I have two very different movies to review. I will be sharing my thoughts on "Toy Story 4" and "Anna." Before I get started, I'd like to give a shoutout to the Free Gamer's Alliance YouTube channel. Their videos cover everything from walkthroughs, glitches, easter eggs, and various amusing video game related content, all of which is delivered with some colorful commentary while they have buckets of fun doing it. Here is the link:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC03E6K3QHRMp7Vs0S6wHm6Q
Lets kick this off with "Anna." Here is the trailer:
- Helen Mirren gives an absolutely outstanding performance throughout this entire movie.
- The action scenes are surprisingly not that exciting (with the exception of one) which is really disappointing for a movie like this.
- The tone of the movie is incredibly inconsistent. It is like it doesn't really know what it wants to be and it is quite jarring for the audience.
- The pacing is absolutely brutal. This movie feels quite a bit longer than it actually is. This is largely due to scenes being dragged out. This especially the case with the ending as the movie never ends when you think it will.
- The main character played by Sashua Luss is really bland.
- Finally, there are a lot of attempts at twists that are super predictable and eye roll inducing.
"Anna" is a movie that had the potential to be something good but instead it manages to botch the execution in almost every single way. I can't recommend spending the time or money on this.
Finally, lets move on to "Toy Story 4." Here is the trailer:
- As is usually, the case with these movies, the animation is breathtaking
- The voice actors are all fantastic and their voices really fit the characters
- There are some really interesting developments for some of the franchise veteran characters and it is really interesting to watch.
- The comic relief definitely works in this movie. There are a surprising amount of times where it really needs to break the tension and the movie does a beautiful job of that.
- There are a bunch of new characters and they are all fantastic and fit into the movie so well.
- There are lots of great emotional moments that will really make you feel so many different things. This is something Pixar is generally really good at and this movie is no exception.
- There are lots of fan favorite characters that get sidelined hard. Given how many characters there are, I don't expect the movie to spend a ton of time with all of them but there were several that could have used more screentime.
"Toy Story 4" continues the franchise's streak of delivering high quality movies with lots of humor and heart. This movie may not have really needed to exist but I am glad it does. It is an absolute treat, if you loved the other "Toy Story" movies, you will love this.
Thanks for reading everyone!! As usual, feel free to leave a comment but please be advised that if you are going to read any potential comments that spoilers may be present.