Death on the Nile

 Death on the Nile (2021)

Starring Kenneth Branagh, Tom Bateman, Annette Bening, Russell Brand, Ali Fazal, Dawn French, Gal Gadot, Armie Hammer, Rose Leslie, Emma Mackey, Sophie Okonedo, Jennifer Saunders, and Letitia Wright

Directed by Kenneth Branagh

Written by Michael Green

Click here for my Letterboxd review

The RyMickey Rating:  C

Red Notice

 Red Notice (2021)

Starring Dwayne Johnson, Ryan Reynolds, Gal Gadot, Ritu Arya, and Chris Diamatopoulos

Directed by Rawson Marshall Thurber

Written by Rawson Marshall Thurber

Click here for my Letterboxd review

The RyMickey Rating:  D+

Justice League

Justice League (2017)

Starring Ben Affleck, Henry Cavill, Amy Adams, Gal Gadot, Ezra Miller, Jason Momoa, Ray Fisher, Jeremy Irons, Diane Lane, J.K. Simmons, and Ciarán Hinds

Directed by Zack Snyder
Written by Chris Terrio and Joss Whedon

Summary (in 500 words or less):  Indulge me for a moment, as I copy the first paragraph of the Wikipedia summary for Justice League -- 

"Thousands of years ago, Steppenwolf and his legions of Parademons attempt to take over Earth with the combined energies of three Mother Boxes.  They are foiled by a unified army that includes the Olympian Gods, Amazons, Atlanteans, mankind, and the Green Lantern Corps.  After repelling Steppenwolf's army, the Mother Boxes are separated and hidden in locations on the planet.  In the present, mankind is in mourning over Superman, whose death triggers the Mother Boxes to reactivate and Steppenwolf's return to Earth an effort to regain favor with his master, Darkseid.  Steppenwolf aims to gather the artifacts to form "The Unity," which will destroy Earth's ecology and terraform it in the image of Steppenwolf's homeworld."

• Granted, there's a whole lot more to Justice League than that summary above, but just reading that gives you an idea of how ludicrous the overarching story of how this movie is.  Justice League is supposed to be DC Comics' equivalent of Marvel's Avengers, bringing together the best of DC's superheroes, and yet director Zach Snyder and his two screenwriters squander the appeal of bringing together Batman (Ben Affleck), Superman (Henry Cavill), Wonder Woman (Gal Gadot), the Flash (Ezra Miller), Aquaman (Jason Momoa), and Cyborg (Ray Fisher).
• It's obvious that screenwriter Joss Whedon was brought on to add lightness and humor to the decidedly heavy aesthetic that always permeates the DC Universe films.  While some jokes land, most just feel like they were added on in reshoots.
• Ben Affleck has talked about leaving the franchise and I think that's best.  Granted, it isn't all his fault as Zack Snyder's choice of direction cause the character to lose any modicum of charisma, but Affleck just never seems like he's having fun with this iconic figure in the slightest.
• The Flash is certainly the standout here to me with Ezra Miller getting the bulk of Whedon's jokes and thereby showing the most charisma.  Perhaps his standalone film will be the first DC flick to actually win me over completely because thus far, they've been incredibly disappointing.

The RyMickey Rating:  C-

Wonder Woman

Wonder Woman (2017)

Starring Gal Gadot, Chris Pine, Robin Wright, Danny Huston, David Thewlis, Elena Anaya, and Connie Nielsen

Directed by Patty Jenkins

Written by Allan Heinberg
***This film is currently streaming via HBO***

Summary (in 500 words or less):  The origin story of the titular super hero, we follow a young Diana who as a child admires the warrior women with whom she lives on the island of Themyscira.  Trained by her aunt (Robin Wright) in the ways of the Amazonian females, a grown Diana (Gal Gadot) rescues American pilot Steve Trevor (Chris Pine) after his plane crashes in the waters off of her island home.  He tells Diana that World War II is ongoing and Diana leaves Themyscira in hopes of finding Ares, the God of War, who ages ago caused chaos amongst the gods.  It's decidedly more complicated than that...but long story short, Diana wants to seek revenge on damage Ares caused the Amazonian women years ago.

• While Wonder Woman is the best DC comics film so far, it really didn't need to be all that good in order to achieve that title.
• Much was made about how this was the first female-fronted superhero film and while that's an admirable feat, in my opinion the film was overpraised simply because of that.  At its heart, Wonder Woman is an origin story and most superhero origin stories lack excitement overall and that's the case here.
• Gal Gadot is fine as Diana, but she lacks a bit of nuance.  I think in subsequent films (see Justice League which will be reviewed soon), her character grows in appeal, but here she's a bit too stalwart which at times is a bit off-putting.
• Although directed by someone other than Zack Snyder whose stamp has been on nearly every DC movie thus far, this film still carries his aesthetic at times.  Most of the opening act taking place on the Amazonian island looks so fake and computer-generated that it's tough to really buy into what we're seeing.

The RyMickey Rating:  B-

Movie Review - Criminal

Criminal (2016)

Starring Kevin Costner, Gary Oldman, Tommy Lee Jones, Alice Eve, Gal Gadot, Michael Pitt, Jordi Mollà, and Ryan Reynolds

Directed by Ariel Vromen

***This film is currently streaming via HBO Now/GO***

Not that it matters to this reviewer at all, but for some reason I thought Criminal was a Ryan Reynolds-starring film.  Considering this was released shortly after the huge (unwarranted) success of Deadpool, perhaps the marketing did genuinely play up Reynolds' involvement, but let it be known that the actor is barely in this piece.  Reynolds is Bill Pope, an American CIA agent working in London who has recently been in contact with a hacker known as The Dutchman (Michael Pitt) who broke into a variety of computer programs and gained access to a slew of worldwide nuclear codes.  The Dutchman was working for Xavier Heimdahl (Jordi Mollà), an anarchist who, upon discovering the Dutchman's betrayal, sets out to find Pope and find out where the CIA agent is hiding the hacker.  Pope refuses to talk and Heimdahl has him killed.  (I promise, that's not really a spoiler as it happens within the first fifteen minutes of the film.)  London CIA head Quaker Wells (Gary Oldman), who is also unsure of the Dutchman's location, contacts Dr. Micah Franks (Tommy Lee Jones) who has been working on an experimental treatment for the government where he implants the memories of one individual into another.  Considering the risky operation, the CIA chooses a nasty convict, murderer Jericho Stewart (Kevin Costner), to test the treatment and, needless to say, Jericho doesn't necessarily follow orders when he's finally released from his isolated prison cell leading Agent Wells and his team to not only have to save the world from the Dutchman's boss, but also try and round up a criminal whom they've set loose in the city of London.

A long summary, yes, but the details at the start of Criminal are the most important...and frankly, the beginning is the only time this movie really works.  Sure, there's an obvious ludicrousness to the medical notions discussed, but it was at least moderately intriguing and slightly different which is more than can be said about the film's second two-thirds which devolve into a rote action chase film.  It's fun to see Kevin Costner as a bad guy -- albeit a bad guy with the memories of a good guy which sets up a slightly complicated character for Costner to sink his teeth into -- but the film Costner's Jericho Stewart is inhabiting is just too typical and ho hum to really become invested.

The RyMickey Rating:  C-

Movie Review - Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice

Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016)

Starring Ben Affleck, Henry Cavill, Amy Adams, Jesse Eisenberg, Diane Lane, Laurence Fishburne, Jeremy Irons, Holly Hunter, Gal Gadot, Scoot McNairy, Callan Mulvey, and Tao Okamoto

Directed by Zack Snyder

***This film is currently streaming via HBO Now/HBO Go***

Questions I had while watching Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice:

• Why does the voice of Bruce Wayne (Ben Affleck) when in the Batsuit sound like he's speaking through some voice box that amplifies his voice, making it echoey and deeper than normal?  This amplification makes it utterly obvious that all the vocals were completed in post. (I guess technically there is amplification device in his mask, but considering that the lower half of his face isn't covered by the mask, it just makes Affleck's performance laughable...even moreso than his depressing melancholy already was...)
• Why do all of the fight scenes look as if they were created by a video game manufacturer instead of looking like creative visual effects?  Zack Snyder isn't exactly known for realism, but it's utterly ridiculous-looking.
• Why is this movie so long?  And considering how long the title already is, why not add the 's' after the 'v' in the abbreviation of the word 'versus?'
• Why is Zack Snyder allowed to continue to reign his ugly directorial aesthetic over any films anymore?  His dark, dreary, heavy-handed nature creates an utterly depressing feel throughout, carrying nary a modicum of charm, hopefulness, or pleasantness that even the worst Marvel films contain even if just for a moment or two.
• Amy Adams' red hair adds at least some color to the muted grays and blacks that permeate the screen.
• Despite the criticism of Jesse Eisenberg's Lex Luthor, at least he's hamming it up in a amusingly crazy way as opposed to the dreary hamming of Affleck.
• When one of your main characters -- Bruce Wayne, in this case -- gets his motivations because of scary dreams he has, that's just cheap storytelling.  
• In my Man of Steel review from a few years ago, I mentioned that Henry Cavill carried some charm.  That's not present here at all as he's just an angry superhero the whole time.
• I admittedly appreciated that they at least tried to explain away the ludicrousness of Man of Steel's destructive finale in which much of Metropolis was destroyed. 
• And at least the finale of this one was a little less ludicrous.  The post-script of the plot after the final battle was actually oddly resonant and upped my grade below by a spot.
• I should have stopped watching this at the fifty-minute mark when I first contemplated the idea.  
• Why will I inevitably subject myself to Suicide Squad and Wonder Woman after this atrocity?  I should know better...

The RyMickey Rating:  D