X-Men: Dark Phoenix

It looks like it's time for these mutants to mutate into something else. Though a certifiable box-office bomb, I didn't think this flick was quite that bad--just not anything particularly interesting and necessary. Like a lot of today's franchise movies, there's a little too much template involved here--large scale battle sequences, angsty interactions between the principals, too many characters on the screen to give any one of them adequate story time--to make this anything other than unwieldy and less than enjoyable, even as popcorn entertainment. There is some joy to be had, particularly in watching several good actors do their thing; McAvoy and Fassbender still bring it, and Lawrence makes a brief impression. But there's not enough of that, and some of the inherent silliness of these films flies over the top in this outing. The folks in charge of this franchise need to come up with a new formula soon--think The Wolverine as an example--or else there won't be any bouncing back for this series, regardless of the special abilities those involved bring to the table.

Ready Player One

Uh, why exactly would everyone in 2045 be profoundly obsessed with the music and pop culture of the eighties? Well, actually, they wouldn't be. But filmmakers who grew up in the eighties and thus see the decade of their youth as their only reference point...well there's your problem. The '80s referentialism has now become de rigeur in today's tentpole productions, and this one is awash in it. Even as a child of the era, I didn't find the choice to be particularly appealing--or, for that matter, believable within the movie's near-future context. What also hurt was the film's poor concept and execution. This flick presents near constant spectacle stitched together with clunky exposition. And then, worst of all, when you get to the end, the story rejects the obvious climax--destroy the damn thing!--and has the characters, who should have reason to feel otherwise, choosing to swallow the dystopia almost whole. This despite two-plus hours of evidence that we're witnessing a nightmare future. Maybe the only good thing about this movie is how roundly it was rejected at the original box office. Perhaps, in that fact, we can see that there's hope for humanity yet.