December Roundup: Ralph Breaks the Internet, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, Aquaman, The Old Man

Ralph Breaks the Internet: Coming off of the wonderful first film, straying away from the video game concept to the Internet felt like a difficult feat to overcome, having similarities to the atrocious ‘Emoji Movie’. Instead, it turned out to show the dangers and layers of the Internet, as well as adding tons of humour to it that completely payed off. Ralph and Vanellope’s friendship grew extremely well sending great messages of long term friendships. Although maybe not as original, emotionally stimulating or as structured as the first film, it’s funny, colourful, and just a blast. ‘Ralph Breaks the Internet’ - 75% Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse: It was fair to have apprehension going into this film, because of the over abundance of Spider-Man universe films, having one only a few months prior, ‘Venom’. But all hesitation was turned into relief within the opening scene. This is a brilliant, vibrant and hilarious animation that captures the comic book style better than any other film. It pays homage to Spider-Man’s legacy, as well as introducing new and thoroughly entertaining characters, such as Miles Morales in his first film lead. His arc was fantastic in the movie. It felt raw and fully realised. This film is everything and more: hilarious, rich, thoughtful, charming and emotional. It is just magnificent. ‘Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse’ - 91% Aquaman: A year after DC’s disaster ‘Justice League’, Jason Momoa’s sea king had a lot to live up to. In some ways it delivers, and not in others. Visually, it’s incredible. The amount of flare is unprecedented. So many things happening at once. At times, this is a hinderance, especially in the final act which was too much. Momoa as Arthur Curry is very entertaining in the leading role, as you can see he is having loads of fun. The action is also fantastic. You can really see Wan’s passion for this project seeping through this film. The structure and narrative of the film though left a lot to be desired. Narratively it is highly flawed, being boring and tedious for the majority of the picture. The villain of the film was also fairly lacklustre, though nothing like the atrocity of last years ‘Steppenwolf’. Overall, not awful, but not that good either. The DCEU is slowly on the road to recovery, but it still has a long journey ahead. ‘Aquaman’ - 51% The Old Man and the Gun: Robert Redford’s ‘supposedly’ final film is leisurely, easy-going and relaxed. Lowery, coming off of ‘A Ghost Story’, an absolutely visceral and profound film, takes a more mainstream take on this ‘mostly’ true story. Redford is great, as well as Sissy Spacek. Their chemistry in the film seeped through the screen. The bank robbery sequences were made very calm and without suspense, much like how Redford’s character likes to do it. Though these scenes are entertaining, the film as a whole fails purely with expressing a fulfilled, developed and well rounded narrative. Casey Affleck’s character felt disconnected and had little effect on the overall plot. It seems as if they are heading somewhere with his character but never go there. He didn’t connect to Redford and Spacek’s dynamic, which was a missed opportunity. Redford’s robbing team, including Danny Glover, feel totally wasted. It’s a film that doesn’t swing any big punches, and should have. Even if it missed, it would have been more interesting than what was ultimately made. It is still a fine enough heist movie with a great performance from Redford, but it feels inconsequential, meandering and messy. ‘The Old Man and the Gun’ - 66%