norse

Gorgeous visually, with excellent actors, and deeply respectful and true to the source material, the only flaw of this movie is that it tries too much at once, too fast for a first introduction. The writing should have had a lot more oversight.

Watching this on the big screen makes an enormous difference. I remember switching off halfway through on my first watch, because I felt thats some aspects of the writing were too trite. Second time, on a theater screen, I went away with joy at a movie that's not only visually excellent (and you'll need a giant image to appreciate just how much so), but also well written. Several scenes subvert expectations, and the movie relates the story similarly to how a documentary would be filmed. The overly dramatic "this is just how story symbology goes" of contemporary movies is replaced by "watch what happens"

Moana (1) has long been my favorite children's movie. This sequel falls far short of expectations. It feels a bit like the Star Wars sequels in that it tries to copy the plot of the original in a hamfisted way, with characters teling a whole lot the story simply doesn't show or otherwise motivate. A whole lot of the introduction seemed lifted 1:1 from the first movie, except completely lacking in charm and wit.

Really surprisingly well edited and acted. Kraven forgoes the usual tropes, has no cringey scenes and is overall well plotted. What really stood out was the acting; the performances are great throughout. I have no idea why the critics reaction was so averse, this was a much more solid superhero movie than recent entries.

I have no idea how I missed this one - this is my favorite terminator movie now, with a logical and consistent script, stellar acting (Emilia Clarke is fabulous, it's a shame she left the franchise, and Arnold Schwarzenegger has ample screen time and dials in a splendid performance). I am confused about why this one of all the Terminator sequels apparently didn't do well at the box office, especially because not doing well at the box office apparently applies to the highest grossing movie in the series? The only thing not perfect about this movie is that the planned sequels were cancelled, and given how much I enjoyed it, I would have loved to see those.

This movie was painful to watch, the writing was so abysmally bad. Everything is overexplained, there are gigantic plot holes that get pasted over. If you enjoyed the first two, spare yourself the pain.

What a beautifully written and acted movie. I fail to see what audiences complained about. The dialogue is polished, the all star cast really delivered and the plot of the heist movie was refreshing. A pleasure to watch, devoid of fake tension or cringe.

Stellar acting, a solid story, some corniness and singing. I loved the trailers and was a bit suspicious, but the whole package was well balanced and enjoyable. There's something refreshing in a light comedy taking itself seriously and clearly the writing team worked hard on consistency and realism within the D&D universe. Major kudos. The other thing that stands out is that all performances are legendary, which is quite a feat for an ensemble movie. I badly want sequels. Sidenote: CGI has come an amazingly long way.

I kind of hated and couldn't get through Knives out, so this one took my by surprise. A well constructed, thoroughly thought through murder mystery, with extremely clever writing and breathtaking visuals. Had to stop watching and restart with my wife, it was that good.

I skipped this movie until it unexpectedly hit Netflix because I thought the trailers were indicative of something truly awful. I was wrong. The movie is a really solid adaption of a story in the spirit of the Uncharted video games, with a cast that does a great job depicting younger versions of the protagonists amazingly well. Seriously. Visuals, score and story as well as acting live up to the games, but the surprise to me was how well the movie worked given how put off I was by the trailers. No idea what went wrong there. I want to especially apologize to Mr Holland, who I thought was completely miscast for this role (the trailer led me to believe he was fundamentally playing Spiderman in a different costume) but delivered a rock solid and recognizable performance as Nathan Drake. For the story, yes, it's not entirely believable and has some wild twists and changes in scenery, but, and this is the crucial thing: seen as a whole, it'd make perfect sense as a video game, and this is what the franchise is, after all. I thoroughly enjoyed it.

The first Dr Strange was by far my favorite Marvel movie. This sequel is a terrible disappointment. None of the smarts of the original carried through, nor the fantastic visuals. The story is trite, the acting acceptable, the CGI at times painfully 1970ies. It's very much "Sam Raimi made another movie, he's milking all his tropes and we don't think anyone will care about the characters and lore being butchered in the process". Ultimately, this is one of Kevin Feige's rare misses, he really shouldn't have gone with this choice of director.

I thought the trailer was kind of meh, so I only watched this Bond when it became free on Prime, and now I wish I had watched it in the theater. It's the second Bond movie I'd call actually good (the first was Casino Royale), and it's the best I've seen, ever. There is a complex, smart story that has no dumb moments. It doesn't explain but instead show, consistently all the way through. There is character development, real growth, the characters are nuanced and interesting, and the movie doesn't regurgitate the same old story. Of course it's visually beautiful with a great score, too, but the same could have been said for plenty of 007 movies. What a way to end a chapter in the franchise. The ending is sad, not only for the character, but for what all the movies could have been if they had been a bit more like this.

I typically start movies to abandon them ten minutes in if they ****, which is what I expected for this one. To my surprise, it was almost the movie I expected - but captivating from beginning to end. The photography is fabulous, the acting top notch throughout (seriously, casting should get a no holds barred party thrown for this accomplishment), it avoids all the cliches and sustains a thoughtful pace throughout. Surprise of the year. The only downside is that the story is told from beginning to end, there's not going to be a Kate 2.

Completely ignored this originally, because it looked like yet another forgettable video game movie. Just saw it on IMDB and... wow. The visuals are stunning but the thing that stands out that the story is consistent and the acting is spot on. Never heard of most of the leads but they are great. Is it over the top and are agents super-human? Yes, but that's part of the premise. The movie takes itself seriously and doesn't goof around. I wish there was more.

This wasn't a terrible movie; the graphics were pretty good, the voice acting superb. It is a very far cry from the likes of Moana, Up, Zootopia or Soul, and that's mostly due to the writing. The setup is cookie cutter, the characters are paper-thin and as the story develops, you yearn for the depth of other Disney releases. In a world where everyone backstabs constantly, blind trust is not a great strategy, and having it win the day due to some deus-ex-mahina nonsense is just disgraceful.

This movie was a perfect surprise for our early valentine's day celebration. It's taking after Ground Hog day and About Time with incredibly well written dialogue, believable characters that are made real by fabulously talented actors. The turns and twists are devoid of false drama, and this is one of the few movies that does without cringy moments and misguided attempts at heightening suspense artifically. There is absolutely nothing I didn't love about it, which was a surprise given the usual fare on streaming services. Highly recommended.

I cringed a bit at the youth scenes at the beginning at the movie and switched it off a couple of times. After finally watching it, I don't get the hate. The acting and casting were solid, the motivations of the characters were consistent, special effects and sound track were great, making this a super solid super hero movie. I'd love to see a sequel, and am sad that critical reception pretty much put a stop to that.

Pretty decent action movie, with a new story. I really appreciate movies that aren't copycatting.

This was actually a smart movie - the story makes sense, and to my excitement the writers did make sure to explain whenever a "wait, why..." style question came up. Didn't see it in theaters because the preview seemed too action heavy and I didn't like the last one, but his one's now my favorite Terminator movie.

Saw the trailers back in the day and thought this would be stupid, just watched it on Netflix and... wow. This movie is great. The actors do a fantastic job and the movie is logically consistent.

I am just rewatching it on Netflix, and it’s incredible how well this movie held up. The pacing and story telling are pitch perfect, with no gimmicks real characters that behave smartly and rationally. Also: Morgan Freeman as the most presidentially president outside of The West Wing. The science is spot on and the graphics were way ahead of their time. Thank you to every one who worked on this gem!

This movie really hit home - my wife was balling at the end. The theme of losing a parent, sibling hood and DND resonated much more strongly than I would have expected from the trailer.

Oh my, this movie is so incredibly bad. I love Will Smith, but this production has no charm, the musical numbers are really poorly executed - really poorly executed, as if the actors couldn't sing and could not be bothered to use autotune. This wouldn't be an issue, but of course this is a musical, so the lack of musicality kills it. All of the actors look like they're just dialing in their performances. At least this disaster of a movie got me to rewatch the original Aladdin, which was a really pleasant surprise by contrast, with emotive songs and great performances by the cartoon characters animators. My conclusion is that Disney has no real quality control going on for it's projects, which is a shame given how much money went into the live action version.

I just re-watched this movie on Disney plus and was amazed at how good it actually was. I remember seeing it in the theater when it came out and intensely disliking it. On rewatching, I found nothing wrong with it and many things good, subtle interactions I had missed the first time around. Go figure.

The rare poorly written Marvel movie. Given that the last two Spiderman movies were excellent, this is even more of a disappointment. The actors were top notch, the visuals and scoring were as well, but the plot had a number of very obvious holes and the action has way too much slapstick than you'd expect from the Marvel Movie formula. Essentially about 10% of the entire running time has the smarts of a fart joke, and that wastes what could have been a fabulous script - the main antagonist was compelling and cast with a great actor.

I almost didn't see this due to the negative user reviews; I am glad I ended up going and came to the conclusion that this is probably the first time we see the Russian trollbot mafia deployed against a Disney movie, they all seem to tout the same talking points. Brie Larson was actually great in the movie, as were, surprisingly, all the other characters. Two of our old-time heroes appear rejuvenated by heavy CG, which I expected to ****. Didn't. Otherwise, villains and supporting cast alike act believable and fresh. The CG is excellent, the score is excellent, the story was excellent (second time I didn't see the twist coming in a Marvel movie). Like other smaller concept movies (Ant Man/Doctor Strange), this is where Marvel really shines. I liked this one way more than the big Avengers movies. I didn't get a feminist tone from the movie like other reviewers claim - I noticed and felt it was over the top in Star Wars, but nothing like this here. It just so happens that the heroes of the story are female. If you really get troubled by that, you have a different problem. The movie made great references to 90ies themes - feels a lot like Top Gun in places, comes with a scene with a GNR tshirt (that made my day, btw). The title sequence is worth the price of admission alone (not spoiling it, but brought some tears to my eyes). All in all, an unjustly maligned Marvel gem. I didn't care for the logics behind the big end confrontation, so I am subtracting one point for that, even though I feel I ought to give this movie a 10 just to offset the trollbots. EDIT: changing my rating to 10 because I am, after all, upset at the bots ;)

This was a totally ok movie. The acting and world depiction were stellar, much better than I expected, but the writing was awkwardly heavy handed and focused on tell-not-show style exposition.

Marvel keeps hitting it out of the ballpark - notably so with the less mainstream movies. The second Antman is even better than the first, with some really impressive writing. The authors managed to hit the balance between character development, interaction, pure wit and drama just right. While the Avengers movies are at best average and the tv series are just abyssmal, Antman, Deadpool and Dr Strange as well as the most recent Thor movies and Guardians of the Galaxy are, well, marvels. Glad we went to see this one :)

Oh wow - I had heard not so great things about the movie and was blown away how extremely well it dealt with a difficult subject matter. The visuals are outstanding but I didn't much care for the score. Actors are top notch throughout and the story is something entirely new. Congrats to the team and director, extremely worthwhile movie.

It's pretty good, it's just not great. The pixar quality is there in the rendering, and the super baby scenes are all super. The only characters that are not coming across as a little bit cliche and goes through actual believable growth are the two adolescent kids and some of the dialog comes across as stilted/narrated. Pixar usually does a whole lot better with this, I am not sure why this one doesn't meet my bar. Stand out villain though, that part was well done.

Ugh, what a terrible turd. Great characters, wonderful idea for a story line, terrible direction and acting. Seriously, it's so bad that I wonder how on earth they got the first Hellboy together - which, for the record, I loved.

Well execute new take on the next gen human story. I like the dynamic of the movie a whole lot, even though it has a few moments that are somewhat cliche.

I knew the reviews were bad and I hated the last jedi, but I still went to see Solo because, well, moviepass. Turns out, this is the best of the bunch - I haven't enjoyed a star wars movie as much since the originals. The actors were perfect - great casting and acting throughout, the scenery and cgi were breathtaking and the score was finally something new for star wars. I think what sold me on the story was that there was some actual real character development going on, and it left me wanting to know more about how the story continues.

What is it with Marvel writing? Historians of the future will have to figure out what made these movies so incredibly good, and luckily they will have ample source material. This one isn't a perfect ten because it doesn't have the "how can this be so surprisinlgy good" effect of the first one, but it's close. Top notch acticing, a perfectly paced story with flawless CGI and sound track, I can't wait for the next iteration. Holy **** indeed.

[SPOILER ALERT: This review contains spoilers.]

Just saw this on Netflix - what a rare gem, a perfect 10 of movies. The story is fresh and different from all the clichés you'd expect to see in this space; setting, characters, turning points - all are unique and very well acted. One more observation - the pacing is perfect, more so than in any movie I have ever seen. There is no hurry but just when an arc comes close to sustain, a major and unexpected development occurs. It's hard to describe, I've not seen this before. I'll read the book next, and very much recommend this movie to anyone. For reference, the closest movie I can think of in terms of the feeling it evoked might be Gilbert ****. (Postscript - I read the book and was underwhelmed; it's remarkable that the director was able to make sure a great movie out of such poor source material)

The movie exceeded my expectations substantially. I have to admit that I initially thought Alicia Vikander was a poor choice to portray Lara, as I remembered Lara's look differently from the games. In practice, she is playing an unusually believable Lara with substantially better acting than I've seen in major Hollywood productions recently. Key to the experience for me was that the audience can actually see Lara grow: she doesn't start out all powerful but instead she fails, tries again and perseveres. Major kudos for the decision to cast her, really impressive. Walton Goggins as the bad guy was also an inspired decision - he comes across with backstory and motivation, a feat few action films achieve. Graphics and sound track were top notch, as expected, and the pacing of the plot that other reviewers complain about was something I thought was very well warranted - I enjoyed the first two thirds of the movie more than the hectic resolution in the last third. Overall, this movie was great; my only misgiving is that they didn't stick even closer to the video games storyline and one deviation is a bit more cliché than others (won't spoil it, just thought it was unnecessary). I am very much looking forward to sequels and am officially giving up on movie critics ;)

This was a surprisingly good movie; come to think of it, all of the movies featuring The Rock have been awesome lately. What impressed me most, in order: they made a compelling feel good movie out of a video game plot. The humor in the entire movie keeps walking a really fine line - anything more would be either cliche, ham fisted or plain gross, but the way it's written and acted out makes it hilarious while remaining on the side of good taste. That's a pretty impressive achievement in it's own right.

Black Panther was a bit of a disappointment after a lot of flawless MCU movies. The acting, the photography and the underlying story were fabulous. Where the film fell down was in pacing and the writing - most characters lacked complexity and emotional depth. Oddly enough, the only characters who came across as comparatively interesting were the villains or unsympathetic ones, the cast of the good guys came across as just a bit too one dimensionally goodie two shoes.

Shame I didn't see this in the theaters. I had given up on Spider Man movies after the first two debacles, this one is a completely different take. Acting, writing, CG and score are top notch, but what makes this movie truly stand out is how all characters behave rationally - and we have a villain with an understandable motivation and a really surprising plot twist. Gone are the hoaky clichés of the genre, this movie pulls no punches. It's amazing how Marvel continuously churns out truly great adaptions while DC falters badly with pretty much every step.

The more I think about it the more I feel this was a step in the wrong direction. If this had been a standalone release of "Generic hero has space fun", it might have been ok, but as is, it thoughtlessly destroys too much in terms if hopes and dreams. The actual bad: * physics, engineering, strategy and tactics get very little respect (bomb dropping in space, vacuums not **** out air, outrunning explosions, planets are more like suburbs, the usual space noise, dragging canons around and very story-telling motivated shooting) * the whole casino subplot makes little sense and would have better been removed * one very cringy not-quite sacrifice scene that's completely unnecessary from beginning to end * overall specific personages are considered way too important, as opposed to circumstances (you have to talk with just this one person so that they can point you to that one person in the universe who could do a specific thing and fetch them, well, here we are with a handful of people left and that'll make all the difference to ... a galaxy) * the force is now something that doesn't require any training but just is inate * the first order is militarily pretty laughable, as just one guy in a crappy old fighter can hold off an entire fleet of dreadnoughts, and they can't possibly think of using their fuel advantage to jump ahead and exhaust their opponent, or maybe use those fighters - if you make your villains laughable, it invalidates the heroes The good: * some genuine surprises * some amusing and well written humour ("The force!") * great photography and score * awesome acting by Hamill and Driver * great job on having significant numbers of women in very visible roles making actual decisions * good casting of real faces (as opposed to extreme beauty) * franchise tie in animals aren't cringy Advice to disney: * make sure your writing teams include people who ask critical questions and use the to eliminate senseless parts of the plot * reboot the franchise completely with the next movie, maybe explore some of the rich background material that is part of the star wars canon. Worth considering to drop the new universe right here and start making movies out of the books? * why on earth would you buy a franchise that you can monetize once a year only to reboot and risk losing it completely?!

Amazingly well told movie, especially given how utterly garbage Justice League turned out to be - there are flaws in the ideological foundation of the story, but the pacing and narrative really make one forget all of that. If DC manages a few more movies on this level, they might be able to rise and shine again.

Mindblowingly good. If you liked Dr Strange and Guardians of the Galaxy, this movie will blow your mind. All of the Thor sequels so far have been very good, but this one takes it to another level. The writing and acting are top notch throughout, with some amazing guest appearances. All characters are smart and have perfectly consistent motivations, photography and scoring are impressive. It amazes me that Marvel can produce TV as bad as Defenders and then turn out movies of such brilliance.

This movie was a terrible disappointment. Quality of CGI is surprisingly low, acting was wooden, the plot is completely cookie-cutter and the interactions between the characters lack any depth and are simply a chain of trite tropes stringing the viewer along to the mercifully funny ending. The antagonist is completely generic and quite frankly, this movie acts more of a poorly thought out resurrection device than anything else.

The movie is long, loud, and there's lots of water. Other than that, nothing much really happens. I was a fan of the original blade runner and was blown away by how bad Ridley Scott mangled this opportunity. The most noteworthy character in the movie is played by insanely loud BRRRRRRAAAAAAAH sounds that occur every fifty seconds, presumably to keep watcher awake. Stay away, you can spend your time more wisely by staring at a wall, any wall, really.

So glad metacritic allows ratings of "0" - no more would be adequate for this steaming pile of abused celluloid. Bad performances of not so great actors, a ridiculously implausible story and terrible slapstick throughout the scenes made this a displeasure to watch. If you like movies, possess intelligence and or loved the original Mummy for it's wit and pacing, stay away. If it's too late, switch off the movie or attempt to drown the brain cells loaded with the putrid memories of it in something high proof. Ugh.

Mindblowing visuals, great actors putting on stellar performances and a story that was suprisingly different from what I expected. I think other than the visual styles the thing that really worked for the movie is that it chose to invest into very few, very very good actors. Also, Jennifer Lawrence has become amazingly beautiful. Also, my most favorite application of actual physics in a movie in a pivotal scene.

This is hands down the most impressive movie I have ever seen. The writing is superb both in verbal banter and storytelling, the actors are throughout delivering pitch perfect performances (and I have to say, I had no idea of the range Yelchin had based on seeing him in Star Trek - what a tragic loss!), the score is moving and the cinematography unique and visually impressive. It defies the categorization as a rom-com: it avoids all the cliches, and shows characters that come across as genuine in their emotions and motivation, and it consistently manages to not cross the line to unrealistic anxiety and tension. Masterpiece.

Amazingly good movie, best I've seen since Dr Strange. Great writing, avoiding many cliches, reasoned background and some truly unexpected events. The actors do wonders with this difficult material. Graphics and sound are top-notch. It's instructive to watch the deleted scenes - two that should not be in the movie made it into the Blueray, and two that would have added real value remain cut. Note that the blueray has issues on PS4 and Xbox with picking up after an interruption - all you'll get until you clean the internet cache is a black screen.

This movie was surprisingly bland and non-fun to watch. For the record, I gave last years new Star Wars movie a 10/10 rating. This year, we have the same great visuals, visual design and probably the best ever story told in the time of the movie Franchise. Plenty of good actors, but: while the actors were great and the story was outstanding, both the writing and the acting were sub-par. I suspect poor direction. The movie presses way too hard on a number of Star Wars cliches (force guy, hey, let's mention the force every sentence, huge space battle for a stationary target at the end, OMG, my relationship with my Dad and foster Dad is strained, everyone who dies dies a heroic death...) Fewer characters with more development would have helped the movie along tremendously. Terrible shame, this movie could have been the greatest one yet.