Kaos' way behind movie reviews

[Kaos]

The Flash

This movie should have been epic.  Cameos by: Wonder Woman (the one and only Gal Gadot). Ben Affleck Batman riding a Christian Bale Batcycle. General Zod again. George Reeves Superman. Adam West Batman. Nic Cage Superman. Helen Slater Supergirl. Chris Reeve Superman. Drunk Aquaman. A final act surprise.

Most of all, though, the film featured the return of Michael Keaton Batman in a role much larger than the trailers led one to believe. No cameo here.

It was a complete 1989 nostalgia infusion. The suit. The music. The Joker's laugh bag. Iconic lines repurposed. The Batmobile. The Batplane - taking it so far as a throwback silhouette against the moon. That alone should have carried this movie to massive box office. There is still a great deal of love and appreciation for that particular character.

So what went wrong?

The first and primary failure was the sicko playing Flash. His personal life, the "zir, zhe, zim, it, they" proclamations, other mental health issues, and bizarre behaviors turned people away from projects the actor was involved in and cast a pall over this film that could not be overcome.  The superhero-viewing public was really not invested in the character to begin with and invested even less so in the actor.

Even beyond the personal aversion, Ezra Miller's performance was an annoyingly, gratingly bad disappointment which was multiplied because in this multiverse-spinning tale there were typically two of him (zim, zey, zho, dese) on screen any time one was there. One was bad enough. Two?  Failure overload. I don't know who made the casting decision initially, but Miller was a bad choice from the jump. Completely wrong for the part. I think the director and Miller thought his almost-autistic, ridiculous quirkiness was endearing. Well, they were wrong.  May have ruined the character for DC film eternity (if there even is such a thing at this point).

Failure 2? CGI. Marvel's is so much better.  Early in this film there's a scene where Flash rearranges a bunch of falling objects (including a plethora of babies even more fake than the doll in American Sniper). It was reminiscent to me of a scene in X-Men where Quicksilver (Evan Peters) rearranges a kitchen to evade gun-toting security guards. Comparing the two clearly shows the superiority of Marvel - which as a DC guy makes me sad. An even bigger problem is the director (whoever it was) was so enamored of the falling-baby scene that it was briefly repurposed for the end credits.

Failure 3? A disjointed, reality-hopping storyline that wanted to think it was tying everything together but at the end, really didn't.

Failure 4? No Superman, but a poorly cast super woman, which really served no purpose.

Honestly? If they'd named this movie "Batman Rises" and made Flash a secondary character (and let anyone else, even Nicolas Cage play the Flash role)?  If they'd marketed it as the revival of the 1989 Batman?  If the trailer had focused on the return of Keaton? And finally, if they'd inflated the role of Keaton's Batman just a little bit more?  I think the movie could have been a major box office hit and perhaps given the flagging DC franchise a splash of new life. 

It wasn't as bad as Blue Beetle. It wasn't as bad as either ATROCIOUS Aquaman film. It still wasn't as good as some of the worst Marvel films. It was, I have to say, better than the dismal Black Panther probably. On the same level as Ant Man Quantum-maniac perhaps? But in a DC Universe that was already weighted down by monumental failures like Dung Beetle, Aquaman 1 and 2, Dawn of Justice, Justice League, WW 1984, Shazam 2, Birds of Prey, and Black Adam?  It was just another anchor dragging the entire franchise to the bottom of the abyss.

[Kaos]

Killing Boksoon

Korean film that mixed a healthy dose of Kill Bill and a blend of John Wick with a dash of Guy Ritchie's trademark slo-mo flash-forward fighting scenes where the protagonist considers all possible angles and outcomes to determine a plan of attack. 

Boksoon is a killer for hire. The best killer on the market with a 100% success rate.  In this film, murder has been incorporated and has a set of rules. Killers are hired for their skills and their ability to provide a "show."  Some of that was a little murky to me because I didn't understand the show aspect. 

Boksoon, a woman, works for the main murder company in South Korea. She's a single mom with a 17-year old daughter and is at the end of her contract with her murder group MK Enterprises.  Her boss, the boss of all murder companies, has a long-standing crush on her and wants her to remain. She's more inclined to let the contract expire to spend more time with her daughter, who is unaware of what she does for a living.

Her world spins into chaos when, perhaps prompted by her confused/confusing relationship with her own daughter, Boksoon decides to bail on a show for the first time in her life.  She can't make herself do what she's tasked with doing.

Once a contract is accepted, killers are honor bound to follow through. That's the rule. Failure is not an option. There are deadly consequences for breaking the rule, particularly when the sister of the head of MK Enterprises, already has her in her sights due to her bizarre fixation on her brother.

There's a lot of fighting action, most of it with knives.  When the movie slides into the scenes that feature stylized violence and the now well-worn trope of a single person fighting off a horde of attackers, it's not bad. The fact that some of the broad fight scenes incorporate some comedic aspects is welcome.

The lead actress is reasonably convincing as a killer-for-hire worn down mentally by her non-communicative, anger-fueled teenage offspring.

Where it loses direction (and interest) is when it dives into Boksoon's home life where her angst-ridden daughter is struggling with her newly discovered possible lesbian tendencies. It's a completely unnecessary storyline and one that adds absolutely nothing to the film.  I didn't feel any connection to the daughter or her plight. Those scenes could have been cut or trimmed which would have greatly helped the movie's overlong two-plus hour run time. 

I enjoy Korean fare. This not as much as some others, but it's still probably better than most of what Hollywood retches out these days.