EthanRucker

Oppenheimer meets the quality expectations for a Christopher Nolan movie. It's gorgeous, fantastically acted, and it's decently written. Where Oppenheimer stumbles first is actually before the movie was released. The movie was promoted that it was made to be seen in Imax and that is was a masterpiece just because Nolan made it, so we should trust him that he outdid himself to make a masterpiece. Other than a 20 second explosion and bits and pieces of other shots this movie doesn't get elevated by an Imax camera, unless your main reason to see it in Imax was to be able to see the individual pores of Cillian Murphy. The dialogue suffers at times and the movie doesn't slow down for the first 2 hours, so you don't have time to draw closer to the characters or feel an emotional connection when something happens. It cuts very fast throughout Dr.Oppenheimer's life which makes for an entertaining watch as you are always on your toes in a new scene, but hurts the movie in terms of character development which makes for lifeless characters for a good portion of the movie. The score in confusing at times because it will pick up and add tension to a scene that didn't need tension so you are left with a weird unsatisfied feeling. There also wasn't any motifs in the movie, which made it feel like a 3 hour freestyle speeding up and slowing down depending on what's happening, it wasn't bad by any means, but it didn't add much to what was happening on screen. The last 45 minutes of the movie is where it shined. I felt impacted, emotional, and uncomfortable which is a good thing for the topic that is being covered. It made me think hard on the situation presented in Oppenheimer as I was leaving the theater which doesn't happen very often. The positives is what you will expect with Nolan, it's an excellent made movie, BUT I can't say this is a masterpiece or Nolans best. I have been debating with myself over a rating of 9/10 or 8.5/10, but for now I'm going to go with 8.5/10

Vol.3 was a refreshing addition to the Marvel universe that ends James Gunn's trilogy with a bang. It was relieving watching a Marvel movie that had a complete script, no last minute reshoots, completed CGI and special effects. It brought me back to the good old days where Marvel offered a fun entertaining movie with great action and visuals. I even forgot I was watching a Marvel movie towards the end because this movie felt so different from the more recent Marvel films. I was a little indifferent at the beginning, but the more I watched the more interested I was and invested. Every character had time to breathe and it didn't feel rushed. The villain was amazing and Chukwudi Iwuji did a phenomenal job. What holds this movie back is there was some new characters that I couldn't stand and I cringed whenever they were on screen. This is just a knit pick of mine, but I felt that there were times where James Gunn would play a 80's track in a scene that didn't need it and it felt out of place. Also, there was some unnecessary tension between death and life (that we see a lot in Marvel movies) that didn't pay off and it was frustrating to see that. Overall I think this is a great superhero movie that is better than Vol.2 and possibly better than the first. I hope this movie is very successful so Marvel takes notice and tries to better themselves in releasing higher quality movies than the garbage that has been released from them recently.

8.5/10 I didn't know much about this movie going into it and have only seen bits from trailers that were shown on TV. To my surprise I was entertained and laughing the entire time. I never played DnD when I was younger, but I could see the imagination in the story to how a group of kids would plan their DnD quest! Even though I haven't played DnD I didn't feel lost or confused when they would talk about the world or lore, they make it very easy to follow. All the characters were over the top, exciting, and unique. Its fast paced filled with action, comedy, and drama. The CGI was amazing in most scenes, but some did feel a little uneasy to look at. The score was disappointing and forgettable, it should have been better for a movie of this scale and with a better score the overall rating and feel of this movie would improve. Overall this is a fun movie to watch with a group of friends or your family. It's an easy watch and I will definitely be watching it multiple times, as I enjoyed this movie a great deal. I hope they continue this franchise and keep the same humor and quirkiness.

Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantomania is a huge CGI mess. I will start with the positives since that will be short and sweet. Johnathon Majors. Now that we got the positives out of the way lets dive into the negatives. The writing is inconsistent, filled with plot holes, and just plain awful. The dialogue is cringe, the CGI is wonky most of the time, the characters are dry and lifeless (except Kang), and action is only below average at best. If it wasn't for Kang being a great villain and MODOK making me laugh because of how stupid he was this movie would be a 0. I don't know how someone from Disney watched this movie and said "Yep looks good to go". Marvel is somehow getting worse after they had a terrible phase 4.

Creed III starts slow and takes its time to build its story and they do it beautifully. What this movie does well is its personal conversations that the characters have, it's very well acted, directed and written. Some shots look beautiful and Creed III made an effort to make itself look and feel different from the other Creed movies and it succeeded for the most part. This installment had a stronger story than Creed II which I think was Creed II's weakest point. Even though this movie is overall better than Creed II in a lot of ways, this movie has some pacing issues. Once you know the fight is on BOOM they rush through the training monologue and we are right into the fight without much time for the characters to breathe, and that feels inconsistent to how the first two acts were. This is a good installment to the Rocky/Creed franchise and it will be interesting where they go from here *Slight Spoilers* As a Rocky fan this movie was hard to get invested in. Rocky isn't in it, they changed the themes and moved away from the original score. I understand that they are trying to become their own franchise and they did a pretty good job being their own thing. Even though this is a better overall movie than Creed II I enjoyed Creed II more just because of the nostalgia it has on me. I don't know what they will do from here, but I think Creed IV is a make or break movie for the franchise. The next movie will either be good and they will continue the story or be really bad and they won't make anymore. I just don't see what stories are left in this universe without being it cliche or bad.

Black Adam is an overstuffed movie that never finds its rhythm and feels awkward more than it feels exciting and fun. I liked the overall story when you look at it from afar, but when you dig into the details, that's where the movie misses its mark. The worst part from Black Adam is the dialogue, there's too many moments where you cringe and want to stuff your head in a pillow. It never found an identity or flow within the story, it tried to be too much in a 2 hour span. The writers could have taken a different approach with the political messaging and write about what's happening in the Middle East today, but decided to write a generic "we are oppressed by foreign invaders" story and never dove into it. I liked the major plot points that the story got to in each act, but again when looking into the details of how we got there thats where the story isn't as ironed out as it should be. The action is fun and looks great, but honestly you will enjoy this movie just as much by watching the action scenes on Youtube once it's released. Another high end DC movie and yet again they are still struggling to find their identity in the superhero genre.

If you want a movie where you turn off your brain and enjoy the over the top action and acting that will entertain you the entire time? Then you found the perfect movie. Coming into Bullet Train I wasn't expecting much, but I left the theater with a big smile on my face. It had a great flow of comedy, action, and emotion while also telling a story that grew on me the more I watched. It never got boring and it made me want more.

The Wretched never grabbed my attention and barely entertains for its 1:30 run time that feels like 2:30 hours. It has some good writing points and a few moments of fun dialogue along with a couple scares, but those moments don’t feel redeeming because of the overwhelming plot holes, inconsistent writing, bad dialogue,and bad acting.

Thor: Love and Thunder falls flat on it’s face and try’s to redeem itself when it’s already too late. Marvel phase 4 is off to a poor start and hasn’t hit a home run yet unless they pull on the nostalgia strings of Spider-Man lovers. You can see a good movie at times, but the Marvel comedy curse strikes again as it’s cringey humor **** the life out of emotional and/or serious scenes. Thor never found it’s rhythm and felt forced at times which makes it go near the bottom of the list for Marvel movies for me, which is dissapointing since Christian Bale’s Gorr could have been one of the best Marvel villains.