David's Film Thoughts

So, last time I talked about good aspects of the much maligned DCEU.  Now, I'm going to point out some shortcomings of the mostly beloved MCU.  Hopefully Thor 3 can correct some of these, as Phase 3 has been pretty solid thus far, but I'm kind of doubtful. 1.  Average/Bad Sequels Except for Captain Americas 2 and 3 and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, the sequels are mostly meh, if not completely horrible.  Iron Man 2 was forgettable.  Iron Man 3 was a joke.  Thor the Dark World is a boring mess.  Avengers:  Age of Ultron isn't bad necessarily.  I personally still enjoy it at least.  But in no way delivered on all the trailer hype or met the bar set by the first Avengers, Guardians, and the Winter Soldier. 2.  Repetition This happens a lot within this franchise.  The same plot gets recycled in another movie and people still say it's SO good, if not better than the first.  ...

If you pay any attention to movie reviews, you know that the DC cinematic universe has not been received terribly well by critics or audiences, outside of those who stick by DC through thick and thin.  I have been a bit angered myself by many of the choices made in these movies, but I also don't think it's fair to overlook the good parts just because of all the bad stuff.  So, I am going to list ten things I think are good about the DCEU. 1.  The Casting No, the acting is not always the best.  But I chalk that up more to the directing because in the right hands, i think these castings are perfect (besides Eisenberg).  Henry Cavill as Superman, Ben Affleck as Batman, Jeremy Irons as Alfred, Michael Shannon as General Zod, Gal Godot as Wonder Woman, Amy Adams as Lois Lane, and especially Russell Crowe as Jor-El are all spot on.  And with the proper directing, I think all of them should have no problem killing it.   2.  The ...

It feels kind of weird that I haven't done a list of my favorite directors since I've been blogging about film for so long.  So, I finally decided to do it. My rule is that I have to have seen at least three movies from the director for them to qualify for my list.  So, even though I like the one or two films I've seen from them, I sadly could not include Sofia Coppola, Akira Kurosawa, Woody Allen, Denis Villeneuve (though hopefully I can remedy that with the upcoming release of Blade Runner 2049), or Alejandro Inarritu.   Before I get into the actual list, here are my honorable mentions, which I think are fantastic directors, but they just couldn't fit into the top 10: Richard Linklater, Tim Burton, Sidney Lumet, Terry Gilliam, Francis Ford Coppola, Frank Capra, Billy Wilder, John Carpenter, Ridley Scott, Alfonso Cuaron, John Ford, Oliver Stone, and Wes Anderson. I should clarify that these directors aren't what I consider to be the absolute greatest or ...

Let me be clear, I do not hate all Christian films.  Every once in awhile, a passable one comes out, and in the old days, some of the best films were Christian, like Ben-Hur, Bells of St. Mary's, A Man For All Seasons, Babette's Feast,  or  Chariots of Fire .  Even some more recent Hollywood films, like Hacksaw Ridge or The Passion of the Christ, have some good faith elements. But, nowadays most of the movies put out by Christian filmmakers tend to be mediocre or just flat out bad.  Now, I'm not trying to say that Christians can't make good films or they can't reconcile art with their faith.  I'm saying they WON'T do those things, and that's the issue. There's too many different problems to generalize it into one definitive statement, so I'm going to go through just a few of my key problems step-by-step: Oversimplification Notable Offenders: Yeah, the Kendricks are very guilty over-simplifying big topics.  Flywheel ...

My name is David Johnson, and I have been analyzing TV and movies since my brain was able to analyze anything.  From a very young age, I was always asking why and how whenever I would watch a movie or TV show. For this blog, I would like to continue doing the same, whether I'm reviewing a specific film or commenting on film in general.  I actually have another blog in which I do the same called MOVIE Thoughts From DJ .  For the purpose of my class, Journalism Convergence with Dr. Lewis at Franciscan University, I have started this separate blog where I can post more of my thoughts on film and television. I hope this blog will be insightful and thoughtful because film is my true passion, so I will comment on it to the very best of my ability here, just as I strive to do with the other blog. Other blogs from this class to check out: All That Racquet The Greenroom No Stress Fantasy Collegiate Propaganda Watch Tale of a Dancer Beyond the Controller