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I was incredibly excited for Matt Reeves' take on Batman, being a fan of his work beforehand. Every trailer and photo I would see from set would make me more and more excited and finally the day came and as I sat through the nearly three hour film, I was left...disappointed. Not because the movie was bad by any means, but because it didn't feel complete. There was no big resolution, there was no tense final standoff and battle of wits. It just...happened. And before I knew it, the film had ended. There was so much potential to be touched upon and I really thought we were finally going to have a Batman movie that could explore parts of Batman that had never been explored before on the big screen. Instead, we were left with an incredibly safe Batman movie that lays down tons of groundwork and definitely sets something up with it's diversity in characters, but other than that really just did not feel like it had a purpose to exist other than to sell merch and keep people interested in the future of DC by saying that SOMETHING may come eventually. I have to hand it to them, because the casting was wonderfully done and I fully appreciated the performances that Colin Farrell and Paul Dano put in as Penguin and Riddler respectfully, and Robert Pattinson shows promise as Batman. There was a lot of things to like here and a lot of things to hate, both culminating in a film with notable spectacles and great action scenes that were too few and far between for me to praise them enough. I really wanted to like this, but there were multiple moments that made me genuinely tired and bored, and even some that irked me, mostly the handling of Catwoman's ambiguous sexuality and her whole character motivation just being downright meaningless. The Batman could have been so much more than just another safe DC film, and it honestly felt like it was marketed as such. I'm hoping that this is just growing pains for the new DC movie lineup and that by the next entry things will be settled in, but for now I worry for what comes next.

Zack Snyder's Justice League is the very thing I despise about Superhero films but drawn out to four hours long. It is not a movie for fans. It is not a movie that respects it's viewers. It is a movie where Zack Snyder strokes his ego for four hours. It is long, boring, pointless, tasteless and just overall such a slog to get through and I had tried to force myself to care about this film over and over again but throughout the entire affair I just found myself waiting for the good part to begin, since so many fans and people had praised this and stood by it and act as if it is the greatest film ever conceived by mankind. It never came. It only continued to drag along and throw in random cameos and characters for no reason other than "oh hey I know that guy". The acting is awful, the dialogue is downright laughable and I just cannot believe people actually call this a masterpiece. A masterpiece of schlock and bad writing, sure. But the pinnacle of hero films? Not by a long shot. And we can't just award it for being better than the 2017 version of the film, because that is already a low bar to pass. I genuinely hope this is the last we see of a Zack Snyder DC film because I don't think I can stomach anymore of this fake deep artistic vision he so loves to spew and his fans absolutely love to eat up.

Oh, Ramona! is a horror movie. It shows the twisted and absolute mental gymnastics of an abuser in a relationship and how they view the world through a twisted lens of them being correct in every aspect of their life. The main character, Andrei, is a horribly unredeemable mistake of a person who views himself as some macho hypermasculine symbol of sex and peak 'cool'. Almost every aspect of this movie that could be considered genuinely good film making was lifted from other films, mainly Scott Pilgrim vs. The World which this movie steals not only direct shots, but even uses the titular main love interests name of Ramona. If you love to see a young woman get gaslighted and led on and manipulated by some incel's power fantasy, then Oh, Ramona! is the movie you have been waiting for your whole life. It is an irredeemable trash fire of a movie that made me audibly cringe throughout the runtime, which is only 1 hr and 49 mins but somehow manages to feel like four whole hours. I truly believe I have found the worst movie I have ever seen, and yet I've watched it over four times because I feel it's the perfect example of how not to make a film, and that is the only 'admirable' quality this film has going for it.

James Wan's Malignant is a narrative whodunit that shows off some impressive visuals and a twist that while could be gathered from the beginning is still a shocking and well executed turn, followed by an absolutely wild final act. And then you watch it again and it all falls apart and you can pick it apart and see that all the tricks and smoke and mirrors and glossy attractions that had doctored your first viewing aren't actually as good as they once seemed. I know it is meant to evoke the schlocky 70's and 80's era of B Movies that you are supposed to find funny with their ridiculous antics, but if that was the true intention of the movie then it should have been advertised as such instead of an intense murder mystery. That's not to say that it isn't fun, of course. It is still worth the one viewing and some people may end up adoring the movie and it's unique killer and style. Overall, it's an average movie that doesn't hold up after the first viewing and becomes an almost monotonous rewatch.

[SPOILER ALERT: This review contains spoilers.]