September Movie Reviews

By Gabi Lecusay, Senior

Suicide Squad
    One of the best things about the movie Suicide Squad is definitely the variety of characters and diversity of actors. Much effort is put into making each and every hero unique and individual, yet true to their DC Comic Book designs. I applaud that effort, however, while attention is truly diverted to the characters of the story, the story itself is incredibly lacking. Even at the end of the movie, I am left unsure about the direction of the plot. Viewer’s questions are left unanswered, there are tidbits of discontinuity, and overall the plot is messy and disorganized in an attempt to cater to multiple “main characters.” As someone who is personally interested in character design, I actually enjoyed the movie because I am biased in my perspective to appreciate the many diversions from the main plot line to accommodate explaining the backstory of each hero; however, if you are someone looking for a movie that centers on diversity, you may want to catch this movie, but if you NEED a well thought-out plot, Suicide Squad would not be in your favor to watch.
 
Kubo and the Two Strings
   This family friendly presentation is definitely a wonderful movie to present to any younger cousins, siblings, or family members who are genuinely interested in taking a look at the beauty that is the Japanese culture. Kubo and the Two Strings is beautifully choreographed with a gorgeous variety of characters and settings with its stop-motion arrangement. The movie itself plays out like the same tales that Kubo tells in the beginning of the movie, with action, adventure, fantasy, and even twists and turns the viewer will never expect. As ambiguous as this movie is to regular American Family Films, I would still definitely categorize Kubo and the Two Strings to be a “Feel-Good” movie. Although I recommend bringing your younger family to watch, I also recommend, perhaps, bringing both of your parents to share in the loving message this movie expresses that is not only catered to the Japanese culture, but internationally. While I watched this movie I noticed there isn’t much I could find that I disagreed! Every decision seemed to make sense in the end, even if it doesn’t have the traditional happy ending.
 
Morgan
    Just a general warning about this movie: If you’re uncomfortable with sudden very loud and shocking blasts of noise, this movie uses a jump-scare tactic in certain tense scenes in order to startle the audience despite not being a horror movie. The movie itself, however, poses a serious modern life question about the thought of artificial life and whether it is life in the first place. The diverse variety of characters all portrays different kinds of moral ambiguity when faced with this question. The beginning of Morgan is slightly slow paced; the directors of this movie definitely want to take their time with presenting this short story on film. However, I cannot emphasize how important it is to finish this movie after you’ve begun watching it because it is definitely worth the wait to complete this story as a whole in order to really know which side of the AI debate you believe. I feel like this movie is a good example of not what we should expect with subsequent artificial intelligence itself, but it involves the viewer in the questions and answers we need to discuss as the science about how AI evolves further and further.