Lightning Review: Nightcrawler

Synopsis
Louis Bloom (Jake Gyllenhaal) gets himself into the world of street crime journalism. He considers himself a hard-working businessman and will do anything to get the story, and a paycheck.

Review
Before I saw Nightcrawler, I had only seen the trailer a short time beforehand. At first I had just wrote it off but I was persuaded into going to see it (it didn’t take much convincing to get me to the theater). Most of the reviews have been very positive. I don’t want to be “that guy,” but I didn’t particularly care for this movie. I’ll get the good out of the way first. Mad props to Jake Gyllenhaal because his performance was phenomenal. He completely got into the mindset of the deranged Lou Bloom. His delivery, his mannerisms, everything he did on screen was electric. I also liked how the cast was very small, allowing it to become intimate (if that is a good way to describe this kind of film). It spends adequate amount of time with each of the characters, both Gyllenhaal and the supporting cast, and never felt packed. This was a story about Lou Bloom and everything and everyone present was to further his story.

Now for a thriller, I didn’t find myself thinking “What’s going to happen next?” I was drawn to Gyllenhaal’s character, and was interested to see what his next move would be, but I didn’t find myself much interested in anyone else. Like I said, every character was used to advance Lou Bloom’s story. I felt no sense of urgency or that edge-of-my-seat feeling throughout the majority of the film. For his directorial debut, Dan Gilroy wrote a fantastic character piece, but unfortunately I couldn’t get into it. I will give Nightcrawler this: it really makes you think about today’s media and how they portray events.

Rating
3.5/5

Trailer

Cast & Crew
Dan Gilroy – Director/Writer
James Newton Howard – Composer

Jake Gyllenhaal – Louis Bloom
Rene Russo – Nina Romina
Riz Ahmed – Rick
Bill Paxton – Joe Loder
Ann Cusack – Linda
Kevin Rahm – Frank Kruse
Eric Lange – Cameraman

Thor: The Dark World Review

Synopsis
In the aftermath of Loki’s (Tom Hiddleston) treachery, Thor (Chris Hemsworth) returns to Asgard after bringing peace across the Nine Realms. However, Malakith (Christopher Eccleston) and the Dark Elves return after a 5,000 year slumber. They plan to use The Aether, a force older than the Universe itself, to destroy the cosmos and return everything to darkness. Thor must face an enemy that even his father Odin (Anthony Hopkins) can’t withstand, in order to save everything, and everyone, he loves.

Review

Marvel Studios told some great stories in their Phase One slate of movies, culminating in the grand and marvelous The Avengers. But they are really hitting their stride in their Phase Two movies. Thor: The Dark World took cues from The Avengers and is funny yet serious, without becoming comical (in the bad way).

Probably what I like best about Thor 2 is that it develops so many of the characters, particularly Loki. Despite finding out his true heritage as a Frost Giant in Thor, and attacking Earth in The Avengers, we learn there are still people he cares about. Loki has become one of (if not the) best villains in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. He is a multifaceted character that is hard to trust but easy to love.

Anything that comes out of Kat Dennings mouth in this movie is comedy gold. I don’t think she said anything that I didn’t at least chuckle at, let alone laugh out loud. Stellan Skarsgård plays a crazy Erik Selvig perfectly. I think I missed the explanation of why he went coo-coo (It was from his manipulation at the hands of Loki in The Avengers, fyi), but it was an interesting turn for the character that Skarsgård pulled off. Easily, though, the best performance of the film belongs to Tom Hiddleston. It is hard to image anyone else in the role nowadays. Hiddleston has come to embody the character so well.

The action this time is bigger than it was in Thor. The scale of it is somewhere between Thor and The Avengers. Instead of just Asgard, now all of the Nine Realms are in trouble, culminating in a showdown between Thor and Malakith in London. The final showdown looks fantastic. The special effects are well done, especially considering the fight bounces between Earth and the different Realms.

Like all Marvel Studio movies, this film as a scene to set up a future film. So don’t forget to watch all the way to the end of the credits, because there is both a mid-credits and post-credits scene (Now Marvel is just getting obnoxious). The mid-credits scene can be compared to the post-credits scene in Iron Man. In Iron Man, it showed the course the movies would take in Phase One. Here, it shows the story arch the movies could take potentially up to Avengers 3.

Thor: The Dark World continues to build off previous Marvel films, while also standing alone. Tom Hiddleston has completely become the character of Loki, who gets some great character development. Great comedic timing by several actors and bigger action, really giving gravity to the threat, keeps Marvel’s Phase Two moving along strong.

Rating
4/5

Also check out my reviews for the other films in Marvel’s Phase 2: Iron Man 3, Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Guardians of the Galaxy, The Avengers: Age of Ultron, and Ant-Man.