It seems as if the overall quality of these movies in this monster mash series has progressively decreased. The best two movies were Kong: Skull Island and the first Godzilla movie. Each one since seems worse than the previous one. That doesn’t mean they aren’t worth watching, but the elements that are good are limited to the monster fighting scenes and the visuals of Godzilla destroying everything he passes by.
So the bad here is the plot and anything that might try to pass as logic in the plot. Even worse is the science. Any time there is anything that they are trying to pass off as some sort of scientific explanation causes me to roll my eyes at how ridiculous it is. They should just try to pass it off as pure fantasy, which would make it more plausible. Having said all that, the plot is actually less convoluted than Godzilla vs. Kong.
On the other hand, the monster fighting scenes were worse in this movie than the last one. Also, Mothra, who is a cool monster, is in this movie for reasons that I can’t understand since Mothra isn’t involved in the actual fighting. My favorite parts were Godzilla just laying to waste Italy and Spain and Rio de Janeiro and wherever else he passed through. This is an entertaining movie but not really a good one.
I thought the first Dune movie was a decent movie, but I wasn’t enthralled by it. Part of the issue was that I don’t think the movie did a very good job of explaining the intricate world building in the movie, and that if you weren’t a book reader (which I am not) you were going to miss a lot of it. Prior to watching the second movie in the series, I watched a five minute video explaining the first movie, which I thought was great because it explained many things that I didn’t understand or realize besides just recapping the plot.
I was ready to go for the second movie, and I thought this was much, much better than the first Dune movie. Part of it, I’m sure, is that I understood the world of the story better, but I also thought the plot itself was far superior. The characterization in the story is good. The intrigue of the houses along with how they intersect with the Emperor and the witch women, the Bene Gesserit was interesting and well developed. I wasn’t much into the relationship between Paul and Chani. I thought both the character of Chani and the performance by Zendaya left a lot to be desired. What I thought really worked was Paul’s transformation into the Muad’Dib and his interaction with the Freman people and their prophecy of a messiah. The buildup to the final battle was excellent but the actual battle fell flat with the exception of the knife fight between Paul and the representative from House Harkonnen. The cinematography and special effects were very good. This, overall, is a movie well worth watching.
These were two novellas that can be read together since The Last Train to Perdition immediately follows I Travel by Night. Robert McCammon is one of my all time favorite novelists, and he definitely delivered with these two novellas. He seems to have rediscovered himself as a historical speculative fiction writer, as compared to being a contemporary horror writer early in his career. I liked both the concept behind these stories, a post Civil War nineteenth century vampire who doesn’t want to be a vampire and is striving to undo his condition and become human again, going to war with the vampire community in the process. He takes difficult jobs as a private investigator/bounty hunter/gun for hire as his occupation while trying to find the vampire who turned him.
Of the two novellas, I preferred I Travel by Night, where Trevor Lawson takes on a job to rescue a banker’s daughter who has been kidnapped by the vampire society he hunts. He recognizes this as a trap for him but takes the job anyway. He is joined by Ann Kingsley, the kidnapped woman’s sister, who joins Lawson as his sidekick in the second novella and helps him by doing things by day that he cannot, although that isn’t really explored in either story. In The Last Train to Perdition, Lawson is hired to retrieve a politician’s son, who has fallen in with a group of bandits, where he once again is ambushed by the vampires he is trying to annihilate. I really enjoyed both novellas, but the problem with the second one is that it has a Deux Ex Machina ending that brings it down a notch.
The second novella ends with the promise of more to come in this story, and I look forward to reading more in this story world.
The Sundown Motel is a supernatural mystery novel that is told by two different narrators, thirty five years apart. In 2017, Carly Kirk is trying to uncover the mystery of her aunt’s disappearance by going to Fell, New York, the place where her Aunt Vivian had been living at and where she disappeared from. In 1982, Vivian Delaney, Carly’s aunt, is working the overnight shift as the front desk person of a rundown barely used hotel, which just happens to be haunted by ghosts. Vivian is embroiled in an investigation of a traveling salesman, who she believes to have raped and killed several women in Fell.
I liked the shift in narration. It worked well because the narration from Vivian parceled out information that Carly was uncovering. I thought the way the writer alternated between past and present really stood out. It didn’t feel contrived or gimmicky but made a lot of sense with the way the story was told. The writing was top notch. Characterization was also strong. Both Carlie and Vivian were well developed characters as were many of the supporting cast.
I didn’t really see any negatives in the story. The twist at the end was a little predictable, but that isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Just because you can see something coming doesn’t mean that it doesn’t fit the story arc and narrative. This was an excellent story with good supernatural elements and a strong mystery that I would highly recommend.
I just finished watching The Nun the previous week for the first time before watching The Nun 2 in the theaters. I have watched all of the movies in The Conjuring universe with this movie. Generally speaking, these are quality horror movies with The Conjuring being one of my all time favorites. The Nun 2 falls somewhere in the middle of the pack, better than the first movie in the series but not up to par with the better movies within this universe.
This movie follows the demon Valak, who has now infested Maurice, who was instrumental in saving Sister Irene in the first movie. Valak, working through Maurice, has been terrorizing churches in Europe searching for the eyes of Saint Lucy, a powerful relic in the Church. The Vatican has tasked Sister Irene, who is befriended by Sister Debra, who is played by a subpar actress and is a poorly written character, with stopping the current attacks on these churches. This leads them to a boarding school for girls where Maurice is working at. There, they once more do battle with the demon Valak.
Overall, I liked this movie more than The Nun. It’s not a great horror movie, but it is very watchable and enjoyable on an entertainment level. There is good creepy religious horror imagery and good suspense. The power of prayer and faith is emphasized in this movie as a way to defeat this demon, which I enjoyed. But the movie had some plot holes, and wasn’t quite the edge on your seat, gripping horror movie that would take this from good to great. Although I would not rush to the theater to watch this movie, if you enjoy horror films, this is worth your time.
