Zootopia 2 – Movie Review

TL;DR – Zootopia 2 captures what made the first film such a joy. Full of energy, full of chaos, and full of delight. But it is also asking the important questions.  

Rating: 4 out of 5.

Post-Credit Scene – There is a mid and post-credit scene.

Disclosure – I was invited to a press screening of this film.

Zootopia.

Zootopia 2 Review Introduction –

There were several thought processes that happened when I started writing this review. The first was discovering that the original Zootopia came out nine years ago, and also that is how long I have been writing reviews for this site. It was an odd moment of reflection, but also a profound look at one of the issues of modern Hollywood, in that it takes forever in between iterations. Well, let’s dive in and see if one of the most stacked cast lists this year can make up for all the time.

So, to set the scene, things have been going well in Zootopia (or Zootropolis, depending on where you live) since the incident that brought partners Judy Hopps (Ginnifer Goodwin) and Nick Wilde (Jason Bateman) when now former deputy mayor Dawn Bellwether (Jenny Slate) tried to start a war between the herbivore and carnivore members of the mammal city. After a mission goes wrong, Hopps and Wilde are sent to therapy with Dr Fuzzby (Quinta Brunson), which is make-or-break to see if they can continue being partners in the ZPD. But while the mission might have been a bust, some clues, like some scales, show that there may be more than just mammals in the city of Zootopia and with the Zootenial Gala coming up, is someone about to strike at the heart of the city?

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Godzilla (2014) Review – Exploring the Past

TL;DR – It’s a bit rough around the edges, but it hits hard when it hits. 

Rating: 3.5 out of 5.

Post-Credit Scene – There is no post-credit scene.

Disclosure – I paid for the Stan service that viewed this film.

San Francisco in flames.

Godzilla Review –

With Monarch: Legacy of Monsters starting to air, my thoughts have been brought back to the MonsterVerse. It was a series of films that never got the easy ride that some others did but could still chart out their cinematic universe one monster battle at a time. There is one film in the series that I have never really engaged with: the film that started it all. Well, given how chiefly it fits into the happening in Monarch, I knew now was the time to fix that oversite finally.   
 
 So to set the scene, after exploring the history around nuclear weapons, we find ourselves in the Philippines in 1999. They were about to start a mine when the ground fell out from underneath, taking 40 miners with them. They didn’t find any uranium but a mammoth skeleton of a long-dead creature and an egg. Worse, it looks like there were meant to be two eggs, and one has been opened. Meanwhile, in Janjira, Japan. Joe Brody (Bryan Cranston) is concerned about seismic activity near the nuclear power plant when they have a breach as something crashes into the reactor.

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Movie Review – Darkest Hour

TL;DR – A beautifully realised look at the world of British politics on the onset of WW2, but it loses some of its impact with an unclear portrayal of its central protagonist.

Score – 3.5 out of 5 stars

Post-Credit Scene – No

Darkest Hour Banner

Review

Well, today we are looking at our third Dunkirk related film in the last year. Dunkirk (see review) looked at the retreat on the ground, sea, and air, Their Finest (see review) looked at how Britain used the retreat to mobilise the populace, and now Darkest Hour looks at the politics behind it all. Today we are exploring the rise of Winston Churchill from being an outsider of the political spectrum to a wartime ruler facing the might of Hitler and his European blitzkrieg. So in today’s review, we are going to look at the acting and how it captured that moment in time.

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