Linda Cardellini – Movies of the Soul

Vampire Owl: We have not been watching enough movies in the last few months.

Vampire Bat: We have surely been affected by vlogging taking over blogging too.

Vampire Owl: Yet, there have not been enough videos put in YouTube.

Vampire Bat: Well, we will never have enough of them.

Vampire Owl: There can always be enough videos and we slow down.

Vampire Bat: We do not slow down without a reason.

Vampire Owl: Old age always makes us slow down.

Vampire Bat: We have only recently slowed down with this blog.

Vampire Owl: Still, we are watching less movies.

Vampire Bat: The theatres have turned into nonsense with some dumb movies.

[Gets a blueberry cake and three cups of mango smoothie].

What is the movie about? :: As the Guardians of the Galaxy remains at Knowhere which serves as their new headquarters, things seems to go smooth without much of a crisis that used to be always there providing a sense of danger. Everything seems to come easy for them at the new place, with no need to even train for a possible coming adventure. It is then that a powerful artificial being named Adam Warlock (Will Poulter) arrives there and starts attacking them. He easily defeats Star-Lord (Chris Pratt), Drax (Dave Bautista), Groot (Vin Diesel) and Mantis (Pom Klementieff) before severely wounding Rocket (Bradley Cooper). He is finally defeated by Nebula (Karen Gillan) who returns after being run through a series of buildings. They are not able to heal Rocket with the medical packs which they have as he has kill switches implanted in him by an organization known as Orgocorp, whom the Guardians intend to target and find the override codes which can save Rocket’s life.

So, what happens with the events here as we just keep looking? :: The new version of Gamora (Zoe Saldana) who does not recognize Star-Lord also joins the group, coming from the Ravagers. They manage to infiltrate Orgocorp, but after a long fight and some injuries, they find out that they have to travel further to the area known as Counter-Earth which was built in the image of Earth, mostly focusing on New York model, having even its own Statue of Liberty on the image of High Evolutionary (Chukwudi Iwuji) who has been chasing Rocket, and is responsible for his present situation. But High Evolutionary feels that the world is not perfect yet and intends to destroy it in a period of time. He feels that finding Rocket is necessary in his quest for attaining perfection through evolution, something for which he had been striving for so long. But Star-Lord and his team are determined to save their friend, and Gamora is interested in what she can earn in the process. Can the team win their battle?

The defence of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 :: There is always that interest in seeing new worlds and exploring them being fulfilled – the world detail here remains interesting, and the same can be said about the aliens who wander around here. The Computer-Generated Imagery remains interesting around here, and adds to the total visuals that do not hold back. The emotional side often works well, especially with the bonding among friends. The backstory of another interesting character has been built with the emotional touch, and one would expect to see these characters separately in different movies from Marvel. There are some nicely created action scenes around here too, and with aliens involved, there is always something more to be seen. There are some fight scenes in some interesting environments that we will remember too, along with a comic side.

The claws of flaw :: Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 does not raise the bar at all, even though we often have the feeling that it is going to, and there were also many reviews which seemed to suggest the possibility of the same. The run-time feels a little more than needed, as the whole movie itself focuses on just one thing, not having that much to spread the wings. The emotional side does not work at all times, as there are moments when it seems to be created just for the sake of creating sympathy for a main character. There are moments which needs to be serious, but not emotional – this kind of a difference needs to be better understood by the makers from Marvel. The ending seems to be forced and repeated at times rather than bringing the innovation or the spectacle as one would have wanted. The formula really needed to have something special this time.

The performers of the soul :: The performers feel usual for us as these people have been playing these characters for quite a long time. These are not different from what all have been witnessed in the last two chapters. The one notable new addition here is Will Poulter, who plays one new character that seems to go through interesting changes, and the powers also remain interesting. Chukwudi Iwuji as the High Evolutionary makes a strong and interesting villain with the motives that never seems to end as far as evil keeps going in this world, trying to find one way or the other. Among the Guardians, it is Karen Gillan who has our attention the most, and keeps the base strong. Chris Pratt does the usual job with ease. Dave Bautista who has been keeping us interested from the WWE days remain a joy to watch on the big screen. Bradley Cooper and Vin Diesel with their voices manage to contribute nicely around here as we have been hearing them in the series. Pom Klementieff brings some fine humour. Sylvester Stallone becomes a fine addition around here too.

How it finishes :: Guardians of the Galaxy series of movies have never mean among the best quality superhero movies that we have known in the last few years. This one does not manage to be that great as the reviews say either. Marvel could not maintain that strength that they had by the end of Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame. It is still very much entertaining with the content, despite the bigger run-time than it should have had. With the tag of a fine entertainer, the movie will keep its audience interested, as they have been deprived of some good entertainment ever since Avengers decided to end and the fans had to depend on some strange series instead of the regular movies to get their entertainment. Considering the kind of movies that Marvel has been making with unnecessary deviation and dumb characters who never deserved to be superheroes, this movie is very much ahead on many different angles.

Release date: 5th May 2023
Running time: 150 minutes
Directed by: James Gunn
Starring: Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldana, Dave Bautista, Karen Gillan, Pom Klementieff, Vin Diesel, Bradley Cooper, Will Poulter, Sean Gunn, Chukwudi Iwuji, Linda Cardellini, Nathan Fillion, Sylvester Stallone

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@ Cemetery Watch
✠ The Vampire Bat.

What is the movie about? :: The legend of La Llorona or the weeping woman goes a long way back in Latin America, especially Mexico. It told the story of a woman who found her husband with another woman, and drowned her children in the nearby river to punish the husband. Later she drowned herself, but according to the local legends, she is supposed to kidnap children and drown them. Unaware of this legend, in 1973 at Los Angeles, Anna Tate-Garcia (Linda Cardellini) investigates the case of Patricia Alvarez (Patricia Velasquez) whom she suspects is abusing her two sons, Carlos (Oliver Alexander) and Tomas (Aiden Lewandowski). Despite the mother wishing to keep her sons locked in a room for their own safety, Anna takes them to a child-services shelter. There, Tomas seems to sleepwalk and Carlos follows him until they are attacked by a woman wearing a white gown.

So, what happens with the events here? :: The two children are found dead by the police, after being seemingly drowned in the river. Patricia is immediately taken into custody by the police for committing the crime, but she blames Anna for the death of her children and tells her that the same will happen to her children Chris (Roman Christou) and Samantha (Jaynee-Lynne Kinchen) too. She claims that she had things under control, and had almost saved her children from the Curse of La Llorona when Anna came in, and decided to destroy everything. Chris who wanders near the crime scene finds himself marked by La Llorona (Marisol Ramirez), with burns on his hands similar to that of Patricia’s children. The very next day, the creature also grabs Sam and leaves identical burn marks on her hands after luring her to the area near the swimming pool at their home.

And what else follows with the happenings? :: Patricia has an alibi for the time of her sons’ deaths, and tells Anna that she has shown La Llorna her children, and it will come after Chris and Samantha, and after they are taken by the evil spirit, she will have Carlos and Tomas back with her. When Anna realizes the grave danger that they are in, the spirit had already started working its evil, with Chris almost being taken to the river and Samantha almost drowning in the bath tub only to be saved by Anna. Even though a non-religious person, she is forced to seek help from Father Perez (Tony Amendola), with her being branded as a child abuser by her own colleagues Donna (Irene Keng) and Cooper (Sean Patrick Thomas). But church won’t be able to help her in such a short period of time, but there is a former priest who might be able to – Rafael Olvera (Raymond Cruz) – but this creatures is pure evil; can that be done?

The defence of The Curse of La Llorona :: The movie works at the first level because of the danger than puts in here, the fear of children dying, and the terror the parents are forced to go through as their little children are going to be taken away by some evil entity through violent actions finalizing in murder. The appearance of the evil hands and the face in the bathroom might be the scariest scene in the movie, and the final moments also have some terrifying moments. The movie does have its own random scares to add to the quota. The creature here is nicely detailed, and one can’t deny the weeping woman’s existence as a quality evil spirit in the conjuring universe. It makes sure that the curse just feels strong enough, and at times, one feels confident that there is no escape from it. The darkness is used nicely, and the sound effects are utilized well in this horror movie too.

The claws of flaw :: The Curse of La Llorona does have a curse, it is that the story is not developed much, with the main characters themselves being random people in a horror movie, as we have nothing much to go with them. The back story could have also been told in a better way. At a running time of less than one and half hours, it couldn’t really stick to the necessary, even though the length makes sure that there is no boring moment at all. Still, the wrath of the weeping woman is released a little too a late, and the final scenes of banishing of evil are also a little too short for our liking as we are used to longer periods of exorcism and similar events. If it was marketed more with the tagline of The Conjuring, the movie would be ran more at this part of the world too, as clearly many people didn’t knew that. This is also one legend and one evil spirit that requires further attention with better display on the big screen.

The performers of the soul :: The director, Michael Chaves will also be directing the next movie in the main series, The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It, and so this one should come as a sample of what is to come later this year, whenever the Corona virus decides to step back with its dose of horror. Linda Cardellini does the role of the concerned mother well enough, and the terror of losing her children in always there to be seen. Patricia Velasquez also has the same fear, and she goes through the same kind of terror, and a certain amount of mental instability is also there related to her character, and she supports the same really well throughout the flick. The two mothers make the two important adult protagonists in the movie who are there from the beginning of the flick to the very end. The two children also come up with some nice performancs, especially Jaynee-Lynne Kinchen. Raymond Cruz brings some fine moments in the last stage too.

How it finishes :: The Curse of La Llorona manages to be better than what the common reviews claimed about it. The movie manages to be another interesting member of the Conjuring universe with Annabelle and The Nun already becoming successful spin-off films, with the former being a series. This is another one of that kind of movies which are successful in horror, even though they won’t stay for long – in this case, the image of the weeping woman is there to stay. It will remain there just like the Annabelle doll. In between all the horror that Corona virus brings in real life, the weeping woman becomes another image of horror to add to the season. It will not have that much of a power as COVID-19 with its real life prospects in being terrifying like a virus pandemic of such fearful grandeur and dark fate, but we know what supernatural is of a different level.

Release date: 19th April 2019
Running time: 93 minutes
Directed by: Michael Chaves
Starring: Linda Cardellini, Patricia Velasquez, Raymond Cruz, Jaynee-Lynne Kinchen, Roman Christou, Marisol Ramirez, Irene Keng, Sean Patrick Thomas, Tony Amendola, Oliver Alexander, Aiden Lewandowski, DeLaRosa Rivera