rehensle

Red, White and Royal Blue is a fun movie to throw on in the background, but it definitely doesn't bring much new perspective to gay culture or romance in general. This definitely feels like a Hallmark movie, following extremely similar story beats, dialogue and editing. For example, the "cake" scene at the beginning of the film is reminiscent of a couple hallmark movies where the main character goofs up at a party and causes a Christmas tree or cake to tumble. So overall it feels pretty hallmark-like.

I can't say that there is a lot that wows me in the editing department. I think being that the characters are considered "royals" of their respective countries, there could have been a lot more interesting shots of England and the United States could have been used, but a lot of the scenes are confined to generic gathering spots. It makes the movie kind of boring to watch visually.

And while I'm not expecting anything super deep or groundbreaking, the beats of the story were very simple and didn't offer much new compared to other hallmark romance films. The characters were definitely cute and a really fun dynamic between the "playful American boy" and "serious royal", however the subplots about the US election campaign and strictness of the royal family felt pretty shallow and boring. Part of that is due to these subplots feeling out of touch with reality, making it feel way more hallmark than a serious dramedy.

The last thing I have to mention, which I feel like is kind of nitpick, is that the movie really didn't have to be rated R. There are some curses here and there, and one brief moment of nudity. But the whole vibe of the film felt like a tame hallmark movie otherwise, so it could have done without those little bits and felt just as authentic. It also could have reached a wider audience that way, which I think is more important because the R-rated bits didn't make the movie feel any more authentic given it's style.

Overall not a bad background movie. The characters are definitely charming, but the subplots either needed to be refined or just removed in favor of more fun romance / relationship building scenes.

I came into this movie with a couple of first impressions based on the buzz surrounding it: 1. That it had a unique art style reminiscent of the "comic book" style of Sony's "Spiderman Into the Spiderverse" film 2. This would explore darker / more mature themes such as themes around mortality and overcoming anxiety 3. It's part of the Shrek universe, so shares a similar level of down to earth humor

Unfortunately the movie just felt like a mess. I think it struggled in these areas: 1. Too many character arcs and not enough focus on character development; there were too many flashbacks of random characters like goldilocks and the villain, but it just padded out the story rather than provide meaningful messaging 2. Animation style was very inconsistent, it jumped between the "stop motion action" style and traditional rendering too much, it should have just been one art style or another 3. The humor was way too "random", it felt like it was trying too hard to be funny by being odd, but lacks the subtlety and pacing of jokes that the original Shrek series had 4. The chihuahua side character was an extremely annoying comic relief; every line of dialogue from him made me cringe; he feels almost like a "Paw Patrol" character, and takes away from the darker direction the story seemed originally set to go 5. This movie is just all over the place in terms of plot points; it always wants to throw something random or change things up; it felt like it was designed for audiences with low attention spans; there also seemed to be a lot of tangents in terms of trying to convey a moral message in the story, with completely random messages being thrown at a whim

Overall I think this movie was a bit disappointing. I think the goal was to create a darker story with comic relief elements, which I don't mind. However the comic relief elements became too distracting in it's use that it overshadowed the original story the writers were probably trying to convey. In the end the movie is more about random slap stick humor, just without the punch the original Shrek movies had. There just seems to be a lot of forced elements whether it's random backstories, newly introduced animation styles, moral lessons, or attempts at humor. Certainly not a bad movie to throw on for a kiddo, but it probably won't draw a larger audience like the original Shrek movies had.

10 Cloverfield Lane is a really good survival movie with an engaging plot. It reminds me of classic horror survival films like Night of the living dead, a character piece that takes place in a small setting. All three of the main actors do an excellent job, with John Goodman being a standout for his portrayal of a crazy yet paradoxically level-headed man. However it's hampered down by trying to shoehorn a franchise it wasn't originally supposed to be part of.

From the beginning, the movie doesn't feel part of the Cloverfield franchise. This is evident in small details, such as the main actress having a modern iPhone when the apocalyptic event took place in 2008. This is a small detail, but it makes the world feel disconnected from the original film, where technology such as camcorders play a critical part in the narration. Speaking of camcorders, this film does not have a found footage style. This wasn't necessary to have in order for the film to be engaging, however it divorces the film from the main filming technique that made the Cloverfield franchise unique in the first place. Because of this, the movie feels out of place from the Cloverfield franchise, and only seems to be tacked on for Marketing purposes.

What is most disappointing however is that nothing new is really learned about the "incident". The rules aren't consistent from the original film, nothing new is learned about the invaders. It does maintain the shroud of mystery of the "incident" that the original film deployed, but that's the only real simultaneity. Simultaneously, knowing that the "incident" actually occurred due to knowledge from previous film creates a missed opportunity for mystery and suspense. The main character is not aware if a catastrophic incident actually occurred, and the audience could have questioned this too had there not been a previous film where said event occurred. Fortunately having the knowledge of the previous films doesn't make the plot any less gripping, but it could have been a lot more mysterious without knowing previous events.

While I levied a lot of criticisms about this movie, it's still a good script on it's own. And the cast makes the film a delight to watch. It's just a bummer that film executives didn't let the script stand on it's own, as it would have been a much stronger film.