I have two very different movies to review. I will be reviewing "Frozen 2" which is the highly anticipated sequel to "Frozen" and "21 Bridges." 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 start this off with "21 Bridges." Here is the trailer:
- Chadwick Boseman is fantastic. He has so much charisma and is absolutely captivating on screen.
- There were some really well choreographed action sequences.
- The cast of this movie with the exception of Chadwick Boseman give really bland performances. It felt like most of the actors were just phoning it in for the paycheck.
- There is a "big twist" in this movie that everyone will see coming from a mile away.
- This movie relies on so many cliches of the genre that I found myself rolling my eyes a lot.
- There is some dialogue that is really cringeworthy.
- The pacing is really bad. The movie is only an hour and a half but it really feels a lot longer.
"21 Bridges" had the potential to be a really fun action movie but it ends up being more of a poorly executed generic cops and robbers type of movie. This has to be one of the most disappointingly bland movies of the year. I would say skip it.
Let us move on to "Frozen 2." Here is the trailer:
- The animation is absolutely gorgeous. This may be one of the best animated movies for visuals that I have ever seen. It is so on point that there are actually a few scenes involving nature where I briefly forgot that I was watching an animated movie.
- As was the case with the last movie, the voice acting is spectacular.
- There are some really great comedic moments which are well needed as the plot of this one is much more mature than the first one and those moments are really needed to break up some of that.
- The soundtrack is easily as good as the first one. There are some incredible vocal performances especially from Idina Menzel and Jonathan Groff.
- Like the last movie, this one has a lot of really good themes and messages for kids to take away as well.
- Finally, the story of this movie goes in a very different direction than I was expecting. It is a more mature direction that is quite thoughtful. I was worried that they would try to do something super similar to the first one but they definitely did something different and I really appreciated that.
- The first part of the movie feels a but clunky and I think that largely has to do with some less than ideal pacing between songs.
- There are a couple interesting character arcs that either feel rushed or incomplete.
"Frozen 2" has really big shoes to fill and I think for the most part it manages to pull it off. It is a funny, thoughtful, and magical adventure with these characters that we have grown to love over the years that I enjoyed very much. I would absolutely recommend this one!
Thanks for reading everyone!! As usual, feel free to leave a comment but please be advised that if you read any potential comments that spoilers may be present!