Atomic Blonde

There is one good thing about Atomic Blonde and that is Charlize Theron.

Everything else (including the normally good James McAvoy) is just about OK enough to make the movie just about OK overall.

It's all a bit repetitive, derivative, blah blah blah ... boring in places. The story isn't clever enough to make it into an interesting thriller and the action isn't frequent or varied enough to make it into a thrilling roller-coaster.

Probably more fun after a couple of drinks.

War for the Planet of the Apes

How does a big budget movie get written this badly?

SPOILERS

Firstly, there is no war. There is hardly even a battle... just the start of one. Most of the film is spent seeing Caesar (the smartest ape and possibly smartest living being on this version of Earth) lose his mind and chase a human to avenge the killing of his wife and son. At the risk of all the other apes being killed...???

No, I don't buy it. Totally wrong for the character.

Secondly, despite The Colonel going to all the trouble of launching a special mission to kill Caesar, when Caesar stupidly gets captured by The Colonel what does he do? Does he kill him? No, he doesn't. He keeps him around so that he can cause trouble and ultimately destroy The Colonel.

Dumb.

And the rest is just filler.

I remember really liking the first part of this trilogy. The second part was OK. This final part is rubbish. Which is a complete travesty given the amount of effort that has clearly gone into making the apes lifelike. Great performances there... but you forgot the golden rule -

IF THE STORY IS GARBAGE ... THE MOVIE IS GARBAGE !!!

Jessica Jones - season 2

Having watched the first season of Jessica Jones and loving it, then watching it again and loving it even more; there was always a very high probability that season 2 would not be as good.

On first view, I think it isn't as good. But not drastically so. It is very different. There is no single clear bad guy for her to battle... although Jessica is clearly still struggling with the aftermath of Kilgrave's influence.

So the battles are more subtle here. The supporting cast also have a lot more to do in season 2. Boy do they all have problems. That's what I like about this season, there is a lot going on, and Jessica often has to just deal with stuff without any support... because the people she normally falls back on are also having a hard time with their own issues.

If we thought we had seen Jessica vulnerable in season 1, then we get more of that here in season 2. In different ways, but with equal intensity. No wonder she drinks. She is such a believable down-to-earth character.

There is a long-running back story about the lawyer Jeri Hogarth. Every time she mentioned Rand I was praying "no Iron Fist, no Iron Fist, no Iron Fist" and thankfully he does not appear :-)

In fact Jessica is pretty much on her own again. You have to suspend disbelief a bit after The Defenders that she can't ask any of the others for help?

Of course "Patsy" is always there to help and we get some interesting backstory on her too... except she isn't really much help is she? Jessica just has to cope with her hero-envying friend taking any unknown substance that comes to hand which might make her stronger, faster and more reckless... again.

Overall I really enjoyed season 2. There is probably a lot I missed, as with season1, so I will definitely watch it again in a few months time.