Sean’s movie thoughts

The Rocky theme is cheating. It is nice to hear it, so maybe the Rocky and Creed movies should be selective in using it.  Even a slow down piano version of the Rocky theme is really good to hear. Michael B. Jordan returns as Adonis Creed, the illegitimate son of the former boxing champion Apollo Creed (Carl Weathers). Adonis is now the champion but Victor Drago, the son of Ivan Drago, is a contender and wants his shot at the title. Ivan Drago killed Apollo Creed in a boxing match. This is good. It is nice to see Dolph Lundgren return as Ivan Drago. Jordan is good as Adonis Creed and his relationship with Rocky is given some time. It is always nice to see Stallone as Rocky (if you think I am forgetting a few of the lesser Rocky movies, maybe I am). Tessa Thompson returns as Bianca, now Adonis’ wife. She does not have a plot of her own but she has nice moments. The fights are brutal.

I have seen worse movies than the 2015 Fantastic Four movie. Maybe not recently but I have. The first act is not bad and some of the actors are good. However the movie does make at least one bad choice in the first act (proving that not everything needs an explanation).  Some people online reacted badly to the casting of Michael B. Jordan as Johnny Storm (the Human Torch). He is not one of the movie’s problems. Luckily he went on to better things like Creed and Black Panther. Things start to go bad in the second act. Did anyone working on the movie understand the appeal of the comic and team that inspired it? I doubt it. I am not saying you cannot have a new take on established material but this take feels wrong. Josh Trank was the director of this film. He was reportedly so unprofessional that the producer got Trank removed from a Star Wars movie. There were reports of massive reshoots. It is not worth seeing out. If you have not seen it yet, that is okay. The first two Fa...