{"id":2172,"date":"2024-03-27T03:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-03-27T03:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.gatecitygaming.com\/?p=2172"},"modified":"2024-03-26T23:32:50","modified_gmt":"2024-03-26T23:32:50","slug":"movies-with-the-doomsayer-february-2024","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.gatecitygaming.com\/index.php\/2024\/03\/27\/movies-with-the-doomsayer-february-2024\/","title":{"rendered":"Movies with the Doomsayer – February 2024"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The Zone of Interest<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am probably tempting fate by starting the February movie round-up with this film.\u00a0 I have this uneasy feeling that the creatures lurking in the internet’s dark corners will crawl out to condemn this movie.\u00a0 Why you ask?\u00a0 Well, The Zone of Interest<\/em> showcases the life of Rudolf H\u00f6ss as the commandant of the Auschwitz concentration camp in 1943 Germany.\u00a0 Ya, I am talking about those<\/em> dark corners.\u00a0 The film never shows the horrors going on within the camp, but instead focuses on the family home just outside the camp.\u00a0 The family will often throw parties as the smoke from the trains that stop at Auschwitz peeks over the fence.\u00a0 The audio design is stunning as ordinary conversations will occur with the sounds of soldiers and dogs barking off in the distance.\u00a0 It becomes chilling to watch the family become numb to what\u2019s going on mere feet from their homes.\u00a0 Rudolf\u2019s wife even reveling in her title as \u201cQueen of Auschwitz.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My big complaint is the movie is just too long.\u00a0 About thirty minutes in, I understood the message the movie was trying to deliver, but the film still had a long way to go.\u00a0 The movie clocks in about an hour and forty-five minutes and never changes its tune.\u00a0 Don\u2019t get me wrong, with certain world events going on at the moment, I truly believe everyone should see this film.\u00a0 However, if I was in the editing booths, I would have tried to shave this film down to a 90-minute length.\u00a0 Nonetheless, I do think people should watch this film in the hopes of preventing more people from becoming Queens of Auschwitz.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Lisa Frankenstein<\/em> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I often glance at Rotten Tomatoes to get a rough sense of how a movie is doing.\u00a0 In terms of personal reception, I feel I sit somewhere in the middle loving both the low-budget arthouse film and the big popcorn blockbuster, assuming both are well-written and well-acted. So, it confused me to see Lisa Frankenstein<\/em> doing just ok with critics and audiences.\u00a0 Lisa Frankenstein<\/em> is a horror comedy about the titular goth girl Lisa, building her own boyfriend.\u00a0 When a corpse from the neighboring cemetery gets struck by lightning and comes to life, she takes on the responsibility of finding him new body parts.\u00a0 A fusion of the famous Mary Shelly novel with an 80s rom-com, I was grinning ear to ear the whole movie.\u00a0 Lisa Frankestein<\/em> was even able to pull off one of the funniest dick jokes, I have seen in a while.\u00a0 It will not surprise me if this movie becomes a cult classic in a few years.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Batman: Mask of the Phantasm (1993)<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Batman: Mask of the Phantasm<\/em> is pretty much an hour-long episode of the Batman: The Animated Series<\/em>.\u00a0 Specifically, an episode where Bruce is torn between being Batman and hanging up the cape to start a family with a new fling.\u00a0 However, don\u2019t take my dismissive attitude as a mark of poor quality.\u00a0 I love the Batman: The Animated Series<\/em> and this movie lives up to the quality the series is known for.\u00a0 I just don\u2019t think there are any additional comments I could make to Batman: Mask of the Phantasm.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, I will use my time to argue that Kevin Conroy is the best actor to have played Batman.\u00a0 Most people scoff at this comment, claiming he never played a live-action version of the character so it doesn\u2019t count.\u00a0 First off, I have always felt this comment was rudely dismissive of the work voice actors put in.\u00a0 Just think about the amount of work that goes into conveying emotions with just your voice.\u00a0 Voice acting is an impressive skill that should put them on the same pedigree as regular actors.\u00a0 It is frankly an injustice that it doesn\u2019t.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Secondly, Conroy has been the voice of Batman for movies, TV shows, and video games.\u00a0 He has helped solidify Batman as the agent of vengeance we know him as.\u00a0 I can guarantee, that when most people read a Batman comic, they don\u2019t hear Bale, Affleck, or Keaton.\u00a0 They hear Conroy.\u00a0 It is truly disappointing that we lost this legend.\u00a0 Rest in peace, Dark Knight.\u00a0 You are forever missed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And yes, this means Mark Hamill is the best Joker.<\/p>\n\n\n

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A Ghost Story (2017)<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

An intriguing horror love story that I am sitting squarely on the fence about.\u00a0 After dying in a tragic car accident, C returns home as a ghost represented by a sheet with two eye holes.\u00a0 He seems tethered to his former home, continuing to stay even when his wife, M, moves out.\u00a0 Throughout his days, he works tirelessly to get a note that M left in the walls, hoping it’s a sign that she still misses him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite the goofy nature of the movie, there were some heartfelt moments throughout.\u00a0 A neighboring ghost had been in the house next door for so long that they forgot who they were waiting on.\u00a0 It made me feel guilty for moving on with my life and moving away from perished family members.\u00a0 However, there is an awkward time loop mechanic that I don\u2019t think works for what the movie is trying to do.\u00a0 We also never find out what was on the note which feels like a cop-out.\u00a0 Despite these nitpicks, I feel like the movie’s heart is in the right place and that\u2019s probably what counts here.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Madame Web<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On a dark and eerie night, the Sony executives stood atop the roof of the corporate office.\u00a0 Rain pelted their coats as lightning danced across the skies.\u00a0 They had gathered four different scripts for various Spider-Man projects and furiously sowed them together.\u00a0 They only needed power to bring their new monstrous creation to life.\u00a0 The lightning soon struck the lighting rods towering overhead; the electricity coursed through the wires connecting the rods to a giant metal box filled with buttons and nobs.\u00a0 With a flick of the switch, the machine hooked up to the monster began to hum.\u00a0 Lightning began arcing its way closer to the machine.\u00a0 Soon, a giant bolt raced toward the machine, giving it more power.\u00a0 The surge of electricity dashed through the executive\u2019s new creation giving it life.\u00a0 \u201cIt\u2019s alive,\u201d one of them yelled, \u201cMadame Web<\/em> is alive.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It may be a bit crude to compare Madame Web<\/em> to a parody of Frankenstein\u2019s monster.\u00a0 I know a lot is going on behind the scenes, that we the audience just don\u2019t get to see.\u00a0 However, as someone who believes in criticism as a way to grow as an artist, I can only judge Madame Web<\/em> based on what I saw on screen.\u00a0 What I saw was a movie more ripped apart and sewn back together than The Creature character from Lisa Frankenstein<\/em>.\u00a0 This feels like a movie that was pulled from seven different scripts, had too many executives trying to put their stamp on it, and had zero budget going toward special effects.\u00a0 The allegations that Madame Web uses music from the PS4 Spider-Man<\/em> game and scenes from Spider-Man 2<\/em> only pour salt over this festering wound.\u00a0 I can\u2019t offer a clear solution for Sony, but I can offer a warning: you will not find success making movies in this way.\u00a0 Something needs to change.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Scott Pilgrim vs. The World (2010)<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I was hesitant to see this film initially.\u00a0 I was reminded that Scott Pilgrim is probably one of the most unlikeable main characters in cinema history.\u00a0 However, my love of Edgar Wright as a director had me purchasing a ticket to see Scott Pilgrim vs. The World<\/em>, and I am so glad I did.\u00a0 The amount of colorful comic book energy on display is baffling.\u00a0 I know Marvel has been trying to go for a realistic aesthetic, but surely they could incorporate this style into one of their movies.\u00a0 Why Edgar Wright was never asked to direct a Deadpool<\/em> movie is criminal.\u00a0 However, Scott Pilgrim vs The World<\/em> is not purely style over substance.\u00a0 All the characters perfectly play a role in the story and are unforgettable.\u00a0 Even our irritable Scott is able to redeem himself.\u00a0 Simply put, Edgar Wright just doesn\u2019t miss.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Stopmotion<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you had a bear trap with a horror film exploring the dangers of putting too much of yourself into your art, I would get caught in the trap every time.\u00a0 Stopmotion <\/em>is a movie about a girl named Ella, who works as an assistant to her mother who is a famous stop-motion director.\u00a0 After her mother becomes ill, she is determined to finish her mother\u2019s latest project in an attempt to prove herself to her mother.\u00a0 However, she begins to struggle to complete the project until she meets a mysterious young girl.\u00a0 She starts feeding Ella dark stories to incorporate into her film, including using the flesh of dead animals for the stop-motion puppets.\u00a0 Dark and twisted in all the right ways.\u00a0 A perfect blend of chilling imagery and haunting themes.\u00a0 I have no doubt Stopmotion<\/em> will become a cult classic.<\/p>\n\n\n

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The Lighthouse (2019)<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Robert Eggers is a genius director.\u00a0 Eggers\u2019s The Lighthouse<\/em> is a haunting Lovecraftian film about two lighthouse keepers trapped on a remote island as the isolation slowly peels away their sanity.\u00a0 So much of Lovecraft-inspired media thinks all you need to be considered Lovecraftian horror is a handful of jumpscares with a Cthulhu-like monster, but this entirely misses the point.\u00a0 Almost all of the Lovecraft mythos revolve around the idea that merely being around one of these cosmic horrors would slowly drive you mad.\u00a0 It\u2019s that slow descent into insanity that The Lighthouse<\/em> gets right.\u00a0 Robert Pattinson\u2019s character, Thomas Howard, believes Willem Dafoe\u2019s character, Thomas Wake, is keeping whatever mystery forces that are contained within the light of the lighthouse to himself.\u00a0 Yet maybe it\u2019s not cosmic horror, but the stress, isolation, starvation, or alcohol that\u2019s causing Howard to hallucinate things.\u00a0 Tension begins to boil over as the two men go from drunkenly dancing about to savagely going for each other\u2019s throats.\u00a0 Dafoe is at full power as a crazed old lighthouse keeper, giving a performance that is truly one of my favorites.\u00a0 The Lighthouse<\/em> is a must-see if you truly want to get into Lovecraftian horror. \u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The movies keep rolling in February.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":2173,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2172","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-opinion","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gatecitygaming.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2172","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gatecitygaming.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gatecitygaming.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gatecitygaming.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gatecitygaming.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2172"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.gatecitygaming.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2172\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2186,"href":"https:\/\/www.gatecitygaming.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2172\/revisions\/2186"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gatecitygaming.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2173"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gatecitygaming.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2172"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gatecitygaming.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2172"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gatecitygaming.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2172"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}