18 The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes

 

 Some spoilers.

This movie has 2 huge problems that doesn't quite make this accessible for audiences who didn't read the book;

You see in the book Snow's internal thoughts and monologue, that his care for Lucy Gray is 75% based on his own survival, how possessive he feels over her to better himself. It's very hard to portray that in a movie without having a voiceover of internal thoughts. 

You do see some other mentors (the rich kids who are still starving probably but) who get lines that Snow could have had about the self-serving attitude they had, but a lot of it is simply "Here's a close up on him, hope you get the idea."

So it works, to the uninitiated audience, as "Oh this boy went bad because of circumstances [also his girlfriend didn't like that he was a murderer]"

 Also, the first 45 minutes is really rushed. This movie is 2hours and 37 minutes. Slow down.

Outside of that, as someone who read and really enjoyed the book, I really enjoyed this. Viola Davis as Volumia Gaul is awesome.

The music and performances are impactful (I do not give a shit what some people have to say online, Rachel Zegler is great).

Blue Eye Samurai

 Watch the first episode for free;

Posted this review before I saw one of the creators is Zionist, damn, well. That sucks. Free Palestine.

Monster High The Movie 2

 Better than the first, but I find the rules of the world a little inconsistent. Some witches are born, some are made. Huh?

17 The Creator

 It's as standard and typical as can be, but the little girl is fabulous. 

It's okay not to act @ John David Washington.

16 A Haunting In Venice

 This is apparently the best of the Branagh-Poirot movies, which says a lot. 

It was enjoyable and fine, beautifully shot and visually interesting

15: The Last Voyage of The Demeter

 In the early 2000s this would have been made for 20m$ and grossed enough for one -- only one -- sequel.

In 2023, this cost 45m$, grossed 7$m, and will limp on to not be profitable. If it was cheaper and relied more on visual style tricks of the subjects in the movie and not so much CGI (which, I get, it needed CGI to a point), it would have been a smaller pill to swallow.

It's not an awful movie at all, and something I'd happily watch again on TV. This is the 3rd ill fated attempt for Universal to kick off its Dark Universe, and is probably the second most engaging attempt.

I do appreciate how they keep trying and they make it clear that the leads are not going to be the standard.

14: TMNT Mutant Mayhem

Appeals to both people who were teens and young adults in the 90s and teens today. Light on material, telling us nothing new, but it works, and looks awesome.