Lego Ninjago (2017)

"Lego Ninjago" is a mostly animated movie about LEGO. It follows a 16 year old and his friends in the city of Ninjago. Lloyd is a kid who doesn't fit in because his Dad is the city's bad guy. Lloyd only has a few friends and together they protect the city from Garagamon (Lloyd's Dad). The film is about talent and the influence and importance of family. Lloyd becomes a leader through the film as his friends learn to work together.

Upside
Some good action sequences
One good joke for the adults - paraphrase  all outta bubble gum quote from "They Live"

Downside
Very Power Rangers - teenager heroes, driving mechs, identified by colours
The theme was very superficially explored
The live action scenes felt unnecessary and unrealistic

Kingsman: The Golden Circle (2017) !Spoilers!

The following synopsis contains major spoilers. Skip to the Upside/Downside to escape spoilers.


Eggsy is enjoying his life as a Kingsman while living with his girlfriend. Everything goes sideways when a drug cartel decides to take out Kingsman. The small organization hasn't had time to rebuild since the first film and now only Merlin and Eggsy are left. This leads to emergency protocols that take them to Kentucky to meet the Statesmen. The Statesmen are the American version of Kingsman, but with drink code names. The drug cartel poisons all its users, taking them hostage against the leaders of countries around the world. The United States is forced to decide how to proceed. The President wants to let all the infected illegal drug users die, including his aid. The small Kingsman force joins the Statesmen to fight the cartel. They travel the world following the girlfriend of  a henchman until they reach the antidote. They lose the antidote and have to get to the boss of the cartel. Then death, fighting, betrayal until the world is saved. Statesmen and Kingsman officially join together and Eggsy marries his girlfriend.

Upside
Slow motion moments in fights are really well done
The 'dinner with the parents' scene
The Whitehouse scenes were all very enjoyable

Downside
Some fight CGI was really obvious on the big screen
It felt like more swearing than the last one, also the gore starts right away
My favorite character dies

The Dueling Machine - Ben Bova

The Dueling Machine is a scifi story set in political tensions between three areas of settled planets. The Terran Alliance runs the space police force Star Watch. The Acquitaine Cluster and the Kerak worlds struggle for superiority. The Kerak dictator discovers a way to use the dueling machine to create political instability in the Acquitaine Cluster and make it easier to rearm the borders for war.

The machine itself is a type of virtual reality dreamscape in which two opponents duel to the death in a program created by the participants. These duels are used to end verbal disagreements before turning to physical confrontation in the real world.

Upside
Character descriptions
I found the distinction between ground cars and flying cars very interesting

Downside
The narrative changes perspectives, often without a chapter break to differentiate
The story seemed to be concluded but to clear up the political tensions another element was created to be resolved after the initial problem was resolved

Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets (2017)

Valerian and Laureline are government agents on assignment to recover stolen property. They return the property to the City of a Thousand Planets to be used in another assignment. They are given security of the Commander and work to protect him from an unknown force causing problems in the City.

Upside
The design - different planets and alien species all different and visually interesting
The opening sequence - introduces the systems of the City while amusing the audience with alien first encounter handshakes
The largest group of nonhuman beings have a very well developed society that is explained in a way that allows the audience to accept the information slowly and not miss anything important

Downside
The love story between Valerian and Laureline never seemed real. It was always a kind of joke they mentioned so when the stakes were raised and their love decided the outcome it didn't feel genuine that they would get emotional and serious. This also made the end unsatisfying.

Not sure this is a downside but I was drawn to the smaller characters more than the protagonists. They made more of an impact by the way they were introduced and were interesting whenever they were in the scene.

Cars 3 (2017)

Cars 3 follows McQueen after a crash that threatens his racing career. He works with a trainer and travels the country trying different ways of training to get up to speed for the first race of the season. He agrees to retire if he doesn't win the race.

Upside
The short before the movie LOU
Better than Cars 2- supporting characters are back to support, Sally is back
The new characters are well developed
Back to the mentor/friend relationship that worked so well in Cars

Downside
Chick Hicks is back but not voiced by Michael Keaton, unfortunately I found this distracting
Radiator Springs didn't have much to do with the story

Brave New World - Aldous Huxley

First published in 1932 "Brave New World" depicts the realities of a future utopian society. The story is set in London and follows upper-caste members of society as they deal with societal expectations. They are conditioned to be comfortably numb to life's troubles and when they feel too much they can take a pill for that. It is a dark look at what a society loses when individuality is removed "Everyone belongs to everyone else".

Upside
The debate between a Leader and an Uncivilized person about art and God near the end of the book
Most of the reactions to the unknown are grounded in reality

Downside
It starts very technical which can be hard to follow
I don't know what I was expecting but it wasn't this

Wonder Woman (2017)

Wonder Woman shows the origin story of Diana Prince who was introduced in Batman V Superman. With only a slight tie in to the present, the film takes place during WW1. This is the perfect origin film, it has story and character development but is pushed along by a strong plot.

The young actress playing Diana as a child captures your attention whenever on screen. Chris Pine is great at bringing humanity to a superhero film. Most characters are introduced through comedy, which makes even the minor characters memorable.

Upside
Beautifully shot - fight scenes are dynamic throughout
The acting
Space for plot within character exploration

Downside
I figured out a major twist before it was revealed
Watching the credits anticipating an end credit scene that never came (Marvel has trained us too well)
It is very long 2+ hours - they do use the time well though