Best Things June 2018

My Hero Academia - UA Sports Festival Arc
Yes, I'm very late to the party here but I finally binge watched My Hero Academia and fell in love with it. Well, that's not true, I watched the first season roughly a year ago and thought it was just okay. However, on a whim I decided to check out the second season and I blew through the whole show within a matter of days. Rather than talk about the show as a whole and why it's so good (Because you already know why) I'd rather talk about the specific storyline that made me a fan, the Tournament Arc. One of the bigger issues that prevented me from loving the show was simply the quantity of characters introduced in the first season, most of which were severely underdeveloped. Now you might say "Well yeah, it's impossible to develop 20+ characters in just 13 episodes" then...don't introduce 20+ characters. The Tournament Arc format allows for individual focus on just one or two characters, giving them a chance to develop them specifically, as well as allow for creative and well animated fight scenes given the variety of powers on display. As well as earlier rounds which saw characters teaming up, playing on their dynamics. Characters such as Todoroki and Uraraka in particular saw their backstories and motives be explored, making me far more invested in them than the first season came close to achieving. Of course the highlight of the arc was the fight between Todoroki and Midoriya, it's thriving with emotion, character development, brutal fighting and some of the best animation the series has ever seen. It's an iconic moment for the series and stands out as for me, the best moment of the show so far.

Machete Kills
And now, for something completely different. I never saw the original Machete, heck, I had no intention of watching this film, it just happened cause a friend recommended it. Little did I know I was about to watch a balls to the wall, exploitation slaughterfest B-Movie that was some of the most fun I've had watching a film in a long time. Everything in this film is over the top, with a nonsensical plot, obviously bad effects, but so much damn passion, violence and cheese behind it that every other second I was laughing at the absolute tongue-in-cheek nature of the whole thing. Judging from it's critical reception the general consensus seems to be the film doesn't have the initial surprise the first one had and is mostly doing the same thing, just longer and bigger. Which is probably a fair argument, I have never seen the first one so the shock value was obviously not lost on me, though I will agree somewhere around the end of the 2nd act the film starts to lose momentum, but thankfully picks it back up for the climax. If you're a fan of films like Black Dynamite then I could definitely see this being your type of thing, it was just a ton of fun.

Set It Up
I'll be honest, so far this year has not been the best of years for movies, we're halfway through and I can think of maybe 2 films that I'd put on my top 10 of the year list. However, one that I saw that my thoughts of have only improved with time is Set It Up. A romantic comedy about two over-worked assistants trying to set-up their bosses so they can have time off and in the end of course fall for each other. In my mind, the first half of this film was excellent, the actors has superb chemistry, the dialogue was whitty and sincere, it had all the makings of being a great rom-com. Unfortunately it loses some of that charm in the second half where it tries to have its cake and eat it too, by making fun of rom-com cliches while also indulging in them at the same time. For example, it mocks the whole "Running to the airport" trope which after watching this film made me realise I have never legitimately seen that trope in film, just times when people have made fun of it. Then also it ends with a cliche speech of love, with violin music swelling as the crescendo hits with a kiss (Because that's not cliched at all). It's not too painful to watch as the jokes are still funny even when the romance is no longer endearing. But now, having several weeks to sit on it, I find myself remembering the parts I enjoyed more and more, and the parts that bothered me less and less. Most likely due to the charming performance given Zoey Deutch who is a star in the making, as well as the great dialogue written by Katie Silberman, the film overall wins me over, especially after watching another Netflix Original Rom-Com shortly after this that was not nearly as well written or engrossing that just made me respect this film in hindsight just a little more.