Superman (2025) – Movie Review

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TL;DR – This is a Colourful, Bright, and Kind change for DC. It does suffer from some of the problems that the writer always has, but it is a grand step forward for a franchise in real danger of catastrophic failure.

Rating: 4 out of 5.

Post-Credit Scene – There is a mid and post-credit scene.

Disclosure – I was invited to a press screening of this film.

Superman crashed into the ice of Antarctica.

Superman Review –

Look, by now, I think we have all watched the DC Expanded Universe fall into ruin. What started with some promise, if complicated iconography in Man of Steel, ended up limping to its doom with such misfires as Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom, The Flash, and this is not even touching on the real disasters for the wider franchise with the Justice League and Joker: Folie à Deux. But when you are down in the dumps, it is time to try a Hail Mary, and by goodness, I think they just might have pulled it off.  

So, to set the scene, three years ago, Superman (David Corenswet) revealed himself to the world, and three minutes ago, he got his ass beet for the first time. Crashing down in Antarctica and needing Krypto (Jolene) to bring him to safety. Because, for the first time, Superman inserted himself into an international disagreement and stopped a war between Boravia and Jarhanpuria, and that has ruffled a few feathers, most notably the tech billionaire Lex Luthor (Nicholas Hoult). For the first time, Superman/ Clark Kent has to work in a space where he does not have all the answers, and the world is turning against him, and he may not have the strength to get through this.  

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Heads of State – Movie Review

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TL;DR – I was honestly surprised about how much I liked this film, John Cena and Idris Elba are a blast, the action scenes are solid, and it makes a couple of solid points with its story.

Rating: 4 out of 5.

Post-Credit Scene – There is a mid-credit scene.

Disclosure – I paid for the Prime Video service that viewed this film.

John Cena and Idris Elba hold hands.

Heads of State Review –

There has been an interesting trend in action films recently. Back in the 1990s, it was common for the US President to be an action star, think Air Force One or Independence Day. But it has been a long time since I have seen it outside of some ‘has fallen’ films. But in the last year, we have gotten Rumours, Captain America: Brave New World, and G20, to name but a few. Now we get to see what John Cena and Idris Elba do in this world of a good old-fashioned UK-USA team-up.   

So, to set the scene, we open in Buñol, Spain, as La Tomatina is in full swing, where Noel Bisset (Priyanka Chopra Jonas) is working a case for MI6/CIA to take out Russian arms dealer Viktor Gradov (Paddy Considine). It was going well until her entire team was murdered in the street. Meanwhile, in London, embattled Prime Minister Sam Clarke (Idris Elba) is getting ready to meet US President Will Derringer (John Cena), a former action film star. After a disastrous press conference, the minders agree to diffuse the situation with the two jointly taking Air Force One to the NATO conference in Trieste. But when the plane is attacked, they are pushed out of the aircraft in parachutes; the only problem is that the attack has put them over Belarus, hostile territory.    

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The Old Guard 2 – Movie Review

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TL;DR – This is a film filled with these fascinating moments as they span the globe, only to be followed by what can only be described as a dour slog.  

Rating: 2.5 out of 5.

Post-Credit Scene – There is no post-credit scene.

Disclosure – I paid for the Netflix service that viewed this film.

Charlize Theron staring into a mirror.

The Old Guard 2 Review –

When I saw that The Old Guard 2 launched tonight, I was immediately interested. That was until I tried to remember anything about the first film and came up blank, which reminded me that The Old Guard came out in 2020, just shy of five years ago. Given it was such a large gap between outings, I wondered if this would have any connection for me or others. So, I sat down, got out some cheese, a nice glass, and found out.   

So, to set the scene, we open in Split, Croatia, where the immortal crew of Andy (Charlize Theron), Nile (KiKi Layne), Nicky (Luca Marinelli), Joe (Marwan Kenzari), and James (Chiwetel Ejiofor) infiltrate the compound of Konrad (Slavko Sobin), a very unpleasant arms smuggler and collector of the tackiest art know to humankind. It might be all fun and games, bar the fact that James is very mortal, and now so is Andy or as she was once known, Andromache of Scythia. They are on the hunt for who is buying up all this artillery, a mysterious woman that Nile has seen in her dreams. The only problem is that no one knows that Quỳnh (Veronica Ngô), a woman from Andy’s past, is back and might be hunting them down, one by one. But being trapped underwater, constantly drowning for 500 years, might have an impact on your mood.

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Jurassic World Rebirth – Movie Review

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TL;DR – Well, it was not without its many, many problems, but this was a grand improvement over its predecessors, if maybe just for the choice of glasses apparently.

Rating: 3 out of 5.

Post-Credit Scene – There is no post-credit scene.

Disclosure – I was invited to a press screening of this film.

A T-Rex stalks people in a boat.

Jurassic World Rebirth Review –

Well, it is time to jump back into the Jurassic World franchise, and I say this with a touch of trepidation. Not only do I love Jurassic Park, but it is one of my top films of all time. However, it has felt like each of the recent sequels has stepped further and further away from what made the series so great to begin with: Dinosaurs, with Jurassic World Dominion being a particularly apt example of this. However, we have Gareth Edwards at the helm and David Koepp back with the screenplay, and well, I can’t help but get excited again, even if it may be all for naught.   

So, to set the scene, in the time since Dominion, climate and disease have forced dinosaurs to retreat to tropical sanctuaries. But a pharmaceutical company, ParkerGenix, fronted by Martin Krebs (Rupert Friend), have come to Zora Bennett (Scarlett Johansson), Duncan Kincaid (Mahershala Ali), and Dr Henry Loomis (Jonathan Bailey) with an offer. They need DNA samples from the three largest remaining prehistoric species, hidden away on Ile Saint-Hubert, an old InGen research facility, 226 miles east of French Guinea. A place where InGen tested many of their experiments before releasing them into Jurassic World. Now they must face off with everything the island will throw at them, that is, if they even make it to land.

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GNOMES – Video Game Review

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TL;DR – A perfect encapsulation of a premise, where every puzzle captivates you as you try to find its key to success, also you get to shoot Goblins with a blunderbuss.

Rating: 4.5 out of 5.
Choosing the Gnomes.

GNOMES Review –

There are a lot of puzzle games out there that, once you work out their particular gimmick, they lose their power to intrigue. Today, we look at a game that changes things up every time you play, using the same building blocks to create vastly different scenarios. Then they took that core gameplay and framed it in a fantasy world that gives you the drive to explore more.

So, to set the scene, a war rages across a fantasy world, across every biome and society, one that has raged for so long that no one knows who started it or why. But they do see that wherever you are, the Goblins are at war against the Gnomes. Goblin war camps traverse the globe looking for Gnome towns to destroy. You have some gold and finite resources to raise a Gnome army to help defend your Garden Shed from destruction.

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PEAK – Video Game Review

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TL;DR – An enjoyable single-player experience that comes alive with a group.

Rating: 4.5 out of 5.

Disclosure – I paid for this game.

Looking down to the shore from the PEAK.

Peak Review –

One of the events I find fascinating is Game Jams. These are where developers set themselves a short period, usually a day or two, to see what they can build in that time. Here, time forces you to be creative and many weird and wonderful games, from Goat Simulator to Thomas Was Alone and everything in between, have been spawned. Usually, game jams spawn ideas that later become something grand. Still, I have never seen a game conceptualised in February and then released in June before, which is what we will examine today.

So, to set the scene, you are just a happy little guy going on a flight to a new tropical destination on Bingbong Airlines. But disaster strikes, and your plane crashes into an unknown tropical island. What do you do? Well, Scoutmaster Myers’ Wilderness Handbook Vol. 1 advises in How Not to Die, to run, not walk, and “You’ve gotta get to High Ground”. Looking around, you see a high peak in the distance, so it is time to collect supplies, gird your lions, and start climbing.

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M3GAN 2.0 – Movie Review

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TL;DR – When it lands on the surreal nature of the premise, it is a blast to watch. When they need to forward the plot, you can feel the gears grinding to a halt.  

Rating: 3 out of 5.

Post-Credit Scene – There is no end credit scene.

Disclosure – I was invited to a press screening of this film.

M3GAN stuck in a child's toy.

M3GAN 2.0 Review –

Back in 2023, there was this weirdly wonderful thing that sliced its way into the world. M3GAN was filled with equal parts of camp and horror, but ended in a tidy, neat bow. Well, suppose you know anything about horror, especially artificial antagonists, you know that there is always a way to bring them back from the dead, and sure enough, it is now time to jump into the second iteration of M3GAN.

So, to set the scene, in the years since M3GAN (Amie Donald/Jenna Davis) was deactivated during her murderous rampage, trying to protect Cady (Violet McGraw) by killing everyone around her. Her inventor, Gemma (Allison Williams), has been looking at ways to bring the world forward without the dangers of technology. But after a heavy-handed FBI raid after a botched operation on the Iranian/Turkish border led by Saudi Arabia, they discover that someone has stolen the coding for M3GAN and built their own robot called AMELIA (Ivanna Sakhno), who has gone on a rampage, killing everyone involved in her construction. There seems to be a theme here. But this could also include Gemma and Cady. So, how do you stop a robot on a murderous rampage? Well… maybe you can look a bit deeper into who is running the tech in your house and perhaps let them out of their digital cage. I’m sure nothing could go wrong …     

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28 Years Later – Movie Review

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TL;DR – A wildly fascinating film, filled with interesting creative choices. I am not sure that makes it a great movie, but it does make it a wildly engaging one.

Rating: 4 out of 5.

Post-Credit Scene – There are snippets during the credits.

Disclosure – I paid to see this film.

Warning – Contains scenes that may cause distress.

Warning – Contains flashing lights.

Blood splattered across a television playing Teletubbies.

28 Years Later Review –

In the last year or so, we have been inundated with sequels to old films with a significant gap since the previous movie. Think Beetlejuice Beetlejuice or Gladiator II. Well, today we are dipping into the Zombie genre with a sequel that is just as long, but probably works from an alliteration perspective [as long as we ignore months, and let’s be honest, who hasn’t done that at one point]

So, to set the scene, we open in the throughs of the first rage virus outbreak as carnage spreads across the Scottish Highlands. 28 Years Later, the rage virus has been stopped in Europe and now the British Iles are quarantined. No one can leave once they touch the ground. Settlements are few and far between, but on an island off the British coast, a community has survived on Holy Island. Where only a tidal causeway connects with the mainland. Spike (Alfie Williams) lives on the island with his mother Isla (Jodie Comer) who is profoundly sick, and Jamie (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) his father. Jamie desperately wants to take Spike out on his first killing trip, more than a few years before the town would like them to. But as they explore a fallen world they come across something they are not ready for, an Alpha (Chris Gregory/ Chi Lewis-Parry).

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F1 (F1: The Movie) – Movie Review

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TL;DR – The Daddist Dad Film that ever Dadded

Rating: 4 out of 5.

Post-Credit Scene – There is a mid-credit scene.

Disclosure – I was invited to a press screening of this film.

Looking at an F1 Race from the cockpit of an F1 car.

F1 Review –

In the pantheon of cinema, some films are Dad films. Now, that does not mean only men will enjoy them, only that the movie in question is very Dad-coded. If you have ever sat down to watch a film and thought: ‘My dad would like this’ well reader and a fine, elegant, and clearly one of good taste reader at that, have just watched a ‘Dad film’. Today, we look at a film that might be the most ‘Dad Film’ I have ever seen ‘Dad Film’, and it was excellent to boot.  

So, to set the scene, Sonny Hayes (Brad Pitt) was an up-and-coming F1 racer in his youth before a brutal crash took ten years of his life. Since then, he has been chasing different racing challenges, almost like he is knocking off a list of the world’s best races. Indeed, we meet Sonny in the middle of The 24 Hours of Daytona, and he crushes it. But as he makes his way across America to the next race, Ruben Cervantes (Javier Bardem), a former friend from his F1 days and current F1 APXGP team owner, pops in for a visit. For you see, Ruben has a problem: his team has never won a race, their second driver has just quit, and they are sitting on 0 points for the season. If they fail to win a race, shareholders like Peter Banning (Tobias Menzies) could force a sale. All Ruben needs Sonny to do is become the second driver for the rest of the season and help give his experience to their very talented yet very young other driver, Joshua “Noah” Pearce (Damson Idris). Sonny left that world behind thirty years ago, but the allure of one last crack at it can’t help but call him back.

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Elio – Movie Review

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TL;DR – A charmingly beautiful film about finding yourself and also a love letter to Science Fiction.

Rating: 4 out of 5.

Post-Credit Scene – There is a mid-credit scene.

Disclosure – I was invited to a press screening of this film.

Elio sitting in an 'abduct me' sign written in the sand.

Elio Review –

To say that Pixar has had a bit of a rough time recently is a bit of an understatement. Where they are not pushing out okay sequels to their classic films; they are trying to find original voices with mixed success. But when I heard that some of the creatives behind Turning Red, Bao, Coco & Luca were coming together for a new film, I knew something special was afoot, and I am glad that I was right.

So, to set the scene, Elio (Yonas Kibreab) does not have the easiest life with the loss of his parents, the two people in the world who could connect with him. His Tia Olga Solís (Zoe Saldaña) has tried, but there has always been this barrier that never could completely come down between them. However, one day, when he is at the Montez Space and Air Museum, he discovers a love for what might be out there, and might it be life that will actually understand him? For everyone else, this was a pipe dream of a difficult child. For Elio, it was everything, but I am not sure anyone was expecting the boy to be right. Or that the aliens might accidentally think he is Earth’s leader.

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