Justice League: Crisis On Infinite Earths Part Two

An endless army of shadow demons seeks to destroy all realities. What mysterious force drives them; and do Monitor and Supergirl’s secrets threaten to crush the heroes’ last defense?

Justice League: Crisis on Infinite Earths Part Two is directed by Jeff Wamester who previously directed Justice League: Crisis on Infinite Earths Part One (2024), Justice League Warworld (2023), Legion Of Super-Heroes (2023), Green Lantern: Beware My Power (2022) and Justice Society: World War II (2021).

Justice League: Crisis on Infinite Earths Part Two serves as the second part of the eighth and final installment of the Tomorrowverse, a lot of what I said about part one can be applied here. What’s baffling here is part two is a step down from part one which was already a poor opening to the trilogy.

There is a few fine enough action scenes and much like the first part the voice acting is serviceable, but they are so far in between that it ultimately doesn’t matter. We are yet again shown characters who we haven’t been able to really connect with since the Tomorrowverse is ending in the next and final part. One problem throughout the movie that becomes very noticeable is it really can’t decide who our main protagonist should be between Jensen Ackle’s Batman, Darren Criss’s Superman or Meg Donnelly’s Supergirl the movie constantly jumps back and forth between subplots with none of the characters actually getting any real time to shine.

It’s not just the main characters either, the side characters get no real development here either, which is baffling considering how many heroes and villains the movie has access to. The whole movie really seems like it’s not interested in exploring these characters (outside of some very cliched backstories) and if the movie isn’t interested why should the viewer?

I really don’t know what else I can say without repeating my issues that I had with the first part. Part two somehow ends up being far more messy, disjointed and lacking than part one. At least part one had some good moments with The Flash and at the very least attempted to try and say something, part two is as if somebody put something together at the very last second and called it a day. Will this trilogy end on a high note? Guess we will wait and see with part three which is expected to come out later this year.

Justice League: Crisis on Infinite Earths Part Two is available on all VOD platforms.

2/10 F

Stopmotion (2024) Film Review

A talented stop-motion animator becomes consumed by the grotesque world of her horrifying creations — with deadly results.

Stopmotion is directed by Robert Morgan which is his feature-length debut. It is worth noting that he did direct “D is for Deloused” in ABCs Of Death 2 (2014).

Robert Morgan’s work is truly neat, if you have watched his short stop motion animation films you probably have a very good idea of what Stopmotion has in store. It combines stop motion and live action wonderfully and really does a good job of having the two compliment each other storywise.

The performance from Aisling Franciosi is quite fantastic, she gives a surprisingly raw performance that captures the film’s creepy atmosphere. The gore is quite great and adds to the already suspenseful and creepy atmosphere as well, Caoilinn Springall who plays a character simply known as “Little Girl” is also quite great. Much like everything else I’ve talked about so far she adds to the atmosphere.

The film’s weapon of choice it likes to use…is it’s atmosphere, when you combine the performances, gore, the stop motion animation and such you get such a dark and creepy atmosphere that sticks with you throughout the film. The direction from Robert Morgan is also quite fascinating as well, while not exactly using anything new narrative wise. He does end up making it work due to the stop motion connecting with the live action, it’s some very interesting touches Morgan went with.

The main flaw here is mostly in the script, the story itself is a very traditional slow burn horror film. While that’s not necessarily a bad thing (far from it) it does leave a bunch of missed opportunities at the door to try and do something a lot more with the story. Some of the supporting characters are forgettable and don’t have a whole lot going on. The character arc combined with the narrative beats are on the predictable side of things as well.

Despite the flaws however I still do recommend giving Stopmotion a go, the artistry is absolutely there and the movie itself is still quite interesting. Just do not go into it expecting a masterfully written story.

Stopmotion is available on all VOD platforms.

7/10 B

Kung Fu Panda 4 (2024) Film Review

Po must train a new warrior when he’s chosen to become the spiritual leader of the Valley of Peace. However, when a powerful shape-shifting sorceress sets her eyes on his Staff of Wisdom, he suddenly realizes he’s going to need some help. Teaming up with a quick-witted corsac fox, Po soon discovers that heroes can be found in the most unexpected places.

Kung Fu Panda 4 is directed by Mike Mitchell director of Sky High (2005), Shrek Forever After (2010), Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked (2011), Lego Movie 2 (2019) and a few others. Kung Fu Panda 4 is the fourth installment of the Kung Fu Panda franchise and is a sequel to Kung Fu Panda 3.

Kung Fu Panda has a been a consistently great series, it might not be some of my favorite animated films but they are always a blast and work mainly due to the mix of jokes, action and the cast. The third movie is definitely the weakest of the trilogy but it still had its charming moments and was honestly a nice wrap up to the story.

Kung Fu Panda 4 is what happens when you try to replicate what the trilogy did but somehow fall short, what mainly works here is Jack Black, Viola Davis, James Hong and Bryan Cranston turning in great performances. Jack Black of course does a fantastic job as Po, even if the writing is much weaker this time around he still manages to squeeze in his charm. Viola Davis plays the villain of the movie which while Davis gives a strong performance the villain “The Chameleon” is just such a disappointing villain. Kung Fu Panda has always had some really solid villains in the past so it’s huge let down to see this one go to waste. The Chameleon is lacking in personality despite Viola Davis’s best efforts.

The action scenes are quite neat combined with the animation complimenting them quite well, there’s no denying the movie looks great. Unfortunately what hurts Kung Fu Panda 4 is the writing issues and the many odd decisions this movie went with. For starters a lot of character absences are very noticeable, which while they are technically in the movie they are turned into nostalgia bait and cameos. Particularly The Furious Five who are pretty much cameos as well as Tai Lung being used for nostalgia bait.

The main idea of the movie is Po deciding who will be his successor unfortunately Zhen (played by Awkwafina is the one, I like the idea of the character but the character development is just not there at all, it doesn’t help that yet again Awkwafina turns in another lacking performance that really just feels like she’s playing herself.

It’s really no wonder there was so much behind the scenes drama with the script and which characters were going to be used in the movie. Because a lot of the decision making feels incredibly rushed and last minute, which is such a huge disappointment because the previous three movies had such great pacing and never felt poorly put together.

Overall there is really nothing that standouts with Kung Fu Panda 4 it has it’s positives and isn’t the worst movie out there, but when you compare it to the trilogy it’s a huge let down.

Kung Fu Panda 4 is available in theaters.

5/10 C

Megamind vs. the Doom Syndicate (2024) Film Review

When Megamind’s former villain team the Doom Syndicate returns, the newly crowned blue hero must keep up evil appearances until he can assemble his friends (Roxanne, Chum and Keiko) to stop his old teammates from launching Metro City to the moon.

Megamind vs. the Doom Syndicate is directed by Eric Fogel who’s done a few My Scene movies (yes those actually exist) and The Barbie Diaries (2006). The movie also serves a sequel Megamind (2010) and is a pilot to the series Megamind Rules.

Megamind is a film that over the years has gained a cult following, while it got mostly positive reviews it was one of Dreamworks’s lowest growing films of the 2010s which is more than likely why a sequel never came to be…that is until one day a trailer popped up and all hell broke loose. To say fans were not happy would be understatement, from the completely different voice cast, to the much cheaper quality that pretty much equals to those straight to DVD sequels Disney was doing for awhile. The movie itself is somehow a lot worse than the trailers made it out to be.

I’m not going to pretend like Megamind (2010) is one of my favorite animated movies ever made, I think it’s a solid movie with some actually pretty strong character work and decently funny jokes. With that said even if you aren’t a fan of the first movie the way they completely changed everything is flat out character assassination.

For starters the cast from the first movie being very noticeably missing does not help at all, part of what made the first movie work was Will Farrell, Tina Fey and David Cross they actually went into their characters and gave plenty of character moments. In this movie all of that character growth that was present is gone and completely replaced with tired tropes such as Megamind being a complete and total jerk and then later learning that he should not be one. It both completely takes away everything that Megamind learned from the first movie and the purpose of it all. There was a balance of good vs evil in the first movie, this whole movie doesn’t seem to know what it’s trying to say outside of cliched plot points that have been done to death.

Roxanne is reduced to a typical side character who has absolutely nothing going for her outside of being a plot device, I’m not trying to say Roxanne had this deep and rich character development from the first movie. But at least she had a point and was genuinely enjoyable, her and Megamind just talking was genuinely funny and she was more than a love interest.

The voice acting is just not good here I’m sure the cast tried the best they could with such an uninspired script which bafflingly enough is from the exact same writers as the first movie. As I said before this movie is basically the equivalent of one of those terrible straight to DVD sequels Disney use to release, only this time it’s straight to streaming since we live in the streaming age.

The villains in this movie are just terrible, they all have one personality trait which is their power and that’s it Lady Doppler manipulates the weather, Pierre Pressure is a mime who uses hypnosis, Lord Nighty-Knight manipulates shadows and Behemoth is a giant lava monster. A complete downgrade from Hal Stewart in the first movie.

The movie also ends on a cliffhanger which sets into the series that was released on the same day which is Megamind Rules. Which I have not seen anyone else can be my guest because Megamind vs. the Doom Syndicate was quite enough.

Megamind vs. the Doom Syndicate is available on Peacock.

Disgrace To Cinema F

Orion And The Dark (2024) Film Review

The thing Orion fears the most is the dark. When the embodiment of his worst fear pays a visit, Dark whisks Orion away on a roller-coaster ride around the world to prove there is nothing to be afraid of at night.

Orion And The Dark is directed by Sean Charmatz who previously directed a few Dreamworks animation shorts both of which are from the Trolls series (Trolls Holiday in Harmony and Tiny Diamond Goes Back To School)

When I first heard that Charlie Kaufman was going to be a writer for a Dreamworks and Netflix collaboration I was honestly expecting a very watered down film, however to my surprise Orion And The Dark works quite well and is genuinely a really fun film.

The voice acting is incredibly strong here across the board Jacob Tremblay gives a genuinely touching performance, Paul Walter Hauser does a really fantastic job of building the character of Dark and really making the viewer get invested into the character. Angela Bassett is also quite solid here even if she isn’t given the most to do, she still turns in a great performance as always.

The animation is quite beautiful, there’s a really creative mix of 2D and 3D animation tricks that are captivating and help build the world of the film, it also helps the movie move at a steady pace. The writing from Charlie Kaufman is very child friendly yet isn’t afraid to remind the viewer that the film is written by Kaufman, there’s some genuinely sweet messaging that is executed quite beautifully.

I definitely think the film fumbles the ball a bit towards the end that does away with a lot of the simplicity the rest of the movie was building, it sort of overcomplicates itself when it really did not need to. I do appreciate what the movie was trying to do with it’s final act as it was going for something a bit different, but it unfortunately doesn’t completely work and when compared to the rest of the movie it definitely sticks out like a sore thumb.

Having that said Orion And The Dark is a very sweet film that’s a quick and easy watch, it gets the job done for the most part and while not one of Dreamwork’s absolute best work. It’s miles better and far more investing than some other movies in their catalog.

Orion And The Dark is available on Netflix.

7/10 B

The Tiger’s Apprentice (2024) Film Review

A young boy in San Francisco meets a talking tiger named Mr. Hu and discovers he’s the latest in a long line of guardians who protect an ancient phoenix from evildoers.

The Tiger’s Apprentice is directed by Raman Hui who was the co director of Shrek The Third (2007) and a bunch of other Dreamworks animation short films such as Scared Shrekless (2010), Kung Fu Panda: Secrets Of The Fury Five and a few others. Joining Hui are Young Duk Jhun and Paul Watling.

The Tiger’s Apprentice is about as bland as you can get with a terrible animated movie, outside of the voice cast such as Henry Golding, Michelle Yeoh, Sandra Oh and Lucy Liu there is very little here. The premise is interesting enough but the execution is severely lacking, most of the characters are of course based off of the Chinese zodiac signs the problem here is outside of the Tiger guardian, the others get very little development. Most of the time they crack a few unfunny one liners or jokes and the movie moves on to the next scene.

Speaking of which the pacing is way too fast, the movie starts out with a nice and slow moment that’s genuinely sweet, but the rest of the movie is way too fast when trying to tell it’s story. Due to this we are given no character development from the characters or why we should care about their journey and goals, the animation is fine enough at times but most of the time it just does not look pleasing to look at. Which is a bit of a shame because the use of color is actually quite decent, with certain colors popping out that actually compliment a few scenes decently enough.

Overall The Tiger’s Apprentice is very undercooked that needed so much more time in the oven especially when it comes to the writing, this is the very definition of streaming fodder that will be quickly forgotten about after watching.

The Tiger’s Apprentice is available on Paramount+

3/10 D-

Justice League: Crisis on Infinite Earths, Part One (2024) Film Review.

The Anti-Monitor (the Monitor’s evil counterpart) is released into the DC Multiverse and begins to destroy the different Earths that compose it. The Monitor attempts to recruit heroes from across the Multiverse to fight back.

Justice League: Crisis On Infinite Earths Part One is part of the eighth and final installment of the Tomorrowverse…yes you read that correctly, apparently the Tomorrowverse is already ending after only previously having seven installments. To say that this series wasn’t rushed would be lying, it started out promising enough with the first films such as Superman: Man Of Tomorrow, Justice Society: World War II and Batman: The Long Halloween Parts 1 and 2. After that things went downhill and even got progressively worse. Say what you will about the DCAU despite the quality of a lot of the installments there was 16 movies and there was some sort of plan.

Justice League: Crisis On Infinite Earths Part One really does not feel like this big finale at all, while there are still two more parts that are coming this year. A lot of the movie is being introduced to characters who either haven’t seen in awhile, or haven’t seen at all in this universe. There’s a couple throwbacks to the DCAU which is nice I guess but that’s not nearly enough to really matter.

The voice acting is decent enough here, there isn’t a performance that particularly stands out unfortunately, the animation is definitely a hit or miss. There’s times where it looks fine and then others where you can really tell they went with the most simple and bland form of animation just to get this movie out there at the beginning of the year.

I will say there was a few character moments that did work pretty okay, the movie definitely prioritizes character over plot which I guess would be fine if a lot of the other characters had a lot more time to be fully fleshed out from previous installments. But I think the movie does an okay job with The Flash in particular as there are some genuinely touching scenes.

Overall most of the problems with this movie isn’t necessarily the movie’s fault, it’s the completely rushed universe making a lot of these character moments not really matter to the viewer. Hopefully Part 2 is a bit better..

Justice League: Crisis On Infinite Earths Part One is available on all VOD platforms.

3/10 D-

The Boy and the Heron (2023) Film Review.

Mahito, a young 12-year-old boy, struggles to settle in a new town after his mother’s death. However, when a talking heron informs Mahito that his mother is still alive, he enters an abandoned tower in search of her, which takes him to another world.

The Boy and the Heron is directed by Hayao Miyazaki a director who absolutely does not need any sort of introduction, he’s a fantastic director with so many films that went on to be a huge impact on the animation genre such as Spirited Away (2001), Princess Mononoke (1997), My Neighbor Totoro (1988) and many many others. With each new film he introduces new ideas or takes ideas from one of his previous films and makes it fresh. The Boy and the Heron is a prime example of just how creative, powerful and emotional Miyazaki’s storytelling really is.

For starters the cast absolutely knocks it out of the park, everyone here does such an incredible job and matches the imaginative and emotional tone the film is going for. But the couple that really standout are Robert Pattinson, Florence Pugh and Dave Bautista. Bautista plays the Parakeet King who doesn’t show up until the later half of the film, but when he does show up he truly captures the wackiness of the character. It’s a performance that should not work at all, but Bautista’s performance is genuinely hilarious it’s probably due to the Parakeet species in this film’s world being genuinely funny while a very emotional and serious plot is going on. It works strangely well and even if Bautista doesn’t stay for very long he remains as a very memorable part of the film.

Florence Pugh plays Kiriko both the young and old version, her performance is truly incredible and actually unbelievable when it comes to her voicing the old Kiriko. Her character is a huge highlight of the film, a character that we are introduced to at the very beginning who might seem like a comedic relief character at first but later becomes important. The young version of Kiriko helps Mahito Maki and points him into the right direction of his journey to rescue Natsuko, she’s a classic mentor type character that you can’t help but love. Pugh’s performance really sells the character well and almost immediately makes the character quite lovable.

Robert Pattinson as The Grey Heron is my absolute favorite performance from an animated film this year and I don’t think it’s even close, when the trailer for this film dropped I instantly thought the Heron was Willem Dafoe which while yes Dafoe is in this film he’s not in it for very long but still gives a haunting performance. I don’t know how Pattinson did it but this performance is truly unbelievable and truly effective right from the Heron’s first appearance, Pattinson completely matches the tone the film is going for and mixes it with a bit of humor and the Heron himself as a character has fantastic character development. It’s a classic case of not getting along with someone at first in this case not getting along with Mahito, but slowly but surely their bond builds and it’s truly delightful to see. The Grey Heron is such a fun character that balances humor and the more serious moments and Pattinson’s performance only adds on to that.

The writing much like other Miyazaki films is truly incredible, there’s a large theme here of grief and mourning the loss of someone very close to you. In this case Mahito losing his mother. There’s a lot of moments in this film that really tie it together, the world building of the world we are introduced to can be a bit confusing at first. But as the film goes on it starts to piece itself together and tell the viewer the full story about this world, it’s visually some of the absolute best Miyazaki has ever done, that’s something that consistently gets better and better with each film and this felt like a natural build up all of these films later.

Something that really stands out with this film is the masterful balance between humor, wackiness and the dramatic moments of the film. A film that’s about loss and dealing with grief has scenes where funny looking Parakeets want to eat people and their leader the Parakeet King is a presented as a serious but goofy boss voiced by Dave Bautista…yet it all strangely works. It comes down to just how beautiful the storytelling really is, it combines so many anime elements and genres we have seen throughout the years and presents it so well. From the classic adventure genre to the goofy villains who actually have a quite serious side to them it’s all here and delivered in such a fascinating, emotional and hilarious way that puts a smile on your face.

Overall The Boy and the Heron is yet another homerun for Hayao Miyazaki and one of the absolute best films of the year. It’s such a creative film with so much to say that it will surely go on to be a classic.

The Boy and the Heron is in theaters.

10/10 A+

Chicken Run: Dawn Of The Nugget (2023) Film Review

Having escaped from the farm, Ginger and Rocky welcome a new little adventurer into their lives. Back on the mainland, the whole of chicken-kind faces a terrible new threat.

Chicken Run: Dawn Of The Nugget is a sequel to Chicken Run (2000) and is directed by Sam Fell who’s directed Flushed Away (2006), The Tale Of Despereaux (2008) and ParaNorman (2012).

A sequel to Chicken Run has always been talked about much like Enchanted 2 or Hocus Pocus 2 it always got a ton of fake movie posters on Facebook pages claiming it’s official when it’s really not and you get people sharing it taking it as fact. I grew up with Chicken Run and I still think it’s a really fantastic film so I was pretty happy to see that a sequel was coming after 13 years.

There’s definitely a lot of fun to be had with this sequel, I do think out of the cast Bella Ramsey who plays Molly the daughter of Ginger and Rocky does quite a great job. Plus Romesh Ranganathan and Daniel Mays as the rats give some decent laughs. The two work together well and have solid comedic timing the accents are also quite charming.

The stop motion animation is of course wonderful, you honestly can never go wrong with Aardman Animation when it comes to stop motion and that remains true here. Even if I didn’t like all of the voice cast the characters still have this special look to them that you can’t help but appreciate, there’s so much detail and passion put into the designs that are quite memorable. The same goes for the overall charm of the movie, although the movie is most definitely not as good as the first movie I do think it still has a lot of the charm from the first movie and it mostly works here.

Dawn Of The Nugget does unfortunately suffer from mediocre voice acting. Thandiwe Newton is fine enough but her voice performance is just not as fitting as Julia Sawalha’s, what’s sad is Sawalha was told she “sounded too old” for the performance. It’s such a weird decision from Aardman that I still have no idea why was made. Zachary Levi is flat out bad and really feels out of place, Levi being here really seems like they just wanted to stick a familiar face and that was about it. Mel Gibson isn’t here for obvious reasons but there’s absolutely no denying that you can really feel the difference of quality in the performance of Rocky’s character. The rest of the voice acting isn’t anything to write home about.

The film itself does feel like a natural continuation from the first movie and while that’s great, it does end up being a bit more of the same thing. Instead of the chickens we are familiar with being trapped it’s their turn to rescue other chickens. Which definitely makes sense from a story perspective but a bit weaker when you compare it to the first movie.

Despite the issues I have with it Chicken Run: Dawn Of The Nugget is a fun movie especially for families looking for a quick and easy watch. There’s a lot to like about it and I said the charm from the first movie is still very much there. It’s definitely disappointing in some aspects but it is still a decent watch.

Chicken Run: Dawn Of The Nugget is available on Netflix.

7/10 B

Leo (2023) Film Review

Leo the Lizard has been stuck in the same Florida school for decades. When he learns he only has one year left to live, he plans to escape to freedom, but instead has to rescue his class from their horribly mean substitute teacher.

If there’s one movie from this year that I did NOT expect to be good it’s Leo an animated Netflix movie about a talking lizard who’s voiced by Adam Sandler. Okay well it’s about a bit more than that but you get my point, I was not expecting Leo to be any good but I really have to hand it to Adam Sandler (who wrote and is one of the producers), directors Robert Marianetti, Robert Smigel and David Wachtenheim as well as writer Paul Sado and producer Mireille Soria they all took a concept that could have easily gotten old within 15 minutes but made it into something surprisingly touching.

I’m not a fan of the voices Sandler has been using in some of his films as of late, but I don’t mind it here. It fits the character of Leo well and there’s some genuinely funny moments, I think what makes Leo work so well is it goes for this exploring the home life of certain kids in the 5th grade class. There isn’t anything groundbreaking being said here and there really doesn’t have to be, much like your days of going from school it’s a routine and is very straightforward at points. The film actually does a decent job of showing that quite well.

There’s some music numbers that admittedly I do think are not the best, but they are fun and creative enough to leave you with a smile on your face. The whole message of growing up, worrying about the future and connecting the reptiles with the 5th grade students and how they both share growing pains is an interesting and clever one that’s executed quite well.

I do think Leo is held back a bit from a weak third act that isn’t necessarily bad, it’s just on the very generic side of things that is much weaker when you compare it to what came before it.

Overall Leo is a charming little surprise that I had a fun time with, it’s not anything groundbreaking. But it’s a charming little movie that has a huge heart and I can’t help but respect it for being just that.

Leo is available on Netflix.

7/10 B