Anyone who follows me on twitter knows I am not someone who moans and complains about original vs franchise filmmaking. I value creativity and whether that comes in an existing franchise or an original idea it does not matter to me. That said, there have been lots of disappointing franchise films this year and I definitely think an IP can be an excuse to be lazy and bland. Fortunately today I am here to 2 franchise films that do not fall into these traps and are worth your time.

BEETLEJUICE, BEETLEJUICE-

I will admit that low expectations may have added to my sense of enjoyment with Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice. It has been a long time since Tim Burton has made a film I’ve enjoyed and usually these long awaited comedy sequels are terrible so I was preparing for the worst. While I completely understand the critiques many of my friends have brought up I still found the film overall entertaining and most importantly funny which is of course the key to a successful comedy.

The script is kind of a mess but I was happy to see they didn’t over-use Beetlejuice and brought him around just when the scenes needed a punch of humor. Catherine O’Hara is back as Delia and she is my favorite part of the film (I love her in the original as well.) I like the dynamic between Delia, Lydia (Winona Ryder), and Astrid (Jenna Ortega) as they all deal with grief differently and manage their relationships with each other in easily relatable ways.

I think what makes Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice work is it keeps moving. It perhaps has one too many plots but I’d prefer that over something that’s stagnant and dull. This is never far from a joke or creative visual setpiece to give those spooky feels. Monica Bellucci is the most wasted but even she looks cool and her transformation into a monster is fun to watch.

Something like this is certainly better than other Burton projects like Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children– a movie that bored me out of my mind. At least this had me laughing and feeling something with the characters. Perhaps it’s a low bar but as I always say with comedies ‘funny saves all’ and that certainly is the case with this. I can guarantee you won’t ever look at “MacArthur Park” again the same way.

Smile Worthy

TRANSFORMERS ONE

I always try and judge a film for what it’s trying to be. Meaning if something is purporting to entertain toddlers does it do so?  If something is trying to be a rom-com is it romantic? If something is going for high drama as an Oscar contender does it succeed? You get the idea. With the newest animated Transfomers movie entitled Transformers One I don’t see how anyone can argue that it is not successful in being a Transformers origin story prequel. In fact, you can make an argument it is the best film the franchise has ever seen with the only real contender being 2018’s Bumblebee.

The key difference with this film and even Bumblebee is Transformers One is the first in the franchise to rely solely on the bots with no humans of any  kind. Even the animated The Transformers: The Movie from 1986 still had human characters and they are almost always lame. At the very least the whole discovery of the autobot and the various problems of the human characters are not interesting or absorbing.

I much prefer the story we get in Transformers One about 2 friends who go on a little adventure together and end up as Optimus Prime and Megatron- sworn enemies (this is not a spoiler. It’s in all the marketing and how the characters are listed in all the releases). They also don’t realize they can transform until later in the movie so it really is all about the characters and world-building more than action or transforming which is refreshing for this franchise.

The whole movie is refreshing. The animation is vibrant and beautiful and the voice acting by the likes of Chris Hemsworth and Brian Tyree Henry is excellent. It’s also under 2 hours which is a nice change for this franchise. Transfromers: the Last Knight was nearly an hour longer… Kill me now. There are times Transformers One takes itself too seriously and is trying to be too epic in very predictable ways but it’s still an overall entertaining experience that any scifi fan and certainly any Transformers fan will enjoy.

Smile Worthy

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