Sharknado 2: The Second One

Spoiler, click to toggle visibilty

I don't understand how this happened. How this movie could be this good. Of course, I wondered the same with the first one, where somehow -- in its naked attempt at trying desperately to be a "so bad it's good" movie (attempts at which so often fail, and devolve into the movie smugly pointing out how ridiculous it's being) -- it succeeded; its high concept ludicrosity combined with absolutely terrible performances (in both the terrible at trying-to-be-terrible performances and the just plain terrible ones) and its complete and utter glee in being as completely absurd as possible all came together to form a movie that's so terrible/amazing at being terrible/amazing that it warps back into being genuine. Its sequel had to do all of that, with the added burden of having to follow and live up its predecessor, having to reach the same highs as the first movie without merely copying it directly, and having to deal with the consequences of the previous film being a huge phenomenon.

And shockingly, it succeeded. Mostly. The celebrity cameos eventually got tiring and the first act is even more turgid than the first film's, but overall it's an absolute delight.

Spoiler: a movie of this caliber surely deserves spoiler tags for this (click to see content)

I was pretty disappointed that Tara Reid (I don't remember anyone's name besides Fin's, and only his because it gets screamed by every other character so much, and also FIN AS IN SHARK FIN GET IT)'s suggestion that the shark that bit her hand off knew who she was and was possibly seeking revenge or something was not followed up on at all (besides that same shark appearing as a convenient corpse for Fin to pull out from its mouth the severed hand of Tara Reid -- still clutching the gun she was holding when it was bitten off -- which all just felt like an attempt to capture the same magic as the time in the first one where Fin chainsawed his way out of a shark and pulled out the somehow still alive waitress character, who had been eaten like 10 minutes ago in the movie, because the shark that ate Fin and the one that ate the waitress were one in the same, however improbably. And it didn't even come close to that moment!). Like, man, if there was also some Jaws: The Revenge shit going on here, with like the sharks trying to get revenge on Fin and friends for foiling the last sharknado or something? It would've been magical.

But oh man, that part where Fin attached an improvised set of reigns onto a shark, and rode that flying shark onto the Empire State Building's spire for a safe landing? That was fucking poetry.

For the Guardians fellas: did you watch it in 3D, and if you did is it good?

For the Guardians fellas: did you watch it in 3D, and if you did is it good?

HOWARD THE FUCKING DUCK HOLY SHIT

but no lines from Cosmo, the dog the Collector had? I guess they'll save him for the sequel. Because they better have him. I need my telepathic Soviet cosmonaut dogs >:[

RIP Peter Serafinowicz

The Collector was in it a lot less than I thought he'd be. The initial reports of the movie when it was announced made it seem like he was the main villain, but even when the marketing was focused mostly on Ronan I was still taken by surprise by small a role it was. But he should be back, surely, he still has the Aether from Thor 2, right?

things i didnt love: john c reilly was really out of place. rocket raccoon was cool but i didnt like how they dropped his history in one line as a basic red herring as its never gone into again. the major villain was fucking weak and a letdown, got blasted around bane dark knight style for most of the latter half of the movie. also that after credits scene..., dont do it marvel

The Dark Knight Returns (part 1)
Cartoon based on the comics by Frank Miller. I loved the story, but couldn't get to like Miller's drawings. The cartoon fixes this by bringing a more up-to-date graphic design.