nielw

I enjoyed the first 2 acts, but the 3rd fell kind of flat. It felt like they spent so long setting up the story that by the time the villain was introduced, it was time to wrap everything up. Wait, the credits are already rolling? There should be like another 30 minutes...

Unfortunately, there was no big kaiju moment like the Stay Puft man or the Statute of Liberty walking the streets of New York. In fact, there was very little happening in the city itself as most of the movie took place in either a lab or the firehouse, and that includes the big showdown with the villain. I wish they had explored more of what a frozen New York looked like. Why did they have to end the movie with the boss fight in the firehouse? It felt like it should have been the end of act 2, setting up a city-scale battle for act 3, but nope....credits started rolling right away.

I preferred Afterlife to this one. Frozen Empire just didn't feel as epic as previous entries in the franchise.

Loki S1 is probably one of my favorite entries in the MCU, mostly because of Kang. I've been looking forward to his formal entry into the MCU with this movie for some time. Kang is easily the best part of the whole thing.

That said, I still enjoyed the whole movie overall. As an MCU fan, I even like most of the less popular entries, including Eternals and Thor 4. This movie sits in the middle of the pack for me. It's still leagues ahead of Thor:Dark World and Iron Man 2, which are my least favorite MCU movies.

Maybe I'm just a sucker for the visuals and humor. As a sci-fi fan, I also really enjoyed the nod to quantum mechanics.

I'm excited for the future of the MCU!

It took James Bond 11 films before deciding to go to space. I guess when you get to this point, you gotta find new ways to spice up the action.

Moonraker was better.

I want my 2 1/2 hours back.

I love this genre. I love seeing what filmmakers can do with the concept of a time loop. In this case, the loop gets shorter every time it resets, which causes some wrinkles for the main character to navigate.

Unlike other time loop movies, her entire body (and anything she may be holding) gets looped back, which makes for some interesting scenarios. Other characters mention how she smells because she hasn't showered in literal days while in the loop.

While the time loop is the central element of the narrative, it's really an excuse to tell a story about a person who wants to improve herself using the knowledge she gains each time through the loop.

I was excited to get back to the theater with a big blockbuster release. Made sure to see it in IMAX with a bunch of other movie fans in masks. I don't understand all the negative reviews. Sure, it's not going to win any Oscars for acting or screenwriting, but it's a fun 2+ hours in the movie theater. I really liked Kristen Wiig's awkward charm. Overall, not as good as the first movie, but sequels rarely are. I'm guessing you'll enjoy the movie a lot more on the big screen (IMAX even). Do yourself a favor and buy a ticket to see it in the theater. Get your popcorn and soda, and cheer along with the other theatergoers. Yes, there was cheering and clapping in my showing.

Afterparty is an unusual little game. You wander through hell as Milo and Lola trying to figure out how to escape. There are some branching paths in an otherwise linear adventure game. The voice acting is superb. Ashly Burch (Aloy from Horizon Zero Dawn, Mythic Quest and others) steals the show whenever she gets the chance. The game earns its M rating with heavy language. There's even a related trophy you can earn based on your dialog choices.

Overall, I found Afterparty to be a worthwhile experience. It's something new and different with fun environments and great voice acting.

If you don't know what the stage musical is about, then this movie will just seem like utter nonsense. Because it kind of is. There's not a great story there, but man there is some good music. Until Phantom, Cats was the longest-running Broadway show. And don't forget that the show, in turn, was based on some old T.S. Eliot poetry about cats. It's just bizarre stuff all around. I knew what I was getting when I watched this. It's exactly what I imagined. This is a movie adaptation of a stage musical. I don't disagree that it works much better as a stage musical, but this version is not without its merits. Some great performances by Taylor Swift, Jennifer Hudson, Judi Dench and Ian McKellen. The music was as great as it's always been. Catchy songs by Lord Andrew Lloyd Webber. I'm still humming the familiar tunes a week later. However, the singing could've been better. So what's terrible about this movie that makes everyone hate it so much? Like I said, strange material for a movie. Also, creepy CGI and a bland performance from the lead. Not much structure. It's more like a series of songs being tied together by the occasional dialog. If you're looking for a more typical 3-act Hollywood formula, look elsewhere. Overall, definitely worth a watch if you love musicals.

Disney is all about making money, and they don't seem to know how to do that without using their famous formula. Nothing about this film seemed original. Every song and scene is an homage to the original, much better film.

Instead of chimney-sweeps, we have lamp-lighters. Can't use the rooftops again, so let's use the sewers. Can't use the kite for the big finale, so let's use balloons. Can't have Uncle Albert laughing on the ceiling again, so let's have Meryl Streep do a song about the world turning "tortle".

Why copy the original when you could've made something fresh and new? Now all I see is a cheap imitation.

I enjoyed the opening song, but the rest were pretty blah. The kids were cute, and there were some cool sequences (Dick Van Dyke!), but I was overall pretty disappointed. I hoped for more...but to be honest, it's about as good as I expected, with Disney falling into the same traps as usual these days.

Not going to be a classic. We won't be humming these tunes in 2 years. We'll still be singing Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious and A Spoonful of Sugar from the original film long after we've forgotten about this one.

I loved this book as a child. I still fondly remember it and often recall it as one of my favorites. I was excited to see this big-budget Spielberg-helmed film adaptation of one of my favorite childhood experiences. Unfortunately, some things are better left to the imagination.

I think this book is just impossible to properly adapt to film. It's not Spielberg's fault that the source material works best in the head of the reader rather than on the big screen. I honestly believe Spielberg did an amazing job with what he was given, but unfortunately some of Roald Dahl's tone was lost in translation to the big screen format.

Not sure if this will ever be properly adapted. If Spielberg can't do it, then who can?

I really don't understand all the hate this movie is getting. Sure, it's not as good as the first one. Sure there's a ton of product placement. And it tries to shove a message down your throat. But it all works together in my opinion.

It's hard to tell a story about the internet without referencing things that happen on the internet. For some people, this was a huge turn-off. But that's kinda what this movie is about, so if you don't like a movie that lampoons internet culture, then you should probably stay away from a movie that has the word "internet" in its title. If you don't get the jokes, then you probably won't like this movie.

At first glance, it may seem like there's too much product placement, but then you realize that it actually all works. The internet products are part of the story and not just tacked on. You can't talk about the internet without Google. And Twitter. And YouTube...I mean BuzzzTube.

Also, I thought the Disney princess scene stole the show. They turn the whole helpless princess idea on its head in a way that I found refreshing. I LOL'd plenty during this scene and I'm a 38 year old male.

Also the Slaughter Race song had me ROFLing. Too clever!

Overall, a great sequel to a great movie.

I actually laughed out loud at several points in the movie just from the sheer stupidity of the dialog. This movie is a waste of time unless you have super paranoid delusions of grandeur about where technology is headed.

I don't mind exploring the ideas in the movie (hence the 2/10), but they were just SO far-fetched I couldn't even suspend my disbelief. I think several of my brain cells died. I can never get them back.

Probably the worst movie I've seen in a very long time. If the stars didn't have other big things going on in their careers, I would have thought this would be the nail in the coffin, like Mike Myers' Love Guru.

If you've seen Split, then you know that that movie became less and less believable as it went on, but then you find out that (SPOILER!!!) it's really a superhero movie, and suddenly it all made sense. I WISH The Circle had had a twist ending to make you re- examine everything you already saw, but unfortunately it really WAS just as bad as you thought.

This movie would have been more believable if Tom Hanks turned into Iron Man and flew away at the end.

Unless you want to re-enact a Mystery Science Theater 3000 episode, I would stay far away from The Circle.

I guess I shouldn't have gone into the movie with such high hopes. This was my favorite book of the series, and I was hoping it would be the best movie of the three. It sucked. I went in excited that I would get to see my favorite parts of the book acted out, but I was wrong. Apparently, Cuaron didn't even read the book before directing this movie. I was very disappointed. Not only did the story not follow the book (too many changes to really call it the same thing), but the directing was horrible. Some of the most climactic moments in the book were some of the most boring in the movie. It was slaughtered!!

If they're going to use the same actors, they should use the same set. Why they had to go and change the set, I don't know. The whomping willow looked like a big twig (and it doesn't whomp anymore either), Hagrid's house is down the hill now, etc...

It was a waste money in my opinion.