The LEGO Batman Movie– Sometimes you don’t realize what you want until someone hands it to you. Wacky Batman is just what I was in the mood for. LEGO Batman takes the Batman mythos and makes fun of it while embracing it. Here we have a Batman who has more or less consumed the Bruce Wayne side. He’s too cool for the room, almost dancing through the crime fighting as he’s done it for so long it’s become second nature. His whole world is behind the mask and he won’t let anyone close to him. When Joker hatches a grand plan to get revenge on Batman for hurting his feelings and Bruce accidentally adopts Dick Greyson, Batman must take a good look at himself and save not just Gotham, but himself. There are a ton of Batman and DC Universe references, the creativity is off the charts, the gags are often laugh out loud funny and the animation is nuts. Michael Cera as Dick/Robin had me dying. A joy to watch in every regard, LEGO Batman is the antithesis to “Why so serious?”

Beauty and the Beast (2017)- I never thought there would be a market for a live action remake of the classic Disney movie but this movie made a fortune so that shows how much I know. I haven’t seen the 1991 movie in forever so this seemed to me like it did nothing different. Looking at the run time this edition is a half an hour longer so that’s a lot. From my “I’m not in this demographic” perspective, it’s the same movie with CG animation instead of hand drawn cel animation. I’m an Emma Watson fan so they had me there and the work to make Beast come to life is very good. So yeah, this movie exists along with the numerous other adaptations.

Assassin’s Creed – I know they really tried with this video game adaption and while it isn’t bad per say but it is forgettable. Once the credits rolled I had a hard time remembering the story I just watched. It takes the basic plot of the first game and puts in a new protagonist played by Michael Fassbender (a major casting get, production must have been thrilled). Callum Lynch has a violent past, one touched by the centuries long fight between the Assassins and the Knights Templar. The Templar are after the Apple, an artifact told to hold human’s free will. The Assassins are sworn to protect the location of the Apple. So Lynch is discovered by Abstergo, the mega corp run by the knights and they put him into the Animus, a machine that brings memories of your heritage to light. Callum’s family tree goes back 500 years and goes in direct contact of the Apple. So begins the restoration of Callum’s memory, bringing back new revelations in his mother’s death.

The story seems very light as it goes. It’s paced really fast and it always seems like something is missing. A hook (a care really) to bring you into this story. The special effects are good, if reliant on dusty pulsing light visuals. The action is good as well, direct taking one of the strongest elements from the game series, even if it’s often shot and cut too close and fast. When Callum is first put into the machine, they cut in and out of the memory to the real world to see how the Animus physically makes him think he’s living the memory. They do this every time he’s in the machine which is incredibly distracting. I don’t care how he’s moving about in his institution supplied pajamas, keep me running around ancient cities, which is way more fresh and interesting looking than the teal tinted present day. The ending is incredibly disappointing too. Just like the biggest sin of the games, we’re brought to an important area that has basically no security. Callum more or less walks right in, taking any kind of tension and earned fight out of the entire picture (the escape before that is a highlight though). The movie limps to the end like it was after thought. Saying “That’s it?” when the credits roll is never a good thing.

10 Cloverfield Lane– A fun “bottle” movie that expands into something bigger in the third act. A very simple set up leads the way. Michelle breaks up with her boyfriend and takes off out of town. On the road, she gets into a car accident and wakes up held in a bunker with two men. They tell her no one can leave because of some kind of attack that happened above ground, the air is toxic. A successful suspense movie, 10CL keeps you constantly guess on who to believe. Waking up in a bunker is always an immediate concern and Howard (John Goodman) makes an intense first impression. Can he be trusted? The other man, Emmett, seems to believe him but at first look, he’s rather suspicious as well. The movie twists and turns along, pushing on the walls until it pops.  At a little over 90 minutes, things move along quickly and the constant questions and reveals keep you on your toes. I liked where it went for the climax so this was a fun movie for me from start to finish. It’s another reminder of how fantastic John Goodman is, the man needs to be seen in action more!

Writer/Director Jordan Peele did his horror movie research. Impressive first movie from anyone, let alone a person known so well only for comedy.

Chris has been dating Rose for a few months and they go visit her parents for the weekend at their secluded home in the woods (upstate New York I think). Chris is black and Rose is white and he asks Rose as their packing for the trip if she told them he was black. She says no, there’s no reason to. He has his doubts but the happy couple hop into the car and start their trip. What follows is a polite and friendly environment decaying into madness right before your eyes.

Like some of the strongest and well-regarded horror films, Get Out is a smart take on modern social issues cranked up. From the time the two are on the road, the uncomfortable reactions start. Each step that the movie shows is a measured one. Events, starting with a cop asking for Chris’ ID for no reason, are always off and get increasingly more strange. The escalation is really

The escalation is really brillant. Racial profiling is something we read about almost every day and is sadly rather normalized. Chris is a young man and takes the quickest de-escalation route right away. He gets his ID while Rose protests. It’s clear that this has happened to him before. It’s gross but Chris wants them to put it behind them.

Once at the house, more casual racism seeps out. Sometimes it’s overt, sometimes subtle but Chris, along with the audience always catch it. We’re first led in with “that’s weird…” Then the horror movie escalation starts. “That’s really weird… ” goes to “Alright, what was that about?” to “Okay, something is seriously going on here” to “Get Out!”

I’m impressed by every aspect of Get Out. It’s smartly written, cast correctly, and paced really well. No reliance on gore or violence which I think is another achievement. It doesn’t waste any time setting the stage and then pushing expectations. It’s generally creepy, has pops of humor at just the right points that are super effective, and very well shot. My only thought is that I think they could have gotten away with even less of a soundtrack. What happens on screen to make the viewer suspicious and uneasy in the beginning totally works. When creepy music starts playing I felt like it was too leading and it meant they (the studio) didn’t think the audience would be smart enough to keep up and “get it.” Plus, there is a cheap orchestra hit that I never like (super lazy).

I think the less you know going in, the better it will be so I’ll leave it at that. Great ride that I think will stand the test of time. Generations will watch this movie as a great example of what horror can do.

Writer/Director/Producer M. Night Shyamalan has had a turbulent career. Breaking out in 1999 with The Sixth Sense he found huge success until 2004. For the next 10 years, it was the complete opposite. One disaster after another.

In recent years he’s had more traction producing for TV. While working in that medium, he came up with the idea for Split and it’s his first cohesive and entertaining cinematic piece in a long time. It’s nice to see a talent find his space again.

Split is very simple to explain, which is the first right step from MNS. Three teenagers are kidnapped by a man who has multiple, distinct personalities. While held in some kind of basement, the girls meet many of the personalities. Between his captives and his psychologist, Dr. Karen Fletcher, we see that the personalities are losing control to a festering new one called The Beast. Time is running out to escape.

The bulk of the movie rides on James McAvoy’s fantastic performance. He believably changes right before your eyes. All the tension comes from him, I think some of his best work is in this movie. Anya Taylor-Joy as the heroine, Casey, does a terrific job as well. MNS made Casey complex and smart. I appreciate the depth he put into her and Taylor-Joy makes her a new favorite character of mine.  Educated by her father to be smart about the world around her and a survivor at a young age, she actively works to get herself and the others to safety every chance she gets.

The suspense and intrigue is really fantastic through the whole movie. MNS keeps this story cut close with its characters and pacing. It wastes no time getting the story going and each moment inside the basement and the brief times out of it do essential story telling, It’s cut down to the essentials and it’s paced really well. Being contained largely to the basement adds to the claustrophobia and the bits with Dr. Fletcher are gasps of air used to reimmerse you into the pit of despair. Great direction and cinematography make the limited sets come to life (I really liked how running down the narrow hallway was done, shades of Nightmare on Elm Street’s boiler room).

Split is effective film making. It shows how much you can do with a small, talented cast and a few sets.  With the ending that hooks it into Unbreakable, my favorite MNS movie, I hope this ball keeps rolling in the right direction.

Set 10 years after Prometheus, Covenant is the name of the spaceship on a colony mission to a distant planet from Earth. A 7+ year long trip, the whole crew along with the 2,000 colonists are in cryo-sleep to make the journey (there is also a large collection of human embryos). Walter, an android, keeps the ship running along with Mother, Covenant’s computer. While recharging the ship’s batteries using solar sails, a cosmic event causes massive damage to the ship, forcing Walter to wake up the crew. While fixing the ship, they receive a mysterious communication from a planet that’s relatively close. It’s not part of the plan but the signal and planetary research that imply humans are there and it being a suitable new home make a compelling case to make a detour to check it out. That is a mistake.

Watching Alien: Covenant unfold, I couldn’t shake the thought that Ridley Scott’s main directive for this sequel was to directly address one of the loudest complaints of Prometheus:, that it wasn’t Alien enough. Covenant is stuffed with Xenomorphs which is equally bad and good.

First, the good. It’s a fun movie, much more so than Prometheus. When things go bad, the exploration turns into pandemonium and they do not shy away from the horror violence. It’s often a visually striking film with exterior shots on a different planet and the interior of the Covenant. It’s a cohesive and convincing trip off of planet Earth for two hours. The SFX are largely excellent and wild. The movie also stands on its own, you don’t need to see the previous one to know what’s going on as enough info is given when necessary to give context about who and what and why they find on this new planet. Michael Fassbender knocks it out of the park as David and he more or less holds the movie together by keeping the sinister vibe of the movie turned up every time he’s on screen.

Now for the bad. If you’ve seen any of the other movies in this franchise, you’ve pretty much seen this movie already. It does nothing new, is entirely predictable,  and is riddled with cliches. Communication between the crew is a problem the second they get on the planet. The whole crew can’t aim worth a damn. Blood is the most slippery substance in the universe. Characters wander off alone when known threats are literally scurrying about. Inherent trust is given to the guy they just met into the bowels of a place they have no knowledge of with little more than “follow me.” The heroine, Daniels, looks like Ripley so much that it’s distracting (Katherine Waterson is great though). The shower scene is shockingly lazy and so poorly staged it’s a joke. I can’t believe a film maker of Ridley Scott’s level would even film it.

I have mixed feelings about Covenant. As much as I liked the sum of its parts, a lot of the parts are bad. I guess I’m just disappointed. I was hoping for more but I’d be lying if I said I didn’t want to see a sequel. A good chunk of Alien lore was laid down here and I’m interested to see where it’s taken next. Worth a rental on a rainy day.

Good sci-fi is hard to come by because it’s a difficult genre to crack. But when it happens, man is it a treat. Arrival is one such success.

When 12 alien space craft land on Earth, humanity is put on edge. In the mission to figure out who, what, where and most importantly, why they have come, linguist expert Louise Banks is enlisted. With her knowledge in language, she leads the American team to contact and communicate with the aliens.

Arrival works so well because every step in the filmmaking process was done right. What’s our story about, how can we make it stand out from the rest, and how do we get the message to the viewer clearly? The purpose of the pre-production of this film is the same as the films completed message: the importance of communication.

First, there’s the aesthetics of the movie. The alien presence is of course front and center. The ships are massive pebble shaped structures that hover silently just feet off of the ground  It looks organic, but other worldly. The interior, the little that we do see. shares the natural and minimalistic forms of the outside. The white barrier, where the aliens interact with the humans is the sole light source for the environment. Then, the rather brilliant design of the aliens themselves. The closest representation is aquatic life, but the shape and general articulation also incorporate a wild mix of human and arachnid representation. The alien scope of Arrival is very refreshing and enthralling to see.

One of the bigger selling points I found with Arrival is that it bucks the staple of an invasion movie. Yes, an attack is always on the table as a concern and a threat, but that feeds on our natural instinct to fear what we don’t know. The movie takes its time to slow things down and marinate on that tension. The intellectual side comes out to say, we have to figure this out to gives us every opportunity to come out of this on the other side. That’s where the communication comes in. We need to start with baby steps before we get to the hard questions. We must understand each other first so we don’t get mixed up.

The problems come when we stop talking.

I think this is the best work Amy Adams has done to date and Jeremy Renner as her co-star is another great choice. While the cast is rather small (I’ve been a fan of Forest Whitaker for a long time too), each one brings their own humanity to the screen.

The way this story is told is rather brilliant too. We go on this mission with Louise, she is our point of view. To talk about her journey as it comes around would take away a large part of the movie, so I won’t say any more on that (it’s the biggest hook of the movie, make sure to pay attention).

Arrival is a rather minimalist take on a close encounter alien movie, but it does actually gives you a lot. It’s foreign as it relates to other worlds and languages and rules. But it’s also familiar with its very human story. It’s expertly paced and edited (the sound work is exceptional as well) to under two hours that leaves you with much to consider while avoiding the traps of being too complex or trite.

I heard a lot of praise for Arrival when it came out and I’m happy to report that it was all well deserved.

Logan is the Wolverine movie I’ve always wanted. Shockingly good. Easily the best X-Men related movie Fox has made to date, this is the kind of story telling the mutant side of Marvel desperately needs.

Set in 2029, Logan is exhausted and not doing well. Working as a limo driver in the southern parts of Texas, he’s resigned himself to staying on the fringes of society. Stay low, make enough money to take care of the ailing Charles Xavier. While struggling to keep things together he runs into a young mutant girl that pulls him into a fight that he can’t stay on the sidelines for.

This movie is Wolverine stripped down to his essence. The loner, the maverick, the samurai, the tempest that’s struggled to keep it together his entire life. Gone are the over the top globe trotting theatrics of the previous Wolverine (and X-Men) movies and it’s done to great effect. Simple works for Logan.

When we join him, it’s clear the past few years have not been kind to him. Then we see Professor X who is holding on by a thread, his illness making one of the world’s most powerful mutants a ticking time bomb. It’s alluded to that when Charles first got sick, something terrible happened (I like that it’s never fully addressed). Another deep scar for them both. This world they live in has gotten very dark. This gives Logan a singular goal: keep himself and Charles safe. Get away to make Charles less of a threat to the population. That’s all there is to his life. Then he meets Laura which pulls his past into the present. The hero must come back.

And what a hero he is. The R rating lets the action lean into Logan’s powers in all of its brutal glory. A living weapon that is devastatingly brutal in close quarters. Laura is no slouch either, she’s an absolute animal. This is no “save the world” story. It’s kept close to the chest, just like the action scenes. Ferocious and impactful, each scene makes its mark.

They found a hell of an actress in Dafne Keen for Laura. She’s perfect in every way. It’s really like watching a young Logan so their interactions together work. It’s a complete arc from his desire to run to the acceptance that he’s needed and needs others. You can’t be alone and be happy. It’s the connections and decisions you make on behalf of others that matter.

This movie is a series of correct decisions. It’s restrained when it needs to be and pops off when it must. No dialog is wasted. Some of the most powerful moments come after the storm and are whispered to those that matter.

Logan: It wasn’t me.

Logan smiles: So that’s what it’s like.

A triumph of a film, let alone a genre picture, Logan is fantastic.