Sci-fi and Fantasy Movies and Series Reviews, Part 30

JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: Stone Ocean, Part 1
Jolyne Cujo, Jotaro’s daughter, is framed for murder and ends up in prison. As expected, epic Stand battles abound, and it’s fascinating how Shō Aimoto made it this far without the Stand trickery and lore getting stale. The swamp search that lasted a few episodes illustrates an aspect of Stand battles that bothers me. When whichever protagonist (in this case, Jolyne) is in a situation where they don’t know who the enemy Stand user is in a group of people, why doesn’t she simply deploy her Stand, and whoever reacts to it would be the other Stand user…since non-Stand users can’t see other Stands. It’s not foolproof, but I don’t think any characters have thought of that yet.

Thor: Ragnarok
Thor has to stop his recently-freed sister, Hela, from instigating Ragnarok, the prophesied destruction of Asgard. This had a lot more comedy and color (literally) than other Marvel films. It was also a treat to actually see a protagonist fail in his main quest. The post-credit scene ties nicely right into the beginning of Avengers: Infinity War.

Avengers: Infinity War
The Avengers attempt to stop Thanos from collecting all of the Infinity Stones. Obviously, enough time has passed since this movie was released to establish Thanos as one of the more memorable villains with not-completely-evil intentions in recent memory. Although, the question still remains: why not just double the universe’s resources instead of un-existing half of the universe’s inhabitants? There’s probably a reason proposed, but I don’t feel like doing the easy legwork to find out.

Ant-Man and the Wasp
Scott Lang/Ant-Man and Co. search for Janet van Dyne, the original Wasp, who is stuck in the quantum realm. I liked this better than the first Ant-Man, because the Scott side-questing to redeem his Disappeared Dad status was entirely too predictable. The Chaotic Neutral character of the Ghost was by far the most interesting factor, and it’s doubly good that they got a no-name (but skilled) actress to portray her.

Rahxephon
An unassuming high school student pilots a mecha against the Mu and the giant Dolems they use to attack Tokyo. This was a unashamed ripoff of Neon Genesis Evangelion, but I’m going to be honest and say I like this much better than NGE. Rahxephon exhibited much more skilled exposition that doesn’t require a Powerpoint presentation to understand the hand-waving, and the protagonist changes, grows, and is generally more likeable and believable than Shinji. And the enemy mechs attack by singing.

Blue Exorcist
The son of Satan goes to Japanese Magic Fighting Cram School (not the real name) to excel in his exorcism powers. The magic system has some unique aspects, but the series suffered from the Mob Psycho 100 malady, where the second season dragged in comparison to the stronger initial season.

Blade of the Immortal (2020)
A girl hires an immortal samurai to find out who killed her parents. You can watch all 24 episodes in one video, here. I really wanted to watch this to the end; it had really strong storytelling and a superb animation style, but I couldn’t get past all of the gore. Samurai Champloo had similar story elements but managed it without nearly as much gratuitousness.

Space Sweepers
A team of space junk collectors stumble upon an android child who happens to be a weapon of mass destruction. I saw a lot of Firefly and (the original) Cowboy Bebop here, and I think I owe this movie a second viewing to soak in the visuals. There’s an actual story and character development, too, so it’s an all-around good movie.

Sherlock Holmes (2009)
Sherlock and Dr. Watson contend with Moriarty and one of his gonzo schemes. I remember seeing other depictions of Holmes when I was younger, but this one feels truer to the source material. Previous versions of Holmes were a little sanitized; Doyle’s Holmes was somewhat rakish, irresponsible, and dismissive of his friends. The slow-motion scenes where Sherlock predicts and plans are really well done.

Signs
An ex-Episcopal priest and his family deal with an alien invasion and their own individual quirks. This might be one of the first films I’ve ever seen that portrayed a realistic reaction to an alien presence, and there’s a really touching scene where Mel Gibson’s character helps his son overcome an acute asthma attack (and his own struggles with belief in God), that relies on good direction and acting instead of cheap theatrics.