Toy Story 4

Toy Story 4 is directed by Josh Cooley, and is the fourth installment of the foundation franchise for Pixar. Just as the toys are about to set off on a road trip, their new owner, Bonnie (Madeline McGraw), makes a toy out of a spork, named Forky (Tony Hale); unfortunately, HE’S not too keen on the idea, and only wishes to be thrown away. While helping him realize his purpose in life, Woody (Tom Hanks) reunites with Bo Peep (Annie Potts) on a rescue mission, all while questioning what his own life is worth.

I’m among those people who were hoping this movie didn’t happen, mostly out of fear that it would not live up to the previous three movies. Toy Story was the first major hit for Pixar, earning both massive critical and financial success, to even becoming the first animated film nominated for a Best Screenplay Oscar; it was a revolutionary film, and for a story about toys coming to life, it worked. Toy Story 2 was just as big a gamble that had twice the success; originally planned for direct-to-video, the team was confident in the project making it to theaters, despite going through redo after redo and several delays. We got to see these characters develop further, realize more of the dilemma they face later in life, and also debate whether fame is worth it for family. By the time we got to Toy Story 3, it was a bit risky to see if these characters could still connect with us as before, especially after Pixar had a decade of films to work off of; thankfully, it surpassed almost all expectations, and rightfully sits next to Beauty and the Beast and Pixar’s prior feature, Up, among the only animated films nominated for Best Picture.

With how three films wrapped the story together so nicely, I didn’t see the need to make a fourth film at all. John Lassetter, one of the founding fathers at Pixar and co-creators of Toy Story, admitted in interviews that the only way a fourth film could ever happen is if they got the story right; in fact, when my brother visited Pixar Studios in 2014, when Lassetter was still directing it, he overheard the team say they had finished this movie by then, but were then told to start all over. The perfection towards this film even went as far as to affect their other films, such as Incredibles 2, which this film switched release dates with; Brad Bird has expressed in interviews that he lost a year of production on his film, due to the schedule change, and it’s made him hesitant on when he’ll come back for another film by the studio. 

It was a little bizarre going into this movie, because even with the kinds of ideas this film wanted to do with this world, I was still hesitant on whether this should have happened. However, after letting it sink in for a few weeks, I can safely say, the team does it again. With each passing Pixar film, the animation only gets better and this film is no exception; the details on each of the toys is perfectly realized, the outdoor scenes are absolutely gorgeous, but the antique store is where I was mesmerized; from the porcelain nick-nacks, reflective metal, and even to the cat that roams around, it was so beautiful looking. It’s especially fitting, when this film and the previous film start and bookend the decade of progress. 

I was especially pleased with the character of Gabby Gabby (Christina Hendricks), who grows a particular interest in Woody, due to both sharing generational makings. Not to give away spoilers, but Disney over the years has been abusing the twist villain trope way too often, and has often affected the credibility of most of their films that I still rather enjoy (Frozen, Zootopia, Coco, Incredibles 2); it’s a cliche that’s really becoming too common, especially with Disney. Thankfully, that wasn't the case with Gabby Gabby, as her story while intentionally selfish, still manages to draw in empathy to anyone who tries to MAKE ourselves perfect for other people, and Christina Hendricks brought a perfect balance of that to her performance.

A lot of the new cast members are a delightful addition to the crew. Keanu Reeves as Duke Kaboom, this 70’s Kenivel toy; Keagan Michael-Key and Jordan Peele as a pair of stuffed animals that follow Buzz (Tim Allen) around; and Ally Maki as this “Polly Pocket” cop, all manage to leave a good impression on you, and even when they mess up, it never felt like they weren’t useful. The only downside is that the film seems to put the rest of the cast aside. I understood the reason for some characters, such as Mr. Potato Head, whose voice actor, the great Don Rickles, passed away in 2017 before recording even began, but after the previous two films of being more involved, to see Jessie (Joan Cusack), Slinky (Blake Clark, formerly Jim Varney), Rex (Wallace Shawn), or the rest get sidelined, was a little disappointing. I mean, the whole bit with the Unicorn trying to get Bonnie’s dad arrested was so out of nowhere, I wanted to know what prompted him to resent the guy. Also, the bit with the RV, while I was laughing, did seem a little far fetched. 

Although, I get the intention, considering this is more of Woody and Bo’s story; the time gap between them shows a great sense of progress that can come from going solo, contrasting against Woody’s one-track lifestyle of a toy. He’s lived his life as the alpha dog with Andy, and now that he’s living with a little girl of a younger generation, there comes that conflict that Jessie went through and warned Woody was going to happen; so much like how Forky questions his purpose existing, Woody’s able to learn from Bo about what his purpose is, now that Bonnie doesn’t play with him as often anymore. And while people are divided with how he deals with Gabby, I found it a very fitting move to bring Woody full circle.

Much like with Toy Story 3, the ending is a reminder about how we all need to grow up eventually, but this is especially geared toward adult fans who pester the Hollywood business. As someone who’s become burnt out with sequels and continuations of all kinds, it feels as though this movie is trying to say “you can’t keep living in the past forever.'' And with this being a generation so hooked on nostalgia, that’s something important we really need to do.

Toy Story 4 is another solid hit from Pixar in their flagship franchise, and Josh Cooley did a great job directing this. Not to mention, the writing is deeply moving, with some clever dialogue by Andrew Stanton and Stephany Folsom, it’s also one of the funniest movies I’ve seen this year. There wasn’t a moment where I didn’t feel emotional, but I do hope this is the last one; with how emotional Tim Allen and Tom Hanks got recording it, it’s easy to say that even they would probably want this to be the last.

Rating: A

Aladdin (2019)

Aladdin is the newest live action remake of an animated classic, directed and co-written by Guy Ritchie. This retells the tale of a street urchin, Aladdin (Mena Massoud), who desires to capture the love of Agrabah’s princess, Jasmine (Naomi Scott); from the request of the vizier, Jafar (Marwan Kenzari), he finds a magic lamp that awakens a Genie (Will Smith) that will be able to grant three wishes of Aladdin’s choosing.

While in the past, I’ve had ups and downs about the recent Disney remakes coming out, Aladdin was one I was the most mixed about being done. The original film by Ron Clements and John Musker remains to be one of Disney’s most celebrated films; the brilliant music by Alan Menken and Howard Ashman (whom this was the last film he wrote music for), some of the clever and playful dialogue between characters, and the animation being absolutely lively, especially with the action scenes. Being the 31st animated film by the studio, as well as the first to follow up their BEST PICTURE NOMINEE Beauty and the Beast, a lot was riding on this film living up to that hype in some way. And it did, by becoming the first film Disney made to spawn a franchise afterwards, leading to two more films (albeit direct-to-video) and a tv series that expands on the Arabian Nights lore.

The idea of a remake wasn’t too far fetched, since there was more to expand on, but that didn’t exactly mean it was going to be easy. And going into this, I was hoping that if they played their cards right, this could actually be more beneficial to Disney than they thought...sadly, they had different intentions.

Starting off with the positives, the set design and production look great; Agrabah was not only given a more grounded design, but not too much to where it doesn’t stand out. I also liked how some scenes are actually shot out in the desert, and not just mostly blue screen; and the look of the Cave of Wonders is pretty. Some of the action scenes and cinematography are exciting as well, especially with Aladdin’s maneuvering; you can definitely see where Disney knew Guy Ritchie would do best, when hiring him, because he gets the thief skills down. Unfortunately, that’s mostly I can say that worked.

For the most part, the acting felt very wooden, especially from our main leads. Mena Massoud and Naomi Scott look absolutely bored to be there. Even when they’re reciting the dialogue from the original script, or bringing the new lines to life with the same tone and inflection as Scott Weigner and Linda Larkin, it didn’t seem like their hearts were in it. Naomi Scott was great in the 2017 Power Rangers, and to see this film underutilize her was really frustrating to watch, especially with what they did to Jasmine’s character; on one hand, they made her want to be sultan, but then made her scared of pole vaulting, when the animated version had no problem with that (these remakes keep sacrificing one trait, to emphasize another already there).

The worst of all was Jafar; Marwan Kenzari, I’m sure he did his best, was completely miscast here. The details on him being a thief like Aladdin and bargaining at his level rather than disguise, I thought that was clever, but he played this way too straight forward and too low energy. They even made him dumber by getting bamboozled by nearly EVERYONE in the film; heck, after gaining magic abilities, he doesn’t even use them until minutes after he gets tricked by Jasmine (She jumps off the balcony, and yet he doesn’t stop her?!). His parrot, Iago, has been subdued from the talkative type Gilbert Gottfried played him as, which is either going to relieve people, or annoy them; Iago is actually my favorite villain sidekick, so it was upsetting to see his role downplayed, especially when Alan Tudyk was cast in the role. Come on, at least Luke Evans and Josh Gad had fun with Beauty and the Beast.

A complaint I often hear about the original from critics against it, is that it doesn’t pick up until the Genie comes in, and that was actually my complaint with this movie. One of the biggest concerns had with this movie was with how the Genie would be handled. This was a character created especially for its original actor, the late-great Robin Williams, a comedy legend and master improviser (in fact, that improvisation is actually what cost Disney their chance for a Best Adapted Screenplay nomination), and since then, no one has been able to match his performance; not Dan Castellaneta, not Jim Meskimen (the actor currently voicing him), heck not even Williams when he came back for King of Thieves could recreate that lightning in a bottle. To Will Smith’s credit, he doesn’t try to mimic Williams’s performance the way Castellaneta did; he plays him less like the funny-buddy, and more like his character from Hitch, which does play off nicely with the rest of the film. They also give him a romance with Nasim Pedard as Jasmine’s handmaid, and there are one or two moments are a nice homage to Williams, especially in the beginning where he’s telling the story.

The worst part about this movie is, aside from “Friend Like Me” which was given a surprisingly decent hip-hop flare, all the singing in this movie is garbage; in fact, all I could hear every time someone tried to sing, was the sound of Howard Ashman rolling in his grave. Right from when Will Smith begins “Arabian Nights”, I knew right then something (or someone) was off. I know Will Smith has had a long music career, but rap is a completely different style than Disney Showtunes; not everyone who has a career in music is fit for every genre. This also has a similar problem I had with Beauty and the Beast, where they added a new song or two that completely mess with the pace of the movie. Here, it’s a little worse, because the new song they give Jasmine is completely unnecessary and should have been cut from the film; it doesn’t add anything to her character, doesn’t change anything from the story, and it just makes her come off as bratty (and that song was written by Pasek and Paul).

As much as I do get why Disney went with Guy Ritchie, his quick and grimey style of filmmaking for works like Sherlock Holmes or Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels just didn’t seem to mesh well with this kind of dialogue. The original film’s script was written by Terry Russio and Ted Elliot, who later adapted The Pirates of the Caribbean trilogy directed by Gore Verbinski; in my mind, Verbinski would have been a better fit, since Pirates of the Caribbean had the same kind of fun tale of thieves vibe both films are known for. Ritchie’s style just comes off as too plain, and even when it does try to pop, it feels generic. Not to give away the ending (although, nearly everyone knows how it ends, if you’ve seen the movie or played Kingdom Hearts), but this is my biggest nitpick: of all the remakes Disney could give a sequel to, why give it to the two worst ones Alice in Wonderland and Maleficent, yet drop the ball with this? It’s not like they don’t have the money to pay Will Smith to come back as Genie.

Aladdin isn’t the worst remake Disney’s put out, but it was a bigger disappointment than expected. I wanted this to prove me wrong and be amazing, and it does pick up a bit when Will Smith enters as Genie; but with the lackluster singing, wooden performances, and a story being dragged the whole way through, I just don’t see how I could recommend this to anyone unless you have literally nothing better to do. This is another one of those films, where the more I think about it, the worse it gets.

Rating: D+

Men In Black: International

MIB International is the fourth installment of the Men in Black film series, this time directed by F. Gary Gray, and starring Tessa Thompson and Chris Hemsworth. As a kid, Molly Wright witnesses the MIB wipe her parents' memories, and makes it her mission to join them. As the new Agent M-in training, she’s sent to London to help Agent H take out a threat he dealt with years ago, but never destroyed.

When the first Men in Black came out, it was not only a major hit, but it was one of the most unique films to come out at the time. While it does stray away a little from the comic books it came from, it still manages to be a captivating film with its intriguing concept, stylistic action scenes, and very quotable dialogue (not bad, considering the screenwriter’s last film was The Super Mario Bros. Movie). Not to mention, it was Will Smith’s third successful blockbuster in a row, that propelled him into superstardom, and it spawned an animated series that borrows more from the comics; it was pretty much that generation’s Ghostbusters.

Despite the unlimited possibilities, it felt like the movies didn’t know where else to go themselves, other than recycling elements from the first film. Men in Black II was meh, and while I’m one of those few that really loved Men in Black 3, especially since it got Will Smith out of an acting hiatus, even I can admit it does repeat elements. Barry Sonnenfield was the director for all three of these films, and while I applaud them for being consistent with directors, after seeing the versatility that the MCU has had, it does make me wish someone else was given a shot at this. My wish was partially granted, in the form of two in-universe spin-offs: One of them being a now-cancelled crossover with Channing Tatum and Jonah Hill’s 21 Jump Street films...that was going to be a thing; the other was a soft reboot/sequel with a female lead (because that worked SO WELL with audiences when Amy Pascal’s Ghostbusters did that, and that too had Chris Hemsworth as a dopey hunk).

While MIB International has more polish and finished feeling to it, this movie ended up having a lot of the same problems I had with Dark Phoenix, in that it’s another sequel that’s just going through the motions without any heart behind it. It isn’t as bad as Dark Phoenix, but it’s hard not to bring up comparisons, being that it’s another comic book movie with a female lead and rips off Invasion of the Body Snatchers (the third one this year, no less). What’s interesting was that Dark Phoenix had reshoots because the aliens were too similar to Captain Marvel, yet someone forgot to tell Sony about that with their film. And there is a twist villain, but you can already find out in the first five minutes of the movie (were you even trying, editor?).

Tessa Thompson and Chris Hemsworth do their best as M and H, but they hardly have any chemistry. Thompson is this MIB fangirl that claims to be a smart, strong, and capable protagonist, but they don’t give her anything to showcase that, or have anything new to bring; just because you have an actress that can kick ass and say politically correct things, doesn’t mean you can’t make her at least somewhat interesting. Chris Hemsworth, like I said, was just playing another dopey hunk; he’s not as dumb as he was in Ghostbusters, but when he throws quips, he feels like he’s trying to be the Will Smith funny man and just comes off as obnoxious. With how he’s been playing this persona throughout most of his career this decade, part of me wants to believe that had something to do with him taking an acting break, at least until Guardians Vol. 3.

Emma Thompson reprises her role as Agent O, the new commander that took over for Rip Torn’s Agent Zed from the first two movies, and is the only connection to the original trilogy present; however, she only appears in the beginning and the end of the movie, being there just to get Tessa Thompson into the story. She could have been completely written out of the movie, and it wouldn’t make a difference. This also applies to Kumail Nanjiani as Pawny, who is only there to get kids in the audience; he has no real purpose to serve in this film at all, and they don’t even give him anything funny to say or do. He hardly does anything, and when he does, he fucks up and leaves everything to Thompson and Hemsworth, it begs the question why bother having him there? Or better yet, why was Frank the Pug in this movie; didn’t they retire his character after the actual dog died?

The action scenes are fine, but I never got invested because of the biggest problem I have with this movie, which has also been a recurring problem that I’m starting to notice more: the pacing is way too fast. Every year, it feels like most movies believe the audiences' attention spans are getting shorter and shorter, so they’re trying to get all this information out to you, in the hopes that it’ll get you on board and ask questions later. Heck, the movie doesn’t even know how to start itself; it opens with a flashback to H and High-T (Liam Neeson) where, like I said, they pretty much gave away who the villain is, only to end and cut to 1996 where we see Molly as a kid, and then to her looking for work at MIB without saying it out loud. Also, for a film that’s supposed to be about an underground organization that’s supposed to remain in secret, they have a lot more out of the open incidents that they CLEARLY did not think about; they had a chase scene through an entire middle eastern village, and it’s so obvious that not all of them were neuralysed.

Ever since Disney bought Fox, now having reigns over 60% of the competition put out in theaters, Sony has felt intimidated and afraid they’re going to get swept up and bought out, so their solution is to try and make their own cinematic universe franchise. However, the only one that had a chance of putting some challenge against Disney was Warner Bros with the DCEU, but look how THAT turned out; since then, they’ve decided to do one-shot projects, at least until they can get someone who knows what the hell they want to do with these characters properly.

MIB International is yet another one of 2019’s biggest lacklusters; another studio mandated assignment, to keep the rights to a franchise nobody cares about anymore, and make a buck off a film nobody asked for. While it feels a little more polished and complete than Dark Phoenix, that’s like comparing lemon custard doughnuts to plain glazed doughnuts; just because one has more to it than the other, doesn’t make it good for you. As much as I love Tessa Thompson and Chris Hemsworth, you’re better off just rewatching Thor Ragnarok again. At least this film kept Danny Eflman's theme score...

Rating: D

Dark Phoenix - Worst X-Men Movie?

Dark Phoenix is written and directed by Simon Kinberg (in his directorial debut), and the twelfth film in the X-Men Fox Saga. It’s now 1992, and on their first space rescue mission, Jean Grey absorbs a solar flare that causes her powers to skyrocket, becoming known as “the Phoenix”. However, as she’s becoming unstable with this power and losing her trust in the X-Men, all while now becoming a target by the world and especially the alien race, the D’Bari, led by Vuk.

The Dark Phoenix Saga is regarded by many fans as debatably the best and one of the most important storylines in the X-Men comics, but so far the only adaptation that’s been the most faithful has been from X-Men: The Animated Series. I’m not just saying this because they able to take their time with telling this story arc in their series and flesh out the character development, but every other attempt to adapt this storyline (both movies AND tv) ended up being swept under its feet. For example, every later X-Men cartoon that was going to do it, ended up getting cancelled after the show ends on a cliffhanger. This also isn’t the first time that Fox has attempted to adapt The Dark Phoenix Saga as it became a major plotline in X-Men: The Last Stand; however, after multiple crew members left (including director Bryan Singer and the writing staff), Fox brought on Brett Ratner, Zak Penn, and Simon Kinberg, to adapt the storyline built for Jean and muddle it into this plot about a cure for mutants and killing off characters out of nowhere; along with behind-the-scenes controversy that occurred with Brett Ratner’s behavior on set, it not only damaged the reputation of the films, but the X-Men franchise in general. I was ten when I saw that film in theatres, and while I liked it at the time, I could still at least tell something was off about it.

After Bryan Singer came back with X-Men: Days of Future Past, fixing a lot of problems people had, it was short lived after X-Men: Apocalypse, due to the studio wanting to do redo Dark Phoenix instead of doing Mister Sinister (who had been built up since X-Men: First Class and was going to be introduced in The New Mutants played by Jon Hamm. Instead, writer Simon Kinberg was given the task as director, at the request of main cast members. Yeah, because the guy who co-wrote Fant4stic and Mr. & Mrs. Smith is CLEARLY the right person to give a second chance to on such a massive story arc.

Through months of reshoots, including a rewrite of the whole third act, and several last minute delays, the film has finally made its release to the public...and it was one of the most depressing film experiences I’ve ever had. This is such a soulless movie, and by that, I mean there isn’t a drop of enthusiasm or interest to be had with what’s going on. Hell, even the credits don’t even make an attempt to hype you up or anticipate some dread into you.

Once again, the biggest problem is that this film doesn’t properly represent the themes of the original story. The struggle of Jean tapping into this hidden power and keeping it under control is slightly represented, but then she’ll suddenly act like she’s mastered this new found power she has, completely out of nowhere. It also retcons the whole climax of X-Men: Apocalypse, when she ALREADY has the Phoenix Force power, but suddenly it’s a completely separate entity that Jean absorbs apparently. I also found out this film’s original third act was redone, because it was too similar to Captain Marvel’s, and while the train fight sequence does look cool, you can tell this belonged to a completely different movie; it was like a sudden jump in quality from average filmmaking to above average.

Most of the dialogue is downright awful, and feels like it was written to kind of trigger people, like Mystique yelling at Charles that it should be “X-Women” after Jean did all the saving; or how most of these characters talking about what this all means for mutant kind, and it just comes off as laughable. Even with the level of talent in the cast, they don’t look the least bit happy to be there. James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, Jennifer Lawrence, Nicholas Hoult; after having to play these characters and have them relearn and say the morals they’ve been preaching since 2011 when they did First Class, I don’t blame them for not wanting to be there anymore, but it doesn’t make me interested to watch them either. Even later members from like Tye Sheridan, Evan Peters, and Alexandra Shipp didn’t seem that hopeful about it. Jessica Chastain as the villain, Vuk, you could have cut her out of the movie and it wouldn’t have made a difference. Apparently, Chastain’s character was supposed to be like Ben Mendlesohn’s Skrull character, but due to the reshoots or because Fox didn’t do their research, she now comes off like Sofia Boutella’s character in The Mummy.

This brings me to Sophie Turner in the titular role, and the reason I bring her up last is because she leaves the least impactful impression on me. The script has her go through the same repetitive mood swings: Jean goes for help, she’s turned away, someone shows up looking for her, she loses her cool, runs away crying. After the third time, it becomes apparent they didn’t know how to actually write this character or this arc at all, even if this WAS two films. With this being the second time Kinberg has attempted to adapt this story, it’s even more frustrating because he clearly doesn’t know how to adapt this storyline properly. Originally, they were supposed to be building up to Mister Sinister, who was actually going to be revealed in The New Mutants played by Jon Hamm; but due to them delaying it to plan a series, as well as Simon Kinberg taking over the next main X-Men and try to build another multi-part story that has to be sanded down to one film due to changes in management, Fox just ended up shooting themselves in the foot for like the fourth or fifth time.

For a series that managed to stay relevant for twenty years, despite its flubs, the X-Men Film Saga has had both the best and worst examples of comic book movies, and this one falls under the latter. Much like Justice League and Spiderman 3, this was a finale that had too much crammed in and bit off more than it could chew; whether this came before or after Avengers Endgame, this film was already the final nail in the coffin for not just the X-Men Film Saga, but 20th Century Fox as a company all together. To end this off, allow me to quote T.S. Eliot: “The world ends/Not with a bang, but a whimper.” And that “whimper” is Dark Phoenix.

Rating: F

The LEGO Movie 2: The Second Part

The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part is the newest installment of the Lego animated movie franchise, taking place directly where the first film ended. After freeing themselves from Lord Business and his Taco Tuesday plan, Emmett (Chris Pratt) and the Master Builders find themselves in an apocalyptic war with Queen Waterva Wa-Nabi (Tiffany Haddish); five years later, after the Queen kidnaps his friends, Emmett must journey to the Systar System to save them, with the help of a somewhat familiar macho man of the stars.

When I first heard about The Lego Movie, my first instinct was to dismiss it as another cash-grab from Warner Bros, but it was the fact that it had Phil Lord and Chris Miller (Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, Clone High) that made me keep some optimism, and it managed to become one of my favorite movies of that year. It was clever, had solid delivery, excellent animation techniques, and emotional themes about what it felt like growing up with legos as a kid vs an adult.

Since that film’s release, I’ve tried to be more open about movies that have either ludicrous plots or poor marketing, but it’s also led to the open gates for films like The Angry Birds Movie and The Emoji Movie; this includes the other Lego movies, which don’t seem to recapture what made that film work to begin with. With its sequel, this time directed by Mike Mitchell (Trolls, Shrek Forever After), it didn’t sound like there was going to be anyway they’d catch lightning in a bottle twice; luckily, with Lord and Miller still attached as writers and producers, it left a good sign that the movie was still going to have a good measure of quality in the writing. This movie heavily focuses on the themes of sibling rivalry and growing up, not only represented through the live action segments, but through Emmett’s story after the events of the first movie. He hasn’t necessarily matured from his experiences, and despite learning to be more open minded, he still has this carefree attitude that even characters like Lucy are getting sick of. Sometimes, everyone goes through that phase of what they perceive as being mature, and to address the tonal shift of life was fascinating.

Much like the previous films, The Lego Movie 2 has solid animation; similar to what The Peanuts Movie and Spiderman: Into the Spider-verse would do later on, The Lego Movie applied this intention cut of framerate, to give the CG animation more of a stop-motion feel, like we were actually watching someone play with Legos. In this installment, the animation does carry a little more detail, and some of the jokes manage to be a lot more snappier than the previous Lego movies. Moreso like the first movie, you also have these themes about growing up, as seen through the eyes of kids playing with Legos, and here it talks the theme of sibling rivalry.

A major element that’s hardly advertised is that the movie is a musical, but none of the songs were captivating in the way that “Everything is Awesome” was; they also felt forced, as if they were trying to force more music onto you, as opposed to letting it just settle in. It might have to do with Mike Mitchell being more of a crowd pleaser than Lord & Miller, who are more ambitious and take risks (hence, why they were fired from Solo). This might also come off as nitpicky, but after the first film’s release, this one loses some of its surprise and charm in places, such as them bringing back running jokes with supporting characters. That’s another thing: Unikitty, Benny the Astronaut, MetalBeard, and even Batman (who is essential to the plot), don’t have much else to do in this film. I get this is supposed to be more of Emmett’s story, but they could have easily cut most of their roles from the film; it’s a shame, because these are likable characters, played by likable actors, yet they felt unnecessary.

The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part doesn’t have much surprise to work with, but there is still a lot to get out of it, if you enjoyed the first movie. There is still some of the clever meta-humor, the animation is still spot on, and it goes further into the themes of growing up and sibling rivalries. This movie had me leaving the theatre with a smile, so if you’re able to, I’d say go out and catch this one with the kids, if they’ve already seen How to Train Your Dragon 3.

Rating: B+

How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World

How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World is the third and final installment of the trilogy, and focuses on Hiccup and Toothless gather more dragons to bring home to Berk under sanctuary. However, when they cross paths with Grimmel, the Night Fury hunter, Hiccup must now live up to his father’s legacy as a chief, searching for the Dragon’s home so his people and dragons can live in peace, all while Toothless becomes smitten by a Light Fury.

It’s hard to believe it’s been almost a decade since the first How to Train Your Dragon came to theaters, as it ended up being the starting point for when Dreamworks Animation was taking a dramatic turn for the better. While nothing new storywise, it was Chris Sanders and Dean DeBois’s execution that made it somehow more impactful that it should have been, because they made these characters so enticing and the animation at the time was top-notch for the studio.

Four years later, we got the sequel; while Sanders was unable to return, as he was working on The Croods prior, DeBois as sole writer/director managed to bring nearly everything that worked about the first film to the next level, but also improves certain elements that didn’t seem to work as well, particularly with Hiccup’s parents. The animation looked a lot more polished, with the details in the dragon scales and armor on the vikings looks a lot clearer than the previous film.

When Universal acquired DreamWorks Animation, there was some anguish about how they were going to handle their films; considering Universal also owns Illumination, which most of their films consist of either Despicable Me or films that are trying to be that franchise, it does leave the sense of quality control up to question. And with their first film under the banner being How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World, that sense of worry was present; thankfully, the film managed to put my worries to rest, and delivered what I predicted would be the strongest third installment that DreamWorks has put out yet.

Once again, the animation is incredible; this series truly benefits with time, as much like with the Toy Story trilogy, you can definitely feel progress of improvement with each installment (ironic, since the first film came out the same year as Toy Story 3). Along with perfecting the use of 3D in this trilogy, the visuals and depth are absolutely astonishing; the flying scenes, especially through the titular Hidden World, the action scenes with dragons crawling on the walls, and even the shot of Hiccup in his dragon armor walking through fire, tells that Dean DeBois truly wanted this to be a striking looking finale.

Hiccup and Toothless are still very likable, and it’s nice to see another sense of growth come to these two. This series has carried the theme of growing up and taking responsibility as a leader, something that’s been handled surprisingly well. Hiccup’s biggest challenge has always been whether or not he can be the strong and dependable leader his dad was, as well as maintain the order and traditions of Berk; even his relationship with Astrid, there’s a sense of growth between the two that felt natural and mature, resulting in one of the better developed relationships of any animated couple. Mirroring that is Toothless and the Light Fury, who also have the endangered species dilemma brought about them.

Where the film does falter is in repeating some elements from the previous film, such as with the villain who hunts/captures dragons; his design is striking and F. Murray Abraham’s vocal performance is enjoyable, but he does feel like another Drago from the second film. There’s also the fear I had with Universal overseeing the movie, in which they shove unnecessary comedy for the kids; there’s one scene in which they do the “annoying prisoner” trope, and while the jokes aren’t bad, they do overstay their welcome a little bit.

For a final chapter of a trilogy, How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World delivered a very welcoming and satisfying end, that I was surprised to have been growing up along with; the first film came out the year I graduated middle school, the second one was the year I graduated high school, and 2019 is the year I’m graduating from college. While I may not think it’s as good as the previous film due to the comedy and a couple repeated trends, the amount of effort put into everything else is executed to its best. There haven’t been talks about a fourth film being in the works, and that’s probably for the best; considering Disney is putting out Toy Story 4 this summer, it might be best for DreamWorks to either just leave their franchise as is, or wait it out to see if this is worth it. Besides, I’d prefer what we got, as opposed to Universal milking the franchise for a year. It truly was the strongest third film in a franchise DreamWorks has put out.

Rating: A-