Pop Culture Guy

Pop Culture Guy reviews Split and The Lego Batman Movie.

This is my written review of both Split and The Lego Batman Movie that you can find on my blogspot. My videos are published on YouTube. This is the 24th episode of my web series wherein I review and talk about certain aspects of pop culture like movies, television, and other forms of media.

I have other videos in my series but decided to show the last one I made since it was so recent and a great place to begin with in how simple it is.

Split:

A psychological thriller directed and written by M. Night Shyamalan and starring James McAvoy as a man with over 20 different personalities due to having dissociative identity disorder for most of his life. The film is all about McAvoy's character, Kevin, kidnapping three teen girls and holding them captive for one of his personalities he calls The Beast, as the three girls try to figure out a way to escape by taking advantage of some of the personalities. Split is a very original film that starts out as a pretty normal thriller that then turns more supernatural by the end when the last personality is revealed, which could have gone too far by what the beginning was like, but the very last shot of the film makes what happened more plausible and connects with a previous Shyamalan film. It has a slow pace, at times too many closeups, and some of the dialogue can come off as weird at times if it wasn't explained better through one of the girls' flashback and McAvoy's backstory. The performances by McAvoy and the actresses who play the teen girls Anya Taylor-Joy, Betty Buckley, and Haley Lu Richardson are all perfect, believable, and frightening and the scenes involving McAvoy's psychiatrist talking about his condition help foreshadow what happens at the end without being too obvious about it. Over all: 81%

2017 top list so far:

1. Split

The Lego Batman Movie:

The first spinoff to 2014s The Lego Movie, The Lego Batman Movie is a Deadpool like take of the Batman mythos. It references and makes fun of the many things that are related to Batman since his introduction in the comics back in 1939 and points out the many crazy, weird, and silly ideas and moments from the past such as the silly 1960s villains or the fact that Robin's suit is too colorful compared to Batman's whose all about stealth and hiding. Will Arnett reprises voicing the Lego version of the Dark Knight and Zach Galifianakis voices the Joker whose entire plot is all about wanting Batman to admit Joker is his greatest enemy. The film isn't just about Batman references as there are a whole slew of references to other franchises, and the best way to describe this film is a nerd's wet dream. At one point Joker teams up with Sauron, Daleks, King Kong, the Wicked Witch of the West, Gremlins, and many other villains from other franchises. One negative thing about this film is that there are a few moments that can feel too childish for older audiences and can drag sometimes. Also a lot of the time the same conversations are often repeated throughout the film which can be annoying. But even with that, Lego Batman is a fun, amazing film that revels in the Dark Knight's best and worst moments. Over all: 98%

2017 top list so far:

1. The Lego Batman Movie
2. Split