Cars 3 - I didn't expect this to be the worst entry in the series, the original is already pretty shallow and lame while the sequel is shallow but fun as hell and not repeating the same beats. This one tries to make itself out as focusing on growth from aging which is weird since it's been 11 years since the original which ain't that long in Pixar years, but ultimately it tries to have its cake and eat it too as it also repeats beats from the original that aren't as intentional. Ultimately, the problem comes down to writing of a sympathetic but ultimately muddled new character that just doesn't quite make sense in the position they're given.
Ready Player One - holy shit this was bad, this is Spielberg's new low, worse than 1941 by a lot. Not only is this shallow and dumb, but it's stupid in ways that supposedly the book wasn't. I kept waiting for the twist to have there be more, but it never came. The goals are also just not set up to be important enough, and the villainy is way overboard and clumsy.
Amazing Spider-Man 2 - I had heard some defense of this recently so I gave it a chance, and it doesn't deserve any praise. What a mess of a movie, painfully long and mired in too many plots that don't deserve the weight, and not a single character worthy of spending time with. Downright awful.
Tenet - Nolan continues his downward spiral into his own butt. Not a terrible movie, but not one that needed to be seen in COVID theaters either. The mixing really is atrocious, we just turned on subtitles and left them on, normally that'd steal spontaneity from a film but this one doesn't have characters, just chess pieces, so it wasn't really a problem. A lot of clever filmmaking without a story is an empty thing, and this clever filmmaking didn't even look that good.
Shang Chi - adequate entertainment, but the titular character doesn't get much to do in the film, meanwhile Tony Leung absolutely steals this show and I would have spent another hour on his character easy. The last act is a whole different kind of ridiculous CGI mess.
Freaky - cute horror twist on Freaky Friday, could have used a little more meat on the premise's bones, but ultimately did what it needed to do.
Ava - ehhh, wanted to be something more but fell short. Nothing to talk about, which is a shame given what it's trying to achieve.
Dune - I didn't like this at all. It's ugly to look at, I didn't like the designs, I didn't like the lack of color. I hated the "music" which was just the same droning Zimmer bullshit over and over. The story felt thinned out and told from Paul's perspective but with even less than what he understands, so there's not much of the larger tale left here, it's just events.
Happy Death Day - I liked this a lot, it was a lot of fun and clever, horror movies like this and Freaky prove that ideas can be reused without just feeling like rehash.
(and with that, I realize I haven't been here in 2 months so I'll stop at Halloween
)
