The Preemptive Critic - "Inside Out"

I think I might have spotlighted this movie already on my TPC feature, but this is Trailer #2 and it's even better then the first one -



I just that I haven't been feeling that great lately. Today there was just a lot of needless fighting and contention all around me, and I just don't do well with that sort of thing (especially when it gets out of control and even invades the places you thought were free of such garbage). Even when you try to explain that there's no reason for it, people get so entrenched in their way of thinking that it's pointless even to try fixing it. You just have to walk away and let them stew in their own juice (that, frankly, sounds disgusting). It reminded me of being on my mission when I would try to help someone, but they were having none of it, yet somehow I felt like I failed miserably, even though I did everything I knew how to do. And I probably bring it on myself for thinking I have to fix it all, but I really don't because everybody else has got to make their own decisions based on what they know. But that doesn't actually make me feel better about having failed.

What does this have to do with Inside Out? Honestly? Nothing. At least, nothing that I know of. But at the same time, I've heard people say that this is probably going to be a great movie to help kids (and adults) learn about mental health and such - and I'm already feeling it with this trailer (points for the video being set to Boston's "More Than a Feeling"). It doesn't take much for a movie like this to hit me where I need it most. Especially since I keep thinking no wondering about what I'm doing and if it's actually making any kind of difference to anybody. The answer is typically "No you're not doing a damn thing, you useless lump - nothing ever changes even when you want it to, so why in the hell are you even trying anymore?" and that doesn't help my mindset. It even makes me feel like the things that I have accomplished in the past don't mean diddly-squat, even though at the time I thought I was doing awesome.

Anyway - this movie's gonna make me bawl and I can't wait to see it. Sorry for the depressing blog post, but I'm just a little frustrated right now and if it takes a trailer for a Pixar movie to help me process it - well... welcome to being me.

The Preemptive Critic - Fall 2014 Edition

Feels like a long time since I dusted off the ol' P-EC. Let's see... what have we got this year...

Inside Out



If anyone can make a fun movie out of the crazy, mixed-up emotions rattling around in someone's brain, it's Pixar. I also expect some element of a classic tear-jerker to surface in this story.

I preemptively love this movie.

Insurgent



I have absolutely no idea what is going on here. Nothing like this was in the book, even in a dream-sequence. I know they're going for drama and angst - but the image of Tris's mother being taken away in a building on the end of a crane is completely laughable (then I'd start crying because this means Ashley Judd is still working - which was my only complaint about Divergent). If this was the only thing I knew about this movie, I wouldn't even give it space on my blog.

That being said - I wasn't that impressed with the marketing for Divergent and I thought that was an excellent movie when all was said and done. So, I preemptively (but cautiously) love this movie. But their marketing still sucks.

The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies




Knowing how the book ends - Thorin, NO!

It's an end of an era. And quite a bittersweet one at that (thanks to Billy Boyd). Unless Peter Jackson finagles a way to adapt The Silmarillion to a point where it's feasible to actually make a movie of it (highly unlikely), this is the last film outing for Middle-Earth (at least, for several decades - until the inevitable young, hot-shot director wants to take a crack at a sub-par reboot). So, go out with your big guns blazing and your emotional violins cranked up to eleven.

I pre-emptively love this movie. And I need to buy stock in Kleenex, like, now.

The Peanuts

Simply for playing "Linus and Lucy" in the trailer, I pre-emptively love this movie (please don't be like The Smurfs)

Cinderella



I wasn't particularly impressed with the idea of a live-action Sleeping Beauty (to me, that was always the most boring Disney Princess movie, even when I was a kid. Simply put - the fairies do all the work in that movie and get no credit for anything!) So, I still haven't gotten around to seeing Maleficent (I hear I'm not missing much). However, live-action versions of Cinderella have been around forever. And Disney's animated Cinderella was my favorite of the Old School Disney Princesses (still is, actually).

Just going by the trailer - on first viewing, the only person I recognized here was Helena Bonham Carter (because, well, it's Helena Bonham Carter). Then I saw the cast list. Cate Blanchett, Hayley Atwell, Lily James, that guy from Game of Thrones whose character got killed (yeah, that narrows things down...) For the sheer face that I did not recognize any of these people and I should have - that means that I'm going to see a movie where the actors disappear into the characters (rather than see - oh, I don't know, Tom Hanks in a Walt Disney cosplay). Which means I pre-emptively love this movie (bonus points for that twist of the stepmother finding the glass slipper at the end. I mean, how's that going to shake out?)

Pan



I'll be completely honest - I wasn't sure what to think of the idea of a Peter Pan origin story (particularly since NBC's doing their whole Peter Pan Live! thing - kind of felt like overload). But then, I saw this post on Tumblr - and I'm more than a little on board with this. Like a lot on board with it.

(I have so much love in my heart for good-hearted Captain Hook. Particularly if he's going to be played by the likes of Colin O'Donoghue in Once Upon a Time and Garrett Hedlund in Pan. YES PLEASE!)

I pre-emptively love this movie.

Jurassic World



Chris Pratt's in this?? GIMME!!

(ahem) I pre-emptively love this movie.

*

2015 is going to be a good year for the movies. 

A Note on My Review of "Brave"

I saw Brave almost a month ago and I loved it.  But I have had the hardest time writing up a review that accurately reflects what I thought of it.  I have probably started five different reviews of it and subsequently deleted them because I got sidetracked or I was being unnecessarily unfair to someone else.  Suffice it to say that I had a lot of ~*~FEELINGS~*~ about this movie - mostly reflected in my own past experiences with life and people in general.

I AM going to write this review.  Even if it kills me, Merida's story will get space on this blog and it will be a fair assessment of the movie and my experience with it.  Just, bear with me while I get it all out, 'kay?

The Preemptive Critic - "Brave"

I'm back! And this post's offering is "Brave" from Disney and Pixar -



Question - Has Pixar done any kind of story involving magic? Disney's done a boatload throughout the years of course, but I believe this is the first Pixar movie to do a story with actual magic (correct me if I'm wrong). So, between magic being used, a female main protagonist and the setting in Scotland (WHEE! SCOTLAND!) and by virtue of it being a Pixar film, I preemptively love, love, LOVE this movie!

... as long as Merida doesn't give a heaping big monologue about "I am Woman and OMG Girl Power!" because that's just stupid. As I have said before. But I trust Pixar can tell a story without getting annoyingly preachy (unlike various reviewers I've encountered online).

But I digress - LOVE THIS MOVIE!!

(And Craig Ferguson is in it! This thing keeps getting better and better!)

PS - How in the name of all that is good and holy would Merida get all that hair stuffed up into that fancy-head-hair-hiding thing? I mean, I have much shorter curly hair and I have the hardest time keeping it in line. Just observing.