Reviews by ImminentOrbit

Boring, rushed, senseless, dumb. The last X-men movie without Marvel Studios being in charge, and a clear reason why that is a good thing.

Take a great concept, make it boring and slow and focus on some other personal story that no one cares about and this is the movie you get.

Action packed spy-thriller almost exclusively focusing on a single event: the extraction of a foreign agent along a route that is 22 miles long. For this type of movie, story was decent and interesting enough and the right amount of focus was placed on elements outside of the main event.

For a short while, I thought I maybe sat too close, and it was hard to really see what was going on. Then, I realized, this was about the spot I always sat and it was just filmed way too close with odd choices. There was so much jumping from camera to camera, even in scenes that really didn't warrant it, that is distracted from the movie. These two elements combined with purposefully shaky cam made for a pretty weak experience. Why bother putting in action if no one can see what is going on?

Still, I enjoyed it well enough for what it was. 6/10

Not terrible, but a bit too slow. Too much character development and build up made it kinda boring, and the scenes with the shark were just OK.

For a giant shark with a beach filled with people, it was a surprisingly low eat count, lessening the terror. It didn't help that they tossed in two tired tropes, a dog and a kid, where they try to get you to bond with them in the 10 seconds you see them so you care about them when they are in peril. Spoiler: you don't care.

Also, there is a scene at the climatic end with helicopters that was so ridiculous that it was laughable. Spoiler, no, it had nothing to do with the shark (which is sad.)

That said, there were a number of parts that were (intentionally) funny. But, for the most part, I got to the point where I was waiting for it to end. 6/10

The previews for the original Pacific Rim made it look dull to me, and when I ended up finally watching it, I did find it to be dull. However, the previews for Pacific Rim: Uprising made it look like it could be a fun, exciting movie, so I figured it might be decent. But, no, it was dull, like the first one.

The most frustrating part of this to me is that these robots, the Jaegers, have been determined to be the best defense against the monsters, yet they are absolutely terrible in every battle with them. They excel at taking a beating and knocking down all the buildings in a city, but the fighting part is so one sided it is laughable. At least give us some battles where the Jaeger are actually as effective as they are claimed to be, so we can see them kicking butt and be able to root for them. 6/10

OK origin story type movie. I wanted Lara to be a stronger character, though, as it felt that she was relying on others way more than I'd expect. Exciting start, but a lot of pointless buildup before we finally get to the real meat of the movie. I found myself checking my watch several times, which is a sign that the movie could have been shorter. Not terrible, but I don't think I need to see this one again. 6/10

This was probably the best translation from the book that can be expected. The book was trippy, with a little bit of science and a whole lot of magic, and this movie followed suit. Impressive visuals helped counter the rushed pace and confusing story. If you haven't read the book, I would not recommend seeing this movie, since it felt like it was a companion to the book, relying on the audience to understand things that were unexplained. Parts were a bit cringey, but it was an overall enjoyable experience. 7/10

A great sci-fi story that doesn't spell everything out. It has a gentle horror feeling throughout, where the antagonist isn't a villain, or even thinking being, perhaps. In fact, no malicious intent, just matter-of-fact is fresh. Weird and enjoyable, I will probably want to go see this one again. 8/10

A problem I have with a lot of horror movies is inconsistency of their idea, or explanations that don't really make sense with the rest of the story. Winchester, however, did a great job at remaining consistent with their story.

It relied on a number of jump scares, which were well done. The story was interesting and bizarre and was at least partially based on real people. Not terribly scary, but a good deal of suspenseful horror. 7/10

A fun fairy tale. Only big issue I had with it was her quickness to embrace the monster for apparently no reason when first learning of it after it attacked someone. Also, this could have been a PG or PG-13 film with some editing and it might have fit better with younger kids who might not care that she'd have no motivation to become friends with the monster. Anyhow, worth it. 7/10