emryse

As someone who likes Marvel movies, possibly more than I should given their quality, I've seen a solid chunk of the Russo brothers filmography. While from Winter Soldier to Infinity they have consistently produced some of the MCUs best work, they never seemed to have the same ownership of their films that say a James Gunn or Taika Waititi has. What I'm trying to say is there films lacked a certain stylistic flair, while still being enjoyable there was nothing that ever screamed to me, this is what the Russo brothers brought to the table. Perhaps that's an unfair assessment but never the less I was excited to see some of their post MCU work and find out what they would do without the creative shackles of having to fit into Feige's masterplan. So on a flight back from Greece over the summer I decided to see what they had to offer with the Gray Man. Turns out, not much.

The story is fairly predictable, it follows a super covert Jason Bourne style spy with a special set of skills that means he can beat up anyone he faces, who goes awol after learing a secret he wasn't supposed to know, this leads to him racing round the world with a price on his head, hijinks ensue. There are hundreds of films that have done this before and will be hundreds to come, so how does this one set itself apart? There's a little girl? I guess that's somewhat unique. Ok, so storywise there isn't a whole lot going for it, what about the acting? Ryan Gosling is decent, he's doing that quippy tough guy with a heart of gold thing that, again has been done to death. Ana De Armas is in the film. And then there is Chris Evans, after starring in all of the Russo's MCU films he returns here as the villain. Playing a very similair character to the one he played in Knives Out, he's the snarky wiseass who is just evil because it's fun, again this isn't new. Chris Evans is a fun actor and I've seen a lot of praise for him bringing some much needed life to this xanax of a film but honestly he's just trying too hard for me here, it doesn't come across as sincere and feels forced.

Alright so let's not focus on the actors, this is an action film, how's the action. Bland, one or two creative ideas mixed in but not enough to keep things interesting. Honestly this film is almost a perfect 5, it's not necessarily bad but there was nothing here that felt original or different in any way from the rest of the genre. The only thing that makes it a 6 was that it was fairly well shot.

Painfully average but my eyes liked it.

I hope you enjoyed the first Percy Jackson film because it's back with a vengeance, except with a smaller budget, worse special effects and somehow even more bland than the original, so not really a vengeance, it's just back.

When I reviewed the first film I went in depth into how what I see as a fantastic series of books had been butchered, this film doesn't deserve to have that much thought put into a review because it is nothing, it's bland and unimaginative and I honestly don't remember any of it. Sadly I still have 115 characters left before I can post a review so here is what I think the plot was.

Percy finds out he has a brother, everyone is really racist to Percy's brother even though you would think that since everyone Percy knows has been treated badly for being different they would have a bit of perspective on racism being, ya know, not good. Percy is being beaten by someone in the camp at something so she gets to go on a cool adventure and he doesn't, then he does go on a cool adventure and he saves everyone but something bad happens but they're all ok actually and the film ends. 10/10 pure cinema.

When I was young, Percy Jackson was one of my favourite book series, I remember the world being expertly crafted with intricate attention to detail, I remember loveable characters and smart well written stories and I remember how being different was represented as a super power. None of what made the original book so great is present here.

The story is roughly the same, boy finds out he's got a god for a dad and goes on a roadtrip across America with his friends to save the world, facing a host of enemies from the depths of the Greek mythology canon. So why is this movie so much worse than it's inspirator? In large part it's those little details, thanks to the movie having to fit into a theatrical runtime a lot of events and dynamics are cut or edited to fit. One or two changes are fine but when you are trying to cut down 361 pages into two hours, you lose a lot. Key characters are missing, entire plot lines are gone and what is left behind is a bland, uninspired husk of a film, lacking any of what made it so beloved in the first place. All sense of mystery is gone as god forbid your audience has to think, instead us and the characters are simply told what is happening. Do not worry though as since so much of the boring character development (snore) has been left on the cutting room floor, we'll now have time to include a third act fight scene instead of the far more interesting less cliched ending that the original book had.

It's difficult to explain when someone hasn't read the books why this is such an abomination of an adaptation but hopefully, the upcoming series will right the wrongs of the past and introduce a whole new audience to this world, because, when done right, this is one of the most interesting fantasy universes around.