With the new Avengers movie about to come out I feel like this would be a good time to talk about the saturation in the film industry. It’s a bold statement, yes I know, but I do feel there’s a problem in Hollywood. Everything is the same yet different. The same overused plot line that never seems to fade away. Let’s take just a generic plot. The hero is introduced, his/her life is normal, something either supernatural happens that gives them powers or they’ve been retired and already had powers/skills, they get an assignment, they usually team up with someone else, they have a downfall with their partner, and before all hope is lost the partner comes back to help save the day. This plot line can be very vague but in my experience very accurate at the same time. Let’s take the last Avengers movie and add it to this stereotypical plot line. Although this Avengers movie starts with Thor and the Hulk in a downfall that’s because this is a sequel, this scene also doesn’t add much to the rest of the movie, so we’re going to skip it. The characters are introduced living “normal” lives, they band together to fight a common enemy, they fight, when all hope seems lost someone comes back to save the day (Thor), the end. Now I know this movie ended with evil winning but I will still stand by my argument that it’s because this movie is setting up the scene for this next one (Endgame) that is about to come out. To me these superhero movies are just the same thing with a different setting. Maybe I’m alone on this type of thinking but I know for a fact every Hollywood movie that I’ve seen for the past couple years have followed more or less this same style. I’m always able to figure out each twist and turn that the directors throw at you and I guess how easy it is to not be surprised when one does happen. Again, maybe I’m alone on this, but the next movie that you watch try and think about the plot and relate it to any other movie you might have watched in the past. There are some exceptions yes, but more than likely it’s the same plot with different characters and settings.

Everybody has heard of the newest Spiderman movie. How it’s so funny and quirky and how the story has been well crafted to engage the audience throughout. I think it’s cheesy, yea I’ll say it. I mean, multiple dimensions… The lead character having to race against time to try and save all the dimensions from being destroyed while working together with all of the people from the different dimensions. Yes I think it is a little corny, but I’m not here to judge the story of the film. I’d like to focus on the artwork. One second in the film took an entire week to complete, a whopping six days. with ten minutes shy of a two hour movie, it took 800 people four years to complete this film. That’s the type of dedication I like to see in making sure the look of the movie is right. The comic book aspect is so incredibly mesmerising I can’t even begin to understand how they did everything behind the scenes. The visual aspect of the film really just draws you ina and mesmerises you. How every pixel on the screen has a certain place and if even one is off then the entire film is ruined. The different techniques used in the film were quite amazing too. If they wanted to show someone was nimble and quick they would have each frame different, essentially they would run at a higher frame rate to give that quick and nimble appeal. If someone was clumsy, however, they would often stack frame onto each other giving the appeal of a jittery clumsy hero that doesn’t know what he/she is doing. really looking at the scenes in this film make the story just dissolve really, at least for me. I could care less about the script just because the art style is so beautiful I could watch it for hours without any reason other than just looking at it. I think another one of the reasons people like the film so much is that it’s different. Nothing has ever been done with this art style before so it’s something new and fun to experience and that’s what draws the crowd. The art style really just blows me away and I just can’t get my head around how I love this art style so much. Maybe it’s because there’s something different to look at, or maybe it’s just we’ve never seen a moving comic book before.

“Love, Death, Robots” (LDR) is another Netflix original that seems to push the mold that they have given themselves. LDR is an anthology of animated short stories that include various genres including science fiction, fantasy, horror and comedy. Since this is an anthology the stories are short, very short, and most people don’t necessarily like that. I know I don’t really approve of the decision simply because Netflix could have capitalized on the aspect of using each short as a movie. That would most likely be much more profitable in the long run. But that’s from an economic perspective. From a director’s perspective I think the choice is nice. The only issue is I think some of them are too short. Some stories are around 15-18 minutes, others are as short as 5. Yes, some stories do fit within that 5 minute time span, thus calling them a short, but I feel they could’ve drawn out the runtime on some just a tad.

Now the reason I think the stories were so short is because the graphics were nothing short from fantastic, breathtaking, absolutely unbelievable. Hands down the best graphics in any form of media today. No other movie, short story, even video game comes close to the level of detail that has been put into some of these short stories. Only one of the stories has live people as actors and It even took me a second to actually confirm if they indeed were real people. Even when the art style is a little playful where it’s more of a cartoon it still feels like the graphics are out of this world. Take the newest Spiderman movie Into the Spiderverse. The graphics were obviously cartoonish, but it was still unbelievable. That’s the type of graphics that are associated with LDR.

The stories themselves are crazy. Completely outlandish to the more toned down to reality stories. I think there was a good balance of eccentricity and conventionality. But the thing that I appreciate more than anything is that there’s no narration. Okay, yes, one of the films do have narration but that’s because it’s the only voice we hear the entire time. In all the other stories they don’t tell you anything beforehand. You just size up the scene and then just simply watch. Nothing fancy I know, but that’s where a good story differentiates itself. You have to let the viewer set of the scene in their own mind so it can be their story just as much as his/her’s.

All-in-all I love the decision of just having an anthology of stories to pick from when you have a minute of alone time. Maybe you’re off work and need something to help you take your mind off things. Take ten or 15 minutes just to watch one of these short stories. It’s the perfect little slot of time to take a study break too. Definitely check this little collection out, it’s worth it.

“Sorry to Bother You” follows a man who is down on his luck. Looking for a job to care for not only himself but also for his girlfriend, the main character follows up on a job offer to be a telemarketer. What he doesn’t know is that being a telemarketer in the american rapper Boots Riley’s world isn’t always what it seems.

But before we dive into the twists and turns of Riley’s world, let’s talk about the director himself. Boots Riley actually isn’t a director at all. He’s an american rapper who decided that he wanted to make a movie. For a lot of people that can be pretty impressive. For some not so much. For me I think it is a big accomplishment and the reason I say that is based of of a “rapper stereotype.” Which is essentially just someone who only likes to rap and nothing else. There are exceptions, as seen here, but for the most part all rappers talk about are fast cars, money, and women. So seeing a rapper direct a movie is pretty refreshing, though I’m sure other people could care less.

Now onto the plot. Keeping the story as spoiler free as I can, we start off with the protagonist and his struggle. He needs to find a job, he gets a job, he sucks at the job, he gets better, he becomes the best. So good in fact it starts making his social life deteriorate. To me this is a pretty lazy plot narrative but it works for some people. What I like is throughout the movie they keep hinting at this further plot line, they being the director(s).

All in all this was a very different movie, that is if you don’t mind something a little different. I’d definitely recommend this movie to anyone who is looking for something that breaks out of the typical Hollywood mold.

A new year has come and with it a new Netflix original. There’s nothing wrong with Netflix originals either, I actually quite enjoy them. Netflix originals have gained a great reputation among the years and have impressed many people around the world, along with myself. Completely ignoring the plot, “The Umbrella Academy” is a collage of great cinematography with an amazing music score. Every scene has been thought out and carefully planned with precise motions with the audience in mind, and it really shows. For example, one of the most recurring themes is the title. Before every episode and within the first three minutes of each the title card pops up. What’s interesting about this is that the title card isn’t a card. It isn’t text just put up on a screen, it’s something within the world. My favorite example from this is when a torn umbrella is blowing through the wind and then gets stuck on a tree branch with the title card being prominently displayed to the audience. Other examples include a lunchbox with the title card on it or someone who puts up an umbrella because it starts raining, etc. It keeps you sucked into this universe with doing this. If just a title card was put up on a screen then it would pull you out of that show so to speak. But here the title card is already within the world so it’s easy for the audience to see what they are watching, whether they know it or not. I could have talked about the incredible pans that the camera makes, and how this was a perfect camera position and how that camera position worked for this scene, but that not only would take up way too much time but it would also be basic. Every movie that has great cinematography should be known to have great camera work, I mean it’s literally what makes a movie have great cinematography. So saying how the camera pans well would be redundant. I liked the title cards so much because to my current knowledge I can’t remember the last time I saw something like this be done. In a movie, yes maybe I could’ve seen it and am just blanking but definitely not in any t.v. series that I’ve watched. “The Umbrella Academy” is a well crafted television series with many great cinematography moments that keep you interested and engaged with the story far beyond the pilot episode.

On Wednesday of last week I went to a film titled, “I am Not Your Negro.” The name implies exactly what you think it would be about. A documentary about African Americans and their hardships through racism in the 1920’s and upward. James Baldwin is the “main” narrator with his archived footage sprinkled throughout the film. Samuel L. Jackson is oddly enough the actual narrator, I only say “oddly enough” because I don’t see him as a narrator but more of an action star/comedic relief.

The film itself was quite odd in my opinion. The entire film was structured where Samuel L. Jackson was the narrator over various clips of African American hardships or success stories or speeches etc. For that reason I think that’s where they lost the audience. I’m not talking about the subject by any means, I’m talking about how each clip changed every five seconds and how the narrator just kept talking over each of them. For me that’s lazy screenwriting. No offense to the director at all. Throughout the film my interest peaked, but it also lost me at various points, and I think that’s because of the structure of the film. If the clips had any structure to them then maybe I would feel different but to me it was just a bunch of random clips strung together under narration to show how hard it was for African Americans. I know I’ve pushed this “clip” thing a little too much but I really think that this was the only mistake on the director’s part. The narration on the other hand didn’t really flow well with the scenes either. The narrator did describe the scenes when they were being put on screen but it didn’t seem like that was the focus of the narration if that makes sense at all.

Yes the film is a documentary, I understand that, but that doesn’t warrant an endless array of narration. Do I like documentaries, no not really. Not to say I don’t like learning, I just not a fan on how all of them are structured out. Maybe I’m spoiled who knows. “I am Not Your Negro” is a great film with what seems like an ever recurring topic but in the end loses its appeal due to a hard to follow narrative.

My name is Thomas Siskron, a student at Centenary College of Louisiana. I am writing this blog for thew sole purpose of my Visual Culture class, but don’t let that hinder you from viewing. Even though I am writing to get a good grade in my class I won’t let that stop me from providing the best movie reviews that I am capable of. So stay a while and enjoy!