The Lion King (2019)

It's been 25 years since we first saw the spectacle that is The Lion King. Now, Disney is looking to its past to revive new live-action movies. This year, they've outdone themselves with live-action remakes of classic animated movies. Their latest is a remake of 1994's The Lion King. The original animated feature was one of the crowning achievements of Disney's mid-90s animated glory years. This incarnation is mostly a shot-for-shot, word-for-word remake of the original. If you haven't seen the original, stop reading now as there might be spoilers within. Jon Favreau did his best to recapture that magic with a more live-action look. I feel they came up short in recreating that magic. There were several times where Scar in particular looked like a poorly timed animatronic. The "Can't Wait to be King" musical number in the original was one of the most memorable sequences due to its engaging animation and fun song. This version completely pales in comparison. John Oliver flattens out the sequence and every time he had a line, it took me out of the movie. The visuals in the original naturally couldn't be recreated in this new version, but I feel it could have been more involved. Now, onto the "Be Prepared" sequence. I feel the movie would have been better served without this "number" as it was about 1/4 of the original in length and Chiwetel Ejiofor's portrayal of Scar just didn't deliver the same fierceness and scariness that Jeremy Irons brought to it in the original. However, the animation of the hyenas was very well done! Their mouth movements seemed quite natural and looked like they could have been saying those words. Shenzi (Whoopi Goldberg's character from the original) got a bigger part which I'm not mad about, but the comedy of the secondary hyenas felt quite forced and I didn't feel was as funny in the final product as it was in vocal sessions or on the script. I enjoyed the majority of young JD McCrary's portrayal of young Simba, but in the emotional moment of Mufasa's death it didn't have the same weight as JTT's original did. I don't think it was entirely his fault as there is only so much emotion they could give the CGI characters without it looking too cartoony and animated. Timon and Pumbaa were enjoyable for the most part. Billy Eichner sometimes gave Timon an affected lisp which caused quite a detracting distraction for me. Seth Rogan was quite enjoyable as Pumbaa! The first introduction to Donald Glover's Simba was the tail end of Hakuna Matata and I thought it was perfect and better than the original! However, Beyoncé's unnecessary runs during "Can You Feel the Love Tonight" and her brand new song "Spirit," to me, ruined the sequences. It seemed that they just added that song so she could show how many runs she could do in a given time. The overall look of the movie is beautiful, but there were limitations with the chosen form of the movie that couldn't reach what came before. I believe this feature is acceptable for kids 6+ due to the sometimes too real peril and some crude humor. Enjoy, and see you at the movies!

Overall, I'd give this movie
                                      out of

Godzilla (2014)

I'm going to start this off by saying the only Godzilla movie I ever watched was the '98 film with Matthew Broderick, which I didn't think was bad, but apparently I'm in the minority. Now, fast forward 16 years and it's time for a Godzilla comeback. The movie itself was a typical "monster movie." Monster comes in, wrecks the city, fights army and/or other monster, then leaves. The cast isn't remarkable. No big names that have been "big" and "buzz-worthy" for more than 5 years. Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Elizabeth Olsen are convincing in their roles. The visuals are pretty nice looking. There's not much in the way of objectionable material other than violence and a few scenes that could be scary for small children.

Overall, I'd give this movie
                                  out of

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2014)

Ninja Turtles is a fun revamped blast from the past. With all of the internet rumors over the past 2+ years that producer Michael Bay was going to ruin the Turtles by making them aliens from a distant planet of other anthropomorphic animals, the future box office success of this reboot looked bleak.  However, after seeing this movie, I can say that all of the doom-and-gloomers weren't giving director Jonathan Liebesman the credit he deserves for helming this fun summer movie. There's not a stellar soundtrack as some other recent movies (last month's Guardians), but the background music adds to the environment of the movie. Megan Fox actually seems to be doing more than just being there for sex appeal. I was against her casting as soon as I heard it and thought the movie would be dreadful with her as April, but I thought she made for a very convincing soon-to-be investigative reporter.  The voice actors wouldn't have been my choice. They're not horrible, but with all of the previous incarnations of the Turtles that I've been through and seen, I was let down. The voices lent themselves to Turtles individual personalities, but were mostly bland. There were some parts of the origin story that I didn't think made sense. I'd go into more detail, but I don't want to spoil it for those looking forward to seeing it. 

Overall, I'd give this movie
                                  out of