Bradley Dalton

Avatar: Fire and Ash delivered everything I wanted from an Avatar movie. The visuals are stunning as always, but the visuals especially stood out to me this time. The characters are still great. Jake Sully is a great protagonist, and his family is solid as well. Jack Champion's performance as Spider is solid, which is good because they put a huge emphasis on him this time. Quaritch is always an entertaining villain, and that continues here. Varang, the newcomer, is a solid new villain and adds some nice nuance to the story. The plot is, unfortunately, generic as is always with the Avatar franchise. It feels like it repeats a lot of plot points from the first two movies, especially The Way of Water. But what also continues from the previous movies is the incredible action scenes. The final battle is great and really feels like a culmination of the previous two movies. There will be more Avatar movies, but this one ends in a way that would be a satisfying ending if there were no more. It's a solid conclusion to this first trilogy of Avatar movies, and I enjoyed it. It's an incredible cinematic experience with great visuals, characters, and action, but the plot is still simple. Overall Rating: 9.5/10 Post Credits Scene(s): 0

Zootopia 2 is simply an excellent Disney movie. They've struggled with their original IPs since Covid, so having a solid Disney movie is incredibly refreshing. The animation is stunning and really pops. The world building was absolutely incredible. The returning cast was great, as was the new cast. Ke Huy Quan as Gary De'Snake was a particular standout. Patrick Warburton as Mayor Winddancer has to be one of the funniest characters in Disney history. The plot is super detailed and requires your attention, but it's not confusing that kids will get lost. There is also a lot of heart and emotion from the characters, which is always great. The twist villains are also excellently done and feel logical. This is simply an incredibly fun Disney movie that can be enjoyed by families with kids of all ages. Overall Rating: 8/10 Post Credits Scene(s): 1

The Fantastic Four: First Steps has finally broken the MCU's trend of having one good movie, then one bad movie. The casting was spot on across the board. Joseph Quinn as Johnny Storm/Human Torch was a standout that I was not expecting. Our two villains were great as well. Shalla-Bal had some unexpected development that made her character better. But Galactus was undoubtedly the superior of the two villains. He had such a presence throughout the entire movie. His voice acting, his design, even his sound design was spot on. He actually felt like a threat. Everything about him was simply perfect. I've seen many other people complaining that the last part is rushed, but it felt better paced in my opinion. The tone and feel of the movie is also fantastic. The retro-futuristic 60s New York was excellent and the perfect setting for a Fantastic Four movie. Overall, this was the best adaptation of the Fantastic Four to date and, I gotta say, it was fantastic. Overall Rating: 9.5/10 Post Credit Scene(s): 2

Superman was an absolute blast. It was not afraid to embrace the source material and that made it feel like a true Superman comic book. The look and feel of the movie was fantastic. It feels truly unique and fresh when compared to all the other super hero movies out there. The cast was perfect. David Corenswet is the best Superman since Christopher Reeve. He plays a truly hopeful Superman who feels ripped straight out of the comics. Rachel Brosnahan also does a great job as Lois Lane. But Nicholas Hoult steals the show as Lex Luthor. His is the best version of the character to date. The supporting cast was great as well. Especially the Justice Gang. Nathan Fillion's Guy Gardner was fantastic and probably the funniest character in the movie. But Mr. Terrific was the surprising standout I was not expecting. He was absolutely phenomenal and I can not wait to see him again. The plot was also quite good in my opinion. Sure, there is a lot going on, but it all works in my opinion. It feels like different parts to one larger story. Additionally, this movie made the new DCU feel like it was already a well established and lived in universe right off the bat. The world building was great and effectively made this world feel real. Overall, this lived up to the hype for me and was an absolute blast. This is a true Superman experience. Post Credits Scene(s): 2 Overall Rating: 10/10

Jurassic World: Rebirth is simply a very safe Jurassic movie. Which doesn't hurt the franchise, but this is not what they needed after Dominion. The plot is extremely basic. It's just go to the island and grab some DNA. This franchise has always had basic plots, but I can only forgive it for so long. The new characters are fine. I liked Jonathan Bailey's Henry Loomis and Mahershala Ali's Duncan Kincaid. But I was not a fan of Scarlett Johansson's performance in this movie. It felt off for the entire movie. The Delgado family were somewhat entertaining, and you have to have a random little kid in each of these. But this time around they felt especially unnecessary. Probably because they never had anything to do with the plot. But, this is a Jurassic movie and we come to these for dinosaurs. So how were the dinos? Well, I would've loved to see them. We really needed more dino screen time. Each dino scene should've been a few minutes longer, and then we still needed more. The new mutants are cool, but they really have nothing to do with the plot. Which is unfortunate. Overall, it was a fine and entertaining movie. But it was absolutely nothing special and nothing to win back fans. Post Credits Scene(s): 0 Overall Rating: 6/10

I am happy to report that How to Train Your Dragon is just as good in live action as it was in animation. The new actors do a good job replicating the original characters and feel like worthy successors. The story is also just as compelling and full of emotion here as it was originally. But the action and dragons themselves is what blew me away. The action is just as good, if not better in live action than it is in animation. But that's nothing compared to the dragons. They looked good in the original, but they look phenomenal now. The CGI is absolutely perfect and helps to make the dragon designs look even better than before. But the big I appreciate about this live action remake is that is does nothing the Disney ones did. They don't remove stuff or change the story or remove all charm and emotion from the characters. They didn't act like they needed to improve upon animated classics. Despite the additional half hour of footage, this is as close as you can get to a shot for shot remake of the original. I know that live action remakes are the most creatively bankrupt thing a studio can do and studios should definitely focus on making new and original things rather than remaking their existing movies. But I unapologetically loved this remake. It was fantastic and I'm sure kids will have a lot of fun as well. Post Credits Scene(s): 0 Overall Rating: 9/10

Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning is a very solid ending to the Tom Cruise Mission: Impossible movies. I'll start with the good. The action in this movie is absolutely incredible. Many of the sequences are phenomenally shot and feature incredible real stunt work from Tom Cruise. I don't think these action sequences were better than in Dead Reckoning, but they were still phenomenal. The plot, however, is somewhat different. The plot revolves entirely around the complete and total nuclear annihilation of the entire world. That is an incredibly weighty subject that I didn't want to comprehend for almost three hours. With that said, the stakes are massive and very real. One of the number one complaints about this movie is that it takes the plot too seriously, but with a plot like that, I don't think they had any other option. And yes, I said almost three hours. The runtime of 2h 49m is quite long and it does feel long. But it does keep a decent pace and never drags or rushes. One problem I do have is the insane number of flashbacks. There are so many flashbacks to Dead Reckoning and the rest of the Mission: Impossible franchise. It's quite insane and I could have used without that. But overall, a very solid ending to the Mission: Impossible franchise that goes appropriately big with the stakes and action sequences. Post Credits Scene(s): 0 Overall Rating: 8/10

The live-action remake of Lilo & Stitch is exactly what I expected it to be. It is completely and totally devoid of all creative value. All of the heart and emotion from the first movie are gone. The actors are at least putting some effort in, but it ultimately falls flat. The changes they made were incredibly stupid and absolutely wrecked the plot. So much so that the entire climax had to be changed. The stuff they added was also completely useless. This movie actually felt boring at times, which is completely opposite from the original. The original movie was also quite funny, while this new one is not. There are some amazing moments, but it's overall not as funny. But I can not knock the CGI. It is actually quite good and I was decently impressed. But overall, a standard live-action remake that made me once again think that Disney is out of ideas. Go watch the original instead. Rating: 4/10 Post Credits Scene(s): 1

Thunderbolts* was an incredible surprise. This movie fixes so many of the problems that recent MCU projects have suffered from. It actually feels like one director was in charge of this, not a committee of executives. The humor also feels natural, not forced. Which makes everything better. It doesn't feel like this movie was reworked and reshot a thousand times. The characters are also great. Every actor is doing their absolute best and their chemistry is great. Red Guardian was definitely my favorite, but Yelena is the sole of the movie. Newcomer Bob is also an absolute stand out. Lewis Pullman did a great job. All of these characters are very likeable and the movie actually makes you care about them. On top of that, it doesn't feel like you needed to watch all of the other things (Ant-Man & the Wasp, Falcon and the Winter Soldier, and Black Widow) that set this movie up in order to understand it. Which is something we should all appreciate. This movie also does a great job of knowing when to take itself seriously. It gets more intense and darker throughout which was great. It did a fantastic job touching on its core themes of mental health and depression. Overall, this is an incredible movie that gives me immense hope for the future of the MCU. Rating: 10/10 Post Credits Scene (s): 2

A Minecraft Movie is exactly what I expected it to be; stupid. And it may be stupid, but it's also fun. Some form of Minecraft movie has been in the works for a while now, but this is not at all what I was expecting. If you've ever played the game, you'll understand it. Even if you haven't, you shouldn't have too hard of a time following along. It basically disregards some of the main parts of the game while also embracing others. I actually think Jack Black and Jason Momoa did a decent job. They both worked very well with Jared Hess's awkward style of humor, which is in full display here. The plot is extremely basic though. Which isn't always a bad thing, but it doesn't help this movie out any. Another problem is the incredibly overstuffed cast. I feel like there were way too many characters and most ended the movie feeling very under developed. But that would imply that any of the characters had development. Malgosha also makes for quite the weak villain. Her motivation makes sense to Minecraft players, but will definitely seem inadequate to general audiences. Additionally, no review of A Minecraft Movie would be complete without a word on the mob (creature) design; hideous. Overall, this is a fun and entertaining movie that is incredibly stupid and has many flaws. Also, if you've seen the trailer, you've seen the whole movie. Rating: 7/10 Post Credits Scene(s): 2 One more thing, CHICKEN JOCKEY!!!!!!!!!