“Scarlet” is peppered with a few exceptional moments of inspiration, but ends up caught in an awkward push-pull between Shakespeare’s text and the fantastical spaces where Hosoda’s vision extends.
By narrowing the scope and condensing the logic of the action, this film undermines the excitement of the story, so even the day of an alien apocalypse starts to get tedious. That’s a great misfortune given the movie’s funky style.
The writer-director Jiao Zi uses equally expansive storytelling and visuals to deliver an epic, fantastical hero story about power hierarchies and the fall of institutions.
The Colors Within has such an aloof tone that the deeper motivations and stakes for each character, though alluded to, don’t feel substantial enough to provide the story with any sense of urgency.
The film’s many whimsies don’t detract from the resonant themes at the fable’s core, about the transformative qualities of grief and the indelible bond between sisters.
Though “The Dumpster Battle” is squarely aimed toward fans of the series, it has charms that may lead new viewers to the anime (streaming on Crunchyroll and Netflix) to follow the story from the beginning. Because even if crows and cats battling in a dumpster doesn’t appeal to you, there’s still the promise of watching good athletes play a good game — and that’s worth a seat in the bleachers.
This unremarkable story, along with cheap-looking visual effects and Soto’s colorless direction, is a prime example of somnambulist filmmaking that lulls the audience into a mindless stupor. At least the Reyes family is a force to be reckoned with; their chaotic ensemble scenes are the most delightful, and truly unexpected, of the movie.
A film unintentionally stuck in its own kind of adolescence, “Mutant Mayhem” has plenty of charms but tries so hard to be cool, funny and relevant — so totally online — that it forgets to kick back with a slice, some buds and just, you know, vibe.
Spider-Verse achieves the challenging task of building a sequel that not only replicates the charms of the first film but also expands the multiverse concept, the main characters and the stakes, without overinflating the premise or shamelessly capitalizing on fan service.
