Revenge can be a tricky story element. As we've seen countless times in storytelling -- whether that's Shakespeare's Hamlet or The Last of Us: Part II -- the delicate balance of feeding into an audience's natural desire for bloodlust and finding humanity in anger is easily tipped. Go too far one way, you're celebrating bloodshed; go too far in the other, the audience will feel unsatisfied.
The Northman does a remarkable job of achieving this balance, though. So much of…
The Pirates trilogy has grown on me over the years. This sequel in particular, which before struck me as bloated and inconsistent, is truly an incredible piece of blockbuster spectacle.
What ties everything together is that final half-hour. The battle with the Kraken is appropriately gruesome and epic, and the CGI has aged stunningly well. Some of those shots, with the Kraken's tentacles climbing up the side of the Pearl, suckers dripping with ocean water, are jaw-dropping considering they are…
Many have written, ad nauseam, what makes this film in particular work -- both within the context of its franchise and blockbuster filmmaking in general. For me, Black Pearl holds a special kind of magic.
There's a mystical quality to the way Verbinski crafted this, shifting between slapstick comedy, horror, fantasy, and adventure with ease. The film never feels as though it is spiraling out of the filmmaker's control (as some of the later entries did). It's that delicate balance…
A modern masterpiece. The Coen Brothers create a world filled with silence and then use Hitchcock-esque suspense to tear violent holes in said world.
Well damn. That was quite a film. Fury Road manages to be entertaining with its action and profound with its storytelling. It's not a "blow you away, make you rethink life" kind of film, but it does rip your eyes from their sockets and captivate you from start to finish.
If that's not a mark of a masterpiece, I don't know what is.
