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Reviews
Scream (2022)
I may want to see it again sometime. Maybe.
I really enjoyed the first half of this. The cinematography and style were top notch and the movie in general scaled effectively to what I'd hope to expect from a modern big budget horror film. The suspense was enjoyable and I truly felt on the edge of my seat.
The second half fell flat, and I'd officially tag the turning point as Dewey's hospital scene. From that point forward, it felt like the writers used some nostalgic wheel of fortune tool to choosing where to take the plot next, and the whole second half felt painfully contrived. I kept asking myself "Why don't they...?" every few seconds and after a while I lost interest and just hoped they wouldn't sink too much further by the end. (Seriously though, they're watching Stab 1 in the same room where the scene was filmed and no one notices? Meta is fun but come on.)
I will continue to show up to see new Scream movies for as long as they make them and I do think they tried to offer something new without veering too far from reliable tropes, but I can't say this one will make the rewatch list.
Dexter: New Blood: Sins of the Father (2022)
Build Up to Let Down
I generally enjoyed most of the episodes of this series. It was neat to see Dexter back (though at nowhere near the level of quality we saw in seasons 1-4). Every episode had a few moments where I thought, it's fine, they'll make up for that as we go along. We went along, and this ending made all of those moments feel pointless and not at all worthwhile. The disappointment of this episode isn't just about episode 10, it takes me back to all of the moments in episodes 1 to 9 that I thought I could look past, and I think it's left me wishing they hadn't done this series at all.
Halloween Kills (2021)
Why is this a movie?
About an hour in, I realized what I'd seen so far was all we were going to see with this entry. This movie feels like a trailer for a different (complete) movie, with glimpses of what could still happen. I get it was made knowing that the third installment was still coming, but to say this works as a stand alone movie (and a good one at that) is just wrong. The atmosphere was spot on in some scenes, and the cinematography and casting were well done. But those things only work if there's a story to tell, and here there wasn't.
The kills were fine. The story was nonexistent. And the twists (were there any?) were forgettable. I'm kind of disappointed I stayed up waiting for this to become available, but better to know now than to have waited and built up more anticipation.
Zack Snyder's Justice League (2021)
This movie is still boring.
Now it's just boring and long. It feels more intentional than the 2017 theatrical release but the number of times I thought "Why did they include this scene?" was obnoxious given the bloated runtime. The Steppenwolf and Cyborg character development efforts were better but not enough to make a meaningful difference.
I had a great English teacher in HS who taught me there's an important difference between something being good and liking something. You can like something that is not good and you can dislike something that is good. I think a lot of reviewers are confusing liking this with it being good.
Game of Thrones: The Iron Throne (2019)
Time Doesn't Heal This One
I watched this on premiere night. In a room with 14 other people who'd also invested years in the Game of Thrones series (both in print and on screen). I've rewatched this episode 4 times since then, each time hoping that something would click that didn't the first (or subsequent) time(s) around.
Nothing did. This episode was a disappointment. Completely inconsistent with the storytelling prowess that had captivated us for 8 years. And it poked fun at the powerful world that we'd come to love. The visuals and acting are fantastic and it's clear how much work went into the overall production. But the storytelling and writing are so lost that it makes those efforts fall flat. We won't get a redone version but hopefully the lessons learned can help future series.
Let It Snow (2019)
Christmas Movie Formula / Why Is It Forced Diversity?
The feel good Christmas movies have a formula that is light on plot but heavy on stories coming together in a happy, albeit somewhat contrived, ending. That should be part of the expectation going into these movies. When starting this, I knew what I was getting into and they delivered on that formula.
There are a lot of comments about forced diversity. I would say it's nice to see another depiction of people of multiple ethnicities and sexual orientations carrying out their storylines together. While not the case for everyone, there are many of us who appreciate having an on-screen dynamic that better reflects our real life diverse families and friends.