Hopper at the Movies

So the little ones are at my mother’s for the week and the cinema bug bit me and the Mrs. We don’t get out to see many flicks together due to the outrageous expense of babysitters nowadays, so as a result she goes with her friends and I go with mine when there’s a movie out that interests either one of us. BC – before children – we’d probably see ten or twelve films a year out in the movie theaters. Now, the last one I think we saw together was 2013’s Gravity. Hmmm. There had to have been something more recent, right? Right?

Well, last night we saw not one but two flicks. The first was Dunkirk. Here’s what I thought:

Likeys:

The action was brutally realistic – terrifying in its unexpected violence – without slipping into gratuitous gore.

It was by and large historically accurate (at least per my WW2 readings a few years back).

It glorified noble ideals – sacrifice, duty, optimism, and – hope. The “stiff upper lip” portrayed by the boat captain and his sons.

I found it interesting that the word “German” was barely mentioned and no individual German solders – except blurry images at film’s end – were shown.

It was short for a Christopher Nolan film – 1 hour 47 minutes.

Mehs:

I didn’t get a sense of the immensity of the evacuation. At one point a commanding officer mentions 400,000 men on the beach. At most I think I saw a thousand or two. I think a CGI shot or two of the vastness of the defeated army would have been beneficial.

Don’t like – and never did – Nolan’s playing with timelines. I felt it added unnecessary confusion to a tale that would best be told linearly.

Grade: A-minus. I’d be okay if it won Best Picture, especially if all the other nine contenders were social justice droppings.

Then, Mrs. Hopper literally dragged me into another theater to see Wonder Woman. I have no problem viewing it a few months from now when it comes out On Demand, but she insisted I experience it on the big screen.

Likeys:

I liked Gal Gadot. Perfect for the role.

I liked the character of Wonder Woman – straightforward, idealistic, fearless, an underlying sweet naiveté, all without guile, pretense, or cynicism.

Retro cool that they took a chance setting the movie during the First World War.

Again, no gratuitous gore.

No moral conundrums the hero (or heroine) flunks (i.e., the rebooted Superman “forced” to break General Zod’s neck).

Mehs:

The revealed villain at the end. Ridiculous.

The overdone fight sequence at the end. Typical comic book movie overdriven, headache-inducing noise and effects. Also, kinda hokey.

The multicultural posse Steve recruits for the final mission.

Grade: A-minus. And I’d even see it again, ’cuz we missed the first fifteen minutes, Diana’s childhood on the island.