Rotten Tomatoes does not yet have an official rating for this film (Tomatometer is unavailable though audience rates it at 62%). Fortunately for you, I do. The art is fantastic. The animation is great. Some of the fight scenes are cool. But that's about all this has going for it.
Batman, some of his cohorts, and several bad guys time travel to feudal Japan thanks to some gizmo Gorilla Grodd made. Now you know why the movie is called Batman Ninja (or do I really have to tell you Batman becomes a "ninja"?). I'm not going to mention the ludicrous technology they use despite it being feudal Japan. I'm not going to mention the giant sock puppet a large group of monkeys combine together to form to fight the giant robot made of houses Joker created. Nor am I going to tell you about the large group of bats which surround the combined large group of monkeys in the form of a sock puppet to make a giant Batman to fight Joker's house/robot. I'm definitely not going to tell you about the large, precise rockets Joker's house/robot fires. If I told you about any of those things, you may decide not to watch the movie.
Imagine having the opportunity to see your favorite piece of art or musician in person. The catch is you'd have to do it barefoot standing on hot coals and broken glass. Visually, this movie is great. It's the story which makes it near-torture.
Saturday, April 28, 2018
Lady Bird: Rated the Best Movie of 2017 by Rotten Tomatoes
Here is the full list of the best movies for 2017 by Rotten Tomatoes. Lady Bird tops the list with 311 reviews and an overall approval of 99%. The ratings become clearer when you see how they break down between "professional" critics and people like you and I (99% critic approval versus 79% audience approval). Get Out was second place overall with 99% critic approval versus 86% audience approval. How then did Lady Bird win over Get Out? Apparently by a mere five votes (Lady Bird had 311 whereas Get Out had 306).
I've not seen Get Out and though I somewhat intend to, I haven't yet. I have now seen Lady Bird. My question is: How in the world did this movie rate as the best 2017 had to offer? Have you ever seen any "coming of age" movie? Any at all? For example: The Breakfast Club, The Perks of Being a Wallflower, or Boyhood. There are tons of them. To my knowledge, 1951's The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger truly popularized the genre, though as a novel.
The point is, coming of age films are hardly new and, really, Lady Bird is simply another among them. There's absolutely nothing special about it. If you simply want to see a coming of age film, sure, you could watch this one or you could do yourself a favor and watch Boyhood instead.
Here is the entire plot of Lady Bird: Young chick (Lady Bird) goes to a Catholic school because her middle class parents didn't want their kids to attend public school after their son witnessed a stabbing. To put it another way, because the parents actually cared about their kids, they did what they could to put their children in a better environment though it put a financial burden on the parents. Horror of horrors! Young self-absorbed chick is wholly unappreciative of anything her caring parents do because she's self-absorbed and young. Because she's certain she knows best but is actually naive, she has sex with a teenage guy who (surprise, surprise) lied saying he too was a virgin. Lady Bird is unhappy about this. Finally, Lady Bird gets what she wants (freedom from home) by attending college in another state. The final scene shows Lady Bird calling home to tell her parents she loves them after she realizes her parents maybe aren't really so bad. Big whoop.
Make no mistake: I'm not saying this movie is terrible or even bad. I'm saying simply I am surprised it was Rotten Tomatoes highest rated movie for all of 2017.
Then again, when I consider some of the other movies from that year, maybe it's not so surprising. There was Dunkirk at #3 which was not bad but (intentionally) slow and, I regret to say, too slow to warrant ever wanting to see it again (though it did have a great scene in it which is best in context of the entire film). Wonder Woman placed at # 6 and, in my opinion, was enjoyable primarily because it followed the traditional comic book good versus evil formula. I didn't come away from it digging Wonder Woman as character any more or less than I did before I saw it (I still don't care for her). Logan came in at #7. I didn't hate Logan, but didn't think it particularly stellar (though I did like it more than the comic it's based on). The abomination and insult to all previous movies in the franchise which was Star Wars: The Last Jedi ranked #8. The Shape of Water was rated #9 and left me with mixed feelings. It wasn't horrible but not great either. I was thrilled Guillermo del Toro received the recognition he did as a director but ultimately felt this movie was about as bad as many others he's directed. I continue to think he's a spectacular director who, for whatever reason, picks rather poor projects to direct. #11 was Baby Driver and that movie was a complete waste of time. Thor: Ragnarok came in at #12 and was simply not great. Not awful, but definitely not great. Spider-Man: Homecoming rated #15 and, being a lifelong Spider-Man fan, I absolutely hated it. It would require a separate post to detail the reasons why, but, yes, I detested it. The only Spider-Man movie I've seen that was as bad was Spider-Man 3. Last on my list of Rotten Tomatoes' list is Hidden Figures. It wasn't bad, but it also wasn't great. It felt like a forced feel-good movie. Coming in at #55 was the laughably poor John Wick: Chapter 2. Below that at #58 was Guardians of the Galaxy, Volume 2 which made me practically hate Disney taking over Marvel.
I suppose, given the other choices which somehow dominated the top of RT's Best of 2017, it's not surprising Lady Bird would place so highly. Maybe 2017 was just a really, really bad year for movies.
I've not seen Get Out and though I somewhat intend to, I haven't yet. I have now seen Lady Bird. My question is: How in the world did this movie rate as the best 2017 had to offer? Have you ever seen any "coming of age" movie? Any at all? For example: The Breakfast Club, The Perks of Being a Wallflower, or Boyhood. There are tons of them. To my knowledge, 1951's The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger truly popularized the genre, though as a novel.
The point is, coming of age films are hardly new and, really, Lady Bird is simply another among them. There's absolutely nothing special about it. If you simply want to see a coming of age film, sure, you could watch this one or you could do yourself a favor and watch Boyhood instead.
Here is the entire plot of Lady Bird: Young chick (Lady Bird) goes to a Catholic school because her middle class parents didn't want their kids to attend public school after their son witnessed a stabbing. To put it another way, because the parents actually cared about their kids, they did what they could to put their children in a better environment though it put a financial burden on the parents. Horror of horrors! Young self-absorbed chick is wholly unappreciative of anything her caring parents do because she's self-absorbed and young. Because she's certain she knows best but is actually naive, she has sex with a teenage guy who (surprise, surprise) lied saying he too was a virgin. Lady Bird is unhappy about this. Finally, Lady Bird gets what she wants (freedom from home) by attending college in another state. The final scene shows Lady Bird calling home to tell her parents she loves them after she realizes her parents maybe aren't really so bad. Big whoop.
Make no mistake: I'm not saying this movie is terrible or even bad. I'm saying simply I am surprised it was Rotten Tomatoes highest rated movie for all of 2017.
Then again, when I consider some of the other movies from that year, maybe it's not so surprising. There was Dunkirk at #3 which was not bad but (intentionally) slow and, I regret to say, too slow to warrant ever wanting to see it again (though it did have a great scene in it which is best in context of the entire film). Wonder Woman placed at # 6 and, in my opinion, was enjoyable primarily because it followed the traditional comic book good versus evil formula. I didn't come away from it digging Wonder Woman as character any more or less than I did before I saw it (I still don't care for her). Logan came in at #7. I didn't hate Logan, but didn't think it particularly stellar (though I did like it more than the comic it's based on). The abomination and insult to all previous movies in the franchise which was Star Wars: The Last Jedi ranked #8. The Shape of Water was rated #9 and left me with mixed feelings. It wasn't horrible but not great either. I was thrilled Guillermo del Toro received the recognition he did as a director but ultimately felt this movie was about as bad as many others he's directed. I continue to think he's a spectacular director who, for whatever reason, picks rather poor projects to direct. #11 was Baby Driver and that movie was a complete waste of time. Thor: Ragnarok came in at #12 and was simply not great. Not awful, but definitely not great. Spider-Man: Homecoming rated #15 and, being a lifelong Spider-Man fan, I absolutely hated it. It would require a separate post to detail the reasons why, but, yes, I detested it. The only Spider-Man movie I've seen that was as bad was Spider-Man 3. Last on my list of Rotten Tomatoes' list is Hidden Figures. It wasn't bad, but it also wasn't great. It felt like a forced feel-good movie. Coming in at #55 was the laughably poor John Wick: Chapter 2. Below that at #58 was Guardians of the Galaxy, Volume 2 which made me practically hate Disney taking over Marvel.
I suppose, given the other choices which somehow dominated the top of RT's Best of 2017, it's not surprising Lady Bird would place so highly. Maybe 2017 was just a really, really bad year for movies.
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