.  Bully?  Indian.  It's so great to finally see more ethnicities on screen that represent what makes New York...well, America great.

Also, the film had a moral.  Who doesn't love a moral to the story?  But I'm not going to get into the moral of the story because it's a spoiler.  If you really want to know, you can comment on the Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/poppinmovies/) or Twitter/Instagram (@poppinmovies) and we'll talk about it.

There weren't many negatives in this film of positives.  The CGI was a little wonky in places, but not very noticeable.  And the ending ending was terrible.

So there are three endings.  The first is the ending to the movie.  The second is after the beautiful credits that have all the animation involved.  That ending is good, though a little confusing about why Keaton says what he says.  As for the ending after the regular credits, I was disappointed.  It's better to not watch those, but if you can't resist, just know, that you will be disappointed too, but might have a good laugh.

But other than that, best Spidy film to date.  5 popcorns.

*** Make sure to follow me to get a first look as to whether the film is worth it.  Click on "follow" in the left hand column.***

Alien: Covenant (2017)

Directed by: Ridley Scott

Written by: Jack Paglen (story), Michael Green (story), John Logan, & Dante Harper

Starring: Michael Fassbender, Katherine Waterston, & Billy Crudup





In order to create a new civilization, a large group of colonists, embryos, and a crew voyage to a new planet.  On their way, their ship becomes damaged and the crew must awake to fix it.  While doing so, they receive an interesting transmission that peaks their curiosity of a new planet that they never discovered before and is closer.  The captain, Oram (Crudup) decides it is best to travel to this planet despite Daniels' (Waterston), his second in command, protests.  On this new planet, they discover that they are not alone.

I had not watched the previous Alien movies, but this film provided enough information for me to catch up.  But, for those that did watch the previous movies, the beginning dragged from what I heard.  It took too long for the crew to discover the aliens, but to me, it provided essential backstory, especially since I hadn't seen an Alien film before.

On another note, Michael Fassbender.  When he first appeared, I was very apprehensive about his character since he plays a robot.  It was difficult to imagine him as a robot, but he grew on me.

Overall, not too bad, but just be aware of the two notes above.  4 popcorns.

The Circle (2017)

Directed by: James Ponsoldt

Written by: James Ponsoldt & Dave Eggers

Starring: Emma Watson & Tom Hanks




So in the first 10 minutes of the film, the person I went with fell asleep.  Yeah, what does that tell you?

Mae Holland (Watson) finally lands her dream job at the Circle, which is basically Google gone wrong.  The Circle believes that everyone should be watched all the time in order to make society a better place and Holland, unfortunately, gets roped into this philosophy.  But as she moves up in rank, her real life, without all this technology, begins to fall apart and she needs to consider whether it is all worth it.

The film has a great premise, but falls short of fulfilling it.  Plus, it is difficult to sympathize with the main character due to many audience members seeing technology as a positive, but it has a limit.  Today, many people still value their privacy, so with Mae going towards the opposite side of this opinion, it feels as if she did not grow as a character.

In addition, Hanks character, I'm guessing, is supposed to be the villain, but the film doesn't recognize this.  It just shows him as her boss.  I suppose what I'm trying to say is that the film has stakes that are not emphasized enough for the audience to care about what happens to any of the characters.

Hence the 1 popcorn.  Watson, stick to Beauty and the Beast.

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 (2017)

Directed by: James Gunn

Written by: James Gunn & a lot of other people

Starring: Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldana, Dave Bautista, Vin Diesel, & Bradley Cooper






Rather than going my usual Sunday morning, I made an exception and went Friday night for this Marvel sequel.

The film continues where it left off in the first film.  After establishing their reputation, the guardians have been hired to protect these powerful batteries.  Unfortunately, after Rocket (Cooper) steals some, their group starts falling apart as they get bounties on their heads.  Luckily for them, Ego (Kurt Russell) saves them and reveals that he is the father of Peter Quill (Pratt).  He then wants to bond with his son and get to know him, but not everyone is so sure that his intentions are true.

This film was just as good as the first.  But you're probably wondering: why the 4 popcorns?  Well it isn't 5 due to some pacing issues.  There were a few scenes that seemed to drag on, but they added to the story nonetheless.

Despite that though, there are so many other good scenes.  For instance, the tape scene, or the beginning scene with Groot (Diesel) dancing, all the scenes with Drax (Bautista) and Mantis (Pom Kiementieff), the ending, and probably some more that I forgot.

It is definitely an entertaining film, but you should know that despite being about Quill's relationship with his father, the main premise is about family for all the characters, therefore there are not as many scenes with Pratt as there were in the first film.  Also, of course, stay until the end of the credits.

4 popcorns.

Logan (2017)

Directed by: James Mangold

Written by: James Mangold, Scott Frank, & Michael Green

Starring: Hugh Jackman, Patrick Stewart, & Dafne Keen




I saw this film twice.  The first time, I liked it greatly, but was very confused as to what happened to the other X-Men members.  I Googled it various times and still had no answer. My number one question was about Storm.  When the hell did she die?  Because I am a true X-Men fan and have seen all the films, but do not remember Storm's death.

And I was right!   She never died, which meant that I either missed Logan addressing it or they didn't talk about it at all.  So I Googled that and turned out I missed it.  I made it my mission to see the film again.

The second time around, I paid very close attention and actually heard the film address it.  But barely!  No wonder I missed it the first time!  Deducted a popcorn for overlooking a very important detail!!!!!!!!

But other than that it was pretty good.  It definitely stands out from all the other films, but Keen was amazing!  She's fierce and my second favorite mutant after Mystique.  No one beats Mystique.

4 popcorns.

Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016)

Directed by: Gareth Edwards

Written by: Chris Weitz, Tony Gilroy, John Knoll (story), Gary Whitta (story), & George Lucas (characters)

Starring: Felicity Jones, Diego Luna, & Alan Tudyk





This film takes place before Episode 4. Anakin is already Darth Vader and there is already a rebellion.  Jyn is a fugitive with great connections.  The rebellion wants to get in touch with her father, who is building the Death Star.  Unfortunately, she has no idea where he is.  Her and others travel across the universe in search of him in order to kill him and end the Death Star.

Where to begin?

Okay first off, CGI of Grand Moff Tarkin is a big no no.  He looked like Dobby from Harry Potter films.  You can just tell off the bat that he was CGI because it was so noticeable.  They should have eliminated his part of made him have fewer lines.  It was that bad.

Despite this film doing well in the box office, it wasn't good.  For half of the film, it didn't feel like a Star Wars film.  It felt like it's own thing, which gave way to the dislike.  Once the space battles started, then it got better.

Another thing is that there were too many characters and locations.  The characters I could keep up with, but locations were a little lost on me.  What do you guys think?

Anyway, it was good, but not Star Wars great.  4 popcorns.

Arrival (2016)

Directed by: Denis Villeneuve

Written by: Eric Heisserer & Ted Chiang (story)

Starring: Amy Adams, Jeremy Renner, & Forest Whitaker




I thought this films was great...except the ending.  I really liked how it was thought provoking and had the aliens in a different light (sort of).

Louise Banks (Adams) is the best linguist around.  When aliens arrive on Earth, she is called to figure out how to communicate with them to determine what they want.

Amy Adams played a great linguist and I thought the story line was interesting.  Especially the way she figured out the language.  The story was realistic enough to believe, and there was a twist towards the end, but the twist I figured out at the beginning of the film, so it was not some big surprise.

I was not too thrilled with Renner's character, but he played it well I guess.

That's pretty much all to report.  4 popcorns.

Star Trek Beyond (2016)

Directed by: Justin Lin

Written by: Simon Pegg & Doug Jung

Starring: Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, Karl Urban, Zoe Saldana, Simon Pegg, John Cho, & Anton Yelchin








After receiving a mission to help out a citizen take back her planet, the crew is ambushed by an unknown group that plans to take over the universe, starting with Star Fleet and the Federation.  In order to protect himself, his crew, and everyone else, Captain Kirk (Pine) has to rediscover the reason why he joined Star Fleet in the first place.

So this film is better than the second one, but not the first.  Well they are all reasonably around the same score actually.

I like this one more though because the film tests unlikely relationships, such as Bones (Urban) and Spock (Quinto); the most and least emotional ones.  Because of this strategy, it creates humor in a horrific situation.

Plus the characters have character arcs that might not have happened had it been the same relationships that have occurred in the past films.

Other than that, the CGI is great.  Makeup and costumes on point.  There isn't much to complain about really.  It's similar to the other films, but just a different adventure this time with some more information about what's to come.  4 popcorns.

Ghostbusters (2016)

Directed by: Paul Feig

Written by: Katie Dippold & Paul Feig

Starring: Melissa McCarthy, Kristen Wiig, Kate McKinnon, & Leslie Jones








When I first saw the trailer for this film I was not impressed.  It looked like a dud and not very funny. But trailers can be deceiving.

Erin Gilbert (Wiig) is a professor up for tenure.  But when she realizes a book that she made a while ago is up on Amazon, she becomes afraid that it might jeopardize her career.  She finds her used to be friend and co-author Abby Yates (McCarthy) to tell her to take it down and stop selling it.  But when they hear of a ghost nearby terrorizing a museum, they have to look into it.

Oddly enough, I thought this version of Ghostbusters is better than the original.  I was laughing throughout as each character added something to the film.  They all made the movie hilarious with their jokes and physical humor.

There are some people though that feel Kevin (Chris Hemsworth) was unnecessary and too dumb.  I liked Kevin.  He was a good contrast to the original secretary Janine Melnitz (Annie Potts), who was more negative, but also had the uncaring attitude that Kevin carries.  I thought he added more humor to the film since the women have to interact with the "dumb blonde" character that usually women play.  Instead, this film flips the stereotype and lets the women have the smarts and Kevin be the eye candy.

As for the other minor characters, such as the mayor, his secretary, etc...sometimes they were trying to compete with the main characters for laughs.  Sometimes it worked since usually Kristen Wiig had to play off it and it made her that much more humorous, but sometimes it seemed too much.

Other than that, the CGI was great and I loved how they brought the actors from the original into this film.  4 popcorns!

Independence Day: Resurgence (2016)

Directed by: Roland Emmerich

Written by: Nicholas Wright, James A. Woods, Dean Delvin, Ronald Emmerich, & James Vanderbilt

Starring: Liam Hemsworth, Jeff Goldblum, & Bill Pullman







So I never saw the first one, but according to most, it's the same.

David Levinson (Goldblum) after the attack of '96 is still researching aliens.  President Whitmore (Pullman) has been labeled crazy and can connect to aliens.  His daughter though works for the new president and her boyfriend (Hemsworth) is a pilot currently on the moon.  When a random UFO comes towards the moon, President Lanford (Sela Ward) issues an attack despite Levinson's requests not to.  A few hours later, another UFO comes, much bigger and attacks the moon and basically starts a whole new war.

I thought it was good.  I liked the explosions and the slight humor within the different stories.  I was a little lost on some relationships, which probably would have been explained in the first film.  That's about all I got. 4 popcorns.