Borderlands (2024)

Borderlands is a video game adaptation of the game of the same name set in the stylized futuristic world of Pandora.

Eli Roth is a director who looks like the ideal director for the film. The problem was he wasn't given full reigns to take this sort of movie to the heights it could have been. Casting was an issue and it being restricted to PG-13 was another. Roth is a visionary and the film shows it. The CG could have been left in the oven a tad longer but the glaring issue was the screenplay by the unknown and pen-named Joe Crombie.

The whole cast feels misplaced. Cate Blanchett looks tired, Kevin Hart looks like he's just ready for it to be over, Jack Black as Claptrap is written as annoying, Jamie Lee Curtis didn't even need to be in the film, and Edgar Ramirez tries to play a villain but his accent is just hard to understand. The only exception was seventeen-year-old Ariana Greenblatt who does an annoying but decent job as Tiny Tina. You might remember her from Barbie. Something is wrong when Cate Blanchett gets upstaged by a teenager.

It was okay, and I could see why audiences skipped the film. Result: C+

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The Super Mario Galaxy Movie (2026)

The Super Mario Galaxy Movie is directed by Aaron Horvath , Michael Jelenic , and Pierre Leduc , with a script by Matthew Fogel , who also worked on The Super Mario Bros. Movie . This sequel brings back the core cast while expanding the universe significantly, pulling in fan-favorite characters like Fox McCloud , Rosalina , Bowser Jr. , and Yoshi . The film leans heavily into spectacle, bouncing rapidly from one set piece to another. It often feels like a chain of “and then” moments, stitched together with references to the games rather than a tightly constructed narrative. Chris Pratt , known for Guardians of the Galaxy and Jurassic World , returns as Mario and delivers a similar performance to the first film. He remains serviceable in the role, but the script doesn’t give him much room to grow this time around. Mario feels more like a vehicle to move the audience through the different worlds rather than a character with a meaningful arc. Anya Taylor-Joy , known for The Queen’s Ga...

Whistle (2026)

Whistle (2026) plays less like a finished horror film and more like a theater kid’s passion project that somehow made it to the screen. The script tries to build emotional investment in the main character but never succeeds, and the horror elements are almost nonexistent. The scares simply are not there, leaving the film feeling hollow for a genre that depends heavily on tension and payoff. The screenplay comes from Owen Egerton , whose work here feels more like a personal self insert than a fully realized character. The protagonist, played by Dafne Keen , comes across almost like a gender swapped version of the writer himself. Keen, known for Logan and His Dark Materials , tries to bring intensity to the role but the material gives her very little to work with. The direction from Corin Hardy , who previously directed The Nun , feels restrained by the script. It is hard not to feel a bit bad for him because there is only so much a director can do when the writing does not provi...

Civil War (2024)

Civil War is a journey across the eastern United States during a hypothetical civil war. Alex Garland wrote and directed the film. I was worried there would be too much of a political message in the film but really the message was so muted and delved into the story of Lee and Jessie. There are undertones of who is right and who is wrong in Garland's opinion but I was glad he kept it from being the story. It seems he's learned his lesson from his 2022 film Men. I'm glad to see him branching out from science fiction but Ex Machina and Annihilation were his best movies. Kirsten Dunst plays Lee the main character and the manifestation of jaded experience. She's seen war, suffering, and horrible things. She wants to protect Jessie just because of how polar opposite Jessie is as the manifestation of innocence. The makeup even shows how dead Lee looks in the eyes with the first close-up. You'll remember her as MJ from Spider-Man . Cailee Spaeny plays Jessie and despite...

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