The Ghostbusters have reestablished themselves as the heroes of New York City, but the city soon faces its greatest threat yet when an ancient artifact unlocks a destructive force.
Ghostbusters: Afterlife was a solid tribute to the heart of the original film. This sequel has all the ingredients with none of the direction. The cast still has that charming energy, particularly the Spenglers played by Carrie Coon, Finn Wolfhard, and McKenna Grace (with Paul Rudd stepping into the new stepdad role). Grace is the most interesting part of the film, but her role as the protagonist is watered down by an overabundance of characters. Dan Aykroyd, however, is very enjoyable in his role, as is Ernie Hudson, but the film tries to balance too many of these people, and the original cast ultimately was only there for fan service in a lesser way than the last film. Not to mention, Kumail Nanjiani is usually a standout in any film, but his character here is uninteresting, save for a few laughs. The action has some fun a bit of a retro vibe, with solid SFX editing as well, but the film’s runtime wanders through C-level subplots and the pacing lacks a consistent excitement. When we finally get to the villain, its yet another faceless ancient giant with apocalyptic intent, and the visual effects of the ghosts are also quite lacking. Ultimately, the film settles for a lot of the same, but its the sluggish pace that makes it a lot hollower and not as lively or meaningful as before. This may just be another instance of a beloved franchise going on for one too many films.
This is a franchise that’s stood the test of time in the world of modern animation, and Jack Black has always been the core of why Po has resonated with audiences for so long — and perhaps the main reason this film manages to entertain at all. Though Kung Fu Panda 4 still has a vibrant and silly energy, it no longer manages to up the ante as each of the past installments did. Though Jack Black is always a huge delight as Po, and possibly one of the best animated franchise leads we’ve ever been graced with, the film often struggles to justify its existence because Po’s journey and growth doesn’t feel as natural and potent as it did in the other films. His struggles to embrace change and pass down the mantle of Dragon Warrior don’t feel fleshed out or as vital to his path. Awkwafina also gives one of her more memorable voice performances and is a great pairing with Black. It’s fun to see Viola Davis as menacing and cunning as she is here, but we don’t spend enough time with the Chameleon to buy her motives and for her to resonate with us. Her characteristics ultimately feel derivative of Lord Shen and Kai from the other movies.
The film embraces the faster pace and editing that worked in the third movie, but the editing decisions sometimes feel even too cartoonish and take you out of the moment. The animation is still lively, but looks a little simplistic compared to the beautifully detailed skies and characters in the last two films. There’s also a side plot that didn’t need as much time as it got, and some inconsistencies with the rules of this world of kung fu that may clash with the rules from the other films. The explanation for the Furious Five’s absence also feels tacked on and too evidently a behind-the-scenes thing. The action and looks are always fun, as is Jack Black being so committed to bringing us all joy and laughs. Is it a fun time in the Valley of Peace? Sure. But it’s clear that the franchise may be out of things to say as it feels we’ve reached the epilogue chapter here.
Ever wondered about the origins of Roald Dahl’s iconic chocolate factory owner that’s been famously portrayed by Gene Wilder and Johnny Depp? Well, neither did I, but Timothee Chalamet absolutely gives a performance that lives up to those standards in an unnecessary yet whimsical family film. Though the story is as frustratingly familiar as it is cute, Paul King’s direction and a few musical numbers are the saving grace here. King brings the charm that made Paddington resonate with viewers and brings a wondrous British comedy element to the film, along with an optimistic and adventurous tone. Though only a few songs demand revisits, the musical numbers give the film a lively energy that would’ve felt contrived without them. Chalamet throws himself into the physical comedy of the character and also sings very well, and Calah Lane is a great breakout as a young orphan named Noodle who Wonka befriends. Olivia Colman is also delightfully wicked, and Jim Carter and Natasha Rothwell stand out as Wonka’s outcast friends. Keegan-Michael Key’s performance may not reach the heights of his more streamline comedic turns, and Hugh Grant’s turn as an Oompa Loompa is ruined by distracting CGI — the role was obviously there for the studio just to gloat about having the iconic race of mini-people in the film.
The film’s corrupt, mustache-twirling trio of businessmen villains are also entertaining and so unapologetically cheeky that one of them even vomits at the sound of the word “poor”, but for all its funny and charming moments and the outstanding costumes and production design, there’s also some unconvincing computer-generated set pieces and some overblown humor that may only be aimed for younger audiences. There’s also some plot elements that may feel too much like other kids’ films, even Paddington or another recent origin story Cruella bear lots of similarities in the story. As a film that’s right for the entire family and may even be good for rewatches for children in the holiday season, Wonka delivers, but it may be too silly for older audiences despite its endearing appeal and cast.
In the Kingdom of Rosas, King Magnifico safeguards the people’s wishes with the promise to grant them one day. But when young Asha wishes upon a star for her community to have better, what she didn’t expect was for the star to answer back.
Disney experiments with the 2D coloring of 3D characters that films like the Spider-Verse have popularized, which can’t seem to make up for the film’s derivative story. Though the animation is vivid in colorful in the scenes that are night-set or creatively lit, most of the scenes set during the day feel like they lack lighting or any sort of flare besides the gimmick. Ariana DeBose’s performance is full of joy and her singing is spectacular, though that shouldn’t come as a surprise. The character of Asha has nothing to really distinguish herself from other Disney heroines like Rapunzel and Mirabel, and the concept of her wishes and motives feel rather underdeveloped. Chris Pine does great as well, but his villain’s descent from charismatic leader to power-hungry wizard feels unearned. None of the supporting characters are quite memorable, and a few of the songs do stand out, including “This Wish”, “At All Costs”, and “This is the Thanks I Get”. But both the middle and end portions, particularly the talking animals and forgettable action, greatly suffer from this lack of an interesting ensemble and heart that made the characters in Frozen, Moana or Encanto resonate. It’s certainly enough to keep the children entertained and singing along, but is also too generic to earn a place among the ranks of other films from the studio that have solidified themselves in Disney’s legacy.
For years, Raphael, Michaelangelo, Donatello and Leonardo have been trained in the ways of ninjitsu by their father Splinter, and have been told not to leave the sewers for fear of what the humans will do to them. But the turtles decide to foil a dangerous plot and become the heroes New York City needs.
After numerous iterations, the Ninja Turtles franchise finally has an installment that understands the tone this IP deserves to feel lively and memorable. The turtles are voiced by actual teens, so they really get to feel youthful and like genuine characters (as much as mutant turtles can), and perhaps animation was the best way to go all along. The live-action designs of the characters in the past always looked too silly or creepy, and the style always helps this film live up to the mayhem suggested in the title. The Spider-Verse-inspired animation style of 3D graphics and 2D coloring gives the film a teenage feel, but more than that, something imaginative, wild, and fresh that doesn’t demand to be taken too seriously like the Michael Bay-produced live-action iteration. The dynamic “camera movements” and hip-hop soundtrack gives the film a constant energy that always put a smile on my face. The packed voice cast is also great, particularly Jackie Chan as Splinter, who may secretly be the heart of the film. Chan gives the talking rat a soul that makes him unique beyond what could have been the typical strict parent in an animated movie. Ayo Edebiri is also lovely as April O’Neill, an aspiring teenage journalist who befriends the turtles instantly and is a refreshing departure from the hyper-sexualized it-girl April from past iterations. Ice Cube is a very entertaining villain whose personality and understanding motivations make it easy to enjoy his cliche evil plan. The only character I didn’t quite enjoy was Maya Rudolph’s Cynthia Utrom, not because of the voice performance but rather the generic archetype and motives that had nothing to elevate or make her feel necessary.
I’m surprised to say that I finally find the Ninja Turtles to be great, but this movie is incredibly funny and booming with imagination and heart. Though it does draw a lot tonally from the recent iterations of Spider-Man, it’s hard to complain when the animation and script are this much fun.
Set in Element City, a world inhabited by anthropomorphic elements of nature, Elemental follows fire element Ember Lumen (Leah Lewis) and water element Wade Ripple (Mamoudou Athie), who meet and fall in love after Wade is summoned by a plumbing accident at a convenience store owned by Ember’s father Bernie.
Elemental gives us Pixar’s most purely romantic film yet — director Peter Sohn claims it to be inspired by films like Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner, Moonstruck and Amelie, and that’s definitely felt, as the main focus of the film is a charming and somewhat star-crossed romance — and with the heavy expectations of a dramatic immigrant family just like Moonstruck. Leah Lewis gives an expert voice performance as Ember, while Mamoudou Athie is simply stellar as Wade, channeling Jack McBrayer’s Fix-It Felix from Wreck-It Ralph as the overly sentimental yet empathetic “water guy”. His voice gives range and heart and you can feel all the fun he must have been having recording his lines.
One year after defeating Kingpin alongside Spider-Men from other universes, Miles Morales is visited once again by Gwen Stacy and finds himself at odds with the Spider-Society, a multiverse-protecting organization of Spider-People led by Miguel O’Hara.
Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse was a film that left an impression not only an audiences but on the animation industry with its combination of 2D and 3D style. This sequel aspires to transcend the original not just through how many animation styles it blends, but through the story, tone, atmosphere and structure it builds that may just humiliate everything from that beloved first film based on ambition alone. Though the movie tries to emulate that same comic-like spirit from the first film, there’s a deeper energy and culture to the film’s feel, including the music and mood, from the first scene, which feels like a masterful piece of storytelling even on its own. Hailee Steinfeld this time is just as much the emotional core as is Miles Morales, and she delivers a great performance as the painful choices Gwen’s had to make are revealed to the audience — the entire movie is probably one of the most mature animated films thematically and tonally I’ve ever seen. It’s still “family friendly”, but the audience is treated as much more mature and patient than most animated films would. Also a standout is Daniel Kaluuya as the rebellious, anti-authority Spider-Punk whose voice performance sticks out as much as some of the animation, not to mention Karan Soni, Brian Tyree Henry, Luna Lauren Velez and Oscar Isaac. The villain of the Spot, voiced by Jason Schwarzman, is as silly as they get, but his nerdy voice and chaotic appearance make his sudden rise to being Miles’ greatest threat work due to that irony.
The movie’s experimentations with different animation styles throughout the multiverse can feel overwhelming at the speed the visuals are thrown at you, but it’s also wondrously imaginative to see this creation of what feels like a tribute to the audiences and the medium of animation. However, though the pacing does let the environment of the film breathe, it feels significantly slower than the first and takes a bit too long to the get to the multiverse-traveling action. That pacing also doesn’t feel like it pays off any more due to the cliffhanger ending, to tease the end of the trilogy coming out next year. It felt like they could’ve easily added a climax to make the movie feel more whole than the way it ended, even by shortening some of what had come before. That’s not to say that the movie ever has filler, but the pacing and structure feel like a jarring change from the first film. That said, it’s more than made up for by an unforgettable, stunning action scene involving a futuristic universe and a train, with the emotional stakes up to a high. The humor also goes really well with the film, often thrown at you with lightning speed but never failing to amuse with that same charm the first one had. Though structurally and story-wise, it’s not as good as the first, it definitely does top the first based on visuals, scale, creativity and ambition, and is worth a watch for fans of the characters as well as audiences of all ages looking for a relatable hero like Miles Morales.
Ariel, a young mermaid longing to experience the human world, makes a deal with a sea witch to trade her beautiful voice for human legs so she can discover the world above water and impress a prince.
Disney’s live-action remakes have fallen on a spectrum from awe-inspiring to mediocre to horrendous. The Little Mermaid‘s execution reminds me most of the Aladdin remake, in that it’s trying so hard to emulate the style and feel of the animation instead of embracing the fact that it’s in live-action, which makes the look and feel turn out artificial. The visuals in the underwater scenes fail to establish a balance between fantastical and photorealistic, and look too much like they were a shot on a soundstage, with the actors and the effects not blending in too well. Not to mention the beautiful and immersive underwater worlds we’ve recently seen in Aquaman, Avatar: The Way of Water, and Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, and The Little Mermaid‘s depiction can’t distinguish itself or awe in a new way. Halle Bailey is possibly the best Ariel we could’ve gotten — though at first it feels like she’s trying too hard to emulate a 1989 animated character, she eventually gets the chance to make the performance her own as the film goes by, and gives Ariel that naive curiosity and goodness she needed. And her wonderful, angelic singing voice does songs like “Part of Your World” justice. Daveed Diggs is a highlight as the voice of Sebastian, giving us a laugh-out-loud entertaining time as the iconic sidekick and a personality that feels like Diggs is having the time of his life. But Melissa McCarthy as Ursula is an absolute blast here — she feels like what Ursula was always meant to be had they ever made this story into live-action, but McCarthy also makes Ursula borderline likable when she’s not doing evil things due to simply how much fun she’s having being flamboyant, cackling and over-the-top. Though some were concerned about her casting as Ursula, I think she completely nailed it and elevated the whole movie.
The Little Mermaid‘s strengths often lie in the aforementioned cast members, but Bailey and Jonah Hauer-King also have a lot of chemistry, and the movie’s heart gets to flow a lot more naturally when they’re hanging out in the surface world, including the iconic “Kiss the Girl” scene. But besides that, Prince Eric’s character arc, including his relationship with his mother, really only feels “cute” and that’s it. Perhaps that’s all you should ask for in a Disney remake, for it to be sweet and likable enough for kids, and the movie delivers on that part, as the underwater scenes and the themes of compassion will be enough for younger audiences to feel that intrigue. But it also reuses a lot of the tropes we see in these Disney live-action remakes, not to mention the movie is concerned with anything but Ariel’s role as a sister, as Triton’s other daughters are a mere afterthought in the script, and Triton himself is perhaps more understandable than the writers wanted. For a director like Rob Marshall, who’s a cinematic musical veteran including with Chicago and Mary Poppins Returns, the shots during the musical scenes feel often redundant. There’s an atrocious new song led by the usually great Awkwafina that feels too much like the songwriters took a decades-long break before writing this song instead of fitting in well with the rest of the music, and a song delivered entirely through narration in Ariel’s head that could have also been directed in a more creative way. Like I said, the film feels too much directed in the language of animation that it simply feels like an animated movie in live-action rather than a live-action adaptation of an animated film.
Though there’s a lot that can be enjoyed, The Little Mermaid fails to justify its existence in the live-action medium, as there’s too much here that feels like the style of animation, even in something like Moana, would have complimented better, and those visuals feel too devoid of that effortless personality in live-action, but it still has its charm and is still one of the more watchable live-action remakes of Disney classics.
The Super Mario Bros. Movie assembles an all-star voice cast in the game-based movie in which Mario, Luigi and Princess Peach must band together to stop Bowser’s attack on the mushroom kingdom. The animation is colorful and lively, doing the vivid and imaginative world of Mario justice. Though the movie starts out with a sweet underdog charm due to its protagonist brothers, it soon trades any personality that makes the franchise stand out for the same flat characters and dynamics Illumination Entertainment has been writing for over a decade. The characters’ journeys aren’t all that intriguing besides some of the voice performances, and the plot, dialogue and even song choices have been borrowed from countless other movies. There are a few funny moments and the action is suitable for families to watch, but the movie never aims to have a heart that could impress teens or adults. Chris Pratt does an okay job as the titular character, though his turn is nowhere near as unique as what he brought to Emmett in The Lego Movie. Jack Black, Charlie Day and Seth Rogen perfectly fit their characters, so does Anya Taylor-Joy though Princess Peach’s characteristics are reduced to “brave female butt-kicker” and any character relationships or themes are brushed past, even the adventure feels incredibly rushed. Mario and Luigi’s brotherhood is the one thing that’s charming, though they aren’t together for that long.
The movie draws from and pays tribute to many corners of the Mario game franchise, but a lot of the game play references feel incredibly on the nose, when the point of a video game adaptation is to draw from the look and feel of the source material rather than strictly translate its gameplay. Though it does reward fans to see all parts of Mario’s history including Super Smash Bros and Luigi’s Mansion, it’s unfortunately not enough to warrant the price of admission. The film’s main strength is in the voice cast and colorful animation, as well as a few good jokes, but it’s really only worth going to to keep audiences 10 and under attentive, as most of the film’s story beats feel like an AI took Illumination’s past movies and wrote them into the Mario universe. Unfortunately, you’re better off rewatching similar movies like The Lego Movie or Wreck-It Ralph.
Billy Batson and his foster siblings protect Philadelphia with the powers that give them the strength of the gods, but soon the daughters of Atlas arrive seeking revenge for the stealing of their family’s magic ages ago, and declare war on the Shazam family and the human world.
Shazam! remains one of the best films in DC’s current shared movie universe, and Fury of the Gods brings forward everything that worked about the first movie, while expanding on the family dynamic. It’s very entertaining to watch as all the siblings are now superpowered and how it affects their interactions and characters moving forward, as the siblings who weren’t Billy and Freddy were much more minor characters in the first film. The movie also retains the same sweet, heartwarming energy that makes the Shazam saga irreverent, touching and harmlessly entertaining. The action is more in line with Tom Holland’s Spider-Man films than something as world-ending and grim as Justice League — though sometimes the world as still at stake. Zachary Levi’s charisma and natural sense of humor shines again, though it’s way more interesting to see him on screen than Asher Angel. However, Billy is a formidable hero who’s selfless, kind, and even clumsy. However, Jack Dylan Grazer and Adam Brody shine equally as Freddy. Grace Caroline Culley also stands out as both the normal and superpowered Mary, as well as Rachel Zegler, who continues to take the world by storm after West Side Story. Though Helen Mirren is incredibly entertaining as a villain, Lucy Liu’s performance is occasionally eyebrow-raising and questionable.
The visual effects also have some moments that could have used polishing, including the creatures or large set pieces, but overall most of the sets fit the Sunday-cartoon-like vibe that Shazam has always been aiming for. Not to mention, the humor is easily as memorable as the first, though the themes aren’t so as much as Billy and Freddy’s bonding in the first movie. There’s also a few scenes with Djimon Honsou that are funny but the least interesting parts of the movie. However, Shazam!Fury of the Gods gives viewers everything they signed up for while making them laugh and smile at the screen.
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